Skip to content
Portrait of Monish Lokhande

Monish Lokhande

Ph.D. Candidate · Aerospace Engineering
Purdue University

About Me

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University, working with Dr. Shaoshuai Mou in the AIMS Lab on generative models for planning and control — diffusion-based sampling and trajectory optimization for constrained robot planning and VLA decision-making — and on sampling-based control.

Since 2021 I have also been a teaching and research assistant in Dr. Steven Collicott’s Zero Gravity Flight Experiments Lab: my M.S. thesis payload flew twice aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard, I co-mentored a student payload that popped a popcorn kernel in simulated lunar gravity, and I have twice received Purdue’s Magoon Award for Excellence in Teaching. Before Purdue, I earned a B.Tech at IIT Goa and worked as a Design Intern at Addverb Technologies for warehouse automation.

News

  • Paper “Popcorn from Suborbital Spaceflight” (with Dr. Steven Collicott) published in Gravitational and Space Research.

  • The popcorn experiment I co-mentored in Purdue’s AAE 418 class popped popcorn in simulated lunar gravity aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-29 — to our knowledge, the first popcorn popped in spaceflight.

  • First-author paper “USB Triggering of Video Recording in Sub-orbital Experiments” (with Dr. Steven Collicott) published in Gravitational and Space Research.

  • The 2D Slosh experiment from my M.S. thesis flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-24 and recorded liquid slosh in weightlessness; I watched the launch from Blue Origin’s West Texas site.

  • Joined Dr. Shaoshuai Mou’s AIMS Lab as a Graduate Research Assistant.

Show more

  • Completed my M.S. at Purdue with the thesis “Two-Dimensional Suborbital Slosh Experiment.”

  • Joined Dr. Steven Collicott’s Zero Gravity Flight Experiments Lab at Purdue as a teaching and research assistant.

  • Graduated from IIT Goa with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering.

Publications

Full list on Google Scholar

Education

Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering

Expected May 2028

Purdue University · West Lafayette, IN

Advisor: Dr. Shaoshuai Mou

M.S., Aerospace Engineering

May 2023

Purdue University · West Lafayette, IN

Thesis: Two-Dimensional Suborbital Slosh Experiment (advisor: Dr. Steven Collicott)

B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering

May 2020

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa · Goa, India

Thesis: Renewable energy-driven water generation plant for coastal regions (advisor: Dr. Arindam Das)

Skills

Instrumentation & Data Acquisition
imaging, onboard DAQ pipelines, pressure/temperature sensing, P&ID design
Embedded Systems & Hardware
Arduino, Raspberry Pi, microcontroller programming, actuator control, sensor calibration
Data Analysis Tools
Python (NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib), MATLAB/Simulink, PyTorch, Lean
Mechanical & Structural Design
SolidWorks, cryogenic system design, load testing, thermal insulation
Software & Collaboration
Linux, Docker, Git, technical documentation, cross-disciplinary teamwork

Honors & Awards

  • Magoon Award for Excellence in Teaching
    College of Engineering, Purdue University · 2024, 2026
  • Outstanding Service Scholarship
    College of Engineering, Purdue University · 2025
  • Professional Grant
    Purdue Graduate Student Government · 2024
  • Outstanding Employee Recognition Award
    Purdue University
  • Best of Nation Diploma in Space Systems Engineering
    WorldSkills Russia · 2020

    Represented India at the BRICS WorldSkills competition in Space System Skill; best team from India, second overall.