MARS 2021

Mars Perseverance, Ingenuity & The Indian Connections : Kudos To Nasa ‘s Dr Swati Mohan, Dr Bob Balaram

After 8 years of hard work, on February 18th, NASA landed the Rover on Mars at the bottom of the deep valley. Named Perseverance, rover will search for signs of microbial life. Rover’s landing zone is assumed to be a riverbed that may indicate signs of life. Rover will collect rock core samples in metal tubes. Future missions will return these samples to Earth for extensive study.

Perseverance journey to Mars took seven months and about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers). Perseverance was launched on July 30 2020 and multiple trajectory corrections maneuvers were made to point the rover to the bottom of the deep valley. Perseverance’s Route to Mars is shown below.

Leading the NASA Rover Landing is Swathi Mohan, the guidance, navigation and control operations lead, and mission commentator for the Perseverance project. She has been working on Perseverance for 8 years and flying the Rover for last seven months. “Perseverance will be the first mission to fly terrain-relative navigation so while she is descending on the parachute she will be actually at the ground with a camera, seeing where she is with respect to the Martian surface, and choosing a safe spot to land”, said Swathi Mohan.  Terrain-Relative Navigation captures photos of the Mars terrain in real time and compares them with onboard maps of the landing area, autonomously directing the rover to divert around known hazards and obstacles as needed.

Landing test can be seen here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaVTxc8uxOw&feature=emb_logo

Another major accomplishment in this mission is to test the first powered flight on Mars, aka Mars helicopter. Vaneeza Rupani, an 11th grader from Northport Alabama was bestowed the honor to name the helicopter. She submitted her essay into NASA’s “Name the Rover” contest and was chosen among 28,000 essays and named the helicopter Ingenuity. Ingenuity team was led by Dr Bob Balaram. A Principal member of Technical Staff at JPL robotics. Mars has very little atmosphere, only around 1% of Earths. “Flying this kind of helicopter is equivalent to flying a similar helicopter on Earth at a hundred thousand feet” said Dr. Bob Balaram. Helicopter was built using Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Linux operating system and has a high resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data to the Perseverance rover.

Kudos to Indian diaspora to assist in this monumental task of finding life on Mars!!!

Onwards to Mars!!

References:

Mars Landing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm0b_ijaYMQ

Mars Mission team 

Swathi Mohan BIO 

Landing test

Mars Helicopter 

 

Insane Engineering behind the Rover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqqaW8DCc-I&feature=youtu.be

**********************************************

By Amrish Chopra, Director VMWare

Life Member, ASEI Silicon Valley 

womens days

ASEI International Women’s Day in Partnership with AIWA

Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #embraceequity.

Event At : Schoolcraft College – VisTaTech Center

Address : 18600 Haggerty Rd, Livonia Michigan 48152

Event Date : Mar.11.2023

Event Time : 9:30 AM

Register Now
Election

Elections 2023: Asei Chapter Leadership Opportunities Open

Dear ASEI Members,

To drive our mission forward, ASEI needs dedicated volunteers and Board members who take pride in our past and are forward thinking and belive in taking action and make a difference. All chapters of ASEI need to conduct their annual election to fill the 2023-2024 Board of Directors open positions.

In accordance with ASEI constitution, we have appointed the following Board members to the Election Committee: 

Silicon Valley Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs: Raju Shreewastava & Kanakshila Tandon

Washington DC  Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs: Venkat Gururathnam & Lekha

SoCal Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs:  Sanjay Dalal & Vrunda

Seattle Chapter Board of Election Committee Chair: Srini Vemula

Dallas  Chapter  Board of Election Committee Chairs : Puneet Dixit   &  Jayati 

Hence, the purpose of this communication is to request nominations from the membership for the ASEI Chapter Board of Directors. There are several open positions in each chapter that will be filled through this nomination process.

You can self-nominate or nominate someone else for the ASEI Chapter Board position. If nominating someone else, please get concurrence from your nominee before submitting the nomination.

