The field of Aerospace Engineering is always pushing the boundaries through innovative solutions that focus on optimizing designs for weight, performance, and safety.
Gaurav Dubey, our next pathbreaker, Advanced Lead Engineer at GE Aerospace, investigates engine parts, both metals and composites, to assess any damages before they are deemed as fit to fly.
Gaurav talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about his master’s thesis at IIST Trivandrum where he worked on characterizing sound waves that can be used to help detect pneumonia in early stages.
For students, keep your roots strong, play, but give time to your career as well. You may not get what you desire in the first attempt, and you might fail, but keep at it, be strong-willed, and you will achieve what you desire
Gaurav, what were your early years like?
I grew up in a small village located in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh in a joint family where I did my primary education until 5th standard in a Hindi medium school. I loved to play cricket each and every day, and used to love riding bicycles. My mother used to always sit with me for my homework along with a lantern as the electricity in the 90s was just for a couple of hours. I somehow got fascinated with the idea of studying in an Army school, I did not get admission to it as it requires a parent in the army and my father was a farmer and used to sell clothes and my mother is a housewife. Growing up in a village you don’t have a lot of extra-curriculars. My initial interest was to become a pilot or open up a kirana store, ironic right? But, I used to collect all the boxes of the products which my family used to get and used to set up my shop in one room :D. So, coming back to schooling, my father got the admission form for 6th standard in the Air Force school which was in Gorakhpur city, around 70 kms from my village house. The entrance exam was in English, at that point I did not even know that Vrit (वतृ )् was called circle in English. I cracked the entrance exam and was called in for admission. My father agreed to admit me in the school but my mother along with my sister had to shift to a rented room in Gorakhpur for my schooling, while my father stayed back and used to earn and send money for my education. In the Air Force school, I used to see officers and even went to an air show which was held in Gorakhpur Air Force station where the Suryakiran team did amazing stunts which completely blew me away. I was genuinely motivated to become a pilot, but my eyesight grew weak and after I completed my 10+2, I dropped the idea of becoming a pilot and grew my interest in coding.
What did you study?
I was very much convinced with the idea of becoming a computer engineer, but thanks to the influence of one of my uncles (who was an engineer working in Bharat Electronics), I decided to go for mechanical engineering as it was a core field. I took a drop year post 12th to prepare for JEE but could not crack it. So, I went to study Mechanical Engineering from a private college in Ghaziabad where I completely lost interest in engineering as the education standard was poor. But my friends who were going for GATE coaching , convinced me to take the coaching to at least get a feel for Mechanical Engineering. I took admission in my BTech 3rd year and was blown away with the knowledge of teachers and that got me super motivated to pursue mechanical engineering. I studied really hard and prepared for the GATE exam. I was 100% focused, and gave my everything for 4 months of final self-preparation. I cleared the GATE of 2015 which was my final year of BTech and scored 68 or 69 marks which was ~99 percentile in my first attempt. I started applying for PSUs as I wanted to support my family but at the same time I got to know you get stipend for pursuing masters as well. I applied for M.tech in IITs, NITs. During my GATE preparations I really liked subjects like theory of machines, machine design. Because I wanted to get into structural design, I only applied to branches like applied mechanics, machine design, aerospace (getting back to part of my childhood Pilot dreams) for my masters. I went to interviews and got admission offers from NIT Warangal and IIST, Trivandrum.
I went on to complete my Masters in IIST in Structures and Design Engineering.
I loved the fields of aerospace structures and design engineering, which exposed me to whole new aspects of aircrafts and launch vehicles. Subjects which got my attention were structural vibrations, acoustics, composite mechanics, and finite element methods. I got a lot of exposure to sports at IIST as well as for my career through great guidance from my guide. I did my thesis in porous media acoustics using finite elements. I was looking into how acoustic waves propagate into porous (foam-like) materials. I was trying to characterize that sound waves can be used to help detect pneumonia in early stages. This was very interesting because sound waves are highly sensitive to changes in density of material. And in pneumonia, lungs get filled with fluid, and lung being a porous medium, its density changes when pneumonia starts to develop. So I developed codes to study the same and used commercially available codes like ANSYS to study this behaviour of acoustic waves in porous medium.
How did you end up in an offbeat and unconventional career in core mechanical engineering?
It was never a plan to end up where I am right now, but many decisions that I took, from deciding to prepare for GATE, to subjects that I liked in my M.tech, and my thesis guide’s direction on which roles I should look for based on my interests, set me on this career path. Going through this journey helped me realise what I wanted from my career.
