France Appoints Assam's Priyanka Das As Science Ambassador

Assam's Priyanka Das, working on satellite navigation for French major Safran, is now the ambassador for 'For Girls and Science' initiative in France.

France appointed 26-year-old Das for the initiative meant to encourage girls to follow scientific careers.

For Girls and Science

The initiative, launched in 2014, aims to promote scientific purpose among the youth, particularly girls. Ministry of National Education of France and the L’Oreal Foundation support the initiative

"As part of the programme, we meet middle school and high school students, and through talks and presentations, we try to clear the misconceptions about scientists and women in science," Priyanka told PTI.

The initiative, which is linked to the L'Oreal Women in Science programme, awards five women scientists each year in collaboration with UNESCO. Das is pursuing her PhD and working in R&D with a team of experts in the Navigation Systems division of Safran.

Safran is a French multinational aircraft engine, rocket engine, aerospace-component and defence company.

Das is working on a very specific matter on how to make positioning more robust and precise. "This can have applications as one of the many sensor information used by autonomous systems like a self-driving car for self-localisation," she elaborated.

Representation on a global platform

Das got the chance to visit Safran when she was a first year student of Polytechnic. ISAE Supaero, an aerospace engineering school in the south of France, organised the visit. Das always dreamt of working there one day.

She was selected for masters in Aerospace Engineering at Supaero, during her third year in college. Das also got chosen for a PhD financed by Safran, with collaboration of the SCAN lab at ISAE Supaero. The title of her PhD is "Robust and Precise Navigation using Tightly-coupled Hybridization of Inertial and GNSS Phase Measurements".