Mizanul Chowdhury


Summary

Mr. Chowdhury joined the MIT Space Systems Laboratory in 2013 to assume the role of Architect and System Administrator for Zero Robotics. Zero Robotics is an international space robotics programming tournament for middle and high school students, in collaboration with the MIT Space Enabled Research Laboratory and the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory. Funding for the program comes from NASA, the Aerospace Corporation, and the ISS National Laboratory, with in-kind support from several industry partners. The final competition of the tournament takes place inside the ISS, using Astrobee satellites provided by NASA's Ames Research Center. Zero Robotics was under the MIT Space Systems Laboratory until 2019, where MIT SPHERES were used as the space robot. In 2020, it was transferred to the Space Enabled Research Group to facilitate NASA Astrobee research and platform development. Mr. Chowdhury designed and developed the online virtual platform to support research on SPHERES and NASA Astrobee. He is also responsible for providing technical support for the Zero Robotics project, which includes maintaining an online simulation environment, teaching, mentoring, and programming game programming.

He collaborated with MIT Media Lab/Berklee/MIT Connection Science Decentralized and Open Music (RAIDAR) project as a Chief Architect.  He developed a proof of concept of Decentralized Open Music platform and distributed music format, which combines DDEX and MARC standards.

He collaborated with NASA Astrobee team at MIT Engineering Systems Laboratory, Department of Aerospace and Astronautics as a Technical Expert and Administrator to provide technical support of Technology Roadmaps.

Mr. Chowdhury obtained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) the class of 1984.  After graduation, he worked for the Bangladesh Oil and Gas Corporation as an assistant drilling engineer for 3 years, and then he joined the Hydraulic Power Station under the Bangladesh Water Development Board.

In 1993, he completed his MS degree in Natural Gas Engineering from Texas A & M University. Mr. Chowdhury joined Nordstrom Valve, Inc. Texas as a Valve Design Engineer in 1994. Then he worked for several software companies as software architect and consultant. Prior to MIT, he served 10 years for Jericho Systems Corporation, a US Department of Defense contractor in the cybersecurity domain, with Top Security Clearance as Director of Security Software Product Development. Mr. Chowdhury worked for Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) as an Internet of Things (IOT) security technical fellow. He also worked for Cisco Systems as a Cloud Security expert and Technical Lead.

Keynote Speaker

2016 Graduation Ceremony, May 13, Texas A & M University 

2023 Central America Space Congress, University of Costa Rica 

Work Experience at MIT

Technical Expert and Administrator

Engineering Systems Laboratory, MIT

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT

Course: Technology Roadmap

Chief Technical Expert and System Administrator

Space Enabled Research Group, 

MIT Media Lab, MIT Space Systems Lab

Projects at MIT: 

  • Astrobee (NASA Space robot) research - Hardware, Software, and virtual environment design
  • SPHERES (MIT and NASA Space robot) - Virtual environment design
  • Zero Robotics (MIT) - Architect and System design, STEM Project
  • RAIDAR (Decentralized and Open Music) towards an Open and Scalable Music Metadata Layer (PDF)
  • MIT/Berklee Open Music and RAIDAR.
  • Blockchains and Crypto Music 

Academic Degrees

Honors and Awards

  • 2017 Received Special Recognition award from the MIT Space Systems Laboratory.
  • 2016 Engineering Achievement, American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects (AABEA)
  • 1993 Outstanding International Alumni, Texas A & M University 
  • 1884 Gold Medal, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Memberships

  • NASA Astrobee and SPHERES working group
  • APRSAF
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  • Society of Petroleum Engineers

Patents

  • Delivery of authentication information to a RESTful service using token validation scheme (US8745718 and US9300653)
  • Valve with rotatable valve member and method for forming the same. (US6260820 B1)

Specialization and Research Interests

  • Space Robotics, Astrobee, MIT SPHERES, Zero Robotics
  • Cloud Security, Blockchain, Machine Learning.
  • Identity and Access Management using OAuth, OpenID, OpenID Connect and SAML
  • MUSIC standard DDEX, MARC
  • As molded injection molding gas pipeline valve
  • Polymer gel for fractured Oil Reservoir in high temperature and pressure

Teaching Interests

  • Robotics, ROS, STEM education using Space Robot
  • Cloud Security and Identity and Access Management
  • Programming in Java, C, C++, C#, Python, NodeJS, Go, etc.
  • Internet of Things, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, VR and AR
Lab/Research Group Affiliation
  • Space Systems Laboratory
  • MIT Connection Science
  • MIT Media Lab
  • Berklee School of Music