PRANAV'S PORTFOLIO

"Dream Write Build Achieve"

ABOUT ME

Intro

Thakur Pranav Gopal Singh is a passionate and innovative engineer currently pursuing a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering & Material Science, Aerospace Specialization at Duke University. He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Minors from Manipal Institute of Technology.

His professional experience includes serving as Production & Operations Manager at Balaji CNC Technologies, where he specialized in CNC operations, CAD/CAM, quality control, and implemented AS9100 D certification processes. He also completed an internship at the Defense Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL, DRDO), focusing on pressure regulator modeling and micro-thruster research.

Pranav is a prolific project leader, notably with ThrustMIT, a student rocketry team, where he led launch operations and played a key role in designing sounding rockets and payloads for the Spaceport America Cup. His projects also include designing control systems for aircraft pitch and analyzing heat exchangers. He has a patent filed for a novel non-pyrotechnic radial deployment mechanism for payloads in sounding rockets and has published research papers.

He possesses a strong skill set in CAD/CAM software (Mastercam, CATIA, Fusion, SolidWorks), simulation tools (ANSYS, MATLAB, AMESim), and programming languages (Python, HTML, CSS, SQL). His accomplishments include high rankings in the Spaceport America Cup 2023 & 2024.

Intro Image
*From left: Stewie Payload, Altair Sounding Rocket, Launch Day

EDUCATION

DUKE UNIVERSITY, MS Mechanical Engineering & Material Science, Aerospace Specialization, 2025 – 2027
  • Student Advisory Board Member
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant: ME 321 Advance Mechanical Design
MANIPAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BTech Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Minors, 2020 – 2024
  • Payload & Structures Member, thrustMIT, Student Rocketry Team, 2021-2024
  • Organizer Tech Tatva Tech Fest, Escape Velocity, 2022 – 2023
  • HRD Organizer Revels Fest, Odyssey of Dreams, 2023-2024
Sri Chaitanya Jr Kalasala, High School, PCMB, Jr & Sr Year, 2018 – 2020
Sherwood Public School, Middle School, 2010 – 2018

HOBBIES

Sketching portraits and painting Madhubani. Published a few to the Hindu paper and the times children magazine.

Played cricket at under 14 state level, Hyderabad cricket association. (HCA)

RESEARCH PAPERS

PROJECTS

ThrustMIT, a student rocketry team based in MIT Manipal working on building sounding rockets for the Spaceport America Cup (SAC). The following are the projects taken up at thrustMIT and MIT Manipal.

Altair (Sounding rocket for SAC 2023)

Launch operations Lead, Payload & Structures Engineer

ALTAIR SOUNDING ROCKET PROJECT

Designed and simulated the CAD models for the structure’s aspect of the sounding rocket and payload. Built the same with the best aerospace-grade metals and composites involving in machine shop production activities.

Designed the thrust-stand for the static fire motor tests and motor, which successfully provided the desired thrust-time curve and burn time. Led the launch operations team at the Spaceport launch site and participated in the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) challenge.

View PDF

Rayquaza (Sounding rocket for SAC 2022)

Payload Engineer

Rayqyaza Launch Image

Designed a spectroscopy concept-based payload for a subscale rocket launch and a carbon-capture concept payload using lithium hydroxide for the main scale launch. Researched on air-brakes mechanism to effectively control apogee using drag.

Developed C.A.V.E. with carbon nano tubes (CNT) with enhanced piezoelectric sensors, proving its effectiveness in damping ascent vibrations. The modal analysis and subscale launch proved the payload qualified the launch induced vibration test.

View PDF

Aircraft Pitch Control

Control System coursework project under Prof Kevin Amith

aircraft pitch control
Picture Credits to how to thing fly.

Designed a control system model for a 3-DOF aircraft pitch control system in MATLAB to obtain the element stiffness matrix and global stiffness matrix, thereby obtaining the displacement and strain for elements in respective directions.

View PDF

Parallel Flow Radial Pin Fin Heat Exchanger

Thermodynamics course project

Radial Pin Heat Exchanger CAD

Analyzed the effectiveness of a parallel flow heat exchanger with radial pin and without pin in ANSYS. Designed and developed a heat exchanger, where the heat transfer coefficient went from 732 to 1532 w/m2k demonstrating 60.7 % effectiveness.

View PDF

EXPERIENCE

Balaji CNC Technologies (BCT Group), Production & Operations Manager | Hyderabad, India | Jan 2024 – Jul 2025

Operated CNC Milling, CNC Turning with Fanuc controllers, and EDM machines to manufacture metallic parts for aircraft, helicopters, and UAV applications. Designed CAD models and programmed components using Mastercam software for 60+ components.

Part of the implementation process of AS9100 D certification and audit by IAQG. Made sure reports are 100% in compliance with the manuals and standards for traceability. Developed ERP system for monitoring manufacturing cycles for further optimization.

Conducted quality control analysis on the manufactured parts using CMM, Profile projectors, 2D height masters, and various precision instruments. Optimized production planning and job sequencing to minimize cycle time and setup time by 30%.

Defense Research & Development Laboratory, DRDL, DRDO, Intern | Hyderabad, India | Dec 2022 – Jan 2023

Completed a short-term project on modeling a pressure regulator in AMESIM, gaining experience in design, machining, and achieving a precise pressure prediction of 20.48 bar against the experimental 21 bar. Witnessed its effective functioning during a static fire test.

Conducted a research project on micro-thruster thrust stands, focusing on effective calibration methods using MEMS electromagnetic and electrostatic fins to identify the range of the possible micro thrust stand.

SKILLS

List of technical & soft skills.

ANSYS

STRUCTURAL, CFD - FLUENT, MODAL

CAD/CAM/CAE

Mastercam, CATIA, Fusion, SolidWorks

PROGRAMMING

PYTHON, SQL, HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT

SIMULATORS

MATLAB, AMESim, OpenRocket (ORK), Arcocad

DESIGN

Canva, MS Office, Latex

LEADERSHIP

Team Management, Public Speaking, Critical thinking

RECOMMENDATION LETTERS

Below are recommendation letters and referral documents. Click to view each PDF.

BCT Recommendation Letter Open
HOD Recommendation Letter Open
ThrustMIT Recommendation Letter Open

COURSEWORK

Mechanical Design FEM Analysis CAD/CAM Quality Control
Control System Python, SQL, ML Finance Advanced Manufacturing Processes
Jet Propulsion and Rocket Technology Lean Manufacturing Machine Learning Nano Tech & MEMS
Supply Chain

CONTACT ME

ADDRESS

1000 Mc Queen Dr
9102 The Belmont Apts
Durham, North Carolina
USA - 27705

PHONE

+1 (919) 225-7343

HOURS

Monday – Friday
8 am – 6 pm

EMAIL

pt159@duke.edu

thakur4pranav@gmail.com

RESUME