Mirza Faizan inside the cockpit of a space shuttle at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. Telegraph picture

Patna boy Mirza Faizan, an aerospace scientist, is making the country proud in US.

At present, working on his aviation research projects in Texas, Faizan has been selected as a senior member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). It is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to global aerospace profession and boasts of more than 35,000 members.

“The AIAA confirmed me as their senior member after my successful nomination, which requires distinguished achievements and two recommendations from existing members. I would like to utilise this esteemed opportunity by making all possible contribution to the field of global aerospace research,” Faizan told The Telegraph on Saturday. Faizan, who is also an air-crash investigator with specialisation on black box data analysis, would also judge some of the latest innovations in aerospace technology at a few aviation sector award ceremonies in the US over the next few months.

He has been nominated as a judge in aerospace category for Spirit of Innovation Challenge conducted by The Conrad Foundation and hosted by Nasa. “I am excited to evaluate ideas of innovators from over 25 countries in the next few weeks. My co-judges at the award at Johnson Space Center in March, 2014, would be aerospace scientists like Chris Cohan from Nasa and Joe Rothenberg, former director, Goddard Space Flight Center, Nasa, among others,” said Faizan.

The Spirit of Innovation Challenge is an annual competition inviting students aged between 13 and 18 years from across the globe to solve real-world problems by creating breakthrough technologies. The entry categories for the 2013-14 awards are aerospace and aviation, energy and environment, cyber technology and security, and health and nutrition.

Meanwhile, Faizan’s breakthrough technology, Ground Reality Information Processing System (GRIPS), aimed at preventing any collision hazard owing to presence of any unauthorised object on the runway at the time of take-off or landing of aircraft is being evaluated by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the national aviation authority of US. Once selected, it may be used at the airports in US.

Apparently, GRIPS has been nominated for the prestigious Jane’s ATC Award 2014 to be held in Madrid on March 3, 2014. “This is one of the most prestigious awards for innovation in air traffic management,” said Faizan.

Faizan added he also bagged the Airline Industry Innovation Award conferred by Mahindra Aerospace, the aerospace venture of the Mahindra Group, in November.

On his recent achievements, Faizan said: “My success as an innovator comes to me from my habit of thinking. I remember as a kid, once I asked my father to fill my slam book in which he mentioned ‘thinking’ as his hobby. That is when he taught me that the ‘best solution of any problem can be found only by thinking over it’. Thinking and ideating gradually becomes a sub-conscious nature of a person and helps him come up with innovative idea on regular basis.”