• Work Experience
  • March 2020 - Present

    Science Applications International Corporation

    Location: Houston, TX

    Systems Safety Engineer

    Contractor in support of NASA's Safety and Mission Assurance Government Furnished Equipment division providing safety analysis of software for various NASA missions, including static analysis of software, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. Hazard Analysis, design safety reviews.

  • January 2008 - March 2020

    Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment

    Location: Lafayette, LA

    Program Manager June 2017 - Current

    Oversees the CAPE Program's projects, and business activities, and developed organization charter and structure for organization .

    ESG-Grid Project Manager & Software Developer January 2014 - Current

    Developing smartphone controlled mobile Ground Station network to communicate with cubesats in orbit.

    CrawSat VI Software Developer November 2017 - March 2018

    Developed software for the CrawSat VI High Altitude Weather Balloon Project to gather sensor data and transmit to a ground station via radio.

    CAPE-2 Assistant Project Manager & Software Developer June 2011 - November 2013

    Developed Ground Station software to communicate with the CAPE-2 Satellite in orbit, and Integration Manager providing spacecraft updates and documentation to NASA and Launch Provider.

    CrawSat III Project Manager Feburary 2008 - January 2010

    Managed team and wrote software for CrawSat III Weather Balloon Project.

  • September 2016 - December 2019

    Informatics Research Institute at University of Louisiana at Lafayette

    Location: Lafayette, LA

    Research Assistant

    Developing Cyber Securty Assessment of Electric Vehicles, Charging Stations, and Building Energy Management Systems for the Informatics Research Institute and Idaho National Laboratory and United States of America Department of Energy.

  • May 2018 - July 2018

    Idaho National Laboratory

    Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho

    Software / Reverse Engineering Intern in Cyber Security Research and Development Department

    Investigated Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructures Security for DC Fast Charging and Wireless Inductive Charging, specifically standards for IEEE 802.11p and SAE J2735 (Dedicated Short Range Communications Dictionary Message Set). Implemented an IEEE 802.11p Packet Sniffer and Transmitter using GnuRadio and a HackRF software defined radio. Additionally implemented a charging station power switch using a Velocio Programmable Logic Controller.

  • September 2013 - April 2016

    Andy-X

    Location: Lafayette, LA

    Project Manager

    Worked on Research and Development of Robotic Swarm Utilizing Android Smart Phones as Undergraduate Research Assistant.

  • June 2015 - December 2015

    Techneaux Technology Services

    Location: Lafayette, LA

    Student Project Manager

    Managed a student project to develop a Help Desk Ticketing System Mobile Application for Android and iOS platforms, and was lead Android developer

    Software Developer Intern

    Maintained and developed company application, responsible for managing employee work logs, company invoicing, service ticketing, and various other features using .Net and LightSwitch.

  • June 2011 - July 2014

    UL Lafayette Upward Bound Summer Enrichment Program

    Instructor

    Taught web-development summer classes to high-school upperclassmen each summer.

  • Education & Certifications
  • December 2019

    Masters Degree

    University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, LA

    Masters of Science, Computer Science

    Thesis: Improving Vehicle to Infrastructure Security Through Trusted Authentication: Application to Electric Vehicles

  • May 2016

    Bachelors Degree

    University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, LA

    Bachelor of Science, Computer Science Minor in Psychology, May 2016

  • June 2009 - June 2029

    Amateur Radio License

    Federal Communication Commission Issued License: KF5BNL

  • Publications
  • Cyber-physical System Security of Vehicle Charging Stations

    R. Gottumukkala, R. Merchant, A. Tauzin, K. Leon, A. Roche and P. Darby, "Cyber-physical System Security of Vehicle Charging Stations," 2019 IEEE Green Technologies Conference(GreenTech), Lafayette, LA, USA, 2019, pp. 1-5.

  • Honors and Awards
  • National Society of Leadership and Success Membership

    Inducted in November 2018 by the National Society of Leadership and Success, UL Lafayette Chapter

  • Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society Membership

    Inducted in April 2018 by the Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society, UL Lafayette Chapter

  • Louisiana Clean Fuel Leader Award: Most Innovative Project of the Year 2017

    Awarded to the Diagnostic Security Module Team at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Association with the Informatics Research Institute and the Idaho National Laboratory.

  • IEEE Region 5 Student Paper East Area Contest 2015

    2nd Place for research paper entitled "Android Smartphone-based Robotic Swarm Technology" to IEEE Region 5 East Area Student Paper Contest.

  • Portfolio
  • Contact
  • Email

    me@rizwanmerchant.com


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