Assam's Priyanka Das, working on satellite navigation for French major Safran, has been appointed as an ambassador for an initiative in France to encourage girls to follow scientific careers and take it to higher education levels.
"For Girls and Science" initiative was launched in 2014 to promote more scientific vocations among young people, especially girls.
As part of the programme, they meet middle school and high school students and through talks and presentations the effort is to clear the misconceptions about scientists and women in science.
Priyanka has her roots in Assam and is pursuing her PhD and working in R&D with a team of experts in the Navigation Systems division of Safran, the same team that designs the engine and parts of the Rafale fighter plane.
Priyanka is working on strengthening the 'positioning' technology and believes it can have various applications, including self-localisation for self-driving cars .
Priyanka's father Manoj Das is DGM (Advisory & Consultancy) in North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) and mother is a senior medical officer in Delhi, received her degree at France's Ecole Polytechnique on June 1.
