My research focuses on the use of computing to support sustainable economic development across the World. I want to learn how to build appropriate, affordable rural information systems; systems that are accessible to end users, support empirical learning and reinforce community efforts towards empowerment, economic development and sustainable use of natural resources. Some specific topics that I am interested in include: human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile phones and information systems supporting microfinance, smallholder agriculture and global health.
I am currently an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. I also have an affiliate appointment in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Washington.
Projects
| 2007- |  |
OpenRosa: Open Source, Standards-based Tools for Mobile Data Collection |
| 2007- |  |
CommCare: Mobile Information Tools for Community Health Workers (with UW, Dimagi and D-Tree) |
| 2007- |  |
e-IMCI: Mobile Protocols for Diagnosis and Treatment of Childhood Illnesses (with UW, Dimagi, D-Tree and IHRDC) |
| 2006- |  |
Digital ICS: Inspection, Monitoring and Quality Control for Rural Coffee Cooperatives (with CEPCO and Asobagri) video |
| 2003- |  |
CAM: Automating Paper-based Processes using a Camera-equipped Mobile Phone (Ph.D. Thesis) video |
| 2003- |  |
Self-Help MIS: Open Source Management Information System for SHGs (with ekgaon and CCD) video |
| 2002-3 |  |
Hisaab: User Interface Design for Rural, Semi-literate Users (with Media Lab Asia, Human Factors International and CCD) |
| 2002-3 |  |
Indic Computing: Open Source Tools and Standards for Indic-language Computing |
| 2000-2 |  |
Knownet-Grin: Knowledge Network for Grassroots Innovators (with SRISTI and IIM-Ahmedabad) |
| 1997-9 |  |
WIL: A Compiler Intermediate Language with Explicit Support for Representations (Master's Thesis) |
| 1994-6 |  |
Cation Binding Selectivity of EF-Hand Sites: Perturbation Dynamics of Galactose Binding Protein (Undergraduate Honors Thesis) |
Teaching
| 2008 |
|
Designing Rural Computing Applications: Graduate seminar at the UC Berkeley School of Information |
| 2008 |
|
User Interface Design and Development: Graduate course at the UC Berkeley School of Information |
| 2003-7 |
 |
Computing in the Developing World: Seminar course at UW conducted occasionally with Intel Research Seattle and Microsoft Research |
| 2004 |
 |
Information Technology and Public Policy: Distance learning course at UW conducted with Berkeley, UCSD and Microsoft |
| 2000-1 |
 |
Gujarat Vidyapith: Lecturer in Master's program in Computer Applications |