News

  • ​March 8, 2018: Our paper, Examining Security and Privacy Research in Developing Regions, is accepted at COMPASS 2018. 
  • December 11, 2017: Our three papers got accepted at CHI 2018. Looking forward to visiting Montreal! 
  • ​April 23, 2017: Honored to receive the 2017 University of Washington College of Engineering Student Research Award. See the Computer Science and Engineering news article for more information.
  • Mar 13, 2017: Our paper, Examining Localization Approaches for Community Health, is accepted at DIS 2017. 
  • Feb 17, 2017: Our paper, Respeak: A Voice-based, Crowed-powered Speech Transcription System, has received Honorable Mention award at CHI 2017.  
  • Dec 14, 2016: Our paper, Respeak: A Voice-based, Crowed-powered Speech Transcription System, is accepted at CHI 2017. 
  • Dec 8, 2016: Our article, Technology Use and Non-use by Low-income Blind People in India, is published in ACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing Newsletter (Issue 116). 
  • Sep 12, 2016: Excited to be a TA for a graduate level ICTD course by Kurtis Heimerl in Fall 2016. 
  • ​July 7, 2016: Gave a mini-keynote talk on Accessibility Research in the Developing World at UW CSE MSR Summer Institute 2016.
  • January 15, 2016: Our paper, Mobile Video Dissemination for Community Health, is accepted at ICTD 2016. 
  • December 29, 2015: Honored to be one of the recipients of 2016-17 Facebook Graduate Fellowship. Thank you Facebook!
  • October 27, 2015:  Our paper, Social Media Platforms for Low-Income Blind People in India, has won the Best Student Paper Award at ASSETS 2015.
  • July 24, 2015:  Along with my collaborators at IIT Bombay, won a USD 70,000 grant by the government of Maharashtra.
  • June 18, 2015: Our paper, Social Media Platforms for Low-Income Blind People in India, is accepted at ASSETS 2015.
  • March 13, 2015: Our paper, The Whodunit Challenge: Mobilizing the Crowd in India, is accepted at INTERACT 2015.
  • March 1, 2015: Our paper, Sangeet Swara: A Community-Moderated Voice Forum in Rural India, has won Best Paper Award at CHI 2015. 
  • ​December 15, 2014: Our paper on Sangeet Swara: A Community-Moderated Voice Forum in Rural India is accepted in CHI 2015.
  • October 9, 2014: Internet.org produced a video on our work, a smartphone application for CGNet Swara. Watch the video here. Read a short note published in ACM DEV 2015 here.
  • September 25, 2014: Winner of the $50,000 Tech Challenge Seed Grant from USAID.
  • September 15, 2014: Our paper on Educational Content Creation and Sharing by Low-Income Visually Impaired People in India is accepted in ACM DEV 2014.
  • August 28, 2014: Our paper on Increasing the Reach of Snowball Sampling: The Impact of Fixed versus Lottery Incentives is accepted in CSCW 2015.
  • July 27, 2014: Won the $2000 SIGACCESS Scholarship in Computers and Accessibility Award.
  • May 31, 2014:  I am a Finalist for the INDIAFRICA Young Visionaries Fellowship 2014.
  • April 15, 2014: I am a Finalist for the SwitchPoint 2014 Student Contest.
  • March 4, 2014: Won the 2014 Access Facebook Award. Click here for the announcement.  
  • February 12, 2014: IVR Junction is a finalist for 2014 Access Facebook Award. Click here for the announcement.
  • December 5, 2013: IVR Junction is Runner-up in e-Inclusion and Localisation category for The Manthan Award. 
  • November 23, 2013: Position paper titled "Doctor on DVD:  Virtual Health Consultation Using Interactive DVDs" accepted in NetHealth 2014 workshop
  • November 18, 2013: In Kenya to be on a panel titled "You Can't Get There from Here: Generating, Analyzing & Using Information from Hard-to-Access Areas" in International Conference of Crisis Mappers
  • October 15, 2013: IVR Junction is a finalist for The Manthan Award. Winners will be announced in December
  • October 4, 2013: Position paper accepted to DPEW 2013 
  • September 26, 2013: IVR Junction accepted as demo for ICTD 2013.
  • September 23, 2013: Poster on 'How Should Users Convey Their Location to an Interactive Voice Response System?' is accepted in DEV 4
  • September 18, 2013: IJNet.org published an article on IVR Junction
  • September 10, 2013: Moved to Computer Science and Engineering department at UW to pursue PhD
  • August 23, 2013: Our short paper (note) on the work we did in Somaliland is accepted in ICTD 2013
  • August 8, 2013: The Huffington Post published a blog on IVR Junction
  • July 27, 2013: We have released IVR Junction under Apache 2.0 License!
  • July 25, 2013: Proposal to conduct an open session on 'Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Platforms in the Developing World' is accepted in ICTD 2013.
  • July 18, 2013: IVR Junction received Special Mention at 2013 mBillionth Award South Asia
  • July 1, 2013: IVR Junction is profiled by Livemint 
  • June 18, 2013: We (Bill Thies and I) are the second place winner of the Communicate sub-challenge of The Tech Challenge For Atrocity Prevention by USAID and Humanity United
  • June 4, 2013: IVR Junction is a finalist for 2013 mBillionth Award South Aisa
  • March 20, 2013: National Democratic Institue (NDITech) published an article on IVR Junction
  • March 20, 2013: Patent on watermarking titled 'Method and System for Efficient Watermarking of Digital Video' is granted by USPTO
  • March 19, 2013: IVR Junction is deployed in Mali by Voice of America and Broadcasting Board of Governors. More details here
December 11, 2017: Our three papers got accepted at CHI 2018. Looking forward to visiting Montreal!