Co-Founder & Lead Developer, Openskies Aerial Technology | OpenUTM
Dr. Hrishikesh Ballal is the Founder and Managing Director of Openskies Aerial Technology Pvt. Ltd. He has extensive experience developing technologies, protocols, and interfaces in the context of secure drone operations and UTM. He is the Founder / Primary Technical Lead to well-established open-source projects in the context of UTM: Flight Blender + Flight Spotlight.
Dr. Ballal has expertise in building and managing complex engineering systems. Prior to his work in Openskies, he worked as a Systems Architect within the Microsoft Business Division and later as a Hardware Compliance Engineer in the Microsoft Devices Division. Prior to Microsoft, he worked in the automotive industry. In 2015, he completed his PhD in geodesign from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London. He is a Mechanical Engineer by training with a specialization in Engineering Systems Design. His engineering background includes Masters degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA and a Bachelors degree from Nagpur University in Nagpur, India.