About

Hello, there!

Sakshi Mishra is a Senior AI engineer-cum-intrapreneur at Microsoft (Redmond, USA) working on building generative-AI based product - named Project AirSim - for Aerial Autonomous Systems, bringing state-of-the-art AI into innovative product ideation and prototyping efforts.

Sakshi is Forbes 30 Under 30 (North America) Honoree in 2022, recipient of 'The Cleantech Innovator' award (2020) from the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI), recipient of Distinguished Alumni - Chancellor’s Special Award (2022) from VIT University. Sakshi has been named one of the 50 most influential corporate and agency insights leaders of the day by Remesh (2020). Sakshi is an IEEE Senior Member and holds a Professional Engineer (P.E.) License.

Previously, Sakshi was an Energy + AI Staff Researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory, spearheading tool-development-centric research efforts for the digital transformation of the energy industry. She was awarded Chairman’s Award for Exceptional Performance for leading REopt Lite (an energy decision-making tool) software's open-sourcing effort that opened up collaboration doors for industry, developers, and researchers to enable the transformational levels of grid-edge cleantech deployments. Before that, Sakshi was a Grid Planning Engineer at American Electric Power, where she served as an industry advisor for the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC).


Sakshi's dynamic journey, spanning across countries and disciplines, has taken her across four countries—United States, Canada, Australia, and India—where she has lived, studied, and excelled professionally over the past decade. Beyond her technical accomplishments, she actively seeks opportunities to engage as a keynote speaker and panelist, effectively communicating the ever-evolving landscape of the applied AI field. She uses her voice to advocate for diversity and inclusion. She received her master's degree in Energy Science Technology and Policy (Electrical and Computer Engineering concentration) from Carnegie Mellon University, as an academic excellence awardee. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from VIT University, India. She conducted her Bachelor's thesis as a full-ride scholar at Deakin University, Australia. Sakshi has published numerous journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters.

My Timeline

[Interview Feature] SWE AllTogether on Generative AI

Society of Women Engineer's All Together Blog

July 2023
Interviewed to share perspective about leveraging Gen-AI technology

[Feature] Women to Watch by WIA

Women to Watch by Women in Analytics Community

October 2022
Recognized for contributions to AI, renewable energy and sustainability

[Feature] SheCanCode Community

Feature Titled - What does it take to work in AI?

August 2022
Interviewed for sharing my experience in AI field along with being a female in the field.

[Career Achievement] Microsoft Project AirSim announced at Farnborough International AirShow

Building AI Blocks for Aerial Autonomous Systems, bringing state-of-the-art AI into the innovative product ideation and prototyping efforts as Senior AI engineer-cum-intrapreneur.

July 2022
Project AirSim: An end-to-end platform for simulating, training, and validating autonomous aerial mobility solutions including last-mile delivery, infrastructure inspection, and Air Taxis/Urban Air Mobility (UAM).

[Panelist] Predictive Analytics World Climate

Invited speaker, participated on the Energy Panel

June 2022
Deep technical conversation on ML for green energy: the relevant ML methods, challenges, data, and applications to energy supply/demand forecasting, grid management, energy efficiency, and more.

[Commencement Speaker] Carnegie Mellon University EST&P Graduation Ceremony

Commencement Guest and Speaker at EST&P Program at CMU

May 2022
Shared insights from my non-linear career trajectory with brilliant new graduates.

[Keynote Speaker] ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit

Keynote Speaker at the Student Project Opening Lunch

May 2022
Shared insights from my Energy + AI career to highlight the potential energy field holds.

[Keynote Speaker] Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) Annual Meeting

Keynote Speaker, JISEA (NREL)

April 2022
Topic - Challenges and Opportunities of Integrating AI into Physical Energy Systems

[National Judge] Department of Energy - EnergyTech Up challenge

National judge for inaugural year of EnergyTech UP

March 2022
Challenge sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

[Testifier] The U.S. Chamber Commission on Competition, Inclusion, and Innovation (AI Commission)

Testimony offered at the AI Commission (Austin, TX)

March 2022
Testified about state of the AI in context of national AI strategic planning

[Advisor] American Made Solar

Carnegie Mellon University, Energy Week

March 2022
Industry advisor for American Made Solar at CMU Energy Week

[Career Achievement] IEEE Grade Elevation - Senior Member

IEEE Senior Member

February 2022
Senior Membership is an honor bestowed only to those who have made significant contributions to the profession.

[Award] VIT University Distinguished Alumni - Chancellor’s Special Award

Global Alumni Base

January 2022
Given to the most successful alumni of VIT institute (across all the campuses) based on their significant contributions and achievements.

[Award] Forbes 30 Under 30 (Energy) Honoree (2022)

North American List

December 2021
The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries each.

