About

Umesh Mishra is the Dean of the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara and a Distinguished Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. He holds the titles of Richard A. Auhll Professor and Donald W. Whittier Professor of ECE. His research focuses on areas related to electrical and computer engineering, contributing to the advancement of engineering education and research at UC Santa Barbara. As a leading figure in his field, he has played a significant role in shaping the department's academic and research directions.

Research topics

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Engineering
• Ecology
• Biotechnology
• Environmental science
• Biochemical engineering
• Polymer chemistry
• Composite material
• Economics
• Organic chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Agronomy
• Pulp and paper industry
• Natural resource economics
• Materials science
• Waste management
• Business
• Metallurgy
• Chemical engineering

Selected publications

• Assessment of Soil Fertility Status in Gomati and South Tripura District, Tripura, India

  International Journal of Plant & Soil Science · 2025-12-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Aims: Geo-referencing of the important physico-chemical and nutrient parameters of Gomati and South Tripura is the prime objective of this study. Study Design: Random sampling followed by laboratory tests of important properties of soil were derived to conduct a cross-sectional survey of soil fertility. Place and Duration of Study: This experiment was carried out in Gomati and South Tripura districts of Tripura, India. The entire work was commenced at the College of Agriculture, Tripura during November, 2024 to June 2025. Methodology: Using random sampling method, geo-referenced soil samples (0-15 cm depth) were collected followed by dried (air-drying), sieved (2 mm) and inspected with regard to texture, bulk density, water-holding capacity, soil penetration, pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic carbon and available N, P2O5, K2O, Ca+Mg, S and CEC using standard methods of analysis. Correlation analysis and descriptive statistics were carried out. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), the special interpolation technique has been used for predicting the values of non-sampled periphery of the sampled locations. Results: Primarily most soil textured as sandy loam with bulk density ranging within 1.10-1.60 mg m-3; pH was ranged extremely acidic to strongly acidic (4.14-5.70) and Organic carbon ranged from 0.45-2.65%. Available nutrients were diversified: Nitrogen (87.81-225.79 kg ha-1), Phosphate (7.70-43.63 kg ha-1), Potash (60.58-451.89 kg ha-1), Calcium & Magnesium (157.01-753.67 kg ha-1) and Sulphur (0.07-18.92 kg ha-1) but CEC had a mean of 12.29-20.84 cmol kg-1. The correlation coefficient is closely related between SOC and available N (r = 0.574) and between CEC and Ca+Mg (r = 0.999). Conclusion: Gomati and South Tripura are mostly made up of sands and loam soils that are highly acidic with lower availability of nitrogen, phosphate, calcium, magnesium and sulphur; but possess medium CEC due to moderate to high SOC levels. Sustainable crop production in these districts can be advocated to be done using soil acidity-tolerant legumes, site-specific nutrient management and GIS-based mapping of soil fertility.

  PublisherDOI

• Comprehensive assessment of E. coli dynamics in river water using advanced machine learning and explainable AI

  Process Safety and Environmental Protection · 2025-01-20 · 13 citations

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• Enhancing soil moisture prediction with explainable AI: Integrating IoT and multi-sensor remote sensing data through soft computing

  Applied Soft Computing · 2025-06-05 · 15 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Self-aligned Scaled Planar N-polar GaN HEMTs with Raised Regrowth

  2024-06-24 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  In this paper, we introduce a highly-scaled self-aligned process for N-polar GaN MIS-HEMTs to achieve higher high-frequency performance, using a new structure with a thin unintentional-doped layer (UID) of ohmic regrowth to hold voltage, which is intended to increase breakdown voltage. The process consists of a gate-first process followed by the UID/n+ raised ohmic regrowth via plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). An excellent maximum current of 2.07 A/mm and a low on-resistance of 0.42 Ohm-mm were achieved at V<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DS</inf> = 5 V and V<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">GS</inf> = 1 V for L<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">G</inf> = 77 nm. A good breakdown voltage of 13 V for lateral-scaled device was measured. Peak transconductance (g<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</inf>) of 430 mS/mm was measured at V<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DS</inf> = 3 V. Excellent f<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</inf>·L<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">G</inf> of 11.1 GHz·μm with a high peak mean electron velocity over 1.5 × 10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sup> cm/s. This was achieved on commercial epi.

