Katia Obraczka

Katia Obraczka is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC Santa Cruz and the director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute. She leads interdisciplinary research focused on societal and economic impacts of IT, particularly in IoT, edge computing, and cyber-physical systems. Her work emphasizes technology for social good, including environmental monitoring and healthcare applications.

Education:

• B.S. and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
• M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California

Research Interests:

• IoT and Edge Computing – Developing energy-efficient, decentralized systems for smart agriculture and healthcare monitoring.
• Cyber-Physical Systems – Designing resilient networks for autonomous vehicles and industrial control.
• Machine Learning – Applying ML to improve network performance and user mobility modeling.
• Healthcare Technology – Innovations in pressure injury prevention and real-time patient monitoring.

Articles Trends: Recent publications emphasize IoT multipath routing, edge intelligence architectures, and energy-harvesting smart systems. Over 80% of her 2023-2025 work addresses healthcare and environmental applications, with notable contributions to autonomous vehicle platooning and QoS-aware quantum networks.

Labs & Initiatives: Directs CITRIS UCSC programs like the CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research and oversees the Internet Research Group, which explores edge computing and network security.

Grants & Collaborations: Active in cross-campus and industry partnerships, including drone-based wildfire monitoring and solar-powered IoT deployments with UC Berkeley and Merced.