Piyush Thakre

About Piyush Thakre

I’m an aerospace/software engineer with 18+ years of experience spanning professional…

Experience

1. Senior Research Scientist, Prime Air

   Amazon

   Apr 2024 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

   Contributed to the design, modeling, and analysis of Amazon’s next-generation Prime Air delivery drone (MK30), launched commercially in Nov 2024, with focus areas in aerodynamics, flight-test data analysis, and machine learning.• Led the High-Fidelity Methods group for flight tests, driving validation of aerodynamic models and power consumption estimates critical for aviation regulatory compliance.• Developed digital twin simulation models in C++ and Python to replicate MK30 flight dynamics and system behavior. Implemented aerodynamic, wind, and sensor models (LiDAR for obstacle detection, IMU, and Air Data System) for high-fidelity simulation and system integration testing.• Executed Monte Carlo simulations to assess aero and wind model uncertainties across diverse mission profiles.• Automated flight data analysis pipelines for vehicle tracking performance and controller robustness verification during SIL/HIL testing

Education

• Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

  B. Tech and M. Tech (Dual Degree), Aerospace Engineering

  1998 — 2003

• Penn State University

  Ph.D. and M.S., Mechanical Engineering

Skills

• Aerodynamics
• Cae
• Multiphase Flow
• Alternative Energy
• Cfd
• Radiation
• Heat Transfer
• Fluid Mechanics
• Fluid Dynamics
• Combustion
• Thermodynamics
• Numerical Simulation
• Fortran
• Thermal
• Simulations
• Propulsion
• Numerical Analysis
• High Performance Computing
• Modeling
• Aerospace
• Matlab
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd)