Noah Klugman

About

I am a co-founder and CEO of nLine, an independent, non-venture-funded company dedicated to improving the performance of critical infrastructure around the world. The idea behind it is that any community should be able to deploy sensors and make data-driven decisions about the infrastructure it depends on, without giving up the privacy of its members. Today we measure power outages and voltage quality, on and off grid, at households, businesses, markets and health facilities in Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Nigeria. Our clients include the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the International Growth Centre, sometimes directly and sometimes as subcontractors of evaluation firms including Mathematica and Social Impact. Right now we are scaling our Sierra Leone work from pilots to a nationwide deployment under the MCC Sierra Leone Compact.

Have a look at nLine's site, blog, and open-source work, including the Plotly.js panel for Grafana that we maintain.

I serve on the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Advisory Council and on the advisory board of UC Berkeley's Digital Transformation of Development traineeship, and have served on the program committee of ACM COMPASS and as a reviewer for the ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies.

Before nLine I earned my PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where my thesis explored techniques for measuring power outages that would work well anywhere on earth. That work led to many of the core ideas behind nLine and our first scale measurements of grid reliability in Accra, and received Berkeley EECS's Sevin Rosen Funds Award for Innovation. If you want one place to start, our chapter in the open-access textbook Introduction to Development Engineering tells the Ghana story from first pilot to scale deployment. Earlier I interned at IBM Research Africa and, twice, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Since Michigan I have been a lead engineer on Project My Heart Your Heart, which refurbishes donated pacemakers and implantable defibrillators for patients in low-income countries who cannot afford new ones. The project grew from a 2010 proposal in Circulation into a clinical trial (NCT04016870). My part has been the test and sterilization hardware; see [4] below.

For fun I make robotic puppets (KQED, CBS, Adafruit, SFGate, Engadget) and some music.

Contact

Publications

Much of what I write now goes on the nLine blog; the full list of publications involving our work is at nline.io/publications.

