Karnik is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). He is advised by ECE Associate Professor Mark Davenport, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Karnik received the award for his paper entitled “Fast multitaper spectral estimation," written together with ECE Schlumberger Professor Justin Romberg and Davenport. This paper presents new insight into and a novel algorithm for computing the classical Thompson's multitaper spectral estimate. 

For large signal lengths and spectral resolutions, Karnik's fast algorithm enables potential dramatic reductions in the computational cost of computing the multitaper estimate. This algorithm has significant implications for applications in large-scale array signal processing.