With his flowing hair and relaxed demeanor, Jake Singh might look like a musician at first glance, but you'll soon discover he’s also a talented engineer.
Singh uses his expertise as a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) engineer as a project manager developing technology employing our autonomous navigation product, the Jervis Autonomy Module (JAM).
Though his heart originally belonged to music—sparked by discovering his first Metallica CD at age four—one experience ignited his passion for engineering and space.
Singh at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering in Westwood, California.
Striking a Chord
It was clear to Singh’s parents that he was musically talented from a young age. Growing up in Northern Virginia, his early musical influences were Metallica and Guns N’ Roses.
“My interest in music was noticeable to my parents,” he said. “They were both very into music and got me an electric guitar for Christmas when I was seven.”
Singh is a natural musician with perfect pitch, the ability to correctly identify any note he hears. However, he didn’t get serious about music until middle school when he played guitar in a band named Old School.
Singh performing with Old School.
“We called ourselves Old School because we played classic rock songs like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and other stuff that our parents liked more than our classmates did,” he said. “I would play at these random county fairs and open mics at bars as a 13-year-old and it was pretty fun.”
However, in high school his focus shifted, but not yet to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
“I focused more on sports than music in high school,” he said. “I played hockey growing up and shifted to lacrosse in high school. I went to a small high school, and it wasn’t the strongest in STEM. There was no computer science, astronomy, or robotics club, for example. They had the basic math, science, writing, and humanities courses.”
Singh (left) playing lacrosse in high school.
However, Singh’s physics teacher would change everything, charting the path for his future.
Getting in Tune
“My favorite video game growing up was Ratchet and Clank, which includes a lot of sci-fi and space exploration. I was always interested in space but wasn’t really thinking about my future yet and how space could apply to my career.”
Singh’s mentorship from his physics teacher, an engineer by trade, during his junior year of high school would help him make the connection between engineering and space.
“She had her PhD in engineering and would help me with writing my college essays and recommendation letters,” he said. “She got me interested in the space industry and engineering within it.”
Based on her suggestion, he then took an online course offered by NASA. Upon completing the course, he attended a week-long space camp at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
“After that camp, I was hooked,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be an engineer.”
Singh attended the University of Virginia (UVA), where he received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He also completed an internship at the spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, supporting the OA-8 mission which solidified his desire to work in the industry.
Singh (far right) during his internship at Wallops Island, Virginia.
He stayed true to his musical roots throughout his time at UVA, playing in a band, Audissey, and creating a music video parody with classmates of Superstition by Stevie Wonder called “Superposition,” a term in control theory, for a final project in a controls class.
Singh (right) playing in Audissey during his time at UVA.
However, after graduation, he was itching to leave Virginia and have an adventure.
Bridge
Singh headed for the West Coast after landing a job in California working for the Aerospace Corporation as a software systems assurance engineer.
“I did mechanical engineering in college, but my first job was in software engineering, and I felt like I was still looking for my niche,” he said. “I was doing almost pure software development and after the first year I began thinking more about what I wanted to be doing technically.”
Realizing he wanted to do more aerospace engineering, he pursued a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles while working.
Singh graduating from UCLA.
“I always was fascinated by control theory from mechanical and aerospace engineering,” he said. “That ultimately led me to GNC engineering. It’s a broad field, but almost always involves modeling dynamic systems, estimating how those systems will perform over time, and designing mathematical laws and algorithms to control systems and achieve the behavior that you want.”
Singh also completed multiple studies during this time while working for the Aerospace Corporation, exploring applications for small satellites, robotics for on-orbit servicing and manufacturing, and mitigating contact-induced disturbances from a robotic arm when capturing a nearby object in space.
However, Singh’s next dream was to build new technology which led him to RSA.
Harmony
“I found myself modeling and simulating a lot of things that other people had designed and built, so I hadn’t really developed anything from ideation through a full lifecycle,” he said. “When I saw an opening at RSA I jumped at the opportunity to join a startup building optical navigation technology, which I think will become increasingly important to the future of space exploration and spacecraft GNC engineering.”
From left to right: Salma Benitez, aerospace engineer, RSA; Jake Singh, guidance navigation and control engineer, RSA; Kevin Hause, Chief of Strategy, RSA; and Chris Dinelli, mechanical engineer, RSA, visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array in the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico.
Singh found his rhythm at RSA.
“I’ve been exposed to so many new experiences here and I’m happy taking it all in and learning more of the business development side,” he said. “I knew from the first interview that this was the right fit for me and the amount of fun I have every day at work still surprises me. There’s an academic mindset on the team but it’s still a fast-paced, creative environment where we are actually building flight-ready technology.”
When asked about his future, Singh sees himself aiming for a leadership position with a technical focus, such as a program manager or managing a technical team.
For now, he is enjoying exploring California with his girlfriend Katie and pursuing his other passion, music. He has a music video and three albums of original music available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music and is working on a fourth.
Singh and his girlfriend Katie hiking Mount Baldy in Los Angeles.
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