Eric Greenlee
PhD Student in Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing
My research centers on Human Centered Internet of Things (HCIoT) for environmental monitoring. I focus on co-designing environmental sensing systems with field scientists and other local workers to align these technologies with partners’ values. This often manifests in aims of reducing the cost and burden of gathering environmental data in places with limited internet and power infrastructure while simultaneously supporting local knowledge and jobs. I aim to center these partnerships in my research, basing my research questions on opportunities that they have identified and working towards extended real-world deployments that address challenges in environmental justice, biodiversity monitoring, and climate change mitigation.
I am co-advised by Dr. Ellen Zegura, director of the Computing and Society Lab, and Dr. Josiah Hester, director of the Ka Moamoa - Ubiquitous and Mobile Computing Lab
As of December 2024, I primarily partner with Indigenous Ojibwe scientists and knowledgeholders in the Western Great Lakes region of the United States. We have co-designed and deployed a system called Makak, a low-cost, user-friendly buoy sensor for protecting manoomin, the Ojibwe word for the wild rice that is culturally and ecologically central to local ways of life. Following a visit to Madagascar in the summer of 2024, I am working with local conservation organizations to develop a system that will improve reforestation and/or biodiversity monitoring efforts by centering the conservation workers from the nearby communities.
My work contributes to and connects the fields of the Internet of Things (IoT), networking, embedded systems, information and communication technology and development (ICTD), and human computer interaction (HCI). My education and research also aims to draw on the fields of intermittent computing, environmental science, sociology, and international development.
Formerly, I worked as a Radio Frequency engineer with the U.S. Department of Defense from 2018 to 2022, and I graduated with a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Dartmouth College in 2018. I also built a prototype wireless sensor network called MESH for collecting and aggregating environmental data in Madagascar. For more details on my part experience, see the portfolio section.
A few other highlights:
- I earned a master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2020 while working at the Department of Defense.
- I’m very interested in learning more in a variety of non-engineering fields, especially as they relate to problem solving. Ethics, sociology, developmental economics, and environmental science are all areas that enable better design of real-world solutions.
