Aditya Vashistha
Human-Centered Computing Across Borders
Follow The Crowd
HuffPost​
I am a Computer Science and Engineering PhD candidate at the University of Washington (UW) where​ I use social computing to achieve social good of people in low-resource environments. This encompasses:
Building social computing systems for people with literacy, language, socioeconomic and connectivity barriers (example systems: Sangeet Swara, Respeak, and CGNet Swara);
Systematizing content production, consumption, and sharing practices of these new users (example research: social media use by blind people and women);
Deploying these social computing systems to improve people's access to health, education, and employment opportunities (example project: Projecting Health).
More broadly, my research spans Human-Computer Interaction, Computing for Development, and Accessibility Technology.
My work has been recognized by global development organizations, human rights groups, and social media organizations in the form of USAID Seed Grant, Facebook Access Innovation Prize, and Facebook Graduate Fellowship. I am also a recipient of the UW's College of Engineering Student Research award as well as several best paper awards and nominations at premier HCI venues. My research has transitioned into large-scale, real-world products that have reached an estimated 220,000 people in Africa and South Asia.
I am also the designer and developer of IVR Junction, an award-winning free and open source toolkit that makes it easy for global development agencies to build, set up, and maintain voice-based social computing systems on basic mobile phones that connects to online social computing platforms like Facebook.​
I am an active member of UW's ICTD, Change, and DUB group. ​ At UW, I am advised by Richard Anderson and formerly by Gaetano Borriello. Prior to UW, I worked as an Assistant Researcher at Microsoft Research India with Bill Thies and Ed Cutrell.
May 1, 2019: Our two papers got accepted at COMPASS 2019. Looking forward to visiting Accra!
December 10, 2018: Our two papers got accepted at CHI 2019. Looking forward to visiting Glasgow!
Sep 1, 2018: Our paper, Fresh Insights: User Research Towards a Market Information Service for Bihari Vegetable Farmers, is accepted at ICTD 2019.
June 11, 2018: Honored to be a finalist for the 2018 Graduate School Medal award! Thank you UW!
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.
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. ​​
Menlo Park, USA
MSR Faculty Summit
Redmond, USA
Wadhwani AI
College Park, USA
Ithaca, USA
State College, USA
Irvine, USA
Amherst, USA