Amogh Chowdiah

Amogh Chowdiah came to Arizona State University for the opportunity to grow through technical work.

As a first-year student with little experience in computer-aided design or advanced math, he found those opportunities in aerospace engineering, a field that matched his longtime interest in planes and commercial aviation.

“People think it’s very challenging, and while this is true, I have come to enjoy the technical processes behind deriving equations and performing structural simulations,” Chowdiah says. “It’s about accepting and embracing the difficulty and taking on the challenges of gaining an understanding of the intricacies of how things work.”

One defining moment came when his Next Level Devils team was selected to participate in NASA’s Micro-g NExT Student Challenge.

“This required me to do advanced technical work but also provided recognition from an organization I would like to one day work in,” he says.

Chowdiah also credits Amy Trowbridge, a teaching professor in the Fulton Schools of Engineering Academic and Student Affairs, and the Grand Challenges Scholars Program with helping him understand the value of interdisciplinary knowledge in STEM.

“She and the Grand Challenge Scholars program helped to show me the importance of interdisciplinary knowledge in STEM fields and using that information to help advance academic and career goals,” he says.

Outside the classroom, Chowdiah served as a student success advisor for ASU’s L’SPACE program, which teaches students nationwide how to create NASA-style preliminary design reviews, a key part of developing and presenting space mission concepts.

He also contributed to research involving a nitinol-actuated antenna for CubeSats. Funded by the Grand Challenges Scholars Program research stipend, the project tested his computer-aided design and electrical engineering skills as he helped develop an antenna that could be deployed and configured using only a 5-volt power supply.

Chowdiah, who received a New American University Scholarship, says his experience at ASU taught him to approach challenging coursework with confidence.

“It’s okay to find coursework challenging,” he says. “As long as you love learning about the material, you will be fine.”

After graduation, Chowdiah will pursue a master’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Long term, he hopes to work in research and development at an institution like NASA, especially on Artemis missions, stress-testing and structural simulations.

“I hope to develop scientific tools and instrumentation to further explore space,” he says, “including making such science accessible for more people.”

Favorites

Hobby: Planespotting
Game: Delta Rune
Last book read: Dune Part 1, the graphic novel
TV show: The Office
Geeky possession: 2-by-2-foot atlas of the world

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ spring 2026 class.

Written by Joe Kullman