Home | Research | Portfolio | Courses | Resume ___________________________________________
Note: This page showcases upto and including my master's research only.
Analysis of online communities:Bix.com
- An online competition site. Members of Bix upload original content
such as dancing, karaoke, or lip-syncing videos, photography, writing,
etc. Bix is unique in that large numbers of people upload very personal
media that they have created, for the entertainment of other members of
the site. Contests and contest categories are natural sites where users
are likely to encounter each other over and over again, and thus build
a bond -- especially if they comment on each other's entries. At the
same time, users are also engaged in self-promotion and building an
audience for themselves out of other Bix users (as well as friends
outside of the site). This negotiation between participating in a
community, and building an audience at the same time, is likely to be
interesting. Bix also encourages users to bring in an outside audience
(for example, a feature on the site will automatically advertise an
entry on a MySpace profile), and it would be interesting to know about
the practices users engage in when creating an audience and promoting
their entry or contest.
Wigglestick: A Social Navigation System for Next-generation Smart Phones(Spring '07) Wigglestick
is a prototype software application being developed by the Mobile
Technology Group of Georgia Institute of Technology, for use on next
generation smart phones. Its name is slang for a divining rod used to
find water or precious gems. Taking advantage of these phones'
awareness of their location, Wigglestick enables users to drop media at
specific spots, have their location visible to approved friends, and
find their way to desired places.
Click here for more
Presented at Pervasive 2007
Presented at the Georgia Tech Graduate Student Symposium 2007
Studying Socio-technical Intersections around a Multi-touch Wall-sized Display (Summer '06) As an intern at Accenture Technology Labs, Chicago, with Kelly Dempski and Brandon Harvey,
I spent the summer exploring the issues that arise when a group of
unacquainted people uses a large, multi-touch, multi-user software
surface to accomplish varying independent goals. We asked users to
perform browsing tasks within a structured collection of camera
information on a ten-foot-wide touchscreen. With multiple users trying
to accomplish their different tasks at the same time, we studied
patterns of cooperation, competition, and other social protocols.
I
performed user research, interaction/interface design, usability
studies and qualitative analysis of user interaction. The application
contained information about forty-five cameras, arranged in
hierarchical panels showing increasing level of detail. Fifty-seven
subjects, of varying technical exposure, age, gender, were chosen to
participate in this study. They were first surveyed for their social
use of technology and then were alloted tasks in groups of six-seven.
Simple Navigation and Access Platform (Spring 2006): Implementation
of ICT solutions in developing countries is fraught with several
challenges be they environmental, infrastructural or cultural. Apart
form the various issues of bad connectivity, spectrum management and
policy hurdles there is also the challenge of making the applications
easy to use for users with little or no computing experience and with
low literacy levels. This issue is further compounded by the fact that
the since social and cultural norms differ between various cultural
groups, there is usually a mismatch between the conceptual models the
users have about their world and the interaction metaphors of
traditional Windows Icons Menu Pointer (WIMP) interfaces. For an
independent study with Dr.Michael Best,
a team of HCI students designed and developed a simplified
cross-cultural software platform based on an alternate interaction
metaphor free from western WIMP tradition. We created a
proof-of-concept application allowing the user autonomy,
explorabitlity, state tracking, increased user efficiency versus system
efficiency, error forgiveness and adaptability to most hardware and
software conditions. The interaction metaphor was based off of zoomable
user interfaces, the application was designed for a wide range of input
and output modalities, storage and communication was made a combination
of stand-alone or networked modes facilitating access to Information
and Communication Technologies for rural users in Tamil Nadu with
variable literacy and little/no computing experience. The
authentication method was based on a pictorial solution, cutting across
different literacy levels. The interface was desgned in Tamil, a native
south-Indian language.
