Gireeja Ranade
Í
14820 NE 36th Street
Redmond, WA 98052
B gireeja@eecs.berkeley.edu
http://eecs.berkeley.edu/∼gireeja
Last updated: Apr 2016
Education
2014
•
PhD, EECS, University of California, Berkeley.
Thesis: Active systems with uncertain parameters: an information-theoretic perspective
Designated Emphasis in Communication, Computation and Statistics.
Minor in Economics.
2009
•
MS, EECS, University of California, Berkeley.
Thesis: Information content in the Local Field Potential: implications for brain-machine interfaces
2007
•
SB, EECS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Minor in Biomedical Engineering.
2003
•
HSC, Fergusson College, Pune, India.
Experience
Sep 15 — present Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA.
Mentors: Yuval Peres and Eric Horvitz
Postdoctoral researcher working with the Theory group and the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group.
Aug 14 — Aug 15 EECS department, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Co-lead designer and instructor for the pilot version of EECS 16AB.
EECS 16AB is a new first-year course series at Berkeley that combines theoretical ideas from linear
algebra, circuit design and signal processing with hands-on practical labs to provide a unified introduction
to all areas of EECS. For example, least-squares and regression ideas are introduced through the design
of an acoustic indoor localization system. The new labs, lectures and homework were designed from
scratch and included hardware design as well as iPython notebook programming with analysis of real
and synthetic datasets.
Jan 15 — May 15 Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Berkeley, CA.
Postdoctoral participant in the Information Theory program.
Jan 10 — Dec 14 Wireless Foundations Center, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Advisor: Anant Sahai
My dissertation examined informational bottlenecks in control systems with parameter uncertainty and
identify a notion of "control capacity" as the fundamental limit on the ability of an unreliable actuator
to stablize a system.
Sep 11 — Dec 11 Microsoft Research New England, Cambridge, MA.
Mentor: Madhu Sudan
Internship: Investigated models for machine-to-machine communication, and possible connections to
language evolution. Also explored problems of information exchange in economic models.
May 11 — Aug 11 IBM Watson Research Center, Service Science, Hawthorne, NY.
Mentors: Lav Varshney, Krishna Ratakonda
Internship: Developed game-theoretic models to provide design principles for crowdsourcing contests
and evaluated different designs with experiments on the IBM crowdsourcing platform.
Jan 09 — Jul 09 Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, Accra, Ghana.
Among first set of instructors at this new non-profit institute for computer science and business in Accra.
Aug 07 — Dec 09 Brain-Machine Interfaces Lab, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Advisor: Jose Carmena
Master’s thesis: Analysis of the Local Field Potential (LFP) to extract motor control information for
brain-machine interfaces (BMIs).
May 06 — May 07 Lab for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Advisor: George Verghese
Undergraduate thesis: Designed and implemented algorithms for estimation of cardiovascular parameters
for medical decision support in a cross-disciplinary team. Conducted data-collection experiments in a
wet-lab setting.
May 05 — Aug 05 Robotics Group, Siemens Corporate Technology, Munich, Germany.
Mentor: Georg von Wichert
Internship: Designed image-based localization software for an autonomous robotic navigation system
using a camera and a laser sensor.
Awards and Honors
{ Demetri Angelakos Memorial Achievement Award, UC Berkeley, 2014.
“This award recognizes a student who, in addition to conducting his/her research, unselfishly
takes the time to help colleagues beyond the normal cooperation existing between fellow
students.”
{ Invited participant for the Rising Stars in EECS Workshop, UC Berkeley, 2014.
{ Department Special Recognition, EECS Department, UC Berkeley, 2013.
{ National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2008-2011.
{ GAANN Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2007-2008.
{ Among top 30 students in the Indian National Mathematical Olympiad, 2002.
{ National Talent Scholarship, India, 2001.
{ Tau Beta Pi (TBP), Eta Kappa Nu (HKN).
Teaching
Fall 2015 EECS 16AB: Designing Information Devices and Systems, UC Berkeley.
Provided remote feedback and strategic advice for the scaling up of 16A and the pilot 16B offering.
Spring 2015 EECS 16A: Designing Information Devices and Systems I, UC Berkeley.
