Website of Dr. Gaurav Nilakantan
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Hi, I'm Gaurav Nilakantan, PhD.

Defense & Space Leader for Technology, Strategy, and Business Development.

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A Little About ​Myself.

I currently work at RTX's corporate research center as the Associate Director for Business Development focused on DoD customers across a very wide technology spectrum. I previously worked at Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) as the Hypersonics and Space Structures Technology and Integration Lead. I am a US citizen with active security clearance.

Prior to moving into business development, I worked various technical roles in both Industry and Academia with extensive USG/DoD engagement, and have made both seminal and major research contributions to the field of composites. ​I am a Composites SME with expertise in manufacturing, experimental characterization, and FEA modeling of textiles, polymer matrix composites, and ceramic matrix composites for hypersonics, space, aerospace, and armor.
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Business / Technology

Science / Research

  • USG and DoD customer engagement, marketing, shaping
  • USG and DoD CRAD capture, proposal development
  • Advanced Materials and Manufacturing; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML); Microelectronics and Power Electronics; Energy Storage and Management; Electrification and Sustainability; Collaborative Autonomy; Aircraft, Rocket and Space Propulsion; Hypersonics; Quantum; Energetics and Effectors; Directed Energy (DE) and Electromagnetics
  • Industry CRAD and IRAD program management
  • Business development, Competitive intelligence
  • Strategic partnerships, OEM to Small Biz. supplier engagement
  • Business process improvement, Cost reduction, LEAN
  • Tool modernization, Process automation
  • Data and information capture, Material data analytics
  • Knowledge transfer, Mentoring, Training
  • Composites supply chain, Make-Buy, technology roadmaps, emerging technologies, material and process qualification and specification
  • Composites manufacturing and automation
  • Experimental characterization of composites
  • Prepregging of PMCs and CMCs, 3D weaving of textile preforms
  • Composites reuse and recycling
  • Composites design, modeling, and analysis
  • Composite material allowables and statistical analysis
  • Multiscale and probabilistic modeling of composites
  • Ballistic impact, thermal, structural, damage behavior of composites
  • Textile and composite modeling preprocessing software
  • Implicit and explicit finite element analysis
  • Supercomputing, scripting, user-defined material modeling
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Education and Certifications

  • PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, 2011
  • MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 2006
  • BE, Mechanical Engineering, Visveswaraiah Technological University (India), 2003

  • Aerospace Project Management, California Institute of Technology, 2021
  • Leadership at All Levels, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020
  • Accounting and Finance for the Non-Finance Manager, University of California San Diego, 2020
  • Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement, University of Southern California, 2019
Copyright (c) 2022, Gaurav Nilakantan
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