Het Patelbuilds secure systems by making state, authority, failure, and evidence explicit.

Cyber Security Engineering undergraduate building secure research platforms, hardened cloud infrastructure, wireless-security tooling, and policy-governed AI systems.

AI systems and cybersecurity engineeringAmes, Iowa

Current roles, one connected practice.

Building a research platform, teaching security foundations, supporting institutional web operations, and leading a student-organization web team all sharpen the same systems view.

  1. CurrentSecurity teaching

    Iowa State University

    Teaching Assistant

    Supports undergraduate instruction for CPRE 4310: Basics of Information System Security and helps students reason through technical problems and responsible security practice.

    August 2026–presentAmes, Iowa
  2. CurrentResearch engineering

    Iowa State University — WiCI

    Research Assistant

    Owns full-stack, application-security, and release engineering for a faculty-supervised research-data repository as the sole student technical contributor.

    July 2026–presentAmes, Iowa
  3. CurrentInstitutional platforms

    Iowa State University — CALS/LAS Web Team

    Website Content Editor / Developer

    Works on a team supporting more than 700 university web properties through migrations, accessibility remediation, quality assurance, and Drupal development and support.

    June 2026–presentAmes, Iowa
  4. CurrentWeb team leadership

    Indian Students’ Association, Iowa State University

    Web Development Team Lead

    Leads the association’s web development team by delegating work, supervising contributors, and taking responsibility for the team’s delivery. Develops and maintains a privacy-safe, Git-backed WordPress platform in PHP, JavaScript, and CSS, and leads accessibility, browser, performance, and rollback validation.

    January 2026–presentAmes, Iowa

The work crosses layers. The method stays consistent.

Security is treated as system behavior: explicit boundaries, controlled state, testable decisions, and evidence that survives the happy path.

  1. Secure systems

    • Application and platform security
    • Cloud security and DevSecOps
    • Wireless and protocol security

    Trust boundaries become application, cloud, data, and protocol controls that can be tested rather than assumed.

  2. Governed AI

    • AI systems and evaluation

    Agent and model work is routed through explicit state, bounded authority, evidence gates, and safe-stop behavior.

  3. Build and verify

    • Full-stack and platform engineering
    • Evidence-driven verification and release engineering

    Full-stack ownership extends through deployment, regression evidence, recovery, and an honest release decision.

Selected working set

Code and frameworks
Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, C#, Java, C, Bash, SQL, .NET 10, Next.js, NestJS, React, Flutter
Cloud and data
GCP, Terraform, Docker Compose, Linux, Nginx, PostgreSQL, Prisma, Redis, GitHub Actions
Security and wireless
Burp Suite, Nmap, Wireshark, tshark, hostapd, wpa_supplicant, Aircrack-ng, srsRAN, Open5GS

From wireless research to secure systems.

The academic record, earlier experience, research, and leadership beyond the current role set remain part of the same technical trajectory.

Wireless-security researchNovember 2023–May 2025

Nirma University

Research Assistant

Co-authored an unpublished manuscript analyzing 5G cybersecurity risks and defensive approaches.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Engineering apprenticeshipDecember 2024

Cyberage Technomind

Engineering Trainee

Supported operating systems, networking, peripherals, and SMART MANDLI accounting deployments for Primary Agricultural Credit Societies; diagnosed hardware, software, and network issues while developing and debugging utilities in C, Java, and Python.

Himatnagar, Gujarat, India

Education

Iowa State University

B.S. in Cyber Security Engineering — expected May 2028

August 2025–presentAmes, Iowa

Nirma University

Undergraduate coursework in Computer Science and Engineering

July 2023–June 2025Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Recognition

Spring 2026

Dean’s List

3.81/4.00 semester GPA across 21 graded credit hours

May 2026

Srirama Excellence Award in Cyber Security

Renewable scholarship

Programs and leadership

CyberTractor Challenge 2026

Selected Participant

June 2026
Completed an NDA-governed agricultural cybersecurity program spanning CAN bus, embedded software, IoT, and custom security tooling; confidential system and assessment details are intentionally omitted.

Indian Students’ Association, Iowa State University

Events Team Manager · Decoration Committee Member

January 2026–present
Coordinates event-team execution and contributes to the Decoration Committee through operational and creative leadership.