Hey, I'm Shreeyam. I am a PhD candidate at MIT's Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation Laboratory with PI Prof. Kerri Cahoy. I work on autonomous systems, instrumentation, and machine learning applied to spacecraft. Currently I work on dynamic tasking formulations for Earth-observing satellites funded by Planet Labs so we can use existing satellites more effectively through improved perception, onboard planning, and edge computing.

I currently work at Planet Labs as an Edge Compute/Machine Learning Engineer. I have worked on Pelican's onboard compute system on the NVIDIA Jetson platform, as the first employee on the Edge Compute team. My previous experience includes integrated photonics at X, the moonshot factory (formerly Google [x]), and I also led all onboard electronics development for Imperial College London Rocketry.

I started this blog for technical sewing projects. There are countless blogs from the early to mid 2010s that have been invaluable to my sewing journey, and I hope to contribute to that body of knowledge. I might occasionally write about fashion, research, or other topics also.

I wrote this blog platform called Spoingo. I also host a tree-based productivity software called Treetrack.

Contact: shreeyam [at] mit [dot] edu

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

PhD Spacecraft Systems and Sensors, minor in AI and Computer Vision

2024 - 2025

Thesis: Spacecraft Autonomy through Computer Vision and Onboard Planning

SM Aeronautics and Astronautics

2020 - 2022

GPA: 5.0/5.0

Thesis: Optical Performance and Prototyping of a Liquid Lens Laser Communications Transceiver

Imperial College London

2016 - 2020

MEng Aeronautical Engineering with a Year Abroad

Degree Classification: First Class Honours

Thesis: Design of low leakage MEMS valves for spacecraft applications

Experience

MIT Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation Laboratory

2020 - Present

Research Assistant (PI: Prof. Kerri Cahoy) | Cambridge, MA

  • Conducted space environment testing and prototyping with NASA for a novel lasercom pointing and tracking system using liquid lenses.
  • Trained machine learning models and created a dataset for on-orbit cloud segmentation as part of a computer vision pipeline to identify ocean fronts.
  • Tested and validated machine learning algorithms on ESA's OPS-SAT mission.
  • Designed algorithms for dynamic alteration of spacecraft imaging schedules based on inputs from external perception systems.

Planet Labs

2022 - 2024

Edge Compute/Machine Learning Engineer | San Francisco, CA

  • Developed next-generation onboard compute platforms for Earth-observing satellite missions using NVIDIA GPUs.
  • Designed, specified, and developed hardware for a low-power computer vision instrument.
  • Trained machine learning vision models for spacecraft perception and trajectory planning.

X Development LLC (formerly Google[x])

2021

Intern @X | Mountain View, CA

  • Interned under Project Taara to provide low-cost free-space optical communications (FSOC) internet access for underdeveloped countries.
  • Conducted communications architecture analysis for optically preamplified direct detection and coherent detection techniques.
  • Modeled integrated photonics components to assess the capabilities of each architecture.

Intelligent Environments Europe Ltd (ieDigital)

2016

Software Developer Intern | London, UK

  • Worked as a full stack software developer intern writing C# across teams managed under agile methodology.
  • Automated part of the workflow for business analysts using Python, saving tens of hours on importing old functional specifications into JIRA.
  • Described by the Chief Architect as a "Senior Software Developer disguised as an Intern."

Skills

Programming Languages

Python, C, C++, C#, MATLAB, Verilog

Software

Microsoft Office, SolidWorks, Altium, PyTorch, Docker

Languages

English (Native), Hindi (Fluent), Korean (Intermediate)

Projects & Extracurricular Activities

Imperial College London Rocketry

June 2019 - July 2020

Electronics & Payload Team Lead

  • One of four executive leads of an 80-member team.
  • Led design and manufacture of all rocket electronics, including avionics systems, telemetry, data acquisition, throttle control system, and payload.

Publications