Anagha Belavadi Subramanya is a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, originally from Bangalore, India. She holds a B.Tech. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Outside research, she is passionate about teaching, mentoring, and science communication, and enjoys traveling, cooking, and running.
Research Description: Anagha studies the environmental footprint of data centers, which are expanding rapidly to power AI and cloud computing. Building and replacing servers requires significant materials and energy, a cost often overlooked when evaluating sustainability. Her research asks whether replacing older servers with newer, more efficient ones actually reduces total emissions once the carbon cost of manufacturing is included. By modeling how replacement decisions shape both carbon emissions and material flows over time, she identifies strategies that minimize the full lifecycle environmental impact of computing infrastructure.