Research Engineering

The Kavli Institute employs a number of both full- and part-time engineers and technical specialists to design, develop, and deploy our ground- and space-based scientific instruments.

The office of the Head of Engineering is responsible for the coordination of engineering and technical support across these projects, in addition to inter-DLCI technical collaboration. The Head of Engineering is also responsible for management of the MKI IT team.

Expertise includes, but is not limited to, the following disciplines:

• Mechanical and Optomechanical Engineering for aerospace applications, including:
  • Exotic material and composite structures
  • Thermal control systems design and analysis
  • Optical system and associated support structure design
  • Deformation, tolerance, shock, and modal analysis
  • Structural-Thermal-Optical-Performance (STOP) analysis
• Electrical Engineering, including:
  • Low-noise analog and digital systems design
  • CCD and CMOS detector characterization and operation
  • Power systems design
  • Data acquisition and processing systems
• Software Engineering, including:
  • High-performance computation and data handling
  • High-performance database design and implementation
  • Spaceflight operations software development
  • Ground operations software for instrument monitoring and management
  • Multi-purpose research software development
• Systems Engineering for complex scientific instruments
• Program management through design, development, deployment, and operation of large-observatory ground-based instruments, sounding rockets, and spaceflight platforms
• Operation specialists for space and ground instrument monitoring and data generation, handling, and dissemination
• Specialty technicians for assembly, handling, and operation of sensitive scientific instruments and laboratory management