The
application was tested among expert users using cognitive walkthroughs,
the results of which were incorporated into the application. We did not
have the privelage to test the application among end users. We hope
that this acts as a roadmap for thinking about HCI in cross-cultural
contexts. This work also resulted in a workshop proposal for CHI '07
with Dr.Michael Best, Dr.Susan Dray, Dr.John Thomas, Dr.Andrew Dearden and Dr.Ann Light
CHI 07 Workshop (User-centered Design and International Development) at San Jose
View the website here
Also to appear in the Information Technologies and International Development 2007 journal
View the paper here
Designing for epistemological challenges in instructional labs (Spring 2006)
For an independent study with Dr.Wendy Newstetter,
I observed students in a bio-medical engineering instructional lab
setting. Acquainted with phenomenology and epistemology, I was looking
for externalization of knowledge, as embodied action, specifically for
cases when the experiments would fail. I spent time in the lab sessions
and later interviewed the students. I triangulated this data with head
and asistant teaching assistants to understand the knowledge-building
practices and the transfer of knowledge from lectures to the lab
sessions. Additional ethnographic analysis revealed how the gap between
lectures and labs impeded the goal of transferring knowledge, need for
better incentives etc.
View the report here
Cognitive-Historical Analysis of problem solving strategies in a Bio-medical lab (Fall 2006)
With Dr.Nancy Nersessian,
I am performing a cognitive-historical analysis of the data gathered
from the above-mentioned research. Viewing scientific and engineering
thinking as a complex system encompassing cognitive, social,
cultural and material aspects of practice, several aspects come
into play: embodied action, tools, materials, representations, social
arrangements and their situated historical connections and drawing
epistemic connections with past lectures and the existing knowledge
bank as well as the use of abstraction in analogy. I am interested in
studying the problem-solving practices of the students, including
analogous comparisions considering social, cognitive and cultural
dimensions. Combining ethnography and cognitive-historical analysis,
using the mixed-method approach; the ethnographic observations and
analysis should help uncover embodied action, situated action,
interpretive frameworks and the world view of the participants,
as well as the ontology and epistemology of the knowledge setting. The
results would be analyzed using Cognitive-Historical analysis which
would help in looking at the physical re-arrangement of artifacts in
response to problems, the evolving nature of the models and concepts.
GVU Technical Report
Qualitative study of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS) patients
Advised by Dr.Melody Moore,
I am studying the locked-in ALS patient community in the United States
to understand their lifestyles better, as part of my master's project.
People involved will include caregivers, nursing community, doctors,
friends and families of patients and patients. The implications will be
directed towards creating guidelines for a neurally-controlled browser.
Activity theory will be used.
Design of Technology for Meetings (Spring 2005)
With Dr.Beki Grinter,
Sabina Karkin and I performed a qualitative study of meeting locations.
We observed how people used technological artefacts in meetings in
academic settings. We observed a low-tech, whiteboard-only student
group meeting and contrasted with a very high-tech, computing-centric
research group meeting. The observations were coded using open,
selective and axial coding by using grounded theory. The analysis
revealed that technology was used as a tool for portraying preference
and for recalling information, pet tools were common, there was
constant recognition of shared space and hence negotiation and that
certain tools were unobtrusive to meeting progress.
View the report here
MyConcierge (Fall 2005) Making
entertainment plans is often thought of as a very organic process, the
steps of which are quite dependent on opportunistic variables.
Oftentimes, the opportunities are based on being in the right place at
the right time to receive the necessary logistical information. To our
knowledge, there is not a system currently in place which manages all
of the multiple aspects of entertainment plan creation and action. Web
sites are a key resource for making plans in various stages such as by
offering overall information about a city's entertainment, businesses,
restaurants, etc., allowing users to search for and buy tickets to an
event, search for and buy tickets to movies exclusively, help find
locations and offer directions, offering opportunities for social
networking etc. Our system addressed these difficulties to lessen their
impact, streamlining the plan-making process so that all necessary
logistical aspects are presented to the user, enabling him/her to not
only make arrangements, but also get to a chosen event in as direct and
hassle-free a manner as possible.
We designed the system in four stages: studying the user population, gathering requirements and studying the existing system . Once the problem was formulated, we proposed four major designs -
a mobile phone solution, a bracelet solution, an mp3 player solution,
and a kiosk solution to address the challenge. Our poster could be
found here. Based on the voted results and feedback, we decided to prototype a mixture of kiosk and mobile solutions. In order to assess the success of our design in each of those key areas, we performed heuristic evaluations and
cognitive walkthroughs with human factors experts, and performed
think-aloud evaluations with real system users. We discovered areas for
improvement and iterated back to the design process, incorporating the
changes.
