Rakesh Chandra Prajapati
ORION Space
Mr. Rakesh Chandra Prajapati is a Sr. Test Engineer working in Switzerland since 2011. He received master's degree (MSc) in Electronics and Space Technology from EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland in 2010. He has worked in biomedical and space industries in Switzerland, like, in TECAN AG, RUAG Space, and ROCHE Diagnostics. At TECAN he has developed tools using Matlab and LabVIEW for autonomous testing and post-processing of test-data. At RUAG Space he has developed a software tool to control Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVC). The software provides data-acquisition and logging from the test-unit (Solar Array Drive Mechanism) inside the TVC chamber, communicates with EGSE (Electrical Ground Support Equipment), and regulates control units to perform temperature cycle. At ROCHE, he has worked in different projects as a system integration engineer, troubleshooting engineer, and test engineer. He has strong interest in space related job, and he has also completed some training and summer schools related to nano-satellite technology from Samara State Aerospace University, and Hokkaido University.
After graduating from CLTP -7 training from Hokkaido University, he is conducting CanSat education and out-reach program in Nepal, his motherland. He received his bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication System from Kathmandu University, Nepal in 2004. After his study, he was offered a Research Fellow position at the same university, the research project was funded by Happy House Foundation, Switzerland. During his research work, he developed a powerline communication modem, and published IEEE papers. Later he was also involved in teaching to undergraduate students and supervise academic projects. After serving three years at Kathmandu University, he decided to join at EPFL, Switzerland in 2007 for master's degree. At EPFL, he was involved in SwissCube project- a cubesat project, which was launched in 2009.
Now, almost a decade later, he decided to give back to his community, and his university in Nepal. He has started working on CanSat and PocketQube, for technology transfer to Nepal, and teaching about Space Technology in Nepal via his company, called ORION Space. His research interest includes nano-satellite technology, and its application for developing countries. He would like to setup Test Center for Nano-Satellite and Space Technology in Nepal. He has strong background in testing, automation, control, instrumentation, and data-acquisition. He has also worked in communication system in physical layer. He enjoys using LabVIEW and board-level troubleshooting, and dismantling toys and instruments. When he is not working, he is mostly travelling, and reading books on Physics.
Contact: rakesh_chandra.prajapati(at)alumni.epfl.ch
