I’m an Aerospace Engineer working on autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Toronto, Canada. My expertise lies in robotics and spacecraft engineering, particularly in estimation/control, GNC design and astrodynamics.

I completed both my BASc and MASc from the University of Toronto by way of the National Scholarship and Engineering Science programs. Rather than follow a traditional academic path, for over 10 years I pioneered Earth Observation missions on small-satellite platforms at the Space Flight Laboratory, and made original contributions to Canada’s space sector, leading to over $50 million in revenue generating mission contracts. I chose and was privileged to work with mentors who themselves engineered Canadarm2 and were trained by the architects of the Apollo moon missions. I’ve had the opportunity to negotiate contracts and engineer a variety of spacecraft missions. My GNC designs are proven and provide the foundation for numerous spacecraft built by/for Canada (DRDC, Kepler, GHGSat) and its international partners (HawkEye360). I have additionally made contributions towards NASA/ESA interplanetary missions (to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan), helped publish books on space telescopes and competed as one of the top 72 finalists in CSA’s 2017 Call for Astronauts.

Having run the spacecraft engineering gamut, I am currently a member of the Prediction engineering team at Oxa working to make AVs an everyday reality. My work is focused on the combination of classical robotics, production-level software engineering and machine learning. I remain invested in the Space industry and in my spare time lead a team which provides proven spacecraft GNC services in the aerospace community. In Toronto, I am regularly involved in outreach activities which sit at the intersection of modern engineering, the advancement of careers in STEM, exploration and upward mobility for under-represented groups.

I can be reached directly at najmus@astrisaerospace.com