Hello!
I’m a postdoctoral fellow at Saarland University, advised by Prof. Ingmar Weber. My research brings together Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), HCI for development (HCI4D), and information and communication technologies for development (ICTD).
I design Thoughtful AI: low-cost systems built with people to support learning, reflection, and participation in their communities. A question guides this work: what can people still do when the AI assistance ends?
I am also a KCRC Fellow at the Kigali Collaborative Research Centre. Based at Carnegie Mellon University Africa in Kigali, it brings researchers together to work on practical challenges across Africa.
I completed my Ph.D. in Human–Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, USA, advised by Prof. Amy Ogan and Prof. Tim Brown.
Research Interests
My work spans three areas. Select one to see related publications below.
- Conversational AI — chatbots, large language models (LLMs), interactive voice systems, and short learning activities
- Learning — teacher professional development, wider access to mentoring, and teachers’ aspirations
- Global South — HCI4D and ICTD for social impact, building on community strengths in health, education, and conservation
LLMs for HCI4D, ICTD and Social Impact
My work applies LLMs to education, health, and civic learning. In India, I collaborate with Gram Vaani, a social technology organisation. Together, we study AI for sensitive health questions and WhatsApp tools that help communities learn about caring for land and water.
For my PhD, I designed and evaluated low-cost, chat-based teacher learning systems that supported 400+ teachers and 10,000+ students in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Read my thesis draft.
Selected Publications
See my full publication record on Google Scholar.
Showing of 13.
Topic pages: Conversational AI · Global South · Learning
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Designing Safe and Accountable GenAI as a Learning Companion with Women Banned from Formal Education (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Conversational AI Generative AI Privacy
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@inproceedings{behmanush2026safe, title = {Designing Safe and Accountable GenAI as a Learning Companion with Women Banned from Formal Education}, author = {Behmanush, Hamayoon and Akhtari, Freshta and Weber, Ingmar and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency}, pages = {6203--6225}, year = {2026}, publisher = {ACM}, doi = {10.1145/3805689.3806466} } -
Impacts of Targeted Instruction with Mobile-Based Support on Teachers and Students in Rural Côte d’Ivoire (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Learning Randomised Trial Côte d'Ivoire
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@article{wolf2026impacts, title = {Impacts of Targeted Instruction with Mobile-Based Support on Teachers and Students in Rural Côte d’Ivoire}, author = {Wolf, Sharon and Ogan, Amy and Jasińska, Kaja K. and Kembou, Samuel and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Whitehead, Hannah and Corbett, Julianna and Tanoh, Fabrice and Wortsman, Brooke and Lim, Joshua and Zhao, Hui and Kumar, Anahita}, journal = {American Educational Research Journal}, year = {2026}, doi = {10.3102/00028312261430679} } -
Teacher Professional Development on WhatsApp and LLMs: Early Lessons from Cameroon (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Conversational AI WhatsApp Teacher Training
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@inproceedings{cannanure2026whatsapp, title = {Teacher Professional Development on WhatsApp and LLMs: Early Lessons from Cameroon}, author = {Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Yinkfu, Bruno and Bryan, Douglas and Amin, Mati and Weber, Ingmar}, booktitle = {Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2026)}, series = {Communications in Computer and Information Science}, pages = {249--261}, year = {2026}, publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-29791-4_18} } -
A Design-Based Research Approach to Bridge Teacher Aspirations and Goal-Setting (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Learning Aspirations Design-Based Research
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@article{cannanure2025designbased, title = {A Design-Based Research Approach to Bridge Teacher Aspirations and Goal-Setting}, author = {Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Ngoon, Tricia J. and Wolf, Sharon and Jasińska, Kaja K. and Brown, Tim and Ogan, Amy}, journal = {ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies}, volume = {3}, number = {4}, pages = {1--23}, year = {2025}, doi = {10.1145/3736648} } -
Exploring AI in Education: Child-Computer Interaction in the Global South (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Global South Children AI in Education
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@article{verma2025exploring, title = {Exploring AI in Education: Child-Computer Interaction in the Global South}, author = {Verma, Riti and Weber, Ingmar and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath}, journal = {ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies}, volume = {3}, number = {3}, articleno = {20}, year = {2025}, doi = {10.1145/3736645} } -
Exploring LLMs for Automated Generation and Adaptation of Questionnaires (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Conversational AI LLMs Questionnaires
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@inproceedings{adhikari2025exploring, title = {Exploring LLMs for Automated Generation and Adaptation of Questionnaires}, author = {Adhikari, Divya Mani and Hartland, Alexander and Weber, Ingmar and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces}, year = {2025}, articleno = {70}, doi = {10.1145/3719160.3736606} } -
Learn, Explore and Reflect by Chatting: Understanding the Value of an LLM-Based Voting Advice Application Chatbot (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Conversational AI LLMs Civic Engagement
