About me
I am a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. My research advances sound accessibility through designing, building, and deploying HCI+AI systems. This work has been published at the most selective HCI venues such as CHI, UIST, DIS, and ASSETS, has received multiple best paper awards and honorable mentions, drawn the attention of industry research such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple, and has been publicly released (e.g., SoundWatch). I am supported by a Microsoft Dissertation Grant and a Google-CMD-IT LEAP Alliance Fellowship.
Before starting my PhD, I completed by masters from MIT Media Lab, bachelors from IIT Delhi, and took a gap year to backpack 21 countries. Through publishing a critical reflection of my travel experiences as a hard of hearing individual, I pioneered the use of auto-ethnography in accessible computing research. My biggest pride is Roshni, a low-cost indoor navigation system for visually impaired users, which was installed in a National Science Museum for two years (75,000+ users).
Besides research, I provide scuba instruction and conduct DIY workshops—so far, I have taught in 11 one-week workshops in six low-income countries. Atleast two teams from these workshops have continued their projects and launched multinational companies.
Connect with me on email djain [at] uw [dot] edu or twitter.
Note: I am an advocate of open science. Write to me and I will give you all my data, methods, etc.
