Gireeja Ranade
Í
264 Cory Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
B gireeja@eecs.berkeley.edu
http://eecs.berkeley.edu/∼gireeja
Education
2014
•
Ph.D., 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
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M.S., EECS, University of California, Berkeley.
Thesis: Information content in the local field potential: implications for brain-machine interfaces
2007
•
S.B., EECS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Minor in Biomedical Engineering
2003
HSC, Fergusson College, Pune, India.
•
Experience
Jan 15 —
EECS department, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Lecturer, pilot version EECS 16A: Designing Information Devices and Systems I
EECS 16A is a new first-year course at Berkeley that combines theoretical ideas from linear algebra,
circuit design and signal processing with hands-on practical engineering labs to provide students a unified
introduction to all areas of EECS. The course builds up four different application modules that center
around novel laboratory experiences. Each lab module connects a theoretical concept to a practical
application: the imaging lab (linear algebra and inversion), the touchscreen lab (circuit design), the
locationing lab (least squares and regression) and the software-defined radio lab (frequency-domain
analysis). The lectures and homework were designed from scratch to cover these fundamental concepts.
Jan 15 — May 15 Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Berkeley, CA.
Long-term postdoctoral participant in the Information Theory program.
Jan 10 — Dec 14 Wireless Foundations Center, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Advisor: Anant Sahai
My dissertation examines informational bottlenecks in control systems with parameter uncertainty. We
identify a novel notion of "control capacity" as the fundamental limit on the ability of a noisy actuator
to control a system. Control capacity can be different from Shannon capacity, the fundamental limit on
an encoder’s ability to communicate information across a noisy channel. This understanding can guide
communication and control co-design in the high-performance regime of the Internet of Things.
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.
We used these principles to understand contest designs using data from 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 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.
May 04 — Aug 04 Systems Research Institute, Pune, India.
Mentor: Jaswant Krishnayya
Internship: Researched feasibility of introducing renewable energy sources into the Indian market and
presented findings to members of the Indian Planning Commission.
Jan 04 — May 04 Responsive Environments Group, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA.
Undergraduate researcher: Worked on development team for dense interconnecting sensor network.
Jan 04 — Feb 04 Mobile Autonomous Systems Lab, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Designed, built and programmed a vision-based autonomous robot as part of a three-member team.
Awards and Honors
{ Invited participant for the Rising Stars in EECS Workshop, UC Berkeley, 2014.
{ Demetri Angelakos Memorial Achievement Award, UC Berkeley, 2014.
The 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.
{ 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 nationally in the Indian National Mathematical Olympiad, India,
2002.
{ National Talent Scholarship, India, 2001.
{ Tau Beta Pi (TBP), Eta Kappa Nu (HKN).
Teaching
Spring 2015 EE 16A Designing Information Devices and Systmes I, UC Berkeley.
I was one of the two main instructors (along with Elad Alon) for the pilot course of 60 students. I was
responsible for course organization, recruiting and managing TAs, readers and lab assistants, and also
for much of the conceptual flow of the course material.
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
(Reference HKN ratings: Sinclair Sp12: 6.13/7.00, Sahai Fa14: 5.84/7.00, Vazirani Fa13: 4.97/7.00,
Rao Fa11: 4.66/7.00)
Fall 2014 EE 229A Information Theory and Coding, UC Berkeley.
Guest lecturer for two weeks for the graduate class of 20 students on Information Theory.
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.
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.
Student Mentoring
May 13 — Jul 14 Govind Ramnarayan, UC Berkeley Class of 2014.
Currently CS Theory graduate student at MIT.
Jun 13 — present Sahaana Suri, UC Berkeley EECS Senior, joining the Stanford EE PhD program in Fall 2015.
Selected as one of ten finalists nationally for the CRA undergraduate research award 2014.
Recipient of the Warren Dere Design Award 2014, the James H. Eaton Memorial Scholarship
2014, and the Arthur M. Hopkin Award 2014 in EECS at UC Berkeley.
May 14 — present Ena Hariyoshi, currently UC Berkeley EECS Junior.
Recipient of Center for Science of Information (CSOI) undergraduate research grant 2014.
Mar 14 — present Leah Dickstein, currently UC Berkeley EECS Sophomore.
Selected to the Los Alamos Dynamics Summer School as a sophomore. The program targets
upper-division undergraduates and first-year graduate students.
Leadership
2015 Organizer, Undergraduate Research Symposium, EECS and CoE, UC Berkeley.
Initiated a forum for undergraduate researchers to come together and present their research.
The inaugural event this semester has 70 students signed up to present posters and 300 students
signed up to attend.
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.
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 graduate student
progress annually. We reworked the review framework to improve communications and
facilitate mutual feedback.
2009 — 2010 Co-President, EE Graduate Student Association (EEGSA), UC Berkeley.
{ Led a team of twenty officers to invigorate the organization. Revamped organization structure
and recruited new officers. Improved teamwork and social accountability of the team. Initiated
monthly officer meetings, and actively cultivated a friendly atmosphere enabling new students
to join. Focused on student advocacy and other projects detailed below.
