Khushboo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Planning, Governance, and Globalization (PGG) Program in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Virginia Tech. Her research interest spans from Smart City Development in developing nations to Regional Economic Development in the state of Virginia. Khushboo received her Masters of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), India. After graduation, she worked as a research assistant at IITK studying the impact of urban growth magnets such as universities on the surrounding areas.

Khushboo’s Ph.D. dissertation focuses on understanding smart city development in developing nations, which includes examining risk priorities within India’s SCM and exploring Smart City (SC) transformation in the cities of Kakinada and Kanpur. She also work part time for the Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development as a Graduate Research Assistant. As a graduate research assistant at the VTOED, she has been involved in various projects including 1) conducting research on topics such as technology adoption, last-mile connectivity, entrepreneurial ecosystem, and urban-rural partnerships; 2) suggesting strategies for community economic development/place-making projects such as downtown revitalization and children's museum expansion; and 3) visualizing project findings using GIS and Gephi (network) analysis.

You can find more about her research projects here.