Colleen Josephson is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on sustainable wireless communication and sensing systems, with applications in agriculture, environmental monitoring, and climate resilience. She leads the Smart Sensing Lab (“jLab”), where her group develops open-source, low-power platforms that integrate novel communication techniques, energy harvesting, and adaptive networking to create resilient infrastructure for the natural world. In addition to her faculty role, Dr. Josephson is Co-Director of the UCSC AgTech Alliance and holds an Agronomist appointment with UC Agriculture & Natural Resources. She is also an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Agrifood Electronics and serves on the steering committee for ACM HotCarbon, helping shape the research community at the intersection of computing and climate. Her broader work emphasizes open designs, right-to-repair principles, and iterative co-development with agricultural stakeholders to ensure that technology serves community needs. Before joining UCSC, Dr. Josephson earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and worked as a research scientist at VMware.

I am a PhD student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, focused on field robotics for advanced sensing in agriculture and ecology. My co-advisors are Dr. Steve McGuire (field robotics) and Dr. Colleen Josephson (advanced sensing). My role is to implement robotics systems to persistently monitor arrays of Dr. Josephson's ultra-low power sensing modalities and the environments they are embedded in. Concurrently, I work at at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, developing physics-informed, deep-learning-based visual tracking solutions for applications in marine robotics. I am broadly interested in the mathematical design and development of numerical methods for field robotics and procedural generation of content to statistically validate their components. My M.S. in Applied Mathematics was earned in 2019 at the University of Washington, advised by Dr. J. Nathan Kutz. I also earned two B.S. degrees in: (i.) Physics and Mathematics and (ii.) Materials Science & Engineering in 2018 from Iowa State University, advised by Dr. Paul C. Canfield.

John is a Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student at UCSC. His research intersects novel low-power energy sources and wireless sensor networks. He is the maintainer of the Environmental NeTworked Sensor (ENTS) project which he uses to study energy harvesting from soil microbial fuel cells and prickly pear cacti. He is passionate about open-source projects that have real-world use cases in environmental research and agricultural communities. He received his B.S. in Robotics Engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2020.

Yawen is currently pursuing her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on the energy efficiency and the innovative integration of state-of-the-art technologies within the field of communication. She is driven by a desire to contribute to sustainability efforts, aiming to develop solutions that not only advance the field but also help protect the environment.

Prior to his work as a staff researcher in the jLab, Jack received his M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. His current research focuses on developing robust visible light communication and radio frequency backscatter for low power wireless sensors targeting applications such as precision agriculture. In addition, he develops embedded firmware to support multiple ongoing projects in the lab. He also has a strong interest in teaching and mentoring.

Jake is a 1st-year Robotics M.S. student who is interested in researching the role affordable remote sensing technologies and mechatronic systems could play in the empowerment of marginalized communities and in the future of sustainable farming.

Alec is a 3rd year undergraduate Computer Engineering student at UC Santa Cruz. He is working on developing the EnTs Backend that helps researchers monitor sensor data from microbial fuel cells. He was recently awarded the 2025 Research Pathways Fellowship, and is continuing to work on Soil Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) sensing resarch.

Ava Darbonne is a 4th year undergraduate student in Electrical Engineering and minoring in Linguistics. WaDAR enhances soil moisture sensing through dual backscatter tags connected to an ultrawideband (UWB) radar, significantly reducing power consumption and cost to conventional sensors. The current prototype uses coin cell batteries, risking soil contamination when deployed. This project aims to power the backscatter tags using soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs). Integrating SMFCs with existing backscatter technologies creates a sustainable soil moisture monitoring solution, making efficient farming accessible.

Prathamesh is an M.S. student in computer science and engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Before joining UCSC, he worked as a software engineer and later as a technical lead at a fintech bank for three years. He is now an engineer at a leading semiconductor design company, focusing on AI/ML and high-performance computing.