Dr Reihana Mohideen

Principal Advisor, Social Implications of Technology (Infrastructure and Resilience)

Dr Reihana (Sithy) Mohideen is an electrical engineer with a strong interest in developing integrated socio-technical approaches to building resilience using low-carbon pathways, based on energy, power infrastructure and  health linkages, integrating gender equality and social inclusion (GESI).Reihana is the author of Women and the Energy Revolution (Palgrave. 2020).She was a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering where her research analysed advanced technology trends in the low-carbon energy transition taking place in developing countries with specific applications to South Asia, as well as the opportunities to simultaneously leapfrog technology and social equity gaps.

Her work increasingly straddles the issues of renewable energy and low-carbon initiatives in the health system. She is currently working with the Nossal Institute for Global Health on a project to strengthen urban resilience, based on integrating infrastructure, energy and health systems, drawing on the emerging lessons from the Covid 19 pandemic response strategies, with a focus on GESI considerations.

Her socio-technical modelling includes assessment of DER and microgrids to build community resilience, incorporating advanced technology transfer and know-how into low-income communities to foster local economic development, while also integrating measurable health and social inclusion criteria. These models are verified through test cases in the field. She completed a BEng degree in electrical engineering at the University of Melbourne (1981), and finished her postdoctoral studies also at the University of Melbourne (2015) in renewable energy systems in Asia, researching the societal and gender implications for newly electrified rural communities in Nepal.

She has worked as an international development specialist for more than ten years with strong links to the Asian Development Bank. She has been involved in the design of energy projects in South Asia, ranging from conventional hydropower, solar parks, solar-wind-micro hydro powered mini grids, as well as transmission and distribution systems.

Reihana has recently been appointed as a Principal Advisor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health. She is a member of IEEE Australia, the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology, the IEEE Power and Energy Society and is an Executive Committee member of IEEE Standards Association on Digital Inclusion (DIITA). She is actively involved in supporting community development NGOs working with women in urban and rural poor communities in Asia.

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