Dr. Sukanya Randhawa is an independent research scientist focused on creating integrated technology solutions and interventions that cut across several industries and finds numerous applications for agriculture, water, and energy, along with tackling climate change.
Currently working on projects with non-profit organizations Auroville Consulting (India) and WaterRising Institute (USA), Sukanya develops novel, hybrid and innovative digital planning tools that utilize satellite imagery (ESA and NASA) along with public and digital datasets. Integrated with machine-learning based approaches and designed for creating powerful data based insights, her research addresses existing issues and gaps for physical (and business) ecosystems. Previously, Sukanya worked as an AI researcher with IBM Research in many niche technology areas such as satellite imagery-based analytics, artificial intelligence, internet of things, etc. and holds several technology innovation patents. She is the developer of a global product launched on IBM's global platform that has been a key part of the Agri Services business for IBM. Also, she has been the creator of the Bluewater EYE technology that enables water pollution monitoring for rivers and lakes by using satellite-based predictive sensing for water quality.
She is an experimental physicist by background and served as a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Chicago after receiving her PhD from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain. She holds an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, and completed her undergraduate studies in Electronics and Communications Engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe, Germany.