My friends in B.tech who convinced me to know more about mechanical engineering.
My parents who let me be free in choosing whatever I wanted and always supported my decisions of going anywhere and studying what I liked. My closest friend who asked not to give up when it got tough and overwhelming in Masters.
My Master’s Guide Praveen Krishna IR and my professors in composite and finite element analysis. And my life partner, who I met post my masters, always pushed me, kept me motivated, and believed in me that I will end up where I desire to be.
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path.
After graduating from my master’s, I applied to companies related to the roles that I liked. I always wanted to work on mechanical design involving simulations. I got my first opportunity in a simulation support role related to using ANSYS software involving mechanical designs. I visited several DRDO labs working on mechanical design of missiles.
I got a lot of exposure in simulation and did a lot of training on mechanical simulations. But I was interested in mechanical design of composite materials. So I switched to a role at Siemens Gamesa which involved making wind turbine blades from materials called glass fibers. These are very lightweight compared to metals (iron, aluminium, steel, titanium, etc.). I worked extensively to assess the safety of these blades for different levels of power production in sea and on land. I also created mechanical reports for their certification. And from there on, I finally ended up working at GE Aerospace on aircraft engines where I am currently responsible for making sure that various parts of the engines keep working safely by assessing their designs and requirements through finite element methods. I apply the subjects that I learned in my BTech and MTech studies. I love my current role.
It was during my masters that I was intrigued by extreme structures and what goes into making them sustain such loads. And simulation was another aspect which got me fascinated about modeling structures and seeing how they behave.
How did you get your first break?
The first break was the toughest. I sent my resume to some ANSYS officials who visited the campus but also applied across various industries for PGET roles. I got a call from one of ANSYS channel partner companies. It was a startup called Entuple Technologies. I got interviewed and selected.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
● Challenge 1: getting out of the FEA-focused world or, to say, service-based job roles. I worked on some advanced projects on FE analysis which were based on composite materials, which helped me get noticed, for interviews, I kept to basics like free body diagrams, simple beam and plate analysis, which helped me crack the interviews.
● Challenge 2: switching from the Energy sector to the Aerospace sector.
Having an Aerospace degree helped me land the current role, but problem-solving skills and foundational understanding of how a structure with a hole or thermal load or with stress concentration features behaves and its stress response helped me get this job. So I upskilled from a purely simulation (FEA)-based role to acquiring skills to assess field damages in the energy sector, addressing them, writing re-certification reports, and now the aerospace sector.
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
I work at GE Aerospace as an Advanced Lead engineer. I help keep flying safe by assessing any damages to aircraft engines and making decisions if the engine part is good enough to fly.
What skills are needed for your role? How did you acquire the skills?
It needs basic mechanical problem-solving skills, like how a part is loaded and how it is supposed to behave. It needs fatigue, vibration, strength, and material understanding as well as simulation experience. For aquiring skills I got the basics in masters, and the sub sequent job roles helped me with how to do a industry level analysis, how a part is made what are the tools and hand calculations and approximations can be made to assess a part’s design.
What’s a typical day like?
On a typical day, I get to assess engine parts for which I am responsible. I work on different types of metal and composite parts. I read a lot from design basis documents, certification reports, handbooks, and past design studies. I use these to form my basis for design assessment and approve the part for repair and then put it on the engine. I talk to technical experts, collaborate with team members, and learn new things.
What is it you love about this job?
The level of detail, amount of knowledge, and quick problem solving that you need is something that you don’t get in any other industry. Plus, in this industry, your entire lifetime is not enough to know all the parts that go into an engine and how important each part is, even a small washer. So the amount of learning is immense and is never-ending. And there are always great seniors and technical experts to guide and help you out.
How does your work benefit society?
Jet engines are key in helping people move faster and safer by connecting worlds and making things reach faster across continents. It may not be perceived as one of the safest modes of transport available today, but the fact is it is the safest of all transportation modes.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
Sometimes we have aircraft planned for departure, and the inspectors see some damage which needs review with the design team. The responsibility is huge, plus you have to reply back with all your assessment to say if the aircraft can depart or not within a couple of minutes. This gives me goosebumps and makes me love the challenge, technical expertise needed, and quick thinking to come up with solutions.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
Keep your roots strong, play, but give time to your career as well. You may not get what you desire in the first attempt, and you might fail, but keep at it, be strong-willed, and you will achieve what you desire.
Future Plans?
I plan to develop myself into a composite structures expert in the Aerospace domain specifically in Jet engines.