Co-lead (along with Elad Alon) for course design, development and teaching for the pilot course of sixty
students. Co-ordinated the graduate student instructors (GSIs) as well as the course readers. Drove the
use of successful ideas such as a “homework party” and “self-grading” that had been previously used in
CS 70.
HKN ratings: 6.0/7.0 (instructor effectiveness), 6.4/7.0 (how worthwhile was this course?)
Fall & Sp 2014 CS 70: Discrete Math and Probability Theory, UC Berkeley.
Guest lecturer for five weeks for lower-division class of 550 students. HKN ratings: 6.05/7.00
Fall 2014 EE 229A: Information Theory and Coding, UC Berkeley.
Guest lecturer for the 20 student graduate class.
Fall 2012 EE 126: Probability and Random Processes, UC Berkeley.
Graduate Student Instructor for upper-division class of 35 students. Conducted weekly discussion sections,
designed notes, homework problems and exam questions and substituted for multiple lectures.
HKN ratings: 4.7/5.0
Jan 2014 Public Policy 290P: Telecommunications Policy, UC Berkeley.
Guest lecture on communication fundamentals for non-engineers.
Jan 09 — Jul 09 Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, Accra, Ghana.
Course developer and instructor for college-level course on discrete math, programming concepts,
algorithms and software design for a class of twenty students. Responsible for curriculum and course
development. Involved in student recruitment and served as the internship coordinator for the program.
Jun 08 — Dec 08 Prison University Project, San Quentin, CA.
Co-instructor for college-level Geometry class for prison inmates. Prepared lecture notes, homework and
exams. Also tutored for Math-50, the college preparatory math course.
May 07 — Aug 07 Pune Computer Education Project, Pune, India.
Founder and lead-teacher for a computer literacy program for 150 low-income middle-school students
at the Dnyanakala Sanvardhini school. Secured donation of four computers from Infosys Technologies,
Pune. Local engineering students continued the program for two years following this.
Dec 04 — Jan 05 EECS Department, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Teaching assistant for 6.090, an introductory programming class for freshmen without programming
experience.
Mentoring
Fall 14 — present Vasuki Narasimha Swamy, UC Berkeley EECS graduate student.
Research on multi-user diversity and cooperation based protocols for low-latency high-reliability
5G communication networks.
Mar 14 — present Leah Dickstein, UC Berkeley EECS Junior.
Working on understanding tradeoffs between delay and coding in control systems. Transferred
to EECS from the College of Chemistry.
Recipient of the Center for Science of Information (CSOI) undergraduate research grant for
2015-2016.
May 14 — present Ena Hariyoshi, UC Berkeley EECS Senior.
Admitted to EECS PhD programs at MIT, UC Berkeley, CMU, ... .
Working on developing notions of vector control capacity and the value of non-causal information.
Two-time recipient of the Center for Science of Information (CSOI) undergraduate research
grant for 2014-2016.
Jun 13 — May 15 Sahaana Suri, UC Berkeley class of 2015.
Now: Stanford EE graduate student.
Worked on the design of communication protocols for low-latency high-reliability wireless control.
One of ten finalists nationally for the CRA undergraduate research award (2014).
Recipient of the Warren Dere Design Award, the James H. Eaton Memorial Scholarship, and
the Arthur M. Hopkin Award in EECS at UC Berkeley (2014).
May 13 — May 14 Govind Ramnarayan, UC Berkeley Class of 2014.
Now: MIT CS graduate student.
Worked on the initial ideas for value of side information for the dropped control problem.
Publications
Crowdsourcing
{ To crowdsource or not to crowdsource?, G. Ranade and L. R. Varshney.
Human Computation Workshop at the 26th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2012.
{ Worker information in crowdsourcing contest design, G. Ranade and L. R. Varshney.
Book chapter in preparation.
Systems with uncertain parameters
{ A tiger by the tail: when multiplicative noise stymies control, J. Ding, Y. Peres and G.
Ranade, IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2016.
{ Control with side information, G. Ranade and A. Sahai,
IEEE Indian Control Conference, 2016.
{ Vector systems with unpredictable actuation, E. Hariyoshi, G. Ranade and A. Sahai
(GR invited), Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, 2015.
{ Control capacity, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2015.
{ Side information in control and estimation, G. Ramnarayan, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2014.
