Shrihari Viswanath, a PhD student in the Conformable Decoders group at the MIT Media Lab, has been selected as a 2026–27 Tata Center for Technology and Design Fellow, marking his second consecutive year as a recipient. The fellowship, administered by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), supports students developing impactful technological solutions for communities in resource-constrained settings.

Working under the guidance of Prof. Canan Dagdeviren, Shrihari’s research focuses on developing scalable ultrasound systems for breast cancer screening, with the goal of expanding access to early screening and diagnosis for women in underserved regions.

During the first year of his fellowship, Shrihari worked with healthcare providers, NGOs, and communities in India to better understand the challenges surrounding breast cancer screening and follow-up care. These experiences helped sharpen the focus of his research toward reducing avoidable biopsies. By improving the specificity of ultrasound imaging, his work aims to better distinguish benign findings from those requiring further evaluation, potentially reducing unnecessary invasive procedures while easing demands on health systems where pathology and specialist capacity are limited.

In the coming year, Shrihari will continue working alongside healthcare providers and local partners to understand how the technology could be sustainably delivered as a screening service at scale in developing countries. In parallel, his research will focus on the development of miniaturized electronics and image reconstruction algorithms to support a compact and accessible ultrasound imaging platform.

The MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, established in 2012 through a gift from Tata Trusts, supports MIT students and faculty working to address real-world challenges through solutions that integrate science, engineering, and a deep understanding of social context. Fellows engage closely with communities, NGOs, and industry partners to help ensure that their work is practical, grounded, and implementable.