University Scholar Pratiksha Sharma Develops Earthquake Early Warning Prototype for Nepal

University Scholar Pratiksha Sharma, who just graduated with a double major in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke, has been working on a low-cost earthquake early warning system for Nepal, her home country, since an earthquake devastated the nation during her first year at Duke.  With enrichment funding support from the University Scholars Program and mentoring from her faculty advisor, Dr. Henri Gavin, Pratiksha built and tested a prototype.  She met with Nepal’s chief of the National Seismological Center, Lok Bijaya Adhikari, during spring break in 2018, and was able to plant two prototypes, whose signals she can monitor on her own computer.  Much work needs to be done to install the 200-300 devices across the country to develop a robust and networked early warning system.  Pratiksha and Dr. Gavin hope that this work could develop into a Duke Engage project, where participating students can fan out across Nepal to install the devices.  Read more about Pratiksha’s work here:  “Saving Lives in Nepal’s Next Big One” from the Pratt School of Engineering news.