To be eligible to become a board member, the nominee must be an ASEI paid member (Annual Professional or Life) in good standing, must have participated in ASEI volunteer activities at local or national level, and must have exhibited leadership qualities from experiences that would add significant value to the board and ASEI. The nominee must be ready and willing to participate in all (or almost all) board meetings and contribute by participating in ASEI activities including membership of various committees of ASEI. The nominees should become familiar with ASEI membership types and Constitution and Bylaws available at www.aseiusa.org   

Please click here to submit your nomination. The deadline to submit nominations is Jan 15, 2023.

Mock Interview Session 2022

Mock Interview Sessions

  • Event At : Virtual
  • Address : Maryland
  • Event Date : Nov.12.2022
  • Event Time : 12 Noon – 2 pm
Summer vacations are a semester away but interviews are around the corner. Learn about the required skills and knowledge to crack these interviews by attending this 1:1 mock interview session with leading professionals from the industry. Each interview will be 15 mins long followed by a brief feedback session.
Mock Interview 2022
Seeking Nominations For The 2023 National Board

Leadership Positions Open- Seeking Nominations For The 2023 National Board

Dear ASEI Members,

The National Board of ASEI is conducting its election to fill the 2023 Board of Directors open positions. By section VI.2 of the constitution, we have appointed the following Board members to the Election Committee:

Election Committee Chairperson: Rakesh Patel

Election Committee Members:  Surbhi Kaul  & Shreekant Agrawal

Hence, the purpose of this communication is to request nominations from the membership for the ASEI National Board of Directors. Five open positions will be filled through this nomination process.

You can self-nominate or nominate someone else for the ASEI National Board position. If nominating someone else, please get concurrence from your nominee before submitting the nomination.

To be eligible to become a board member, the nominee must be an ASEI-paid member in good standing for one year, must have participated in ASEI activities at the local or national level, and must have exhibited leadership qualities from experiences that would add significant value to the board and ASEI. The nominee must be ready and willing to participate in all (or almost all) board meetings and contribute by participating in ASEI activities, including membership in various committees of ASEI. The nominees should become familiar with ASEI Constitution and Bylaws available at www.ASEIUSA.Org

Please Click here to submit your nomination. The deadline to submit nominations is December 11th, 2022.

Sincerely,

Executive Committee of the ASEI National Board of Directors:

Piyush Malik – President

Ram Ramanujam – Vice President

Jwalant Lakhia – Treasurer

Vatsala Upadhyaya – Secretary & IT Director

Let Us Know If You Are Not Getting It In Your Email Inbox

Highlights From November #ASEI Newsletter: Let Us Know If You Are Not Getting It In Your Email Inbox

The latest edition of the newsletter has been sent to all members on the  first of November  and the online edition is available here.

Happy reading and catching up on all that happened in the last month and what lies ahead with your society.

Highlights from November:

  • ASEI Awards Nominations Open – Last Date November 10th Check out further on our website and nominate someone today
  • ASEI Making grassroots level efforts for STEM in Indian schools though partnerships
  • ASEI Elections: Board Positions are open for nominations for forming the 2023 board. Nominations Due by Nov 27
  • Engineering Entrepreneurship & Mentoring in full flow at FalconX Accelerator
  • University Connect makes progress with new campus Ambassadors- Praveen Vayalamkuzhi, Ph.D. and Ashdeep Seth
  • Replay of Engineering tales #8 with Rajeev Kapur
  • New Mobility Summit coming up in Michigan on Nov 19th
  • Youth Corner with Aditya and Ashdeep Seth on Nov 26th
  • Do provide feedback as to what activities and programs you would like to see more of.
  • Also, do tag your friends and ask them to follow this American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) page so as not to miss any of our upcoming exciting activities and updates.
  • A big THANK You to  all our achievers, expert speakers, content contributors, community builders and collaborators highlighted  in this edition

Please Click here to submit your nomination. The deadline to submit nominations is December 11th, 2022.