[New Role] Joined Microsoft

Moved to WA to join Microsoft as Senior AI Engineer

November 2021
Working on building Autonomy Blocks for Autonomous Aerial Mobility applications.

[Invited Speaker] Stanford Magic Lab

Topic - Blockchain for Energy Systems

October 2021
Potential of Blockchain Technology to revolutionize Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

[Invited Speaker] Hawaii Data Science Institute

Topic - Data Science & Optimization and REopt Lite

November 2020
Contextualize Optimization in Data Science and REopt Lite deep dive

[Feature] REEL Award by Remesh

Research & Equitable Leadership Award Honoree

October 2020
50 most influential corporate and agency insights leaders of the day by Remesh - those who start fresh conversations at scale through notable thought leadership.

[Invited Speaker] Women in Data Science

Topic - Making an Impact with Data

September 2020
Sharing experience - Energy and Data Science

[Invited Speaker] Pint of Science

Topic - AI needs you

September 2020
STEM outreach, advocating for Women in AI

[Award] Cleantech Innovator Award by CELI

Received this recognition from Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI)

August 2020
For contributions to the Energy + AI field

[Award] Chairman’s Award for Exceptional Performance - NREL

In recognition of release of the open source REopt Lite model

August 2020
Lead the REopt Lite Open Source Project at NREL

[Feature] Q&A with Sakshi Mishra - NREL

Addressing the Challenges of Climate Change and Advocating for Women in STEM

August 2020
NREL feature

[Podcast guest] The Alan Turing Institute (Data Driven channel)

How to Build a Career in Energy Analytics and AI

July 2020
Chat with The Alan Turing Institute professor Ganna Pogrebna

[Keynote Speaker] International Conference on 'AL and ML Applications in Smart Buildings'

Keynote speaker, VIT University

July 2020
Behind-The-Meter Renewable Energy Optimization for Smart Buildings and Campuses – REopt Lite

[Podcast guest] So you want to be a Data Scientist?

Data Science in Research with Sakshi Mishra

July 2020
Chat with Misra Turp about AI in Energy Research field

[STEM Outreach] Women in AI - Launch Denver AI Chapter

WAI inaugural talk with DoE AI Director and NREL researchers

June 2020
Initiative to help increase female participation in AI field

[Podcast guest] Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

Spoke about my STEM career trajectory so far

June 2020
Take of a Female Engineer with Industry + Research Experience

[Feature] Department of Energy - Your AI Career

Featured for my work in the interdisciplinary Energy and AI research

June 2020
Researcher working with AI and Energy

[Feature] Science Node - Paths to working with HPC

Featured for my work with NREL's Eagle HPC

April 2020
Energy researcher working with HPC

[Panelist] Energy Systems Integration Group - Spring Summit

Panel speaker for ESIG's Workshop webinar

April 2020
REopt Lite API dev Lead

[Feature] The AI Journal

Featured in The AI Journal's Women In AI series

April 2020
Tips from Women in Tech

[Feature] Women @ Energy STEM Rising

Featured in Department of Energy's '#WomenInPower impact innovate inspire' series

March 2020
Rising Female Researcher in STEM field

[Panelist] REopt Open Source Webinar

Panel speaker for REopt Lite's Open Source Review Webinar

March 2020
REopt Lite API - R&D Lead

[Panelist] CMU Energy Week 2020 - AI & Energy Panel

Panel speaker, AI & Energy – Examining the Potential to Bolster Smart Transitions beyond Cybersecurity

March 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19)
Researcher working on the nexus of Energy + AI

[Career Achievement] REopt Lite API - Open Sourced

NREL's behind-the-meter optimization model is open-sourced

February 2020
Technical Lead

[Invited Speaker] Seminar at Florida International University

Smart Grid Evolution - Opportunities for apply AI based solutions in energy systems

February 2020
Invited Speaker

[Panelist] AEE World Conference and Expo 2019

Panel speaker at the DoE Better Plants Program session (discussed REopt Lite)

September 2019
Highlighted REopt Lite's successes and shared the roadmap of adding new features

[Tool Featured] REopt made NREL headlines

NREL news homepage highlighted the capabilities of REopt

August 2019
REopt Lite API development Lead

[Conference Presentation] Attended 2018 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo

Presented two papers for IEEE publication

September 2018
Presentation and Poster session

[Seminar Speaker] CMU Energy and Innovation Club - Seminar

Conducted a hands-on workshop for REopt Lite API

March 2018
Live workshop for using REopt Lite's API

[New Role] Joined National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Moved to Golden, CO to join NREL as a Reseacher

August 2018
Started working on REopt and Intelligent Campus Projects

[Career Achievement] Earned Professional Engineering License

P.E. in Electrical Engineering, State of Califormia

April 2018
Working at AEP

[Award] Toastmasters - Competent Communicator

AEP Tulsa Toastmasters Club

May 2017
Competent Communicator Award

[Award] Academic Excellence Award

Carnegie Mellon University

May 2016
Energy Science Technology and Policy

[New Role] Joined American Electric Power

Moved to Tulsa, OK to join AEP as a Grid Planning Engineer

January 2016
Joined SPP Voltage Task Force and Advised PSERC projects as Indutry Advisor

My Projects

Multi-time-horizon Solar Forecasting

This project is PyTorch implementation of the unified RNN based architecture for multi-time-horizon Solar Forecasting.