[19] Osunmuyiwa, O., Wasega, A., Odero, M., Wall, A., and Klugman, N. Powering Inclusive Growth: Measuring Electricity Impacts on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Sierra Leone. 2025. International Growth Centre working paper.
[18] Osunmuyiwa, O., Odero, M., Wall, A., Goode, J., Flaspohler, G., Abrokwah, K., Adkins, J., and Klugman, N. Mobilizing Power Quality and Reliability Measurements for Electricity Equity and Justice in Africa. 2025. Nature Energy 10, 395–403. PDF
[17] Wall, A., Osunmuyiwa, O., Flaspohler, G., Odero, M., Goode, J., Klugman, N., and Podolsky, M. On the Path to Sustainable Health Electrification? Lessons from Remote Power Quality and Reliability Monitoring at Health Facilities in Sierra Leone. 2024. International Growth Centre final report.
[16] Klugman, N., Adkins, J., Berkouwer, S., Abrokwah, K., Podolsky, M., Pannuto, P., Wolfram, C., Taneja, J., and Dutta, P. Measuring Grid Reliability in Ghana. 2023. Chapter in the open-access textbook Introduction to Development Engineering.
[15] Zachariah, T., Klugman, N., and Dutta, P. ThingSpeak in the Wild: Exploring 38K Visualizations of IoT Data. 2022. 20th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys '22).
[14] Shah, Z., Klugman, N., Cadamuro, G., Hsu, F. C., Elvidge, C. D., and Taneja, J. The Electricity Scene from Above: Exploring Power Grid Inconsistencies Using Satellite Data in Accra, Ghana. 2022. Applied Energy 319.
[13] Klugman, N. Speaking Truth to Power. 2021. PhD dissertation, UC Berkeley. Technical Report UCB/EECS-2021-264. Talk: PDF, Keynote with notes
[12] Klugman, N., Adkins, J., Paszkiewicz, E., Hickman, M., Podolsky, M., Taneja, J., and Dutta, P. Watching the Grid: Utility-Independent Measurements of Electricity Reliability in Accra, Ghana. 2021. 20th ACM/IEEE Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN '21). Video of talk, French translation
[11] Jacome, V., Klugman, N., Grunfeld, B., Wolfram, C., Callaway, D., and Ray, I. Power Quality and Modern Energy for All. 2019. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[10] Klugman, N., Adkins, J., Berkouwer, S., Abrokwah, K., Bobashev, I., Pannuto, P., Podolsky, M., Suseno, A., Thatte, R., Wolfram, C., Taneja, J., and Dutta, P. Hardware, Apps, and Surveys at Scale: Insights from Measuring Grid Reliability in Accra, Ghana. 2019. 2nd ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS '19). Talk: PDF with notes, PowerPoint with notes
[9] Klugman, N., Clark, M., Podolsky, M., Pannuto, P., Taneja, J., and Dutta, P. You Can't Teach a New Phone Old Tricks: Smartphones Resist Traditional Compute Roles. 2019. GetMobile 23(1), 34–38. ACM SIGMOBILE.
[8] Klugman, N., Correa, S., Pannuto, P., Podolsky, M., Taneja, J., and Dutta, P. The Open INcentive Kit (OINK): Standardizing the Generation, Comparison, and Deployment of Incentive Systems. 2019. 10th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD '19). Talk: PDF, PowerPoint with notes
[7] Klugman, N., Jacome, V., Clark, M., Podolsky, M., Pannuto, P., Jackson, N., Nassor, A., Wolfram, C., Callaway, D., Taneja, J., and Dutta, P. Experience: Android Resists Liberation from Its Primary Use Case. 2018. 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom '18). Talk: PDF, PowerPoint with notes
[6] Correa, S., Klugman, N., and Taneja, J. Deployment Strategies for Crowdsourced Power Outage Detection. 2018. IEEE SmartGridComm '18.
[5] Audience awardCorrea, S., Klugman, N., and Taneja, J. How Many Smartphones Does It Take To Detect A Power Outage? 2018. 9th International Conference on Future Energy Systems (e-Energy '18).
[4] Crawford, T., Allmendinger, C., Snell, J., Weatherwax, K., Lavan, B., Baman, T., Sovitch, P., Alyesh, D., Carrigan, T., Klugman, N., Foo Kune, D., Hughey, A., Lautenbach, D., Sovitch, N., Tandon, K., Samson, G., Newman, C., Davis, S., Brown, A., Wasserman, B., Goldman, E., Arlinghaus, S., Oral, H., and Eagle, K. Cleaning and Sterilization of Used Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices With Process Validation: The Next Hurdle in Device Recycling. 2017. JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology.
[3] Zachariah, T., Klugman, N., Campbell, B., Adkins, J., Jackson, N., and Dutta, P. The Internet of Things Has a Gateway Problem. 2015. 16th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile '15).
[2] Klugman, N., Rosa, J., Pannuto, P., Podolsky, M., Huang, W., and Dutta, P. Grid Watch: Mapping Blackouts with Smart Phones. 2014. 15th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile '14). Talk PowerPoint
[1] Meredith, S. E., Robinson, A., Erb, P., Spieler, C. A., Klugman, N., Dutta, P., and Dallery, J. A Mobile-Phone-Based Breath Carbon Monoxide Meter to Detect Cigarette Smoking. 2014. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 16.

Posts

Osunmuyiwa, O. and Klugman, N. Could Improving Power Quality Boost Economic Growth in Sierra Leone?2025. International Growth Centre blog.
Osunmuyiwa, O. and Klugman, N. Re-examining Healthcare Electrification Metrics: The Case for Disaggregated Metrics in Critical Care.2025. nLine blog.
Klugman, N. and Wall, A. Data-Driven Healthcare Electrification: Measuring Power Quality for Better Health Outcomes in Sierra Leone.2024. International Growth Centre blog.

Recent work built on nLine measurements

Papers and reports by partners that draw on our sensor data.

Assessing the Impacts of Sufficient and Reliable Electricity in Low-Resource Healthcare Facilities2026. PNAS. 303 facilities across three provinces of the DRC.
Reliable Electricity to Advance Quality Health Care in Low-Resource Settings2026. The Lancet Global Health 14(4), Energy and Health Series.
When Climate Shocks Collide with Grid Failure2026. Energy for Growth Hub memo, using GridWatch data from Accra.
The Power of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Electricity Quality and Reliability in Medical Facilities of North Kivu Province2025. Applied Energy.
Sitompul, D. S. D., Miles, S. B., Varma, R., Imanirakiza, S., et al. Digital Monitoring for Health Facility Emission Prediction and Climate Finance: A Case Study from the Democratic Republic of the Congo2025. IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC '25).
Berkouwer, S., Biscaye, P., Mikdash, M., Puller, S., and Wolfram, C. Voltage Quality and Economic ActivityWorking paper, 2023. Uses 1,124 GridWatch sensors across Accra to evaluate the Ghana Power Compact's transformer investments. Policy digest
Wolfram, C., Miguel, E., Hsu, E., and Berkouwer, S. Contracting Structures in Public Procurement: Evidence from Donor-Funded Electrification in KenyaWorking paper, latest version September 2026. GridWatch deployments at 150 sites in Kenya.
Ghana Power Compact: Final Evaluation Brief on Line Bifurcation2024. Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Selected talks

