Juhi Ranjan

Juhi Ranjan completed her Ph.D in Computer Science in December 2016 at University of Virginia, advised by Prof. Kamin Whitehouse. Her Ph.D research focused on developing technology for Smart Homes to identify occupants, activities, and individual resource usage. This technology was based on wearable devices that detected residents’ interactions with objects and appliances in the home.Prior to her Ph.D, she has worked at Accenture (Bangalore) as a Software Engineer, and then at DA-IICT (Gandhinagar, Gujarat) as a research engineer. At DA-IICT, she designed a wrist mounted assistive device for people with restricted finger movements (such those affected by Cerebral Palsy). With just some coarse arm movements, the device was able to detect their gestures and use this to control various environmental systems like fans, TV, lights etc. Her current research focuses on applying technology in the prevention and management of physical disabilities in an Indian context.

Juhi has won several commendations for her research including the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program in 2013, and the Outstanding Graduate Research Award by the Dept. of Computer Science at Univ. of Virginia in 2016. She was also selected by the French Embassy to participate in a highly selective Franco-American doctoral exchange program. In 2014, University of Virginia awarded Juhi a one-year research grant for conducting collaborative research with an undergraduate student. Juhi also actively participates in various outreach programs aimed at promoting Computer Science among female undergraduates. In fact, her outreach efforts were recently recognized by the N2 Women's group who awarded Juhi with the Young Researcher Fellowship.