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NITHYA SAMBASIVAN
nsambasi@ics.uci.edu or nithya@cc.gatech.edu | http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nsambasi/

EDUCATION
University of California, Irvine
PhD. student, Informatics - Human-Computer Interaction
Dean's fellowship (2007-11)

Georgia Institute of Technology
Master of Science, Human Computer Interaction – Computer Science, August 2007

Anna University
Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, May 2005

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Research Intern, Microsoft Research India, Bangalore (Drs. Kentaro Toyama and Ed Cutrell) (Feb. 2009 - May 2009)
Community technologies and ethnography of urban slums of Bangalore

Research Intern, Nokia Research, Finland (Drs. Jonna Häkkilä and Jani Mäntyjärvi).
(June 2008 - Sept 2008)
Non-use and use of portable devices.

Graduate Research Assistant, University of California, Irvine (Prof.Bonnie Nardi ) (Sept 2007 onwards)
ICT4D, Human-centered Computing, Mobile/ubiquitous computing

Research Intern, IBM T.J.Watson Research, NYC (Dr.Rosario Uceda-Sosa and Paul Matchen ) (June 2007 - Sept 2007)
A Software Monitoring Dashboard for the Jazz Platform

Graduate Research Assistant, College of Computing, Georgia Tech(Dr. Melody Moore) (Aug 2006 - May 2007)
Design and Development of Brain-Computer Interfaces for Gaming and Assistive Robotics

Research Intern, Accenture Technology Labs, Chicago (Kelly Dempski and Brandon Harvey) (May - Aug 2006)
Co-operation, contention, and negotiation around an interactive wall display

Graduate Research Assistant, Literature, Communication and Culture, Georgia Tech (Dr. Janet Murray) (Aug 2005 - May 2006)
AFI's "Casablanca" film interactive television content

Project Advisee, Indian Institute of Science, Department of Computer Science and Automation, Bangalore (Dr.C.E. Veni Madhavan) (Dec 2004 - April 2005)
Techniques of compression and their impact on encryption and audio, image steganography.

HONOURS AND AWARDS
Dean's Fellowship (2007-11), University of California, Irvine
Paul Butterworth Student Award—grant for creative, entrepreneurial student research, 2009
Council on Research, Computing & Library Resources—grant for VoiceList, 2009 (with Prof. Bonnie Nardi)
Awarded “Outstanding Student Scholarship” covering tuition fees of junior and senior years by Simple Solutions Ltd., Bangalore(2003-05)
Awarded prize medal for standing first in department in semesters II and III in undergraduate degree(2001-02)
Awarded "Best National Service Scheme Student Volunteer of the Year 1999-2000"
Awarded First prize in State-level Inter-collegiate English Oratorical Competition, 2002

TECHNICAL SKILLS
User Research: Design ethnography/qualitative user research, Rapid prototyping, wireframes, walkthroughs, Usability/summative & formative evaluation techniques, Concept exploration/software development, Quantitative methods

Development: Java, VB.Net, Python, C, HTML/CSS, SQL Server 2000, ASP.Net, Matlab, 8085, 8086 uP, 8051 uC

POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY
President, Surabhi--the Indian Students Association at UC, Irvine (2009-10)
Social Chair, Informatics Graduate Student Association (2008-09)
Vice-president, Surabhi--the Indian Students Association at UC, Irvine (2008-09)
Committee, Indian Classical Art association, Aarohi, Georgia Tech (2006-07)
DJ and Engineering team, Georgia Tech campus radio, WREK 91.1 F.M.
Big Sister, part of the Women at College of Computing, Georgia Tech (2006-07)
Reviewer (ACM CHI ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ACM Ubicomp ’08, ’09, ACM CSCW ’09, IFIP Interact ‘09)
Vice-chair of Association of Electronics and Communication Engineering(2003-05)
Microsoft Student Champ (2004-05)
Secretary of National Service Scheme(1999-2001)
President of Young Students Movement(1997-99)

 

    ______________________________________

    Every town our home town,
    Every man a kinsman.

    Good and evil do not come
    from others.
    Pain and relief of pain
    come of themselves.
    Dying is nothing new.
    We do not rejoice
    that life is sweet
    nor in anger
    call it bitter.

    Our lives, however dear,
    follow their own course,
    rafts drifting
    in the rapids of a great river
    sounding and dashing over the rocks
    after a downpour
    from skies slashed by lightnings-

    we know this
    from the vision
    of men who see.

    So,
    we are not amazed by the great,
    and we do not scorn the little.
    ~kanniyan punkuran