Vikram Kamath

About Me

I am a postdoctoral fellow at Saarland University, advised by Prof. Ingmar Weber. I specialize in Human-Computer Interaction for Development (HCI4D).

I recently graduated with a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. Prof. Amy Ogan and Prof. Tim Brown were my amazing advisors. My work was on building and evaluating low-cost chatbot to support teachers in low-resource contexts. Here is the draft of my thesis.

I aspire to be a friendly neighborhood HCI/ICTD citizen.

Research Interests

• ICTD: Aspirations, Assets Based Design
• Human-Centered AI: Chatbots, IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
• Education: Teacher Professional Development
• Health: Health Information

News

• [Oct. 2023] Moved to Saarbrücken, Germany
• [Aug. 2023] passed my thesis defense and graduated!
• [June. 2022] passed my thesis proposal
• [May. 2022] finished my second TAship
• [Apr. 2022] helped Organize HCIxB  for CHI 2022
• [June. 2021] formed my thesis committee
• [May. 2021] swam at Swim Miami to raise money for COVID relief
• [May. 2021] helped Organize HCIxB  for CHI 2021

Selected Publications (see Google Scholar)

• Cannanure V.K., Brown T., Ogan A. DIA: A Human AI Hybrid Chatbot for Low Resource Contexts. ICTD 2020, Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Cannanure V.K., Souvenir J., Adji Y., Apke H., Jasinska K., Brown T., Ogan A. ”I’m fine where I am, but I want to do more”: Exploring Teacher Aspirations in Rural Cote D’Ivoire. ACM COMPASS 2020, Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Madaio, M., Yarzebinski, E., Cannanure V.K., Zinszer B., Seri, A., Tanoh, F., Hannon-Cropp, J., Cassell, J., Jasinska, K. Ogan, A. Collective Support and Independent Learning with a Voice-Based Literacy Technology in Rural Communities. CHI ’20, Apr 2020, Hawaii, USA
• Cannanure V.K., Madaio, M., Yarzebinski, E., Ogan, A., Brown T. Using Graphical Models to Understand Usage of an Educational Interactive Voice Response System. COMPASS ’19, Jun 2019, Accra, Ghana [Poster]
• Madaio, M., Cannanure V.K., Yarzebinski, E., Zasacky, S., Tanoh, F., Hannon-Cropp, J., Cassell, J., Jasinska, K. Ogan, A. ”You Give a Little of Yourself”: Family Support for Children’s Use of an IVR Literacy System.. COMPASS ’19, Jun 2019, Accra, Ghana

Service

• HCIxB Organizer: HCIxB is a community of researchers across the world.
• SIGCHI Development Fund Volunteer: I help with the events calendar at sigchi.org
• Regular reviewer: CSCW, CHI, CHI extended abstract, CHI case studies, ACM COMPASS
• Fundraising: I have raised ~$25,000 for various causes in India, thanks to Milaap.org, social media, and my supportive family.
• SV Temple volunteer: During school, I volunteer as a second language(Kannada) teacher for little kids at the local temple in Pittsburgh.

Swimming

I am a long-distance swimmer and have raised money for charity by partnering with NGOs in India. You can read more about my adventures on my blog. Here are some selected swims. 

• Elephanta to Gateway of India for supporting acid attack victims.
• Swim Miami 2016 for buying wheelchairs for differently-abled people.
• Swim Miami 2021 for COVID relief.
• Across Lake Muhazi in Rwanda for fun.

Software development

Over the past 15 years, I have built technology on the web, Android, desktop, iOS, and hardware gadgets. I still love making things but rarely do it for projects outside my research. After over a decade of fancy portfolios, I kept it simple this time.

Here are some selected projects:

• Flask APIs at scale: APIs that served 4 million users at TeliportMe (where I was the Architect)
• WebGL viewer: I designed a 3D viewer for phones and web browsers that is on par with Google Street View.
• Learn Kannada: An Android application to teach a second language with>10K downloads.
• Textin: A desktop application to send text messages and my first entrepreneurship venture
• Enginux: I helped build a custom Ubuntu derivative based on Linux Mint.
• Jedi Mouse: An interactive device that uses gestures and EEG data from the user’s brain to control the mouse.

Hobbies

• Cooking: I am good at cooking South Indian food but occasionally try vegetarian cuisines from other cultures.
• Sketching: I love to draw cartoon characters, usually with a positive message.
• Meditation: I follow the heartfulness practice regularly.
• Learning French and German: As much as I can.
• Chess: I play Blitz and Bullet on chess.com 

Contact

Read more about me on my blog or add me on Facebook. You can email me at vica001@teams.uni-saarland.de or tweet to @kmarkiv.

Thanks to Jekyll and Minimal Light theme.