Martonosi's research interests are in computer architecture and the hardware/software interface, with particular focus on power-efficient systems and mobile computing. In the field of processor architecture, Martonosi has done extensive work on power modeling and management and on memory hierarchy performance and energy. Her work with David Brooks included the development of the Wattch power modeling tool, the first architecture-level power modeling infrastructure for superscalar processors. Her memory hierarchy work has included early performance-oriented studies, as well as more recent work on energy-aware memory hierarchies. Most recently, she studies control approaches for power-performance adaptation and resource management for shared resources on chip multiprocessors.

In the field of mobile computing and sensor networks, Martonosi leads the Sarana project on programming confederations of cell phones. Previously, she led the Princeton ZebraNet mobile sensor networks project. The ZebraNet project developed mobile sensor networks of sparsely-connected GPS-enabled nodes for wildlife tracking across far-flung, low-infrastructure regions. Work included custom hardware design, research related to processor architectures for sensor networks, adaptable operating systems, lightweight software support for OS update and adaptation, and protocol design. The ZebraNet project went gone through two real-world deployments on Burchall's Zebras in Central Kenya.

Martonosi is co-author on over 100 refereed publications and inventor on five granted US patents. She is currently a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM, where she serves on the ACM SIGARCH board of directors. In addition she serves on CRA-W, the Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women. Martonosi completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University, and also holds a Master's degree from Stanford and a bachelor's degree (with distinction) from Cornell University, all in Electrical Engineering.