Contributing to the definition and evolution of hardware durability practices within a mature product organization, shaping standards and mentoring engineers to advance the next phase of reliability and innovation in an evolving global landscape.

Took a detour from launching products on the roadmap to exploring and creating new, ambitious innovations.

Had the privilege of contributing to Apple’s transition of MacBooks to Apple Silicon, housed in a newly architected enclosure design.- The first milestone in this journey was leading the Reliability team to help bring the inaugural M1 14" and 16" MacBook Pros to market in 2021.This role required:- A technical deep dive to understand the intricacies of the new design and how different usage cases could expose vulnerabilities.- Conducting supplemental research (both in-house and with external consulting firms) to set well researched test specifications.- Leading extensive FMEAs on adhesives, subsystems, and at the system level to ensure that the right design questions were addressed early, enabling impactful changes before it was too late.Additionally, I gained experience leading a team of engineers within my function and, at times, across divisions. This included presenting a nuanced understanding of complex issues to Leadership, prioritizing focus areas, and driving collaborative solutions to ensure success of this groundbreaking product line. - Following this, I turned my focus to the iconic 13" MacBook Air, integrating the best practices and lessons learned in the prior years. My role shifted to focus primarily on display integration, offering new learning opportunities, including:- Navigating a steep learning curve to master failure modes of display technologies and the product design fundamentals for this critical subsystem.- Taking on more challenging cross-disciplinary design decisions and leading efforts to make fundamental changes to the product definition by quantitatively communicating the customer benefits of a more robust design envelope to align the team and converge on improved solutions.Ultimately, this journey culminated with the launch of the 15" MacBook Air, where the challenges were unique and particularly challenging from a durability perspective as we sought to bring to market the thinnest 15" laptop to our customers.

1. Collaborative Problem Solving:Partnered with Product Designers across various functions to integrate durability into the design of new MacBooks.Led impactful discussions with stakeholders, advocating for critical design changes to address issues and prioritize customer satisfaction. This very unique process of engagement at Apple continues to hone my stakeholder empathy, assertiveness, and my ability to navigate complex challenges effectively.2. Vendor & Program Management Expertise:Collaborated with Apple’s Contract Manufacturers internationally to execute Reliability evaluations, ensuring design robustness throughout the New Product Introduction (NPI) phase.Coordinated cross-functional teams to drive failure analysis and validate fixes, enhancing product performance and reliability.3. Data-Driven Insights & Executive Communication:Utilized statistical analysis and data vaisualization tools like JMP, Tableau, and other Reliability Engineering software packages (Weibull++, ALTA) to present actionable insights at the executive level on a regular cadence.Delivered weekly updates that facilitated issue resolution and kept the product development timeline on track.4. Driving Design Improvements through Field Analysis and FMEA:Conducted in-depth analysis of top field issues to guide hardware architectural changes, ensuring improved product performance in new generation of notebooks.Facilitated cross-disciplinary FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) sessions to identify potential risks and enable robust design changes early in the product definition phase.

- Guide students understand the fundamentals of Materials Science with an emphasis on energy materials.- Coordinate course logistics and supplement teaching by prof. Nick Melosh.

- Developed a novel experimental technique to study degradation mechanisms inside Li-ion battery cells which was successfully adopted into the suite of initial screenings for choosing new cell designs and chemistries.- Built coin and Hohsen cells to study Li-ion kinetics and thereby improve cell modeling.- Initiated development of a comprehensive model to investigate electrolytic decomposition responsible for cell failure.

- Taught students how to develop effective public speaking and presentation skills.-Helped students achieve the following by holding tutorials, lectures , and speech exercises: Develop a polished, personalised delivery style. Adapt delivery skills to different materials and audiences. Explain complex or technical material to a less specialised audience. Present material through visual and verbal means.

Worked on two projects at the NPI lab trying to make processes on the production floor more efficient and technologically resilient. - Formulated process parameters for the deposition of seal material, responsible for maintaining mechanical integrity of fuel-cell / interconnect unit.- The new set of process parameters led to improved performance and reduced maintenance costs of Bloom Energy fuel cell boxes on site by eliminating mechanical failure in fuel cell films.- Developed a DOE for the anode ink deposition process through results obtained from controlled experiments.- The DOE recommendations led to increased manufacturability on the production floor by 10%.

Continued the group's effort in understanding novel ways to replace conventional p-n junction in a solar cell with a junctionless design using Metal Interlayer Semiconductor structure.- Developed and Characterised the deposition of NiO film on Si using Atomic Layer Deposition technique.- Investigated the effect of surface passivation caused by fluorine treatment at the NiO/Si interface.- Research results were further used by the group in advancing wide band-gap materials as carrier selective contacts for applications in novel junctionless solar cells.

My research revolved around the electrochemical characterization of thin film battery electrodes under the purview of All-solid-state batteries.- Produced thin films of Lithium Iron Phosphate & Silicon on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) glass by ion beam sputter deposition technique.- Performed Cyclic Voltammetry, Chronopotentiometry, and Impedance spectroscopy on 3 electrode Li-ion cells.- Calibrated a tubular furnace for use in crystallization of amorphous Lithium Iron Phosphate films.- Demonstrated the deterring effect of ITO on the charging capacity of anode materials. Research led to discarding of ITO current collector for anode materials in all future endeavors of the group.

The project involved complimenting work in a pilot plant on a university patented machine for comminution of rocks with research and subsequent analysis.- Developed a practical measure of the minimum energy required to break rocks, through progressive breakage with accurate measures of energy input.- Modeled the size and energy relationship in comminution.- Concluded that smaller particles with the same t10 as larger particles generate more coarse product at higher energies than their larger counterparts at lower energies.- Demonstrated that particle size plays a significant role in the rock breakage mechanism.

The research project studied the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V (Ti-6-4).- Carried out annealing of vacuum sealed Ti-6-4 samples followed by three cooling regimes.- Performed quantitative metallography and sample characterization using SEM, TEM, XRD to study effect of heat treatment on microstructure evolution.- Studied the dependence of mechanical properties on cooling rate and also of the hardness on the orientation of crystallites in each sample by performing Nano-indentation followed by EBSD analysis.- Concluded that surface oxidation has no effect on bulk properties of Ti-6-4.

EduInfo is a web-based information platform that acquaints students with scholarships, internships and competitions both in India and internationally.- Led a team of 20 students to start with in its marketing campaign. The website now has increasing traffic from more than 100 universities of the country.- Shared internship experiences with students and professionals alike to aggrandize their chances of nailing the application procedure.