Colleen Josephson

Colleen Josephson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and concurrently serves as a Research Scientist at VMware. Her academic foundation includes a PhD from Stanford University (2020) under Sachin Katti and Keith Winstein, and MEng/SB degrees from MIT with Muriel Médard. Recognized with the 2022 N2women Rising Star award and 2020 Rising Star in EECS, she pioneers sustainable wireless technologies for environmental applications.

Her educational background features:

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University (2020), advised by Sachin Katti and Keith Winstein
• MEng and SB degrees, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, research with Muriel Médard

Professor Josephson's research revolutionizes sustainable sensing through three interconnected pillars: agricultural monitoring via radar backscatter soil moisture sensors, ultra-low power communication for resource-constrained environments, and microbial energy harvesting from soil. Her work uniquely bridges hardware innovation with ecological applications, developing practical solutions like soil-powered sensor networks that eliminate battery dependency. Recent projects integrate deep learning for microbial fuel cell optimization and solar-aware networking, demonstrating exceptional cross-disciplinary synthesis between wireless systems, energy harvesting, and environmental science.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2022-2025) reveals accelerating focus on green computing integration, with microbial fuel cells evolving from lab curiosities to field-deployable systems. Key trends include machine learning for energy prediction (LSTMs for solar base stations), NeRF-accelerated ecological monitoring, and carbon-aware multi-cloud architectures. Her work consistently targets real-world implementation challenges in agriculture and environmental conservation, with soil-based energy solutions representing a signature innovation thread.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• 2022: N2women Rising Star in Networking and Communications
• 2020: Rising Star in EECS
• 2019: MIT Research Slam Finalist

Actively recruiting graduate students for her UC Santa Cruz laboratory, Professor Josephson leads a research group developing sustainable wireless systems with emphasis on practical deployment. Her lab bridges theoretical innovation and field application, currently advancing microbial-powered backscatter tags, solar-aware cellular infrastructure, and NeRF-based forest monitoring. While specific grant details aren't public, her work aligns with NSF sustainability initiatives and industry partnerships focused on green technology commercialization.

Her laboratory specializes in energy-autonomous sensor networks, with current projects spanning soil microbial fuel cell characterization, solar-powered communication systems, and ecological monitoring using novel computer vision techniques. The team emphasizes ruggedized, maintenance-free designs for agricultural and forest environments, recently demonstrating in-ground sensing systems capable of multi-year operation without battery replacement. Future directions include scaling microbial energy harvesting for industrial IoT and integrating carbon-aware computing principles across network layers.