Overview

Dr. Shruti Rajendra Kshirsagar is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator for the MS in Data Science program in the School of Computing at Wichita State University. She specializes in data science, deep learning, machine learning, and speech signal processing. Her research interests include affective computing; AI in healthcare; medical image processing; assistive technology; human–machine interaction; artificial intelligence; and sound recognition.
 
She earned her PhD in Telecommunications from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal, Canada, where she focused on speech processing, deep learning, and data science. She also holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Mumbai, with an emphasis on communication, statistics, and signal processing.
 
At Wichita State University, Dr. Kshirsagar teaches and mentors graduate students and develops advanced curricula in deep learning and machine learning. She also brings significant industry experience, having worked as an Audio R&D Scientist at EERS Global Technologies Inc. in Montreal and as a Machine Learning for Audio Analytics Intern at Robert Bosch Inc. in Mississauga, Canada.
Her research contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Best Doctoral Thesis Award from INRS, and she has received multiple research grants.
 
Dr. Kshirsagar is an active member of several professional organizations, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE Young Professionals, IEEE Women in Engineering, and the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA). She contributes to IEEE as an award chair, workshop organizer, and associate editor for conferences such as IEEE EMBC and IEEE ICHMS. She also serves as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation. Her work is widely published in leading journals and conferences, reflecting her commitment to advancing affective computing, deep learning, and signal processing.

Information

Academic Interests and Expertise
  • PhD in Telecommunications (Specialization: Data science), Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Montreal, Canada, Jan 2018 - Sept 2022 , Specialization: Speech & Deep Learning, Data Science, Advisor: Dr. Tiago falk
  • Masters of Engineering in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India, Aug 2014 - July 2016, Specialization: Communication, Statistics, Signal Processing, Advisor: Dr. Preeti Rao
  • Bachelors of Engineering in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India, Aug 2010 - May 2014
Areas of Research Interest

 Artificial intelligence and machine learning for healthcare applications, data-driven modeling and optimization of complex systems, time-series analytics, digital twins, predictive modeling, generative AI, large language models, data science, signal and speech processing, human-computer interaction, assistive technologies.

Areas of Teaching Interest
  • CS 898BD Deep Learning 
  • CS 770 Machine Learning
  • CS 870 Spoken Language Processing 
Publications
Selected Publications
 
Conference Papers
 
  1. Avila, S., Kshirsagar, S., Tiwari, A., Lafond, D., O’Shaughnessy, D., & Falk, T. (2019). "Speech-Based Stress Classification based on Modulation Spectral Features and Convolutional Neural Networks". EUSIPCO 2019, Spain.
  2. Gaballah, A., Avila, A., Monteiro, J., Tiwari, P., Kshirsagar, S., & Falk, T. (2020). "Development of the INRS-EMT Scene Classification Systems for the 2020 DCASE challenge". DCASE Challenge 2020.
  3. Tiwari, P., Jain, Y., Avila, A., Monteiro, J., Kshirsagar, S., Gaballah, A., & Falk, T. (2020). "Modulation Spectral Signal Representation and I-vectors for Anomalous Sound Detection". DCASE Challenge 2020.
  4. Barhate, S., Kshirsagar, S., Sanghvi, N., Sabu, K., Rao, P., & Bondale, N. (2016). "Prosodic Features of Marathi News Reading Style". Proc. of IEEE TENCON, Singapore.
  5. Rao, P., Mixdorff, H., Deshpande, I., Sanghvi, N., & Kshirsagar, S. (2016). "A Quantitative Study of Focus Shift in Marathi". Proc. of Speech Prosody, Boston, USA.
  6. M. Thu, Shruti kshirsagar, ”A Machine Learning Approach for Integrating Phonocardiogram and Electro-cardiogram Data for Heart Sound Detection”, September 2023, Germany
  7. N Paranjpe, S Kshirsagar, A. Ramajan, ”Enhancing Desalination Rates of Saltwater using Superhydrophobic Nanomembranes and Machine Learning Approaches”, International Conference on Advanced Materials Science & Engineering and High Tech Devices Applications, 2024
  8. N Paranjpe, S Kshirsagar, A. Ramajan, ”Integrating Machine Learning Models to Enhance the Efficiency of a Desalination Process”, Accepted for publication, IEEE GreenTech 2025
  9. B. Reddy, S. Kshirsagar, R. Bagai, A. Dutta, ”Towards Robust Building Damage Detection: Leveraging Augmentation and Domain Adaptation”, Accepted for publication, IEEE GreenTech 2025
  10. Dia Elhak Temmar, Assia Hamadene, Mohand Sa˚ANıd Allili, Vamshi Nallaguntla, Aishwarya Fursule , Shruti Kshirsagar , Anderson R. Avila ”Phonetic Analysis of Real and Synthetic Speech Using HuBERT Embeddings: Perspectives for Deepfake Detection”, IEEE SMC 2025
  11. Vamshi Nallaguntla, Aishwarya Fursule, Shruti Kshirsagar, Anderson R. Avila, "PhonemeDF: A Synthetic Speech Dataset for Audio Deepfake Detection and Naturalness Evaluation", LREC 2026
  12. Anacin, Angela, Shruti Kshirsagar, Anderson R. Avila, "Investigating the Impact of Speech Enhancement on Audio Deepfake Detection in Noisy Environments", CAI 2026
  13. Aishwarya Fursule, Shruti Kshirsagar, Anderson R. Avila,, "Gender Fairness in Audio Deepfake Detection: Performance and Disparity Analysis", CAI 2026
Journal Papers
 
