Shamsundar Subbarao is a faculty member in Engineering at NIE (National Institute of Engineering in Mysuru, India) and Head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (NIE-CREST). His work with NIE-CREST focuses on the development of green technologies; namely, the center analyzes biodiesel and biomass, runs a large biogas digester, and works with microgrids. In addition, NIE-CREST does interesting fieldwork and wonderful community outreach in Mysuru. This includes work being done in Chamundi Hills at the Chamundeshwari Temple. Here, Prof. Shamsundar has installed a biogas digester that processes all kitchen waste, fuel efficient biomass stoves, and a rainwash harvesting system. NIE-CREST is also doing work at the local Mysuru zoo.
Giri Venkataramanan is a professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering at UW-Madison. In 2015, Professor Giri Venkataramanan received a grant through the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment for his project, Microgrids Partnership for Sustainable Global Development. This two-year project is a partnership among UW-Madison and three organizations in Mysuru India – The National Institute of Engineering, Arivu School, and Development through Education – to advance the technology of microgrids for sustainable global development.
Lee Shaver is a graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UW-Madison. Shaver has collaborated with Prof. Venkataramanan on the Microgrids Partnership for Sustainable Global Development. This has included making two trips to NIE to further this work, one in December 2015 and one through summer 2016.