Before joining Rice in 2006, she received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and her M.A. in Statistics both from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research is focused on developing techniques for synthesis and management of customizable, adaptive, lightweight, and secure embedded systems, adaptive energy delivery, and applications of emerging technologies. Koushanfar is a recipient of an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, an INTEL Open Collaborative Research (OCR) Fellowship, and a Mobicom Best Paper Award. In 2008, she was named one of MIT Technology Review's young innovators under 35 (TR-35).