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LSTM based Unified Architecture for Multi-time-horizon Solar Forecasting

PyTorch implementation (modular as opposed to single script/jupyter notebook) of the unified LSTM based architecture for solar forecasting.

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REopt Lite - call the API using this easy-to-use script

Open-sourced repository from NREL to access REopt Lite API

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Modeling and analyzing RECS data using dimentionality reduction and t-SNE

Visualizing n-dimensional dataset using t-SNE dimentionality reduction algorithm.

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Clustering of Distribution Feeders with Interactive Visualizations

Python implementation of k-means clustering algorithm for identifying 7-10 representative feeders from 700+ distribution feeders.

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Machine Learning to Draw Insights Using Data From Smart Meters

Model, analyze, and predict residential power consumption from smart meter data using machine learning.


My Skills

My Career

Microsoft (Bellevue, Washington, U.S.)

Working on Microsoft Project AirSim -- An end-to-end platform for simulating, training, and validating autonomous aerial mobility solutions including last-mile delivery, infrastructure inspection, and Air Taxis/Urban Air Mobility (UAM).

Nov 2021 - Present
Senior AI Engineer

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, Colorado, U.S.)

Worked on creating AI-driven solutions for energy systems and buildings including resource and load forecasting. Also, led the development of REopt Lite API for DER integration (sabbatical from Jan 2021 to Aug 2021).

Aug. 2018 - Nov 2021
Staff Researcher

University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Worked on application of blockchain for energy systems (P2P energy markets) as part of Graduate Blockchain Training Pathway at UBC.

Sep. 2020 - Aug. 2021
Doctoral Researcher

American Electric Power (Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.)

Worked in AEP's West Transmission Planning wing, conducted full-interconnection studies for utility-scale renewable energy projects; Participated in various task forces in SPP and ERCOT.

Jan. 2016 - Aug. 2018
Grid Planning Engineer

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.)

For Energy Transportation and Storage course, incorporated HOMER modeling tool in the syllabus and helped student build grid-connected and off-grid renewable energy generation mdoels incorporating energy storage to analyze economics of their constuction and operations.

Sep. 2015 - Dec. 2015
Graduate Teaching Assistant

Black & Veatch (Seattle, Washington, U.S.)

Worked in B&V's energy practice, studied distribution feeder hosting capacity for the rooftop PV, customer PV adoption predictions for residential + commerical sectors, and fuel cell based plant's feasibility study.

May. 2015 - Jul. 2015
Renewable Energy Engineering Intern

University of Michigan (Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.)

Worked in ECE research lab, researched day-ahead energy consumption scheduling of residential building using MPC.

Sep. 2014 - Dec. 2014
Research Assistant

Deakin University (Geelong, Victoria, Australia)

Worked in Renewable Energy Lab as full-ride scholar, conducted hardware-in-the-loop experiments to design controls for pv and wind connected residential loads.

Feb. 2014 - Jun. 2014
Research Intern

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhopal, MP, India)

Conducted cost-effectiveness analysis on the permanent magnet DC traction motor with reconfigurable windings for high-speed locomotion applications.

May 2012 - Jun. 2012
Intern

My Publications

Journal Articles

peer-reviewed articles (published and in-review)

Conference Papers

conference publications

Book Chapters

published, in-publication, and accepted abstract

Software Records

publically accessible repository for using REopt Lite API


My Education

University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering (scholarships - 1.Four Year Fellowship and 2. Mitacs)

Sep. 2020 - Dec 2022
On Leave-of-Absence

Stanford University (Online)

Professional Certificate, Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies

Sep. 2016 - Jan. 2017
Certification awarded

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.)

Master of Science in Energy Science Technology and Policy, concentration - ECE

Jan. 2015 - Dec. 2015
GPA 4 on 4, degree awarded

University of Michigan (Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.)

Master of Science in Engineering Management (1 semester)

Sep. 2014 - Dec. 2014
GPA 4 on 4

Deakin University (Geelong, Victoria, Australia)

Bachelor of Technology, Electrical and Electronics Engineering (1 semester abroad)

Feb. 2014 - June. 2014
Bachelor's thesis completed

Vellore Institute of Technology (Chennai, Tamilnadu, India)

Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Aug. 2010 - Jun. 2014
GPA 8.35 on 10, degree awarded