StrategyShopper (Fall 2005) For
the Introduction to Human Factors class, we choose to redesign the
existing shopping process in in medium to large grocery stores a more
efficient and less frustrating process. Our team identified limitations
in computerized devices that can assist grocery shoppers with finding
items in a store; we did this in various steps. We analyzed the user
characteristics and environment variables in the existing process. Then
we modelled the functional flow, decision-action sequence, operational
sequence, and control flow of current shopping process, based on which
we created the hierarchical task analysis, interface and workload
analysis.
Once
the problems were identified, we re-designed the interface and the
capabilities of the system. We proposed a web-based interface for
building the shopping list online and a tablet device for the shopping
cart, which provided a means to create an electronic shopping list that
is automatically categorized, organized, ordered; an optimal path
through the store based on their shopping list; and the ability to look
up the location and availability of specific items using the shopping
cart device.
Transpace (Fall 2005): The purpose for this project was
to create a prototype game space that explored new territory in the way
people interact with real-time, 3D digital environments. The project
was to use the Virtools development platform to assemble 3D
environments, created in Maya, with innovative interactive
functionality that advanced to our understanding of virtual 3D
spaces.Specifically, we wanted to focus on interstitial spaces created
when a player moves between environments. Spatial transitions are
commonplace in video games, but they most frequently occur as
discontinuities. We viewed transitioning between interactive spaces as
an interesting design challenge. Introducing interactivity to the
transitions between the primary game spaces increases the player’s
agency in the game, which may result in a more meaningful and immediate
game experience. We also seeked to understand how raising the
significance of the transitions may affect perception of the primary
game spaces.
SonicTouch (Spring 2005) For the Experimental Media class, we designed a multi-touch music composition tool emphasizing on direct manipulation, collaboration, large size and
touchability. We designed a collaborative sound drawing system, what we
call as WYSIWYH(What You See Is What You Hear). Based on the squiggle
waveform drawn by the user, from which we gathered the frequency, time
period and amplitude, the corresponding sound parameter such as tempo,
pitch, volume would be varied.
This
was designed using Frustrated Total Internal Reflection by Chris
Simpkins, using off-the-shelf components for sensing and display. After
detecting the blob, we performed various operations such as offset
correction, slope detection, standard deviation etc to generate the
output sound.
Website Swiki Blog
Casablanca Digital Critical Film Edition (Fall-Spring 2005) : Graduate Research Assistant with School of Literature, Communication and Culture and American Film Institute
Construction and maintenance of a web application that streams film
commentary, annotations, scripts, reports, memos and other archival
material from an AFI site, and integrates it with local DVD content. By
pulling the extra information, that is context-sensitive and dynamic,
users can access information provided by film critics, scholars and
researchers.
The
Casablanca project advances interactive television by providing the
user with contextual information from a central database, which could
be extended to other films thus creating a rich user experience. We
demonstrated the application to film academia and researchers in LCC
Demo Days of Fall and Spring 05-06. I was involved in interaction
design, information architecture and application development.
Demonstrated at the LCC Demo Day in Fall '05 and Spring '06
BrainLab website (Fall 2006) Design and development of the Georgia Tech BrainLab website
for the BrainLab research group. Includes information architecture,
visual design and interaction design.
Aarohi (Fall 2006): Design and development of the Aarohi website. Aarohi is the Indian
classical music association of Georgia Tech.
B.E. Electronics and Communication Engineering (2001-2005)
Steganography and Steganalysis under JPEG Compression (Dec 2004-April 2005)
Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science
Professor, Dr.CE Veni Madhavan (Dec 2004- March 2005) :
Towards Bachelor of Engineering degree
Understanding and Implementation of Image Compression techniques such
as Discrete Cosine Transform values, Quantization, Huffman tables.
Implementation of Steganography tool (Data hiding) and Steganalysis
tool (Data detection).
Many lossless and lossy compression techniques are used for storage and
transmission of digital speech and image information. These techniques
are usually analysed with respect to many requirements pertaining
to fidelity, perceptual quality, storage and transmission capacities.
Additional requirements arise in the context of secure communication
using cryptographic and steganographic methodologies. The aim of the
project was to study, implement and analyse a few select techniques of
compression and their impact on encryption and image
steganography/steganalysis.
