Dr. Gopal is responsible for resilient/protected communications, LEO, HTS, AI/ML and cyber-related programs within Hughes DISD. He was involved in the design of the OneWeb LEO broadband system that completed its first two-way data transfer in 2019 summer. He earlier served as Network System Engineering lead for Transformational Satellite (TSAT) space segment and was on the SPACEWAY® 3 (with onboard Layer 2 packet processing) architecture and Mobile Satellite systems (Thuraya, ICO, LEO Teledesic), development teams. He was the chief architect and software manager for the SPACEWAY, a $1.8B development, Network Operations Control Center (NOCC).
Dr. Gopal serves on the editorial board of Wiley’s International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking (IJSCN) and is a member of IEEE 5G World Forum and AIAA ICSSC technical program committees. As a member of the US President’s NSTAC Satellite Task Force 2009, he co-authored the report on commercial satellite communications and cybersecurity.
He received a BE (Hons.) in Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, India and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University; has published more than 40 technical papers on topics ranging from satellites, software, AI, machine learning, network management, and life science applications; and holds 8 patents on satellite systems.