rajiv govindjee

Hi! My website is always a work in progress, but feel free to take a look around.

I recently completed a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; I did my undergrad in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at UC Berkeley, with a minor in Mechanical Engineering.

My interests are mostly in robotics, controls, autonomy, and safety-critical embedded systems. I particularly (but not exclusively) enjoy working on air and space robotics.

I've worked in commercial aircraft (Boeing), consumer electronics (Apple), drone delivery (Wing), and autonomous vehicles (Zoox); I'm always excited to solve hard engineering problems wherever I can find them.

Over the years, I've worked on several fun projects in rocketry, robotics, electronics, and more. The sample below comes from my classes, clubs, and personal projects.

Outside of work, I enjoy cooking, baking, climbing, hiking, and wilderness backpacking.

If you'd like to know more about me, you can find my resume here or send me a message at rajivg 'at' berkeley.edu; I also have a LinkedIn!

me

rocketry

BFO placed first in the collegiate FAR 1030 competition by carrying over 8.8 lbm of scientific payloads to over 10,000 ft. I was the Systems Engineering Lead for Bear Force One and ultimately responsible for cross-functional engineering issues through design, production, and launch.
AirBears is a test vehicle and has been flown twice (apogee ~7,700 ft). I was the team's Operations and Safety Lead for AirBears, directing vehicle final integration and coordinating launch-day procedures.
Successful NAR Level 2 certification rocket. Custom BlueTube design with fiberglass nosecone and fins (tip-to-tip layup), flying on a J450-DM motor. Recovery done with a dual-deploy system (72" main, 36" drogue) using two redundant Eggtimer Quark altimeters.
Successful NAR Level 1 certification rocket. Modified fiberglass kit from Madcow Rocketry, flying on an I-140W motor. Recovery system was a 48 in. Rocketman parachute deployed with motor ejection.

robotics and control

TART is a semi-autonomous quadrupedal robot that sends back environmental sensor data to operators via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Robot motion is controlled with keypresses, which are sent over BLE to switch gaits.
RAWB uses a UR5e robotic arm to comfortably balance and move a tray with objects on it in collaboration with a human. Interaction with the robot is natural and predictable, and occurs in 4 degrees of freedom (three translational and one rotational).
This project uses model predictive control techniques (including nonlinear sequential convex programming) to plan trajectories for satellite orbital maneuvers
Autonomous rover for NASA Student Launch. Requirements were that it autonomously deployed on the ground after the rocket landed, drove 5 ft, and deployed a set of solar panels.

electronics

IRIS is a sensing payload designed to be flown in high-power rockets. IRIS senses barometric pressure, acceleration, angular velocity, absolute orientation, temperature, pressure, humidity, and more, and stores data to non-volatile memory.
SPARCS is a personal project to explore different spark gap generation circuits, for eventual use to ignite liquid rocket engines. SPARCS can be populated with two varieties of zero-voltage switching (ZVS) flyback drivers.
IRIS v2 board, assembled
Assembled IRIS v1 board

nature photography

King Range National Conservation Area, CA
Death Valley National Park, CA
De-Na-Zin Wilderness, NM
Arches National Park, UT
Emigrant Wilderness, CA
South San Juan Wilderness, CO

manufacturing

Sub-scale rover for testing
Milled polycarbonate skids to stabilize rover on movement
3D Printed brackets for mounting Yagi antenna elements. Yagi communicated with a radio board in the rocket.
Wrapped thrust chamber for LE-165. Tubing runs kerosene around the thrust chamber for regenerative cooling

resume

download resume+portfolio here