Frontier Fellow 2025-2026:
Psi Padhya
Title: “Democracy, Data, and Decarbonization: Urban Climate Interventions and the Internet of Things”
Psi Padhya is a third-year undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz, pursuing a B.S. in Computer Engineering with a concentration in Digital Hardware and a minor in Politics. At UCSC, Padhya is involved in research on the intersection of global and urban politics in the context of climate governance under Professor David Gordon, contributing to and conducting thorough analysis of a global dataset that tracks transparency practices among 350+ local governments. In Professor Katia Obraczka’s Inter-Networking Research Group (i-NRG) Lab, Padhya works on optimizing the integration of the Network Simulation Bridge tool with network simulators like OMNeT++ and ns-3. Padhya also leads full-stack development initiatives at Tech4Good, supports student success as a Learning Support Services tutor, and contributes to campus equity efforts. Padhya’s work advances his goal of exploring the convergence of engineering and social good, and he is thrilled to be working on this project that applies technology in service of broader social and environmental goals while delving into its nuances.