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@inproceedings{zhu2025learn, title = {Learn, Explore and Reflect by Chatting: Understanding the Value of an LLM-Based Voting Advice Application Chatbot}, author = {Zhu, Jianlong and Kempermann, Manon and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Hartland, Alexander and Navarrete, Rosa M. and Carteny, Giuseppe and Braun, Daniela and Weber, Ingmar}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces}, year = {2025}, doi = {10.1145/3719160.3736611} } -
Understanding the Longitudinal Impact of a Chatbot to Facilitate a Virtual Community of Practice for Teachers in Rural Côte d’Ivoire (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Conversational AI Chatbots Community of Practice
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@article{cannanure2024longitudinal, title = {Understanding the Longitudinal Impact of a Chatbot to Facilitate a Virtual Community of Practice for Teachers in Rural C{\^o}te d'Ivoire}, author = {Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Ngoon, Tricia and Wolf, Sharon and Jasi{\'n}ska, Kaja and Brown, Timothy X. and Ogan, Amy}, journal = {ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies}, volume = {2}, number = {3}, articleno = {37}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.1145/3675762} } -
“I Believe I Did Not Preach into the Desert”: Opportunities and Challenges in Scaling Teacher Mentorship through Mobile Technology in Rural Côte d’Ivoire (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Learning Mentorship Mobile Technology
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@inproceedings{ngoon2024believe, title = {{``I Believe I Did Not Preach into the Desert''}: Opportunities and Challenges in Scaling Teacher Mentorship through Mobile Technology in Rural C{\^o}te d'Ivoire}, author = {Ngoon, Tricia J. and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Jasi{\'n}ska, Kaja and Wolf, Sharon and Ogan, Amy}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale}, pages = {232--242}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.1145/3657604.3662035} } -
“We dream of climbing the ladder; to get there, we have to do our job better”: Designing for Teacher Aspirations in rural Côte d’Ivoire (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Learning Teacher Aspirations Scaling
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@inproceedings{cannanure2022dream, title = {{``We dream of climbing the ladder; to get there, we have to do our job better''}: Designing for Teacher Aspirations in rural C{\^o}te d'Ivoire}, author = {Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and {\'A}vila-Uribe, Elo{\'i}sa and Ngoon, Tricia and Adji, Yves Thierry and Wolf, Sharon and Jasi{\'n}ska, Kaja and Brown, Timothy X. and Ogan, Amy}, booktitle = {ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies}, pages = {122--138}, year = {2022}, publisher = {ACM}, doi = {10.1145/3530190.3534794} } -
“I’m Fine Where I Am, but I Want to Do More”: Exploring Teacher Aspirations in Rural Côte d’Ivoire (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Learning Teacher Aspirations Rural Education
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@inproceedings{cannanure2020aspirations, title = {{``I'm Fine Where I Am, but I Want to Do More''}: Exploring Teacher Aspirations in Rural C{\^o}te d'Ivoire}, author = {Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Niweteto, Justin Souvenir and Adji, Yves Thierry and Hermann, Akpe Yapo and Jasi{\'n}ska, Kaja K. and Brown, Timothy X. and Ogan, Amy}, booktitle = {ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies}, pages = {1--12}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1145/3378393.3403653} } -
DIA: A Human AI Hybrid Conversational Assistant for Developing Contexts (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Conversational AI Chatbots WhatsApp
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Cite
@inproceedings{cannanure2020dia, title = {DIA: A Human AI Hybrid Conversational Assistant for Developing Contexts}, author = {Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Brown, Timothy X. and Ogan, Amy}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development}, articleno = {24}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1145/3392561.3397577} } -
HCI Across Borders and Sustainable Development Goals
Global South HCI Across Borders Community
DOI Details
Cite
@inproceedings{kumar2020hcixb, title = {HCI Across Borders and Sustainable Development Goals}, author = {Kumar, Neha and Cannanure, Vikram Kamath and Gamage, Dilrukshi and Prabhakar, Annu Sible and Sturm, Christian and Rivera Loaiza, Cuauht{\'e}moc and Sabie, Dina and Bhuiyan, Md. Moinuddin and Moreno Rocha, Mario A.}, booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, pages = {1--8}, year = {2020}, publisher = {ACM}, doi = {10.1145/3334480.3375067} }
News
- 2026 – Serving as Papers Chair for ACM COMPASS 2026.
- 2026 – Paper at ACM FAccT 2026 on designing safe, accountable GenAI learning companions with women banned from formal education.
- Oct 2025 – Teaching: AI & the Global South (lead instructor).
- Feb 2025 – Papers accepted to CUI 2025 (LLM survey design; reflection with a voting advice application) and COMPASS 2025 (online learning & GenAI for Afghan women).
- Oct 2023 – Started my postdoc in Saarbrücken.
- Aug 2023 – Defended PhD at CMU 🎓
Service
- Co-Organizer & Community Lead, HCI Across Borders (CHI ’20–’25; COMPASS ’23/’24).
- Papers Chair, ACM COMPASS 2026.
- Program Committees, COMPASS 2025 and AfriCHI 2025.
- Reviewer, CHI, CSCW, COMPASS, ICTD, CHI Extended Abstracts, and CHI Case Studies.
- Fundraising, raised over $20,000 for social causes in India.
- Kannada language teacher (volunteer), S.V. Temple, Pittsburgh.
Swimming
I’m a long-distance swimmer and have raised funds for NGOs in India. Read about my swims on my blog.
Selected swims:
- Elephanta → Gateway of India
- Swim Miami 2016 & 2021
- Lake Muhazi, Rwanda
Software & Making Things
I’ve built web, Android, iOS, and desktop software, as well as hardware. My projects include Flask APIs serving over 4 million users, a WebGL 3D viewer, Learn Kannada with over 10,000 downloads, and Jedi Mouse, which lets people control a cursor using gestures and EEG signals.
Contact
Email: vica001@teams.uni-saarland.de
Meet: Schedule a meeting
Twitter: @kmarkiv
Blog: kmarkiv.wordpress.com
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