Bio

Mr. Mizanul Chowdhury works at MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139. Currently, he also holds multiple positions at MIT campus, Cambridge, MA as a 1) Chief Architect, Technical Expert, Research Scientist and System Administrator of Zero Robotics project, Space Enabled Research Group, 2) Technical Expert and Administrator of Technology Roadmaps, System Engineering, Aero Astro Department.

Mr. Chowdhury joined the MIT Space Systems Laboratory in 2013 to assume the role of Architect and System Administrator for Zero Robotics. Zero Robotics is an international space robotics programming tournament for middle and high school students, in collaboration with the MIT Space Enabled Research Laboratory and the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory. Funding for the program comes from NASA, the Aerospace Corporation, and the ISS National Laboratory, with in-kind support from several industry partners. The final competition of the tournament takes place inside the ISS, using Astrobee satellites provided by NASA’s Ames Research Center. Zero Robotics was under the MIT Space Systems Laboratory until 2019, where MIT SPHERES were used as the space robot. In 2020, it was transferred to the Space Enabled Research Group to facilitate NASA Astrobee research and platform development. Mr. Chowdhury designed and developed the online virtual platform to support research on SPHERES and NASA Astrobee. He is also responsible for providing technical support for the Zero Robotics project, which includes maintaining an online simulation environment, teaching, mentoring, and programming game programming.

In March, 2019, he joined MIT Media Lab/Berklee/MIT Connection Science Decentralized and Open Music (RAIDAR) project as a Chief Architect.  He developed a proof of concept of Decentralized Open Music platform and distributed music format, which combines DDEX and MARC standards.

In January, 2020, he joined MIT Engineering Systems Laboratory, Department of Aerospace and Astronautics as a Technical Expert and Administrator to provide technical support of Technology Roadmaps.

In September, 2021, he joined MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Space Systems & Technology Division.  He worked on SansorSat, Sachi and Mustang projects, which includes LEO, GEO satellite, survielence satellite, satellite ground station, space telescope and ground station for laser communication. 

Mr. Chowdhury obtained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) the class of 1984.  After graduation, he worked for the Bangladesh Oil and Gas Corporation as an assistant drilling engineer for 3 years, and then he joined the Hydraulic Power Station under the Bangladesh Water Development Board.

In 1993, he completed his MS degree in Natural Gas Engineering from Texas A & M University. Mr. Chowdhury joined Nordstrom Valve, Inc. Texas as a Valve Design Engineer in 1994. Then he worked for several software companies as software architect and consultant. Prior to MIT, he served 10 years for Jericho Systems Corporation, a US Department of Defense contractor in the cybersecurity domain, with Top Security Clearance as Director of Security Software Product Development. Mr. Chowdhury worked for Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) as an Internet of Things (IOT) security technical fellow. He also worked for Cisco Systems as a Cloud Security expert and Technical Lead.

Mr. Chowdhury founded STEMX365 in 2019. STEMX 365 is a 501(c)(3) organization located at Cambridge, MA-02138, USA for teaching International Space Station (ISS) based education in developing countries. He launched JAXA’s Kibo Robot Programming Challenge(KRPC), Asian Herb in Space(AHiS) and Asian Try Zero G(ATZG programs in Bangladesh. STEMX365 partners with MIT Zero Robotics, Space Enabled Research Group to facilitate the 2023 Zero Robotics program for middle school students.