Asian
American
Engineer of the Year Award
2008
Dr. Sudhakar K. Rao
Introduction
People all over the
world—from local television viewers to soldiers on the battlefield—benefit from
the technical accomplishments and innovations of Dr. Sudhakar K. Rao. In his 33-year career,
spanning four countries on three continents, he has become an internationally
recognized expert in antenna systems used for multiple-beam and reconfigurable-beam
payloads for satellite communications.
His journey started in
the villages of India. Growing up, he was inspired first by his father’s
stories about famous scientists in India and later by a mathematics teacher who
gave him the self-confidence to tackle difficult problems.
Key challenges in his
career path were tremendous competition for college admission (the acceptance
rate at top schools was 1 in 1,000), a shortage of computer facilities, and
limited financial aid. The lack of computers turned out to be a boon to
engineering students because most of their advanced work had to be done
analytically, which improved both their analytical and conceptual skills.
Sudhakar received
National Merit Scholarships from the government of India from grade 11 until
completion of his PhD. He graduated from high school with a rank of 11
statewide and received his bachelor’s degree with distinction. His graduate
work focused on development of an antenna feed system and application of
diffraction techniques to complex radiation problems, fueling a passion for what
has become more than three decades of research, innovation, and advancement in the
field of satellite communications.
Over the years he has
honed a unique ability to analyze complex technical problems and to work with
other engineers to deliver appropriate solutions for complex payload design and
implementation issues.
Education
Degrees
BS, Electrical Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Warangal, India, 1974
MS, Electrical Engineering, India Institute of Technology, Kharaghpur, India,1976
PhD, Electrical Engineering, India Institute of Technology, Madras, India,1980
Leadership and Professional
Training
w Attended Lockheed Martin Technical Fellow Conference and gave a technical presentation, Dallas, Texas, 2007
w Attended Lockheed Martin technical leadership meeting, Savannah, Georgia, 2007
w Attended Boeing executive leadership meeting, El Segundo, California, 2002
w Completed advanced course on “Phased Array Antennas,” University of California at Los Angeles, 1988
Professional Achievements
Innovation in
Technology
Dr. Sudhakar Rao is a
prolific inventor with 30 U.S. Patents to his credit. Since December 2003, he
has been employed at Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems in Newtown,
Pennsylvania, providing technical leadership for all payload engineering, new
business proposals and programs, and interfacing with other divisions of
Lockheed Martin. His overall knowledge of satellite operators, customers,
industry, and hardware suppliers puts him in an advantageous position to lead
proposals and determine appropriate payload designs.
Dr. Rao is responsible for developing state-of-the-art technology
for multiple-beam payloads for personal communications, direct broadcast,
mobile, and military communications satellites. This technology provides
superior payload performance, enabling a twofold increase in satellite
capacity. He also is responsible for developing reconfigurable payloads for
future satellites that will provide on-orbit flexibility for satellite
operators in terms of reconfiguring the beam shape and/or locating a failed or
aging satellite in a different orbit slot. Current activities include several
new business opportunities for both domestic and international satellite
operators, internal research and development (IRAD) planning, and program consultancy.
Dr. Rao’s
engineering career began in his native India. At two companies, Electronics and
Radar Development Establishment in Bangalore and the Electronics Corporation of
India in Hyderabad, he designed and developed large antennas for line-of-sight
and tropospheric communications links, and an X-band space-fed phased array
system for an airborne radar. He was responsible for design, range test, and
delivery of the large antennas providing a microwave link to the Indian Post
& Telegraph department and later for the analysis and hardware design of
the first phased array radar system in India.
In between these jobs, he
completed his PhD at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, developing a
dual-band feed system for the Indian
Space Research Organization and performing research on diffraction techniques. His
research was fundamental in developing the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction as
applied to solving complex radiation problems of various practical horn
antennas. It also led to publication of
12 technical papers in international journals. One of the papers was
reprinted in an IEEE Press Book titled “Geometrical Theory of Diffraction,” which
was edited by Prof. R.C. Hansen, in 1981.
Moving to Norway, Dr. Rao
served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Trondheim. There he
learned efficient ways of applying research to practical utilization in areas
such as large radio-astronomy reflector antennas and meniscus-lens corrected
feeds. He also developed reflector and feed analysis software codes based on
geometrical theory of diffraction, and published six technical papers. His next
position was in North America, working as a research associate in the
Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
Canada. He performed advanced research on phase center analysis of reflector
antennas and low-sidelobe sandwich wire antennas, which was later used in
developing a commercial software package. He also mentored and guided graduate students
at the university.
From 1983 to 1996, Dr.
Rao was the staff scientist responsible for all antenna IRAD and antenna
products, proposals, and programs at Spar Aerospace Limited in
Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada. a key
achievement was modeling complex radiation pattern templates for satellite
payloads that were adopted in 1992 by the Comite
Consultatif International des Radio Communications (CCIR), a forerunner of the International
Telecommunication Union. These templates have become an international standard
in the design and manufacture of satellite antennas and for orbital planning of
satellites.
Dr. Rao led a
group of 20 engineers who developed antenna payloads for the International
Space Station, M-Sat (the world’s first mobile satellite), several commercial
satellites (Anik-E, InmarSat-2, ACeS, TeleCom-2, Brazilsat), and Advanced
Extremely High Frequency military satellites. In collaboration with
universities and industries, Dr. Rao managed and developed active array
technology in Canada and provided technical and management leadership for a
group of 50 engineers, technicians, and researchers. This multi-year,
multi-million-dollar contract resulted in successful software development and a
hardware demonstration on a Ka-band phased array system. He also developed engineering
guidelines for systematic design and analysis of satellite antenna payloads and components and was
responsible for state-of-the art antenna test facilities for both indoor and
outdoor ranges at Spar.
In 1996 Dr. Rao emigrated from Canada to the United States to work for Boeing Satellite Systems/Hughes Satellite Communications in El Segundo, Calif., as chief scientist and technical fellow for the antenna payload directorate. He was the chief payload architect for the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) proposal, which later became a $1.3 billion program for the U.S. Air Force. He also led the development of X-band phased array technology and