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• Enhancing groundwater potential evaluation: Integrating borehole log data with hybrid-MCDM approach

  Journal of Earth System Science · 2024-11-30 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
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• Experimental study and ANN verification of chemically carbonized Hevea brasiliensis sawdust for adsorption of hexavalent chromium

  Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery · 2024-06-06 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
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• Hydrobiological Studies Of Keerat Sagar Pond At Mahoba District Of U.P., India

  Journal Of Advanced Zoology · 2024-02-04

  articleOpen access

  The hydrobiological studies of keerat Sagar pond at Mahoba district of U.P. by using physiochemical parameters The samples were collected throughout the year from December 2021 to November 2022 and various parameters such as temperature, turbidity ,pH, carbonate, bicarbonate, total alkalineity, chloride , DO and free CO2 were analysed from the pond. The results obtained from all the parameters indicate that all the factors were within the permissible limits and the pond is suitable for fisheries.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Development of sustainable slag-based alkali-activated concrete incorporating fly ash at ambient curing conditions

  Energy Ecology and Environment · 2024-02-25 · 29 citations

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• Effects of rice husk ash on strength and durability performance of slag‐based alkali‐activated concrete

  Structural Concrete · 2023-07-06 · 43 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Despite their low impact on the environment and excellent mechanical strength, alkali‐activated concretes (AAC) can potentially replace ordinary Portland cement based concrete (OPC). However, AAC can be eco‐friendly and more sustainable by incorporating agricultural waste such as rice husk ash (RHA). Therefore, this study investigated the impact of RHA on the strength and durability performance of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) based AAC. For this purpose, seven mixes were made, in which RHA partially substituted GGBS with an increment of 5% up to 30%. The results of the experiments show that the workability and unit weight of AAC mixes decreased as the amount of RHA in the mix increased. The compressive strength of AAC mixes lies between 39.78 and 64.80 MPa, which is adequate for structural application. The AAC showed similar trends for all the mixes in terms of water absorption, permeable voids, apparent porosity and sorptivity. Compared to other mixes, the 5% GGBS substituted with RHA yields the highest resistance against carbonation. Compared to the sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) cured sample, the specimen treated with hydrochloric acid (HCl) performed better in loss in mass, strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity. From scanning electron microscope test, the dense microstructure with pore refinement was observed in GGBS based AAC mix with 10% RHA content. According to the findings, RHA content up to 10% substitution can be used as a substitute for the binder to produce sustainable AAC with greater durability and could eventually replace conventional concrete in structural applications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prediction of non-carcinogenic health risk using Hybrid Monte Carlo-machine learning approach

  Human and Ecological Risk Assessment An International Journal · 2023-03-23 · 15 citations

  article

  Groundwater contamination caused by elevated nitrate levels and its associated health effects is a serious global concern. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has developed a method for assessing potential human health risks from groundwater contamination that involves extensive groundwater sampling and analysis. However, this approach can be labor intensive and stand as a constraint to the robustness of the traditional approach. Here in machine learning (ML) could be alternative approaches to bridging the contemporary challenges. Machine learning models (ML) such as deep neural networks (DNN), gradient boosting machines (GBM), random forests (RF) and generalized linear models (GLM) can provide alternative solutions to overcome these limitations. In this study, the effectiveness of Hybrid Monte Carlo Machine Learning (MC-ML) models was evaluated by predicting health risks using hazard quotients. A total of 32 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for nitrate and physical properties during the pre- and post-monsoon seasons. The results showed that the groundwater was severely contaminated by elevated nitrate concentrations, leading to high hazard quotient values. The prediction model results and validation using error and performance metrics showed that the Hybrid MC-DNN model outperformed the other models in both the training and testing phases. These results suggest that this surrogate approach could be a promising alternative to traditional health risk assessment methods.

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Frequent coauthors

• S. Sadasivan

  Monash University Malaysia

  13 shared

• T.V. Ramachandran

  Bhabha Atomic Research Center Hospital

  11 shared

• B.Y. Lalit

  Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

  11 shared

• K.G. Vohra

  10 shared

• Santanu Mallik

  Poornima University

  10 shared

• Shashwati Soumya Pradhan

  8 shared

• Sushant Kumar Biswal

  7 shared

• Biswanath Bhunia

  7 shared