Name: Krishna Kumar Venkatasubramanian
URI Title: Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Statistics
Email: krish@uri.edu
Preferred pronouns: He/Him
The College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to welcome several new professors beginning in the fall 2019 semester. Assistant Professor Krishna Venkatasubramanian, Ph.D., joins the Department of Computer Science and Statistics. Dr. Venkatasubramanian brings with him an impressive background in research and teaching. He previously held positions at the University of Pennsylvania and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He looks forward to being a part of the URI community, where he will be able to play an important role in promoting education and research.
Venkatasubramanian’s diverse and multidisciplinary research interests center on cyber-security, applied machine learning, wearable Internet-of-Things (wIoT), and assistive technologies. “I am driven by a strong desire to develop computational solutions that are useful for helping vulnerable populations in our society,” he says. His current research includes designing authentication, clinical, and personal safety solutions using wearable Internet-of-Things and assistive technologies. He is presently designing solutions to address real-world problems pertaining to people with a variety of disabilities and addiction disorders. Venkatasubramanian recently received a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Secure and Trustworthy Computing grant to pursue a project to develop new authentication solutions for people with upper extremity impairment. He is also working with the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission (MA-DPPC), Massachusetts Advocates Standing Strong, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute on a project funded through MA-DPPC on combating abuse against persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities—an ongoing yet underreported problem.
In addition to his plentiful research agenda, in the fall semester, Venkatasubramanian will be teaching CSC 212: Data Structures and Abstractions. “Liberal arts education,” he says, “is absolutely essential for being a well-rounded person and productive citizen. It seems that society as a whole has somewhat lost its appreciation for the liberal arts and has become focused more on disciplines such as STEM. Being in the STEM discipline myself, I can see the pitfalls of this.” As such, he aims to cultivate a learning environment that engages STEM with language, culture, and history. To his students, he says: “Dream big. Pursue your dreams. But, in doing so, keep in mind the consequences of your work and ideas on the larger society. Work on things that benefit everyone in the society (especially the marginalized) and not just a selective few.”
~Written by Aria Mia Loberti, Communication Studies, Philosophy, and Political Science triple major
