Curriculum Vitae

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Education

  • Ph.D. (Information Systems) from the iSchool, University of Toronto
    • Thesis title: Is Hearing Believing? Perception of Online Information Credibility by Screen Reader Users who are Blind or Visually Impaired.
  • M.Sc. (Human-Computer Interaction & Ergonomics)–University College London, U.K.
    • Thesis title: Accessibility vs. Usability–where is the dividing line?
  • M.Sc. (Theoretical Chemistry)–Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
    • Thesis title: Electron Spin Resonance spectroscopic study of Gamma-irradiated hydroimidazole crystals.

Fellowships & Awards

  • OCAD University Research Seed Grant ($2500) (2015-16)
  • MITACS Elevate Industrial Postdoctoral Fellowship ($140,000) (2010–2012)
  • University of Toronto Doctoral scholarship & Research Assistantship (~ $250,000.) (2005–2010)
  • Travel Award to CAIS 2010 in Montreal from University of Toronto ($500)
  • Travel Award to CSUN 2009 in Los Angeles, CA from University of Toronto ($1200)
  • Travel Award to JCDL 2007 in Vancouver from National Science Foundation, USA (US$ 1000)
  • Travel Award to ASSETS 2006 in Portland, OR, from University of Toronto ($500)
  • Travel Award to ICCHP 2006 in Linz, Austria from University of Toronto ($800)
  • National Science Talent Scholarship from Government of India, undergrad & grad studies

Service

  • 2015-16    OCAD University Program Committee, MDID Program
  • 2014-15    OCAD University Admissions Committee, MDID Program (Committee Member); OCAD University Program Committee, MDID Program (Committee Member)
  • 2014-15    Technical adviser (website and social media) Barrier-Free Canada.
  • 2013-14   OCAD University Admissions Committee, MDID Program (Committee Member); OCAD University Program Committee, MDID Program (Committee Member)
  • 2012-13    Contributing faculty, MDID program
  • 2011-12    Contributing faculty, MDID program
  • 2007–09    Committee member of the Students For Barrier-free Access, Accessibility Services Student Advisory Committee Working Group on Alternative Formats.
  • 2007–10   Volunteer with BALANCE For Blind Adults.
  • 2006–10   Volunteer with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
  • 2006–07  Executive member (Website Committee) of the iSchool Doctoral Students Association, UofT

Legacy technologies

  • Lotus Notes 4.6 Development certification – Cybernet Education, Madras, India
  • Certificate in ‘C’ language – National Centre for Software Technology, Mumbai, India
  • Certificate Course in Software Technology – National Centre for Software Technology India
  • IBM mainframe – JCL – VS COBOL – Systems programmer
  • UNIX operating system – MF COBOL – Application programmer
  • UNIX operating system – UNIFY RDBMS and C language – Project manager
  • WIPRO-DOS operating system – SQL and COBOL – Systems analyst/programmer

Languages

  • Native to working level proficiency in ten Indo-Iranian and Dravidian languages: oral and written fluency in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi; oral fluency in Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, and Urdu; academic proficiency in Sanskrit
  • Diploma in French from Alliance Français de Bombay, India
  • Mandarin language course (level I) from University College London (U.K.)
  • Proficiency in Braille typing and visual recognition of Braille letters