Ankur Bora
Tuesday, April 18. 2017 – NASA Kennedy space center, Cape
Canaveral was humming with activity. The primary focus was over at the
launching pad where an Atlas-V rocket sat with a constellation of CubeSats
mounted atop it. CubeSats are fully functional miniaturized satellites developed
by the European Union sponsored QB50 project. A unique collaboration between
universities and research institutes from 23 countries around the world, these satellites
are designed and built by a great number young students supervised by
professors at their laboratory. It was a daunting task though, those were traditionally
large and heavy instruments and making them small, light and robust enough to
fly to the International Space station (ISS) and then orbit around the Earth
was a huge challenge, but in the end it was done, with great elegance. As the Atlas-V
blasted off spectacularly into space, sending the dreams and aspirations of
these students roaring to the sky, a young Assamese girl who was taking part in
this ground-breaking mission from École Polytechnique, Paris was ecstatic, she
realized that her personal stamp – piece of code that establishes communication
channel between the CubeSats and the ground station became operational making
its way into orbit.
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| AssamTribune Horizon 6th April 2018 |
“Ever since I first saw the sky and even as a child, I found myself
wanting to know everything about space.” – Priyanka Das, a PhD student
working on satellite navigation systems, recalls her fascinations with the
outer space. She grew up in an environment where her parents always encouraged
her to be curious and pursue whatever she liked as long as it was in an
organized fashion. She was a student at Mother's International School, Delhi
run by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry where she learned French culture,
language and history. Priyanka had a dream of becoming a Space scientist and her
adventure in the exploration of science began when she secured a place at St.
Stephen's College, Delhi for an honors course in Physics. During college, she
attended summer internships at the Inter University Accelerator Centre,
Photonics lab at IIT Delhi and in experimental physics at the Homi Bhabha
Centre, organized by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Her
academic experience at St. Stephen's was thus quite rich and eventful. As she
was completing graduation, her professor encouraged her to apply to École
Polytechnique in Paris, one of the most prestigious schools in France. In the
summer of 2013, Priyanka received the marvelous news that she was accepted at
the university with a full scholarship and a paid flight to Paris. At École she
was part of a team that made an actual microsatellite for the QB50 project which
was launched from Cape Canaveral.
Carpe diem is a Latin phrase that means "seize the
day," encouraging people to embrace and make the most of their time. At École,
Priyanka seized each and every opportunity, learning from any experience and
preparing for the next one. While she was a second year student, she applied to
the 2015 Caltech Space Challenge, organized by the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), in collaboration with scientists from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It was a tough competition but she was able to
rise to the occasion and Priyanka was named among the 32 selected from around
the world. It was a rare occasion since she was representing two countries,
India and France, at the same event. At JPL she was mentored by scientists and
engineers from NASA and remained an experience of lifetime. Along the way , she
listened and learned from people who had already been where she wanted to go – “I meet some amazing women in Tech events, of
all ages, who have inspirational stories to share and talking with them gives
me fresh perspective every time on how I could be living my life”.
Back at École, Priyanka completed her masters and
simultaneously as an exchange student at ISAE-Supaéro, France's top school in
the domain of aerospace, earned a double master in Aerospace Engineering with a
specialization in Autonomous Systems, Decision Sciences and Robotics. As it
turned out, at the end of her course, she was offered a PhD in collaboration
with Safran, a leading aerospace company in Europe. I recently conversed with
her and I was simply blown away by the depth of her knowledge, her dynamic
energy and her footing between two great cultures, French and Assam as she
spoke with me in Assamese and with my children in French! Currently she is
pursuing PhD in studying the navigation signals from satellite systems – “The GPS we use today from our phones is
rarely more precise than at least a few meters. My research may lead to a super
precise position, of the order of centimeters and thus could have applications
in autonomous cars and planes where a few centimeters can make the difference
for survival.” Priyanka, who has a habit of grasping everything and turning
them into action, even took up fencing as a sport and competed at the university
level.
The light we have
inside ourselves is our own talent, our own strength – the elements that sets
us apart from everyone else. We must find that element and set it afire; this
is how our world lights up with energy, action and progress. The world is an
amazing place and life is beckoning us with endless possibilities - it is just
a matter of paying attention, seizing the opportunity and turning it into
action. Carpe diem, my friend, carpe diem - make your life extraordinary!
ankurbora@hotmail.com