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Resume
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Education

2016-current    PhD candidate in Informatics (Human-Computer Interaction, exp. May 2022)  

                          Minor - Social Data Analytics (SoDA) Big Data Social Science Fellow

                          Pennsylvania State University, United States

            2013      MA in Educational Policy & Administration

                          Minors - Program Evaluation & Computer Science

                          University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, United States

            2008     BE in Computer Science 

                         University of Pune, India

                         Ranked 8th in Pune University

Experience

UX Research Intern for Responsible AI, Microsoft | May 2021 - Aug 2021

 AI, Ethics, and Effects in Engineering and Research 

  • Uncovered a range of responsible AI practices, interviewing 15+ industry-wide AI practitioners and experts to create Microsoft’s first responsible AI maturity model framework for product teams. 

  • Initiated and led revamp of reliability and safety principles used by all Microsoft AI product teams for evaluating their model’s impact. 

  • Key contributing member of the AI reliability and safety education committee to promote trustworthy AI product innovation. 

  • Coached an AI engineering team about the value of generative research in user safety, data collection, analysis, and prioritizing findings directly impacting the products engineering roadmap. 

UX Research Intern, IBM Research Almaden | July 2019 - Sep 2019 

Explainable Artificial Intelligence + Natural Language Processing

  • Crafted an interview study with 30 stakeholders including AI/ML researchers, developers, project managers, designers and business leaders to illuminate different personas of explanation consumers, factors and mechanisms that foster transparency and user comprehension of an AI product and its decision. Defined a collaborative annotation process with team members to review XAI+ NLP literature, co-creating a new taxonomy and ultimately spawning a new research program.

  • Defined a collaborative annotation process with team members to review XAI+ NLP literature, co-creating a new taxonomy and ultimately spawning a new research program. 

UX Researcher, Teaching and Learning with Technology, Penn State ​| Sep 2019 - current

Data Empowered Learning

  • Spearheading end-to-end UX research for an AI-based learning tool for college students using surveys, interviews and usability testing. 

  • Collaborating with lead engineer, project manager, instructional designer, on concept testing, prototyping and designing a data-driven learning analytics tool for reflective teaching with university faculty. 

  • Informing student data privacy and policy discussion at Penn State by sharing research insights gathered from user interviews. 

Graduate Research Assistant, Penn State | Aug 2018 - May 2019 

  • Led field research and participatory design research project for developing an open data platform about water quality to increase visibility and improve access for data literacy.

  • Led interview study for understanding good deed practices, preferences and beliefs of undergraduate students.

Big Data Social Science Fellow - Social Data Analytics, Penn State | Sep 2017- May 2018

  • Quantitative data analysis for multiple social impact projects including (i) identifying communication patterns between citizens and local governments (ii) detecting emotional contagion via tweets 

  • Drove persona and user needs research to design a a geo-visual analytics tool for NYC city planners to explore noise complaints data. 

Researcher, University of Minnesota | Oct 2014 - Oct 2015

  • Led design and analysis of Minnesota statewide survey project for 4-H First Year Member Satisfaction.

  • Designed monitoring & evaluation plan for Minnesota 4-H volunteers

  • Implemented roll-out plan for 4-H Enrollment Data Interface to facilitate data-driven decision making.

  • Launched a pilot project for youth engagement in the Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) process.

Evaluation Intern, American Evaluation Association | Sep 2013 – May 2014

  • One of four nationally selected interns for ‘American Evaluation Association’ (AEA) Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program.

  • Initiated evaluation capacity building efforts through intentional program design.

Evaluation Consultant, Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota | Jan 2013- Jun 2013

  • Impact assessment of University of Minnesota federally funded courses and programs using faculty interviews, student pre/post/follow-up surveys and student achievement data

  • Grant proposal writing incorporating GPRA performance measures.

Evaluation and Analysis Consultant , The Brandlab | June 2012 - August 2012

  • Developed program logic model, developed and analyzed pre/post surveys for students, group interview protocols, surveys for teachers, classroom observation rubric and analysis tools.

Research Assistant, University of Minnesota | Sept. 2012- Dec 2012

  • Conducted extensive literature review of methodological and theoretical frameworks for exploring the effectiveness of state policies that tie teacher accountability to student performance.

Member of Technical Staff, Starent Networks (now Cisco Systems Inc.) | Jul 2008 – Aug 2010

  • Implemented the ‘Mobile Billing Sub-system’ in C programming language - a critical revenue-generating component in all customer deployments.

  • Responsible for design and implementation of a module facilitating seamless migration from 3G to 4G telecom networks and vice-versa.

Skills

Research methods | Contextual Inquiry, scenario-based design, participatory design, ethnographic research,

                                  surveys (Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey), focus groups, interviews, heuristic evaluation, usability testing

Data analysis | Quantitative statistical analysis in R, Stata, Excel, Tableau 

                         Qualitative analysis using NVivo, MAXQDA, Marvin

Wireframing, Prototyping | AdobeXD, Balsamiq, InVision

Programming | HTML, CSS, C, C++, Java, MySQL

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