Optimization Techniques using Neural Networks in Production of Bio-degradable Plastic using Azotobacter Vinelandii :Dept of Industrial Biotechnology, Anna University
Vice-principal and Head, Dr. MRV Krishnan
National Conference on Modeling and Analysis of Manufacturing Systems, Trichy, India, 2004
Artificial Neural Networks, Bio-degradable Plastic, Optimization
methods, Engineering methods, Experiment design
(Selected for second round of ITalent by Confederation of Indian Industry and TATA Consultancy Services)
Plastic has become an integral part of our lives because of its
desirable properties like durability, resistance to degradation.
Ranging from pens to aircraft frames, they have become inevitable.
Biodegradable plastic (BDP1) is natural, biodegradable polyester
synthesized by numerous microorganisms as an energy reserve material.
BDP1s have tremendous potential as substitutes for bulk thermoplastics.
The following paper discusses a method to synthesize BDP1 using
Azotobacter vinelandii2 bacterium. It uses the method of
Plackett-Burman3 optimization for simultaneous evaluation of the
performances of the fermentation4 system using Neural Networks. Neural
Networks speed the evaluation; hence the whole experimentation process
is completed in a very short span of time, adding accuracy and ease of
implementation to the production process. This optimization technique
was necessitated since the process involves a minimum of 15 sensitive
variables (such as the feed material, temperature, aeration, PH…etc.).
Also it might take long periods of experimentation (even months),
analysis. This technique is very elegant and effectively uses C
language for global optimization. The technique trains the Neural
Network to identify the individual optima of each parameter and
subsequently identifies the global optimum of all the parameters.
Towards a Novel Pocketable Dialyser: Dept of Industrial Biotechnology, Anna University
Nithya Sambasivan, Vega Peter, Dr.M R V Krishnan
First prize at National Level Technical Symposium on Electronics and Communications Systems, Chennai, India, 2004
The function of the kidney is to purify the impure blood from the artery and send it
back into the vein. In case of failure of the kidney, the dialysis
process is done outside the human body with the help of a dialyser.
Dialysers have now been used for almost 35 years to treat patients with
renal failure. The dialysers can be used for short terms or periods if
the patients have acute renal failure due to specific poisoning or
circulatory shocks. In cases where there is permanent renal failure,
the dialyser can be used for many years at a time. But the dialysers
now in use have many limitations in the engineering design. In this
technical report, a modified approach for a portable dialyser is
discussed. This reduces the time period of hospitalization, cost and
discomfort to the patient.
Smart Surgical Probe {Remote Emergency Medical Surgery}
Nithya Sambasivan, Vega Peter, Dr.M R V Krishnan
APOGEE, 2005
Information technologies to assist astronaut-physician in responding to medical
emergencies during space flights are being employed for the improvement
of women’s health. This technology, initially developed for
neurosurgery applications, not only has enormous potential for the
diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, but broad applicability to a
wide range of medical challenges. For the breast cancer, the smart
surgical probe is designed to “see” a suspicious lump, determine
whether it is cancerous and predict how the disease may progress. The
smart surgical probe makes use of adaptive intelligence software (fuzzy
logic/neural networks) with the most advanced physiologic sensors to
provide real-time in vivo tissue characterization for the detection,
diagnosis and treatment of tumors, including determination of tumor
microenvironment and tumor margins. The smart software solutions and
tools from these medical applications will lead to the development of
better real-time minimally invasive surgical probes for emergency
medical care and treatment of astronauts on long space flights.
Synthesis of Nanomedicine and its applications in cure of Glioma Tumor
Nithya Sambasivan, Vega Peter, Dr.M R V Krishnan
National-level Technical Symposium on on Communication Systems (Third Prize), 2004
The effect of colloidal nanosize Iron Oxide as well as Carbon nanotubes
on the growth of pathogenic bacteria and cancerous cell is studied in
this paper. Inactivation of E.Coli occurs
when colloidal Fe2O3 or Carbon nanotubes are illuminated with visible
light. Neither Fe2O3 nor Carbon nanotubes are carcinogenic to
human beings and since their Band Gap lies within the visible light,
one not need UV light(as is being used in commercial units) to kill
bacteria. Fe2O3 and Carbon nanotubes being fine powder, they can
also be used as a simple filter to remove any suspended dust particle
present in drinking water. Since these materials work with visible
light, it is possible to design the water purification unit utilizing
solar radiation, which would mean that it can be used in areas where
electricity is not available.