My research group focuses on the use of computing technologies to support sustainable development. We want to build appropriate information systems; that are accessible to end users, support learning and reinforce community efforts towards empowerment, economic development and for the environment. Some specific research topics that we are interested in include human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile computing and information systems supporting education, microfinance, agriculture and health.
I am an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. I also work with and advise several social enterprises, including Awaaz.De, Captricity and NextDrop.
Projects
| 2011- |  |
Umati: Grading CS Exams with a Crowd-sourced Vending Machine |
| 2010- |  |
Awaaz.De: Giving Communities a Voice using Voice Social Media |
| 2010- |  |
Captricity: Turning Paper Forms into Data using the Cloud and Crowd |
| 2010- |  |
Local Ground: Using Paper Maps to Document and Visualize Local Knowledge |
| 2009- |  |
Metamouse: More Equitable Sharing using Multiple Mice for Education |
| 2008- |  |
Usher: Adaptive Forms for Improving Data Entry Accuracy and Efficiency |
| 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- |  |
Self-Help MIS: Open Source Management Information System for Microfinance (with ekgaon and CCD) video |
| 2003-7 |  |
CAM: Mobile Data Collection using a Camera-equipped Mobile Phone (Ph.D. Thesis) 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
| 2009- |
|
ICT for Social Enterprise: Graduate workshop 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 (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 |