Nikhil Rao

Nikhil Rao is a passionate Software Engineer at the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) specializing in crafting Python tools, automation, and workflows for High‑Performance Computing (HPC) environments.

He currently supports the Center for Geospace Storms (CGS) on the MAGE, TIE‑GCM, and WACCM‑X atmospheric models, and is integrating modern machine‑learning methods into HAO’s scientific pipelines.

Nikhil received his M.S. in Cybersecurity from the University of Delaware in 2023 and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UD, where his research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and HPC.

He enjoys building production-quality research software that helps scientists run faster, analyze smarter, and reproduce results more easily.