Parimal Kopardekar

About Parimal Kopardekar

PK serves as the Director of NASA Aeronautics Research Institute and NASA\'s Mission Integration Manager for Advance Air Mobility. He also served as the Senior Technologist for Air Transportation System. He enjoys developing concepts, technologies, and eco-systems to increase efficiency and scalability of current and future aviation operations and markets. He is the inventor and Principal Investigator of the UAS Traffic Management to safely enable large-scale UAS operations in the low altitude airspace.He managed Safe Autonomous System Operations project, which was focused on aviation autonomy, with the goal of developing gate-to-gate concepts and technologies to improve aircraft and airspace efficiency, capacity, mobility, throughput, reduce delays, and overall airspace operations productivity. His portfolio covered flight deck, airline operations center, and air navigation service provider. He is particularly passionate about identifying and initiating high-risk and high-reward, game-changing, and disruptive innovations. He is recipient of numerous awards: AIAA Hap Arnold Award for Programatic Excellence, Service to America Medal, NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Ames Honors Award for Project Management, NASA Ames Engineer of the Year, and AIAA Distinguished Service Recognition Award. He has published more 50 articles with three best paper awards. He serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Aerospace Operations. He has a range of experience in industry, academia, and government sector. He managed R&D activities totaling over $0.5B. He initiated and lead several multi-million dollar R&D themes such as autonomy in airspace operations, reduced crew operations, distributed simulation capability, low altitude airspace operations and cloud/networked air traffic management. He is also an expert in operations management, supply chain management, and manufacturing and also teaches related courses at B-schools. He enjoys the roles of entrepreneur and intrapreneur. He strives to be a servant leader, listen to critics, believe in relating with people, creating allies, and passion based actions. He initiated many ideas which resulted into outcomes. Notable examples include: Space Traffic Management, regional modeling and simulation for UAM/AAM, Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management, Upper E Traffic Management, and SMART-NAS testbed. He developed a strategy and plan to increase effectiveness of aerial use for wildfire managementhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimal_Kopardekar

Experience

1. Fellow

   Royal Aeronautical Society

   Mar 2022 — Present

Education

• Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute

  Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Production Engineering

• University at Buffalo

  Master of Science (M.S.), Industrial Engineering

• University of Cincinnati

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Industrial Engineering