RESEARCH INTERESTS
Master of Science (Research), Information Technology, Pursuing
Bachelor of Technology, Information and Communication Technology, 2009, CPI1: 7.4 / 10.0, Senior Year CPI: 8.0 / 10.0
Indian School Certificate (ISC), Grade 12, 2004, Aggregate: 94%
Indian Certificate of Secondary Examination (ICSE), Grade 10, 2002, Aggregate: 93%
Teaching Associate
I am responsible for conducting lab and tutorial sessions for undergradute level courses in programming and economics. I also serve as a teaching associate for the same courses. The class size is 120 students. I also help out with administrative tasks at MIIT in various capacities.
Research Assistant (Advisor: Dr. Amit Prakash, IIIT Bangalore)
Conducted exploratory research on the use of cash transfers as social protection instruments and the role information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in their implementation.
Lead Investigator (Advisor: Dr. Aaditeshwar Seth, IIT Delhi)
Conducted research on building an application that uses Gram Vaani’s Multiplanar Inter Networking Protocol (MINP) and utilises radio as a communication technology to encourage participatory journalism and civic activism amongst community members. My research centered on inferences drawn from online social communities and other forms of participatory media (such as blogs, wikis, and participatory news sites).
Worked on implementing the log shipping component of the radio automation system being designed by Gram Vaani for rural community radio stations. Challenges involved were designing a robust, delay-tolerant system that took into account the lack of dependable infrastructure in such remote locations.
Research Intern (Advisor: Dr. Anish Mathuria, DA-IICT)
Conducted a comparative and critical survey of existing Peer2Peer (P2P) Micropayment schemes. Modeled an existing scheme2 using formal analysis tools (CSP and FDR) and discovered a flaw in it. The scheme was then fixed, and proven to be secure using the same formal analysis [Final Report].
Research Intern (Advisor: Dr. Matthew Kam, American Institutes for Research)
MILLEE (Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies) is an interdisciplinary research project that involves designing educational and immersive cell phone games in order to promote access to English language literacy among underprivileged school-going children in the developing world. As part of my internship, I was responsible for designing and programming some of these games, and conducting field studies (contextual inquiries, ethnographic studies, summative evaluations) with children from two schools across India.
Student Volunteer (Mentor: Mr. Raj Kanani, SIDH)
This internship was aimed at exploring ICT applications to improve the conditions of the rural sector, especially in the area of education. A period of 6 weeks was spent in villages, and several projects were taken up, including training of the teachers in schools run by SIDH.
Advisor: Dr. Anish Mathuria, DA-IICT
Developed a tool for translating the attack specification generated by model checkers of security protocols (like Scyther, AVISPA). The translated specification could then be directly used as an input by a protocol-patching tool (like SHRIMP). This module was developed as part of an autonomic framework that could check security protocols for errors, prove them to be valid or invalid, and repair them on the fly.
The workshop brought together diverse voices to discuss changes in the nature of financial transactions. The speakers and the participants explored ways to rethink cash-less and intermediary-free economies and examined how to best incorporate the values associated with cash and financial intermediaries into the world of digital financial transactions.
Assisted with administrative and academic arrangements for the Innovation Expo during the International Conference on Implimenting Social Programs, co-hosted by the World Bank and IIIT, Bangalore, and entitled “Better Processes, Better Technology, Better Results”.
The objective of the summer school, conducted by Microsoft Research (India), was to impress upon the attendees the interdisciplinary nature of ICTD research, to equip them with the tools needed to conduct such research, and to enable networking amongst peers working in the field.
Advisor: Neha Kumar
Banking 101 seeks to promote financial literacy by educating and empowering inhabitants of rural and semi-urban parts of India who are unaware of the financial options available to them. The finished prototype — a mobile educational application — introduced the basics of banking to adults and encouraged them to pursue the options available.
Advisor: Dr. Rakesh Shukla
JanMat aimed at computerizing the Student Government Elections at DA-IICT and replacing the existing manual procedure by a quicker, resource conserving process. This project was completed as part of the Software Engineering course, under the guidance of Prof. Rakesh Shukla. The entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) was followed during the course of the project. Team Size — 12
This study was undertaken as part of the Science, Technology, \& Society course and was aimed at understanding the implications of and the reasons behind the Digital Divide in India. Ongoing efforts to bridge the divide were also studied in detail. A presentation was given on completion of the project. Team Size - 12
Tools:
, GIMP, Adobe Flash 8, Adobe FlashLite 2.1, Adobe Dreamweaver MX, MS Word, MS PowerPointOperating Systems: Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu), Windows (9x, 2000, XP, Vista, 7)
Dynamics of the Information Technology Industry, Economic and Social Impacts of IT, Religious Thought of Gandhi, Gandhi - Life and Thought, Science, Technology, & Society, Introduction to Business Finance, Principles of Economics, Approaches to Indian Society
- Secured 1st position in TechMarket (white paper presentation) at Synapse — the annual techno-cultural festival of DA-IICT (2008)
- Lead Coordinator of HeadRush (the quizzing event) at Synapse — the annual techno-cultural festival of DA-IICT (2008)
- City Second Runner-up in the Ahmedabad chapter of IMS Quotient — The National Inter Collegiate Quiz (2008)
- Coordinator of the activities of HeadRush — the campus quiz club at DA-IICT (2007-2008)
- Member of the Editorial Board and Section Editor of Random Noise for Entelechy — the campus magazine at DA-IICT (2005-2008)
- Webmaster for HeadRush — the campus quiz club at DA-IICT
- Received graduate fellowship for pursuing post-graduate studies at IIIT Bangalore
- Gram Vaani won the jurors’ distinction in the Digital Inclusion for Development category at the 2009 South Asia Manthan Awards
- Secured an All India Rank of 3855 (Top 1% of the country) in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) ‘05
- School topper in Grade 10 (ICSE ‘02) and Grade 12 (ISC ‘04) Board Exams, with an aggregate of 93% and 94% respectively
- Awarded Daya Rani Pant Memorial Scholarship for securing the highest aggregate — 93% — in school in Grade 10 (ICSE ‘02) Board Exams