AMHERST, MA (TIP):  Prashant Shenoy, professor of computer science and associate dean in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at UMass Amherst, has been named a 2017-18 Fulbright Specialist Scholar. He will travel to Mumbai, India, to work with researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay on water and energy challenges in Indian cities.

The Fulbright Specialist Program, part of the larger Fulbright Program, was established in 2001 by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program pairs highly qualified U.S. academics and researchers with host institutions to work on short-term projects in the specialists’ areas of expertise.

As a specialist scholar, Shenoy will collaborate with researchers in IIT Bombay’s Center for Urban Science and Engineering to develop data-driven techniques to improve the reliability of the electricity supply and enhance energy-efficiency. He and his colleagues will also work to design methods to enhance the reliability of the water supply and monitor water quality using a low-cost sensor platform.

Both projects will extend research conducted at UMass Amherst to larger-scale, urban settings in the developing world.

Shenoy has been a member of the computer science faculty since 1998. His research focuses on computational and data-driven approaches for smart cities. He and other researchers from UMass Amherst and the Worcester campus recently founded the Center for Smart and Connected Society (CS2) to enable cross-disciplinary research into societal issues such as healthcare, transportation and energy.