Amba-Rao fellow for 2018: From India's space agency to Purdue

Gopikrishnan Sasi Kumar, the 2018 recipient of the Amba-Rao Fellowship, established for aerospace fields at Purdue, stands by the Neil Armstrong statue outside Neil Armstrong Hall. (Photo provided) Download image

Gopikrishnan Sasi Kumar, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, is the 2018 recipient of the Amba-Rao Fellowship, established for aerospace fields at Purdue by alumna Sita Amba-Rao to honor the legacy of her husband, revered scientist, educator, and Purdue alumnus Chintakindi Lalita Amba-Rao.

Sasi Kumar completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology before taking a full-time position at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, India in September 2012. At ISRO, among other things, he designed and developed embedded control software for controlling the thrust-vector and cryogenic engine operation in ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), as well as for ISRO’s next-generation launcher, the LVM3. He was part of the first successful GSLV mission, with the cryogenic rocket stage developed indigenously in India, and the debut launch of LVM3.

At Purdue, Sasi Kumar is interested in working at the interface between the fields of artificial intelligence and control systems. He wishes to answer questions like “How can a control system learn on its own, without someone explicitly designing the control strategies?” and “How can control systems adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the real world?” He is convinced that “a blend of AI and control systems theory will indeed lead to fail-safe solutions” to these questions, and that “solving these questions is of paramount importance in achieving robustness and autonomy in robots of the future, which among other things, will enable humans to venture deeper into space.”

When asked about what sparked his interest in pursuing such a career, Sasi Kumar talked about his childhood in the village of Kadampanad in the southern Indian state of Kerala, and how he was fascinated by the stories of robotics and developments in AI happening on the other side of the globe in the U.S., as well as in other Asian countries like Japan.

“I still remember how mesmerized I was with Honda’s Asimo, which was all over the news then,” he says. “It was only later on in my life that I was even introduced to control systems, and it soon turned out to be my passion. Working in both AI and control systems became my dream. With the support of my family, friends and teachers, that dream has become a reality and I am now eager to make an even greater contribution to science and technology and the future of space exploration by advancing my knowledge through graduate studies.”

When asked about his initial impressions of Purdue and West Lafayette, Sasi Kumar, who had never been to the United States before August, noted how warm and welcoming the community is. Regarding academic life at Purdue, he commented, “I am so impressed by Purdue and how active the research activities are here. I have particularly enjoyed attending seminars and talks on campus; the speakers have been really extraordinary.”

About the Amba-Rao legacy

Chintakindi Lalita Amba-Rao came to the U.S. in 1957 as a Fulbright Scholar. He earned a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Brown University in 1960, and a PhD in aerospace and engineering sciences at Purdue in 1965. From 1964 to 1968, while working at Wyle Labs in Huntsville, Alabama, Amba-Rao worked on NASA's Saturn rocket systems that supported the Apollo lunar program, which would launch fellow Purdue alumni Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan to the moon. Later he worked for the Indian Space Research Organization in Trivandrum, India, in its early period. He returned to the U.S. and resumed his career in the aerospace industry, working at Learjet, Cessna, Boeing and Martin Marietta. He also taught at Rutgers and the Johns Hopkins universities.

Sita Amba-Rao is a distinguished academic in her own right. She is professor emerita of management at Indiana University-Kokomo. After she earned her master's degree in 1961 and PhD in 1967 from Krannert, she held senior personnel positions at Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and in Bharat Dynamics Ltd., a defense department organization in the government of India. 

Source: Office of Corporate and Global Partnerships, ocgp@purdue.edu