Dr. Shrutidhara Sarma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Jodhpur, where she leads the FERN (Flexible Sensors from Nanocomposites) Lab (https://www.shrutidhara.com/fern). A distinguished researcher in thin-film sensors, laminated nanocomposites, and flexible sensing technologies, Dr. Sarma has received prestigious awards and fellowships, including the INAE Young Associate 2024, WISER Award 2023 by Indo-German Science & Technology Centre, ISEES Young Scientist Award 2023, and Smt. Sheela Baya National Award (IEI, 2023), among others.

She completed her Ph.D. in 2017 partly from IIT Guwahati and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, through the Erasmus Mundus fellowship from the European Commission. During her Ph.D., she pioneered thin-film gauges for transient temperature and heat flux measurements, before she served as a post-doctoral fellow at Kunsan National University of South Korea.

Dr. Sarma's research has led to transformative advancements in wearable and assistive sensor technologies. Her work on Smart Respiration Monitoring with Synchronized Ventilation system for neonates integrates ultrasensitive strain sensing patches that enables real-time, non-invasive monitoring and reduces infection risks. She also developed FLEXTEM, a flexible skin thermometer that provides precise, continuous temperature monitoring, ideal for personalized healthcare (https://doi.org/10.1002/pc.27178). 

Her touch sensors for assistive applications detect touch and bending simultaneously with high sensitivity and minimal drift, achieving 93% accuracy in gesture recognition (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666053925000049?via%3Dihub). Additionally, she developed a novel dataset, FEAD, to model PVDF nanofiber properties using machine learning, bridging experimental and computational insights  (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2022.111661). 

Supported by over 1.9 crore INR funding, including Indo-German TESSLA and ANRF-FRAMME projects, her work in sensor technology promises transformative advances in healthcare, sustainability, and engineering.

Besides Academics, she is also an excellent performer of music and had represented India in Japan through Jenesys 2.0 program.