Understanding Low-Voltage Grid Readiness for Electrification (upcoming)ESMAP webinar, World Bank, with Olufolahan Osunmuyiwa and Allan Wasega of nLine. December 3, 2026.
Proposing a Chief Data Officer for Large Infrastructure Projects (poster)U.S.–Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium, Dakar, Senegal. February 2026.
Keynote, public release of nLine's Ghana datasetAccra, Ghana. September 2024.
Seeking Truth About Power (keynote)HotMobile '24, San Diego. February 2024, ten years after GridWatch debuted at HotMobile '14.
Panelist, Ghana II Line Bifurcation: Final Evaluation ResultsMillennium Challenge Corporation M&E Learning Series, Washington, DC. February 2024.
GridWatch at Nearly a DecadeDigital Transformation of Development Seminar Series, Blum Center, UC Berkeley. November 10, 2022.
Measuring Reliability with GridWatchEnergy for Growth Hub Coffee Break Briefing, with Susanna Berkouwer. 2021. Video
Keeping the Lights On with Noah Klugman and Jay Taneja of GridWatchTerms of Reference Podcast.

Recent guest lectures

"Simple" High Impact WorkEECS 498/598 Systems for a Greater Good (Roya Ensafi), University of Michigan. October 5, 2026. With Velu Manohar and Sahil Sawant of nLine.
nLine: An Introduction to How and Why We Measure Power QualityDevEng 203 Digital Transformation of Development, UC Berkeley. 2025 and September 2026.
"Simple" High Impact WorkEECS 473 Advanced Embedded Systems (Mark Brehob), University of Michigan. November 13, 2025.
An Introduction to How and Why nLine Measures Power QualityEAS 525 Energy Justice (Tony Reames), School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan. October 21, 2025.

Service, grants, awards and education

Member, Millennium Challenge Corporation Advisory CouncilA federal advisory committee that advises MCC on infrastructure, technology, sustainability, and private-sector engagement in its partner countries. 2026–2028 term. About the Council
Advisory Board, Digital Transformation of Development TraineeshipAn NSF-funded graduate program at UC Berkeley's Blum Center that trains engineers to apply data and AI to development challenges. 2023–present. About the program
Program committee, ACM SIGCAS COMPASS2020, 2021, 2022. Details
Scale Deployment of GridWatch in Ghana ($1,999,700)Millennium Development Authority via UC Berkeley's Development Impact Lab, 2019–2024. Data collection for the monitoring and evaluation of the Ghana Power Compact.
Pilot Study of Novel Low-Cost Technologies for Measuring Electricity Reliability in Urban Ghana ($680,265)Millennium Challenge Corporation via a USAID cooperative agreement with UC Berkeley's Development Impact Lab, 2017–2018.
Sevin Rosen Funds Award for InnovationUC Berkeley EECS, 2019–2020. Details
CITRIS Tech for Social Good FellowUC Berkeley, 2017.
Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project finalistGridWatch, 2016. Submission
Siebel Energy Institute seed grant ($50,000)Inaugural class, 2015; supported research on power quality in Kenya. Submission
EECS Outstanding Undergraduate Research AwardUniversity of Michigan, 2014.
PhD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley, 2021Dissertation: Speaking Truth to Power. Committee: Prabal Dutta and Eric Brewer (co-chairs), Catherine Wolfram.
M.Eng., Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, 2019
B.S., Computer Engineering, University of Michigan, 2014With a B.A. in Physics and Computer Science from Kalamazoo College (3/2 engineering program).
InternshipsIBM Research Africa, Nairobi (2016); NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, flight software for the Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover (2009, 2010).