Selvam Rajendran

Selvam Rajendran is an engineering leader whose two-decade career has been dedicated to disciplines where technical rigor is inseparable from public safety and operational integrity. Working across aerospace, telecommunications, industrial automation, fintech hardware, and agricultural sensing, he has built expertise spanning electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering, safety-critical power systems, embedded hardware design, high-speed signal integrity, and precision measurement. His work consistently targets the “failure-intolerant” edge of engineering—systems where certification outcomes, reliability under harsh environments, and predictable electromagnetic behavior directly determine whether products can be deployed safely at scale.

At Collins Aerospace, Rajendran has served as Senior Principal Engineer since 2019, continuing a long trajectory of involvement in aerospace EMC dating back to external engineering support work beginning in 2011. His current role centers on system-level EMC architecture and certification for aircraft electric power systems spanning Main, Emergency, Auxiliary, and Distribution domains. This scope demands mastery of noise-spectrum analysis, EMI filter topology design, lightning protection, grounding and bonding architecture, and aircraft-level harness integration guidance. Rajendran’s designs and certification support align to stringent standards such as RTCA DO-160G and MIL-STD-461, where passing qualification is only the starting point—the real objective is robust field performance across aircraft lifecycles.

A defining feature of Rajendran’s work is that it sits at the integration boundary between component-level engineering and aircraft-level certification. He provides formal EMC guidance to major aircraft manufacturers and integrators—including Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Dassault, COMAC, and others—translating electromagnetic theory into harness-level instructions, shield termination strategies, and integration practices designed to be “first-time-right.” In safety-critical aerospace programs, such guidance reduces costly redesign cycles and strengthens predictability under certification scrutiny.

Before Collins Aerospace, Rajendran held progressively senior delivery and leadership roles at L&T Technology Services—serving as Technical Lead, Project Manager, Program Manager, and Delivery Manager across multiple engineering domains. In aerospace, he architected the EMC design for a Common RAT (Ram Air Turbine) Generator Control Unit enabling emergency power deployment across major aircraft programs including C919, MC-21, MRJ, E2, and F10X—systems where EMC robustness is central because emergency power must function flawlessly in hostile electromagnetic conditions. In industrial automation and transportation, he designed modular truck and trailer refrigeration control systems emphasizing CAN-based communication reliability and EMC resilience in harsh operating environments.

Rajendran has also contributed to test and measurement infrastructure for telecommunications and high-speed interfaces. He developed the TF-XGbT 10GBASE-T compliance test fixture for Tektronix, supporting IEEE 802.3 physical-layer validation with stringent insertion and return loss performance targets—work that enables accurate, repeatable validation of networking devices. For Emerson, he created industrial single-board computers used in condition monitoring and predictive maintenance of critical electrical assets such as switchgear, bus ducts, generators, and motors—systems where early fault detection can prevent outages and safety incidents.

Earlier in his career, as Research and Development Lead at RealTime Systems, Rajendran served as principal hardware architect for the RealGain-IV G.SHDSL leased-line modem deployed across Indian Railways communications infrastructure—an example of long-lived engineering where robustness and maintainability are proven through decades of operational service. He also contributed to fintech hardware innovation at C-SAM Solutions and B.S Industries, where he helped design the One Wallet Adapter—mobile payment hardware that enabled IRDA-to-magnetic stripe emulation for legacy POS terminals—bridging old payment infrastructure with emerging mobile payment models during an important transition period in digital finance.

Rajendran’s engineering orientation was visible even in early academic research, where he built a low-cost capacitive moisture measurement meter for coffee bean quality assessment—an application of capacitive sensing principles that prefigured later mainstream adoption in agriculture and quality analytics.

Across these domains, Rajendran’s work is characterized by measurable robustness outcomes: a record of zero EMC qualification failures across aircraft electric power programs; flawless qualification history for the RAT Generator Control Unit since 2013; and long-term operational continuity of platforms like RealGain-IV within Indian Railways. His recognition as RTX High Potential Talent in 2023 and 2024 signals ongoing advancement toward senior technical leadership roles. Beyond delivery, he contributes to professional standards and education as Electromagnetic Compatibility Chair for the IEEE Rock River Valley Section since 2023, exercising independent judgment in shaping EMC programming and technical knowledge exchange within the community.