Nisha Agrawal | Computer Science | Best Researcher Award

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India

Author Profile

SCOPUS

EARLY ACADEMIC PURSUITS

Ms. Nisha Agrawal began her academic journey with a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Information Technology from the University of Rajasthan (2001–2005). Demonstrating exceptional academic excellence, she went on to pursue a Master of Technology (M.Tech) in Computer and Information Technology from Savitribai Phule Pune University (2016–2018), graduating with an Outstanding grade. Her early interest in computational systems and performance optimization laid the foundation for a career immersed in high-performance computing (HPC) and GPGPU technologies.

PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVORS

Ms. Agrawal has been associated with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune since 2005, rising through the ranks to her current role as Scientist E. Over the past two decades, she has been instrumental in architecting, optimizing, and deploying scientific applications on India’s national supercomputing infrastructures. A NVIDIA-Certified Mentor, she actively mentors teams in global OpenHackathons, nurturing the next generation of HPC professionals.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RESEARCH FOCUS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

Her core research interests span:

• GPGPU Computing: CUDA, OpenACC, OpenCL

• Parallel Programming Models: MPI, OpenMP

• Application Porting & Optimization: ANUGA (Flood modeling), WRF (Weather simulation), NAMD (Molecular dynamics), DFT (Density Functional Theory)

She has extensively worked on heterogeneous architectures (CPU+GPU), focusing on performance tuning and energy efficiency of HPC workloads. Her work contributes significantly to the computational sciences, particularly in areas demanding real-time and large-scale simulation capabilities.

ACCOLADES AND RECOGNITION

With over a dozen peer-reviewed publications, including those in IEEE, ACM, Springer, and SupercomputingAsia, Ms. Agrawal has established herself as a recognized voice in scientific computing. Some key contributions include:

• Scalability Analysis of WRF on NVIDIA Ampere (2022)

• Performance Evaluation of AMDKIIT for DFT (2025)

• Memory Bandwidth Analysis: Xeon Phi vs Xeon (Women in HPC)
  Her work is increasingly cited in scientific literature addressing performance optimization, GPU utilization, and edge computing.

IMPACT AND INFLUENCE

A respected HPC specialist, Ms. Agrawal has delivered 30+ invited talks and tutorials at India’s top institutions such as IITs, IISERs, and international forums. She contributes to the HPC ecosystem not just through development, but also through education and mentorship, fostering innovation and skill-building among students and researchers.

Her participation in Women in HPC at ISC, Grace Hopper Conference (GHCI), and IEEE and ACM symposiums underscores her advocacy for diversity and excellence in computational sciences.

LEGACY AND FUTURE CONTRIBUTIONS

Ms. Agrawal’s legacy lies in shaping India’s HPC landscape, especially through:

• Democratizing GPU-based computing

• Promoting women in scientific computing

• Championing energy-efficient simulations for societal applications like climate modeling and disaster prediction

Her future endeavors focus on enhancing AI-HPC convergence, cloud-native HPC architectures, and mentor-based innovation programs, ensuring a sustainable pipeline of research talent and technology integration.

 CONCLUSION

Ms. Nisha Agrawal is not only a pioneer in HPC and GPGPU computing but also a dedicated mentor, educator, and researcher. Her two-decade journey from student to Scientist E at C-DAC exemplifies technical brilliance, scientific curiosity, and a vision for inclusive technological growth. Her contributions continue to empower research, education, and innovation across India and beyond.

 NOTABLE PUBLICATION: