Bill Thies
Researcher
Microsoft Research India
thies@microsoft.com
Brief Bio
I am a researcher in the Technologies for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India. My research focuses on building appropriate information and communication technologies that contribute to the socio-economic development of low-income communities, as well as the description and automation of biology protocols on platforms such as microfluidic chips. I received all of my degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I completed a Ph.D. in computer science in 2009.
News
- A great mini-documentary about our work with Operation ASHA and Innovators In Health on using biometrics to improve adherence to tuberculosis medications. For more information, see the press release, the eCompliance website, or a recent study (paper, slides, audio recording) presented at Persuasive 2012.
- At UIST 2012, we demonstrated a system for low-cost system for audience polling that utilizes computer vision and printed cards as a replacement for electronic "clickers". We have written up the results of the live poll during the conference, which spanned 270 people. Here is the original paper.
- CGNet Swara, our voice portal for citizen journalism in rural India, was recently presented as a paper at ICTD 2012. It was also the subject of a recent TEDx talk by Shubhranshu Choudhary.
- We have announced IVR Junction: a free system that makes it easy to establish interactive voice forums on a Windows platform. More details were presented at NSDR 2012 (paper, slides) by Aditya Vashistha. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in using the system. The public release is coming soon.
- Our study on participant response bias in HCI (paper, slides) appeared at CHI 2012. This paper (led by Nicki Dell) has some of the most eye-opening results I've seen since coming to India. Be careful what you ask your users, or your study will be doomed to succeed!
- I recently co-organized DataDev 2012, the International Workshop on Mobile Data Collection in the Developing World, where over 30 organizations presented their requirements and tools for mobile data collection.
- I also taught an intensive one-week course on building mobile services for emerging markets at Carnegie Mellon's fantastic new campus in Rwanda. Parts of the curriculum are being reused by MIT AITI.