{ Non-coherence in estimation and control, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, 2013.
{ Comments on unknown channels, K. Woyach, K. Harrison, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW), 2012.
{ Carry-free models and beyond, S. Park, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2012.
{ When multiplicative noise stymies control, J.Ding, Y. Peres and G. Ranade.
Extended version in preparation.
{ Control capacity, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
Journal paper in preparation.
{ Estimation over non-coherent channels, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
Journal paper in preparation.
Decentralized control
{ Implicit communication in multiple-access settings, G. Ranade and A. Sahai.
IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2011.
Protocol design for wireless industrial control
{ Robustness of cooperative communication schemes to channel models, V. Narasimha
Swamy, G. Ranade and A. Sahai, IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory
(ISIT), 2016.
{ Network coding for high-reliability low-latency wireless control, V. Narasimha Swamy,
P. Rigge, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, and B. Nikolic, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking
Conference (WCNC) Workshop on Tactile Internet: Enabling Technologies and Applications,
2016.
{ Cooperative communication for high-reliability low-latency wireless control, V.
Narasimha Swamy, S. Suri, P. Rigge, M. Weiner, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, and B. Nikolic,
IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2015.
{ Cooperative communication for high-reliability low-latency wireless control, V.
Narasimha Swamy, S. Suri, P. Rigge, M. Weiner, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, and B. Nikolic.
Journal paper in preparation.
Data-center scheduling
{ ProjecToR: Agile Reconfigurable Datacenter Interconnect, M. Ghobadi, R. Mahajan,
A. Phanishayee, H. Rastegarfar, P. Blanche, M. Glick, D. Kilper, J. Kulkarni, G. Ranade, and
N. Devanur, ACM SIGCOMM 2016.
Brain-machine interfaces
{ Cortical representation of ipsilateral arm movements in monkey and man, K. Ganguly,
L. Secundo, G. Ranade, A. Orsborn, E. Chang, D. Dimitrov, J. Wallis, N. Barbaro, R. Knight,
and J. Carmena, The Journal of Neuroscience, 2009.
{ LFP beta power predicts cursor stationarity in BMI task, G. Ranade, K. Ganguly and
J. Carmena, IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, 2009.
{ Ensemble representation of movement parameters in motor cortex during center-out
reaches with the ipsilateral arm, G. Ranade, K. Ganguly and J. Carmena.
Abstract at 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 2008.
Cardio-vascular modeling
{ Systems and methods for model-based estimation of cardiac output and systemic
vascular resistance, T. A. Parlikar, T. Heldt, G. Ranade and G. C. Verghese.
U.S. Patent, Publication No: US 2008/027812 A1, Nov. 20, 2008.
{ Model-based estimation of cardiac output and total peripheral resistance, T. A. Parlikar, T. Heldt, G. Ranade and G. C. Verghese, IEEE Computers in Cardiology, 2007.
Leadership and Service
2015 Organizer, Undergraduate Research Symposium, EECS and CoE, UC Berkeley.
{ Initiated a forum for undergraduate researchers to come together and present their research.
{ Spring 2015: The inaugural event had 70+ student presenters and 200+ attendees.
{ Fall 2015: Remotely supported and and funded the event through Microsoft Research. The
event will be funded by MSR again in Spring 2016.
2013 — 2014 Co-founder, EECSPeers, Peer-support service, EECS, UC Berkeley.
{ Conceptualized and started an organization for students to privately seek support from
student volunteers in collaboration with the Berkeley Counseling and Psychological Services
Center. See http://eecs.berkeley.edu/eecs-peers
2007 — 2013 Coordinator, Faculty-candidate interviews, EECS, UC Berkeley.
2008 — 2013 Graduate Admissions Committee, EECS, UC Berkeley.
Reviewed 100+ applications to the EECS graduate program each year.
2008 — 2013 Peer-advisor to incoming graduate students, EECS, UC Berkeley.
2011 — 2013 Coordinator, NetCommDSP Seminar, EECS, UC Berkeley.
2011 — 2012 Student review team: Member of three student team that initiated a rewrite of the student
review, EECS, UC Berkeley.
{ The student review is a conversation between student and advisor to track annual progress.
We reworked the review framework to improve communications and facilitate mutual feedback.
