She is working in the Agricultural Automation Engineering research emphasis area of the department since 2013. Her research interests are towards advanced sensing techniques for high-throughput crop phenotyping, with special focus on the development of optical and chemical sensor-based tools for non-invasive, rapid and continuous crop monitoring applications. She currently is leading phenomics aspect as a part of couple ongoing NIFA-AFRI grants. Sankaran holds a BS in Zoology, a MS in Environment Science, a MS in Environmental Engineering, and a PhD in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.