Research Focus
Doctoral research on RF-based sensing with emphasis on Wi-Fi sensing spanning three core directions:
(i) Power-efficient Wi-Fi localization for resource-constrained IoT devices, addressing battery consumption in background location services
(ii) Network-efficient Wi-Fi sensing for distributed systems, solving scalability bottlenecks in multi-sensor deployments
(iii) Adversarial Wi-Fi sensing and defenses against privacy attacks, protecting RF-based systems from eavesdropping and inference attacks
(i) Power-efficient Wi-Fi localization for resource-constrained IoT devices, addressing battery consumption in background location services
(ii) Network-efficient Wi-Fi sensing for distributed systems, solving scalability bottlenecks in multi-sensor deployments
(iii) Adversarial Wi-Fi sensing and defenses against privacy attacks, protecting RF-based systems from eavesdropping and inference attacks
Publications
Journal 2026
AutoCompress: Improving Network Efficiency For Distributed Wireless Sensing Applications – Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal (PMCJ)
Conference 2026
Less is More: Improving WiFi Localization Accuracy with Fewer Scans – COMSNETS 2026
Conference 2025
LiteTrack: Power-Efficient Wi-Fi-Based Indoor Localization for Smartphones – IEEE ANTS 2025
Conference 2024
Improving Network Resource Utilization for Distributed Wireless Sensing Applications – AIoT, ACM MobiHoc Workshops 2024
Conference 2024
Practical Defense Against Adversarial WiFi Sensing – IEEE ANTS 2024
Journal 2022
A survey on nature-inspired techniques for computation offloading and service placement in emerging edge technologies – World Wide Web, 2022
Conference Under Review
Additional research on adversarial Wi-Fi sensing – Under review at top-tier conference
Journal Under Submission
Power-Efficient Wi-Fi Localization – Extended research on LowFI and LiteTrack systems with comprehensive evaluation across diverse indoor environments.
Research Experience
Feb – Jul 2025
Samsung Research Internship
Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore. Designed battery-oriented, coarse-grained Wi-Fi localization framework for smartphones. Generalized Wi-Fi sensing for multi-room setups addressing robustness and scalability challenges. (2 papers: 1 published, 1 under review)
Aug 2022 – Current
Ph.D. Research, IIT Madras
Focus on power-efficient Wi-Fi localization (published in IEEE ANTS and COMSNETS), network-efficient Wi-Fi sensing, and adversarial Wi-Fi sensing with defenses. Multiple publications in peer-reviewed conferences and journals.
Dec 2020 – Jun 2022
Master's Thesis, JNU
Developed optimization algorithms for computation offloading and service placement in Fog/Edge networks. (1 journal publication)
Jan – Jun 2020
Research Internship, MNNIT Allahabad
Hands-on expertise in network simulators and real systems.
Key Projects
Power-Efficient Wi-Fi Sensing
Engineered two systems (LowFI and LiteTrack) for power-aware positioning using Sionna RT-based channel modeling and motion-triggered scanning. Achieved 10–22× battery savings over continuous scanning while maintaining >80% classification accuracy across 22 locations and 10+ devices.
Network-Efficient Wi-Fi Sensing
Developed two-stage framework combining lightweight occupancy detection and SSPOC-based compression. Achieved >4000× compression with 85% accuracy, 35.5% throughput improvement, and >90% latency reduction in distributed sensing systems.
Adversarial Wi-Fi Sensing & Defense
Formulated black-box defense as constrained optimization balancing SNR preservation with adversarial misclassification. Degraded adversarial localization accuracy from 98% to 17% while maintaining signal quality. First to address SNR-communication tradeoffs in ISAC security.
Education
2022 – Present
Ph.D. in Computer Science
IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
2020 – 2022
M.Tech. in Computer Science
JNU, New Delhi
2017 – 2020
MCA
Central University of Haryana
2014 – 2017
B.Sc. (Computer Science Hons.)
St. Anthony's College, NEHU, Shillong
Awards & Achievements
✦ Malathi Veeraraghavan (MV Fellowship) Scholar 2025
✦ Travel grant for COMSNETS 2026
✦ Samsung PrePARe Research Leadership Program – national-level research leader initiative
✦ Star TA for CS3205 & CS2300 at IIT Madras
✦ IEEE ComSoc Travel Grant for IEEE ANTS 2024
✦ State Representative for UNDP National Youth Parliament (2 per state)
✦ Rank 2 in MCA, Central University of Haryana
✦ University Rank 4 in B.Sc. Computer Science (NEHU)
Professional Contribution
📋 Reviewer: IEEE Wireless Communication Letters
👨🏫 Teaching Assistant: CS3205 (Introduction to Computer Networks), CS2300 (Foundations of Computer System Design), CS6120 (Wireless Communication and Networks) – IIT Madras
🤝 Volunteer: ICDCN 2024 at IIT Madras – handled guest registrations and managed ongoing events
📢 Organizer: CSE Bits monthly event in the Department of CSE, IIT Madras (2023)
🎓 Subject Matter Expert: GATE CS NPTEL (Operating Systems, Computer Networks) – 2022
Contact & Links
Email
Location
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Affiliation
Ph.D. Scholar, SENSE Lab
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Madras
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Madras