Pugazhenthi Sivasankar, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering, received the Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the College of Graduate Studies for Summer 2025. The award includes a $5,000 stipend, as well as tuition assistance.
Designed to support students in their last semester of their doctorate, the fellowship allows students to prioritize their research and help alleviate the financial demands of completing a graduate degree. Sivasankar, a member of Associate Professor Tarek Elgohary’s Astrodynamics and Space Robotics Lab (ASRL), was awarded for his work, tentatively titled “Accurate and Efficient Orbit Probability Approximation for Astrodynamics Space Situational Awareness.”
His dissertation centers on space debris error propagation, which can help in collision avoidance, inspired by a theory known as the Kessler Syndrome. This outlook is based on a theory by a NASA scientist, Donald Kessler, who surmised in 1978 that the number of satellites and space debris in low Earth orbit would steadily increase, eventually causing a series of collisions.
The Kessler Syndrome led Sivasankar to explore ways to forecast the location of various items in low orbit. He explains that his research focuses on applying classical and machine-learning algorithms to predict the margin of error in dynamical systems, which include satellites.
“One possible real-world application of my research is to help in the tracking of non-cooperative space assets,” he says. “In the future, it can also be used in the process of space debris removal.”
In addition to this fellowship, Sivasankar has an impressive list of accolades, all earned while working toward his doctorate. He was honored with a third-place Best Student Award at the 2022 International Conference on Space Situational Awareness, named a Frontier Development Lab researcher in 2023 and 2024, won the Best Paper Award at the 2024 Dynamic Data Drive Applications Systems Conference, earned a 2024-2025 Chateaubriand Research Fellowship and most recently, was awarded a UCF Graduate Presentation Fellowship.
Once he earns his doctoral degree at the end of this summer, Sivasankar will serve as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University.
“Beyond that, I aspire to work in the space industry or with national labs,” he says. “Much of my Ph.D. research has been sponsored by Lockheed Martin, and so I hope to work for Lockheed Martin in the future.”
Sivasankar says he’s very much appreciative of the support he has received while working toward his doctorate. His recalls that his arrival at UCF was especially challenging, given that he started at the university during COVID, and that his experience was positively impacted by UCF Student Accessibility Services (SAS).
“Despite my very delayed arrival due to COVID, my advisor, Tarek Elgohary, has been a tremendous support in my journey at UCF,” he says. “In addition, as someone with autism, I immensely benefitted from SAS, and this made me advocate for the empowerment of students with disabilities. The administrative, teaching and student community of UCF have been a solid support in my endeavors.”
Although he’ll be moving on from UCF in a few months, Sivasankar will carry a lifetime of memories as a proud Knight.
“Besides working with Dr. Elgohary and my friendly colleagues, especially Hunter [Quebedeaux] in ASRL, I enjoyed swimming, interacting with differently abled students at Counseling and Psychological Services, and visiting the UCF Art Gallery,” he says. “I was even fortunate to facilitate a few meditation sessions for UCF students and faculty, which I consider to be memorable.”
He looks back on his academic career at UCF with gratitude and will leave with valuable lessons he learned as a researcher.
“I felt immensely grateful when I was hired as a graduate research assistant and subsequently as a graduate teaching assistant,” he says. “Both positions opened doors to several learning opportunities, including presenting at conferences and receiving awards, grading and mentoring students, and experiences beyond UCF. I presented twice at the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence Institute in California, and once as a Chateaubriand Research Fellow in France. The most important quality that enhanced my Ph.D. journey is patience. I am gradually mastering the art of playing the long game.”
- Written by Bel Huston