  1. Kshirsagar, S., & Falk, T. (2022). "Quality-Aware Bag of Modulation Spectrum Features for Robust Speech Emotion Recognition". IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.
  2. Falk, T., Tiwari, A., Casani, R., Kshirsagar, S., Tobon, D., & Sue, Y. (2022). "Modulation Spectral Signal Representation for Quality Measurement and Enhancement of Wearable Device Data: A Technical Note". Sensors.
  3. Kshirsagar, S., & Falk, T. (2022). "Cross-Language Speech Emotion Recognition Using Bag-of-Word Representations, Domain Adaptation, and Data Augmentation". Sensors.
  4. Kshirsagar, S., Pendyala, A., & Falk, T. (2023). "Task-Specific Speech Enhancement and Data Augmentation for Improved Multimodal Emotion Recognition Under Noisy Conditions". Frontiers in Computer Science.
  5. Zhu, Y., Tiwari, A., Monteiro, J., Kshirsagar, S., & Falk, T. (2023). "COVID-19 Detection via Fusion of Modulation-Spectrum and Linear Prediction Speech Features". IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing.
  6. Jos´e Victor de Souza, Hazem Amamou, Rubing Chen, Elmira Salari, Reto Gubelmann, Christina Niklaus, Talita Serpa, Marcela Marques de Freitas Lima, Paula Tavares Pinto, Shruti Kshirsagar, Alan Davoust, Siegfried Handschuh ”Cross-Lingual Keyword Extraction for Pesticide Terminology in Brazilian Portuguese and English”, Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society, 2025
  7. Unaza Tallal, Rupesh Agrawal, S. Kshirsagar, “Modulation-Based Feature Extraction for Robust Sleep Stage Classification Across Apnea-Based Cohorts“, Biosensor, January 2026
Thesis
 
  1. Kshirsagar, S. (2016). "Determination Of Acoustic Parameters Of Marathi Prosody". Master’s thesis, IIT Bombay.
  2. Kshirsagar, S. (2022). "Affective Human-Machine Interfaces: Towards Multi-lingual, Environment-Robust Emotion Detection from Speech". Ph.D. Dissertation, INRS.
 
Awards and Honors
  • INRS, Best Doctoral Thesis Award, Apr 2023
  • MuSAE Lab Grant, Jan 2018 - Aug 2022
  • INRS International Student Scholarship, Jan 2018 - Aug 2022
  • MITACS Accelerate Internship Grant, Aug 2020 - Apr 2021
  • NTU Singapore ‘Tamasek Lab Research Grant’ for International Internship, Summer 2017
  • Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) Scholarship for Masters, Aug 2014 - Jul 2016
Grants
  1. Kshirsagar S (Principal), NSF REI award, ”Equity-Aware AI for Tornado Damage Assessment Using Sentinel-1/2 Imagery and the xBD Global Disaster Dataset”, National Science Foundation, $61,875
  2. Kshirsagar S (Principal), NSF EPSCoR first award, ”Advancing Robust Buidling Damadge Detection for Resilient Infrastructure”, National Science Foundation, $49,969
  3. Kshirsagar S (Principal), Flossie E. West Memorial Trust, "Interpretable Transformer-Based Mapping of Brain Tumor Infiltration Beyond Visible MRI Boundaries", $36,220
  4. Asmatulu, E. (Principal), Long, D. (Co-Principal), Kshirsagar, S. (Co-Principal), ”Peptide and T-Cell Loaded PCL Nanofibers with Controlled Release Mechanisms for Breast Cancer Treatment”, Sponsored by Flossie E. West, $41,000.
  5. Kshirsagar, S. (Principal), ”Robust and Interpretable Deepfake Audio Detection Using Feature Extraction and Deep Learning Models”, Sponsored by URCA, University internal grant, State, $4,500.00.
  6. Sinha, K. (Principal), Kshirsagar, S.(Co-Principal), ”Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning: Renewal”, Sponsored by NSF, Federal, $1,275,251.00.
  7. Kass, C. (Principal), Ward, M., James, J. (Co-Principal), Kshirsagar, S. (Co-Principal), ”A Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Approach to Cancer Survivorship”, Sponsored by FARE, Wichita State University, $6,500.00.
  8. Kshirsagar, S. (Principal), ”Sleep analysis”, GPSS Company grant, $16,000
  9. Kshirsagar, S. (Principal), "Robust Sleep Stage Classification",  K-INBRE CURE Awards 2026, $21.000
  10. Flossie West Trust grant for “Peptide and T-Cell Loaded PCL Nanofibers with Controlled Release Mechanisms for Breast Cancer Treatment,” Wichita State University, Mar 2024