Julia Gersey
My Blog
Press Coverage
Side Projects
Travel
About Me
I’m a second-year Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan, advised by Pei Zhang. My research spans mobile computing, urban and environmental sensing, and applied machine learning. I’m especially interested in developing and deploying smart sensor networks that address environmental and community challenges.
I’m a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow (DOE CSGF), supporting my research on a vehicular multimodal sensing system paired with high-performance computing to monitor and analyze rapidly changing urban conditions. Additionally, I’m a NSF Center for Pandemic Insights Trainee, contributing to the development and networking of multimodal sensor systems for detecting pathogens, disease outbreaks, and key environmental events.
Outside of research, I serve as the Labz Editor for ACM XRDS Magazine, a software mentor for the PiHi Samurai FIRST Robotics team, and am constantly working on too many side projects!
Research Interests
- Embedded & Mobile Systems: IoT, mobile computing, edge sensing
- Sensing Networks: urban & environmental monitoring, health sensing
- Human-Centered Computing: ubiquitous systems, real-world validation
Selected Publications
Please refer to my Google Scholar profile for a comprehensive list.
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SenSys
‘Sniffing Out the City’ - Vehicular Multimodal Sensing for Environmental and Infrastructure AnalysisACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), 2025. -
CCSCMW
ACM Midwest Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC), 2023. -
SenSys
ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), 2022. -
RACS
ACM International Conference on Research in Adaptive and Convergent Systems (RACS), 2022.
Recent News
For a complete archive of media coverage and featured articles, please visit press coverage.
- June 11, 2025: Inducted into UM’s 2024-25 Excellence in ECE Honor Roll
- May 13, 2025: Accepted to the Graduate Student Mentorship Training Course for UR2PhD
- May 8, 2025: Best Poster Award for ‘Sniffing out the City’ at ACM SenSys 2025
- April 9, 2025: Received a Department of Energy Computational Science Fellowship!
- December 20, 2024: Accepted to Computing Research Association’s Grad Cohort
- August 26, 2024: Started my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan – Go Blue!
- May 3, 2024: Speaking about AQIoT project at the ACM SIGCAS Work in Progress event
- April 2024: Honored to recieve the Baldwin Wallace Woman of Achievement Award
- April 4, 2024: Honorable Mention for the 2024 NSF GRFP
- January 8, 2024: Selected as 1 of 55 Finalists for the NCWIT AiC Collegiate Award
Relevant Affiliations
PiHi Samurai Robotics DOE CSGF NSF Center for Pandemic Insights ACM XRDS Magazine UMich ECE Grad Workshop Mobile & IoT for Planet and Society Research Group (MOPS) Carnegie Mellon HCII REU Carnegie Mellon OurCS Women in Tech NASA Ohio Space Grant Consortium
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