Rajveer Singh
For Rajveer Singh, an interest in Aerospace Engineering began well before he had the opportunity to work on an aircraft-based research project. A Mechanical Engineering graduate from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, he wanted to explore subjects beyond his regular syllabus. Today, as a Pre-doc Research Fellow at IIT Palakkad, Kerala, he works on lightweight internal combustion engines for unmanned aerial vehicles. Connecting his early curiosity with his current research is a learning journey that took shape through NPTEL.
Rajveer first heard about the platform through his college’s NPTEL-SWAYAM Local Chapter. Until then, learning outside the classroom had largely meant searching for YouTube lectures and reading books. These resources helped, but finding a structured way to study a new subject was not always easy. In his second year of college, he enrolled in ‘Introduction to Aerospace Engineering’, taught by Prof. Rajkumar Pant from IIT Bombay. He chose it simply because he wanted to understand a field that had interested him for a long time.
That first course gave him a reason to keep exploring. Rajveer remembers beginning with excitement rather than uncertainty: here was an opportunity to learn concepts that were not part of his everyday college curriculum. He worked out the registration process and navigated the platform on his own. NPTEL became more closely tied to his academic pursuits when he enrolled in an Honours degree in Aerospace Engineering, allowing him to use the courses towards his college’s credit-transfer requirements.
Over time, one course led to another. Rajveer has taken around 15 NPTEL courses and earned certificates for 11. For some, he chose not to apply for certification because learning the subject was enough. His approach was less about collecting certificates and more about finding the next topic he wanted to understand. Aerospace Engineering remained at the centre of that exploration, giving him a way to go deeper into an interest his Mechanical Engineering curriculum could only partly accommodate.
Some courses stayed with him more than others. ‘Lighter-than-Air Systems’, ‘Aircraft Stability and Control’, and more recently, ‘UAV Design’ helped him connect theoretical concepts with their application in aerospace systems. They changed not just what he knew, but how he approached the subject.
Moving from introductory lessons to the mathematical concepts and derivations in UAV Design also helped him recognise his own progress as a learner.
Subjects that once required a basic introduction were now areas he felt more confident exploring in depth.
A particularly meaningful milestone was receiving the NPTEL Discipline Star recognition in Aerospace Engineering. For Rajveer, it brought both a sense of accomplishment and encouragement to continue. It also had a concrete outcome:
he credits the recognition with opening up the opportunity to work as a Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow at IIT Palakkad.
His certifications had helped him stand out during college placement interviews as well, giving him something beyond his regular coursework to discuss.
Looking back, Rajveer describes a gradual progression from fundamentals to more advanced ideas. NPTEL has influenced his interest in higher studies and encouraged him to explore research opportunities in aerospace engineering. What started with a flight course taken out of curiosity has become a sustained direction for his learning. Today, working on engines for UAV applications, he is exploring that interest through research as well as coursework.
~written by Khadija Hussain
