People

Colleen Josephson

Principal Investigator

My name is Colleen Josephson, and I research wireless communication and sensing systems, with a focus on how we can leverage sensing for sustainability. I am an Assistant Professor at UC Santa Cruz, and a research scientist at VMware. I also chair the Societal and Economic Needs working group and co-chair the GreenG Working Group within the ATIS NextG Alliance. I received my PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford in 2020. My advisors were Sachin Katti and Keith Winstein.

Morgan Masters

PhD Student

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 Madden

PhD Student

John is a first year Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student researching open-source agricultural sensing platforms. The platform aims to provide accessible technology where in-situ measurements can inform the agricultural process. He is also interested in the general field of robotics and control theory.

Yawen Guo

PhD Student

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.

Jack Lin

Grad Student Researcher

Jack is currently pursuing his M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of California, Santa Cruz. His research focuses on developing robust visible light communication and radio frequency backscatter for low power wireless sensors targeting applications such as precision agriculture. He also has a strong interest in teaching and mentoring.

Jake Lee

Masters Student

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.

Eric Vetha

Undergraduate Researcher

Eric is 3rd year undergraduate Robotics Engineering student at UC Santa Cruz. Eric is working on the software of wireless underground backscatter tags and the radar which are used to collect information regarding soil moisture content.

Josie Dominguez

Undergraduate Researcher

Josie is an undergraduate at UC Santa Cruz working towards a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. With a focus on electrical hardware and PCB design, she is pursuing research in RF and sensor design. She will be participating in embedded systems/electronic integration research at UCSD over the summer for their Engineers 4 Exploration REU.

Matthew Kaltman

Undergraduate Researcher

Matt is an undergraduate studying Robotics Engineering with an emphasis in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Matt is working with the Greener Greenhouses team to develop a sensing node that is powered and communicated to via Visible Light Communication.

Alec Levy

Full Stack Developer

Alec is a 2nd 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.

Former Members

Sonia Naderi

Postdoc Researcher

Sonia was a Postdoc Scholar at the University of California Santa Cruz with a focus on wireless sensor networks. Before joining University of California Santa Cruz, she was graduate research assistant at WiSe-Net lab and she received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Maine in September 2022. She was doing an internship during her Ph.D. at Samsung Electronics America, working as a wireless system structure design engineer. Her research interests include theory and development of wireless communication systems, wireless sensor networks, cooperative communications, artificial intelligence and signal processing.

Brian Govers

Research Assistant

Brian is a UCSC graduate with a degree in Electrical Engineering, who recently completed his Electrical and Computer Engineering M.S. Brian worked on developing a communication infrastructure to collect and process sensor data from the UCSC farm.

Revanth

Primary Research Assistant

Revanth Kottur Sivakumar received his B.Tech in Electronics and communication engineering from Amrita University, India.

Stephen Taylor

Junior Specialist

Stephen Taylor was a Junior Specialist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. With a focus on phenomena such as voltage reversal in microbial fuel cells, and designing more robust containers for soil microbial fuel cells. Stephen graduated from UC Santa Cruz in fall 2022 with a degree in Robotics Engineering.

Aaron Wu

Full Stack Developer

Aaron is a UCSC graduate with a degree in Computer Science. He worked on developing the Open Sensing Platform that helps researchers monitor sensor data from microbial fuel cells.