{ Student well-being and inclusion
- Wrote and conducted annual student well-being survey.
- Presented results at faculty retreat with concrete followup actions. This resulted in:
· students to have access to common lab space.
· formation of the first prelim-ombudsman committee to help first-year students 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
{ Department environment and communications
- Conceptualized and organized the first student-faculty “Town Hall” to conduct an open
discussion of department affairs regarding diversity, work environments, and other student
concerns. The Town Hall is now a widely-attended annual event that has spurred important
department-wide discussions, policy changes and actions.
- Organized a staff-appreciation event to thank department staff.
2009 — 2010 Secretary, Women in Computer Science and Engineering (WICSE), UC Berkeley.
2008 — 2009 Lunch-coordinator, 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.
Service
2008 — 2013 Graduate Admissions Committee, EECS, UC Berkeley.
Reviewed 100+ applications to the EECS graduate program each year.
2008 — 2013
2011 — 2013
2012
2011
Advisor to incoming graduate students, EECS, UC Berkeley.
Organizer, NetCommDSP Seminar Coordinator, UC Berkeley.
Mentor to incoming undergraduate women, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).
Organizer, Grad-undergrad research mixer, EECS, UC Berkeley.
Invited Talks
Mar 2015 Simple models for information flows in control systems, EECS, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
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Information flows in systems with uncertain parameters, IBM Watson Lab, Yorktown, NY.
Control Capacity, Information Theory and Applications Workshop, San Diego, CA.
Information flows in systems with uncertain parameters, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA.
Information flows in control systems, Qualcomm Research, San Diego, CA.
Information flows in control systems, IBM Almaden Research Lab, Almaden, CA.
Information flows in control systems, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, New Providence, NJ.
Information flows in control systems, Ericsson Research, Santa Clara, CA.
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.
Publications
Crowdsourcing
{ G. Ranade and L.R. Varshney, “To crowdsource or not to crowdsource?” Human Computation
Workshop at the 26th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2012.
{ G. Ranade and L.R. Varshney, “Worker information in crowdsourcing contest design” journal
paper in preparation.
Active systems with uncertain parameters
{ K. Woyach, K. Harrison, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, “Comments on unknown channels,” Information
Theory Workshop, 2012.
{ S. Park, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, “Carry-free models and beyond,” IEEE International Symposium
on Information Theory, 2012.
{ G. Ranade and A. Sahai, “Non-coherence in estimation and control,” 51st Annual Allerton
Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, 2013.
{ G. Ramnarayan, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, “Side-information in control and estimation,” IEEE
International Symposium on Information Theory, 2014.
{ G. Ranade, A. Sahai, “Control capacity,” IEEE International Symposium on Information
Theory, 2015.
{ G. Ranade, A. Sahai, “Control capacity,” journal paper in preparation.
{ G. Ranade, A. Sahai, “Estimation over non-coherent channels,” journal paper in preparation.
{ G. Ranade, S. Park, A. Sahai, “Carry-free models to model parameter uncertainty in control
and communication,” journal paper in preparation.
Decentralized control
{ G. Ranade and A. Sahai, “Implicit communication in multiple-access settings,” IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, 2011.
Protocol design for wireless industrial control
{ V. Narasimha Swamy, S. Suri, P. Rigge, M. Weiner, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, B. Nikolic, “Cooperative communication for High-Reliability Low-Latency Wireless Control,” IEEE International
Conference on Communications, 2015.
{ V. Narasimha Swamy, S. Suri, P. Rigge, M. Weiner, G. Ranade, A. Sahai, B. Nikolic,
“Cooperative communication for High-Reliability Low-Latency Wireless Control,” journal
paper in preparation.
Brain-machine interfaces
{ K. Ganguly, L. Secundo, G. Ranade, A. Orsborn, D. Dragan, J. Wallis, R. Knight, and J.
Carmena, “Cortical representation of ipsilateral arm movements in monkey and man,” Journal
of Neuroscience, 2009.
{ G. Ranade, K. Ganguly, and J. M. Carmena, “LFP beta power predicts cursor stationarity in
BMI task,” Proceedings of the IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, 2009.
{ J. M. Carmena, G. Ranade, and K. Ganguly, “Ensemble representation of movement parameters
in motor cortex during center-out reaches with the ipsilateral arm.” Abstract at 38th Annual
Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC, 2008.
Cardio-vascular modeling
{ T. A. Parlikar, T. Heldt, G. V. Ranade, G. C. Verghese, “Model-based estimation of cardiac
output and total peripheral resistance,” IEEE Computers in Cardiology, Durham, NC, 2007.
{ T. A. Parlikar, G. V. Ranade, T. Heldt, G. C. Verghese, “Systems and methods for modelbased estimation of cardiac output and systemic vascular resistance,” U.S. Patent, Publication
No: US 2008/027812 A1, Nov. 20, 2008.
References
{ Prof. Anant Sahai
EECS, UC Berkeley
sahai@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Bora Nikolic
EECS, UC Berkeley
bora@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Elad Alon
EECS, UC Berkeley
elad@eecs.berkeley.edu
{ Prof. Lav Varshney
ECE, UIUC
varshney@illinois.edu