2012 Mentor to incoming undergraduate women, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).
2011 Organizer, Grad-Undergrad research mixer, EECS, UC Berkeley.
2009 — 2010 President, EE Graduate Student Association (EEGSA), UC Berkeley.
Led a team of twenty officers to revamp the organization, improve teamwork and social
accountability. Initiated monthly officer meetings, and actively cultivated a friendly atmosphere
enabling new students to join. Representative projects are detailed below.
{ Department environment and communications
- Conceptualized and organized the first student-faculty “EECS Town Hall” to conduct open
discussions regarding work environments, resources, diversity, student-faculty relationships
and other student concerns. The Town Hall is now a widely-attended annual event that
has spurred important department-wide policy changes and actions.
- Organized a staff-appreciation event to thank department staff.
{ Student well-being and inclusion
- Wrote and conducted annual student well-being survey that resulted in:
· universal student access to common lab space to encourage interaction and collaboration.
· formation of the first prelim-ombudsman committee to help first-years navigate the
prelim process and provide feedback to faculty.
- Worked with staff to develop a process for Graduate Student Instructors in EECS receive
equal and competitive compensation.
- Organized a variety of inclusive social events for diverse sets of students.
2008 — 2010 Secretary, Women in Computer Science and Engineering (WICSE), UC Berkeley.
2008 — 2009 Co-founder, EECS student seminar, UC Berkeley.
Started a lunchtime student seminar to increase student interaction across research areas.
2008 — 2009 Visit-day organizer, EECS, UC Berkeley.
Organized the first-ever student panel for incoming students. This idea was adopted for Visit
Day as well as orientation every subsequent year.
2006 — 2007 Secretary, Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), MIT Chapter.
2005 — 2006 President, Delta Psi Fraternity, MIT Chapter.
Invited Talks
Sp 2016 Designing a modern introduction to EECS
{ (Apr 2016) EECS Departmental Seminar, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Sp-Su 2016
Spring 2016
Nov 2015
Nov 2015
{ (Mar 2016) Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA)
Annual Conference, San Diego, CA.
Information bottlenecks in control systems
{ (Jul 2016) Automatic Control Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
{ (Apr 2016) Quantum Computing Group, MSR.
{ (Feb 2016) Computational and Mathematical Sciences, Caltech.
{ (Feb 2016) Computer Science, University of Washington.
When multiplicative noise stymies control
{ (Mar 2016) Theory Day, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA.
{ (Feb 2016) ITA Workshop, San Diego, CA.
Worker information in crowdsourcing contest design
{ Crowdsourcing workshop, EPFL, Switzerland.
An introduction to information theory and control
{ Mathematics colloquium, Reed College, Portland, OR.
Su-Fall 2015 Simple models for information flows in control systems
{ (Oct 2015) Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
{ (Jul 2015) Chinese University of Hong Kong.
{ (Mar 2015) EECS Departmental Seminar, UC Berkeley
Spring 2015 Information flows in systems with uncertain parameters,
Microsoft Research (Redmond, WA), IBM Watson Lab (Yorktown, NY), and Intel Research
(Santa Clara, CA).
Feb 2015 Control Capacity, ITA Workshop, San Diego, CA.
Sum-Fall 2014 Information flows in control systems.
Qualcomm Research (San Diego, CA), IBM Almaden Research Lab (Almaden, CA), AlcatelLucent Bell Labs (New Providence, NJ), Ericsson Research (Santa Clara, CA).
Mar
May
Feb
Jan
Aug
2014
2014
2014
2014
2013
Models for the Internet of people and things, Harvey-Mudd College, Claremont, CA.
Information flows in control systems, Information Theory Forum, Stanford University, CA.
Multiplicative uncertainty in control, Graduation Day, ITA Workshop, San Diego, CA.
Information flows in control systems, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
To crowdsource or not to crowdsource? Technicolor Research Center, Palo Alto, CA.
References
{ Prof. Anant Sahai
EECS, UC Berkeley
sahai@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Bora Nikolic
EECS, UC Berkeley
bora@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Claire Tomlin
EECS, UC Berkeley
tomlin@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Elad Alon
EECS, UC Berkeley
elad@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Lav Varshney
ECE, UIUC
varshney@illinois.edu