Contact:
Paul G. Allen Center, Room 610 rkarkar[@]cs[.]washington[.]edu

Hello! I am a PhD candidate in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.

My research focus is on designing, developing, and evaluating tools that can enable people to gather data and interpret personal aspects of their medical condition in the context of their day-to-day lives. Specifically, I have explored tools that:

• enable self-experimentation (n-of-1 trials) among people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to identify their individualized food-based triggers
• introduce a new form of self-monitoring in people with end-stage liver disease enabling them to better understand their chronic condition

I adopt a multi-disciplinary problem-centric approach towards building these tools in collaboration with researchers across computer science, human-centered design, and medicine.
My research approach involves:

1. understanding the context, barriers, and needs of the stakeholders,
2. building targeted low-burden tools that support overcoming common barriers, and
3. iteratively evaluating and refining the tools through quantitative and qualitative feedback from people, providers, and researchers.

My long-term goal is to empower people to gain an informed perspective of their individual health and well-being.

I am advised by James Fogarty and closely collaborate with Sean Munson, Julie Kientz, George Ioannou, and Jasmine Zia. I am a recipient of the Three-Sixty Fellowship for computer science and engineering and numerous travel grants to present my research at premier conferences. My research has been recognized by CHI (ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) and DIS (ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems) and I have organized cross-disciplinary panels and discussions around tools for self-tracking at ICTD (International conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development) and QSC (Quantified-Self Conference).