Priyanka Das from Dhemaji, Assam is among the very few to work for the development of the satellite navigation wing of Rafale Fighter Jets, which will be used for Indian Air Force in the year 2019.
It may be mentioned that the engine and parts of the Rafale fighter plane is provided by Safran Electronics and Priyanka and her team of engineers, before joining Safran, had already made a micro satellite in Paris. The same micro satellite was launched in space in the Atlas V rocket in 2017 with the intent to study the thermosphere.
“Yes! My touch is there somewhere in space” says a proud Priyanka. Presently working for Safran Electronics and Defense, headquartered in France. She is a PhD student at ISAE-SUPAERO, a world leader in aerospace engineering higher education located in Toulouse, France and overseen by the French Ministry of Defence.
Her area of research is precise point positioning and navigation of man-made satellites.
Speaking about her research, Priyanka said that she believes her findings may give a new direction to self driving vehicle technology. Priyanka also informed that her dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer started when she was a student of St. Stephen’s College and the person who inspired her was Physics Professor Dr Vikram Phukan, reports ISAE-SUPAERO.
She had also participated in ‘Acquintan Space’ competition organised by France space agency CNES and grabbed the first position in Paris region and made it to the top five in the country. She was also selected for the Caltech space challenge among 32 young scientists across the world.
She has recently been honored with French Nationality by the French Government for her immense contribution towards the navigation system of Great ‘Rafale’ Aircrafts.
Das is passionate about the space and started her academic career with Bachelor’s Degree in Physics (Honors) from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi.
She then joined Ecole Polytechnique for its four-year Ingénieur Polytechnicien program (promotion X2013), specializing her third year in Data Science.
During her fourth year, she joined ISAE-Supaéro for a double masters degree in Aerospace Engineering, specializing in Autonomous Systems and Data Science.