Third grant for Dr. Kumar from the National Science Foundation.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A research team at Iowa State University (ISU), headed up by an Indian American professor, won a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation last month.
Dr. Ratnesh Kumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at ISU, and his team conduct research about wireless sensors, which they are hoping to develop in a cost-effective way so that they can be used by farmers in rural areas around the world to track soil data, such as the amount of various elements found within the ground where crops are grown.
When first starting out, Kumar and his team used consumer-level sensors that cost only around $100, but the price was indicative of their quality – the sensors were often inaccurate, doing more harm than good.
With the new $1 million, the team can now afford to buy state-of the-art equipment to help them take their research to the next level. It is the third grant the National Science Foundation has given Kumar and his team since 2006: that year, they received a three year, $240,000 grant, and in 2009 they were awarded another three-year grant, this time worth $461,000.
Originally from Ranchi, India, Kumar earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur in 1987. He then completed his master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering in 1989, and his Ph.D. in the same field in 1991, both from the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1995, he co-authored a book entitled “Modeling and Control of Logical Discrete Event Systems” with VK Garg, and is a co-author on at least 90 scientific journal articles.
He was a faculty member at the University of Kentucky from 1991 to 2002, and joined ISU in 2002, where he has been ever since. During his career, he has held visiting positions t the University of Maryland, Penn State University, the NASA Ames Research Center, and the United Technology Research Center.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com