Biography

Dr. Asit Rairkar brings over two decades of multifaceted leadership across hardware technology, business, non-profits, and academia to the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He has been a member of the Cal Poly faculty since 2018, where he previously taught in the Electrical Engineering Department.

 

Prior to academia, Dr. Rairkar spent more than 15 years in Silicon Valley leading multidisciplinary engineering teams at industry leaders including Apple, Applied Materials, and Novellus Systems, as well as high-growth startups like MiaSolé. His industry expertise spans product and process optimization across semiconductors, photovoltaics, and Lithium battery technologies, scaling product development from initial R&D through high-volume manufacturing.

 

Alongside his academic role, Dr. Rairkar is the founder of Samaasa Consulting LLC, advising technology startups as a recognized subject matter expert in Design of Experiments (DOE), Process Optimization, Hardware Product Development, and Industrial Data Science. Active in the local community, he also serves on the board of the SLO Film Center and the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.

 

Dr. Rairkar holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Arizona State University, a B.E. in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pune, and is an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.