Sincerely,

Executive Committee of the ASEI National Board of Directors:

Piyush Malik – President

Ram Ramanujam – Vice President

Jwalant Lakhia – Treasurer

Vatsala Upadhyaya – Secretary & IT Director

Election 2023- Leadership Opportunities

Election 2023- Leadership Opportunities

Dear ASEI Members,

ASEI continues to build and grow on its foundational principles of nurturing, mentoring connecting, and developing networks of technology and STEM professionals. The ASEI National and Chapter Boards are now taking nominations for 3-year board membership, starting in the calendar year 2023.

Those who may be interested in serving in leadership positions in the different chapters or at the National level, please approach your chapter leaders. By the ASEI constitution, we will appoint the Board members to the Election Committee soon who will carry out the election/nomination process.

There will be additional information on the nomination process forthcoming
Anual Membership

Asei Simplifies Annual Professional Membership – By Jwalant Lakhia

If you are not a Lifetime member of ASEI, this is a great time to become one at a one time $500 .
The next best thing is to become a Professional Member of ASEI and still enjoy all the benefits ASEI offers. Why you ask? The Professional Membership dues are a bargain at just $50 per annum.

And the timing couldn’t be better than now! We have made a change in the way this annual professional membership is considered valid. It used to be that this annual membership would expire on December 31st of the year regardless of when someone became a member. We have changed this to a rolling membership which means that members will get one full year from the day dues are paid. This will allow the members not to lose the benefits of ASEI membership on December 31st. We look forward to seeing everyone taking advantage of this change and not holding out from becoming ASEI Professional Member. ASEI membership provides a unique opportunity to be a part of many activities such as Mentor Connect, University Connect, National ASEI Conventions, ASEI Chapter networking events, and many more. For more details and to sign up for ASEI Membership, please visit http://www.aseiusa.org/Account/CreateMember

– Jwalant Lakhia
Treasurer – National ASEI 
Meet University connect Ambassador

Asei Youth Corner: Meet University connect Ambassador – Ashdeep Seth

Ashdeep Seth is an independent designer, engineer, and educator who works on social innovation projects in Africa and Asia, with a focus on India. She designs and develops hardware and software technologies in agriculture and healthcare for low-resource communities. She is also a university connect ambassador for ASEI and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Development Engineering at UC Berkeley.

Ashdeep is North Indian; born and raised in Dubai, she moved to the United States in 2015 to study Product Design at Stanford University. She discovered her passion for social innovation while at IIT Madras Research Park working in their Healthcare Technology Innovation Center. Her motivation from working at IIT spawned her interest in several other similar projects. Currently, she designs affordable greenhouses for Indian smallholder farmers in association with Kheyti in Hyderabad. She works with Clinic+O in Guinea developing a mobile application used by a network of local community health workers to provide primary care services to marginalized communities. She is also a Senior Expert Fellow at Engineering for Change.

As Ashdeep says, growing up in an international expat area like Dubai allowed her to encounter various cultures and outlooks at a young age, and made her wonder who she wants to be. Her parents’ work as architects and community builders also laid her career foundations and made her realize what she wanted to do, what her interests were, and how she wished to apply herself in society. This foundation has eventually led her to apply herself at the intersection of technology and social impact.

Her message to young people is to ‘stay hungry and stay humble’: be deeply curious, be grounded, find opportunities, especially amidst seeming difficulties, and nurture relationships. She attributes her success to the great relationships she has developed over the years. If you wish to take her advice, ASEI is one of the organizations that can help you build connections with industry professionals and leaders.

Website: www.ashseth.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashdeepseth/

* This Article is contributed by Aditya Guthey – ASEI youth coordinator. He is available via linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaguthey/ 

Resume Review 2022-banner

Resume Review

  • Event At : University of Maryland
  • Address : STAMP Student Union, 3972 Campus Dr College Park Maryland 20742
  • Event Date : Oct.29.2022
  • Event Time : 12 noon – 2 pm
Enhance your internship and job opportunities by getting your resume reviewed by industry professionals. Get one-on-one time with experts to understand what employers look for in a resume and how you can make a great first impression.
Resume Review 2022