Sehajpal Singh

Work Experience

1.  Teaching Assistantship (TA) for course GNR 649- Planetary Sciences: Earth and Beyond

·   Position: Teaching Assistant

·   Department/Institution: Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering, IIT Bombay

·   Duration: January 2023- May 2023 (Spring semester 2023); January 2024- May 2024 (Spring semester 2024); January 2025- May 2025 ( Spring semester 2025)

·   Description: I am responsible for guiding and helping master's students with assignments and exam evaluations. This semester, I will also be delivering lectures on Mars and Mars’ Polar Science.

2.  Teaching Assistantship (TA) for course GNR 899- Communication Skills

·         Position: Teaching Assistant

·         Department/Institution: Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering, IIT Bombay

·         Duration: August 2022- December 2022 (Autumn semester 2022); August 2023- December 2023 (Autumn semester 2023); August 2024- December 2024 (Autumn semester 2024)

·         Description: I am responsible for managing the class and ensuring relevant discussions, providing necessary feedback on students’ in-class performance, and giving suggestions so that students can improve their communication skills.

Mentorship

Guiding and helping undergraduate and post-graduate students with projects related to applications of geospatial technologies in the areas of cryosphere science and planetary science.

1. GNR 618- Remote Sensing and GIS Application To Cryosphere

Project: Snow Cover and Grain Size Mapping using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data

2. ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mapping Challenge at Inter-IIT Tech Meet 11.0 (February 2023, IIT Kanpur)

I participated and contributed to the ISRO problem statement: Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mapping Challenge, representing IIT Bombay as one of the mentors for the team. We guided undergraduate students in producing a high-resolution global map of the Moon using the remote sensing data of TMC-2 and OHRC sensors onboard Chandrayaan-2.

Training Workshops/Schools

1.   2024 GMAP Planetary Geologic Mapping Winter School 

Attended the winter school from 22 January to 26 January 2023. I learned about the importance of geologic mapping, utilizing planetary data for mapping, and geologic mapping of small celestial bodies like Ceres/Vesta and icy bodies (Ganymede, 67p comet). The school also focussed on reflectance spectroscopy, exploration of hyperspectral datasets, data and mapping procedures- radar and spectral data of Venus.

2. 2023 GMAP Planetary Geologic Mapping Winter School

Attended the winter school from 30 January to 3 February 2023. I learned about the importance of geologic mapping, utilizing planetary data for mapping, geologic mapping (Moon and Mars), impact cratering, and mapping with rovers.  The school helped me comprehend my knowledge of digital global mapping on the Moon, lunar geology, landing site characterization, rover traverses in various craters, geologic mapping of Apollo landing sites, etc. 

3. Overview of Planetary Geosciences with special emphasis on the Moon and Mars by IIRS-ISRO

Attended this course held between June 8, 2020, and June 12, 2020, and scored 40/50 in the examination. Learned about issues and challenges in Planetary Geoscience, the geology of the Moon and Mars, remote sensing of the Moon and Mars, planetary data handling, tutorial cum hands-on exercises on Lunar data analysis, and hyperspectral data processing.

Position of Responsibility (POR)

1. Member of OpenPlanetary Board of Directors (February 2024 onwards)

OpenPlanetary is a non-profit organisation helping planetary scientists and software developers to share, discuss and improve planetary data, tools, workflows and overall knowledge of our Solar System.

2. Overall Coordinator of Institute Research Scholar Companion Programme (IRSCP) at IIT Bombay (June 2023 -June 2024)

IRSCP is a programme for the PhD Community of IIT Bombay with the primary objective of catering to the needs of research scholars.  

3. Joint Secretary of Thapar Amateur Astronomers Society (TAAS) ( March 2017- July 2019)

TAAS is a students' club at Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, India, dedicated to the love of space and astronomy.

Education

PhD ( July 2021- Present)

Geoinformatics Engineering (Specialisation: Planetary Science), Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering (CSRE), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

CPI- 8.71

Thesis: Impact of CO2 and H2O ice/snow in the Martian Climate using Modeling and Data Analysis

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MTech ( July 2019- July 2021)

Remote Sensing and GIS, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), ISRO, Dehradun, India

CPI- 8.11

Thesis: Spatio-temporal dynamics of parts of North Polar Region and Detection of sub-surface water ice in Northern Mid-Latitudes of Mars 

B.E. (August 2014- July 2018)

Civil Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India

CPI- 7.55 (~75.5 %)

Project: Design and analysis of bridge superstructure