Assistant Researcher | Technology for Emerging Markets
| Microsoft Research India | udaip at microsoft dot com
Biography:
Udai Singh Pawar works as an Assistant
Researcher with the Technologies
for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India in Bangalore. Udai
is a graduate from the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur, where he received an integrated M.Sc
Degree. His current research interests are in the field of ICT for development
with a primary focus on IT for rural education – where he has worked on novel
hardware and software interfaces for rural settings, as well as conducted
workshops for school children. Other interests include experimental laser
optics, digital photographic technologies, and other, often obscure things.
Projects:
·
MultiPoint for Education: Around any computer in a poor school in a developing
country, you see the same thing: two, five, even ten children crowding around a
single PC. Because all current software and UIs are designed for single-person
use, the dominant child takes over the mouse and the keyboard, and the greatest
learning gains accrue primarily to that child. To solve this problem, we
provide a mouse to each child (with as many plugged into a PC as needed), each
with a separate cursor on screen. Our studies indicate increased educational
value due to greater engagement, and due to the social learning interactions
that are enabled by using multiple mice.
·
Split-screen UI for Small Businesses: A project looking
at shared computing scenarios in resource constrained settings. This allows two
people to work simultaneously on the same PC, in situations where they can’t
buy more PCs. This is done by splitting the screen and displaying two
independent sessions simultaneously. Each session interacts with separate
keyboard and mouse, and makes it seem effectively as if there are two computers
in one, for only a small incremental hardware cost (~$20 for a set of mice and
keyboards).
·
Digital Mixing in
Photography in Low-Income Settings: A study on some aspects of how digital technology is
affecting the consumer market for photography. In particular, there is an increasing
occurrence of people paying significant amounts for Photoshop-based image
editing services - to modify images, to replace backgrounds, add characters
such as film stars, or even attempt to change ‘realities’, overall termed
‘mixing’. We are finding interesting differences in these in terms of aesthetic
sensibilities across different consumer segments in our emerging market
communities.
Papers
and Presentations:
·
Pawar, U.S., Pal,
J., Gupta. R., and Toyama, K. (2007) Multiple Mice for Retention Tasks in
Disadvantaged Schools, In Proceedings of ACM CHI’07, ACM Press (Paper)
·
Pawar, U. S.,
Pal, J., and Toyama, K. (2006) Multiple mice for computers in education in
developing countries, IEEE/ACM Int’l Conf. on Information & Communication
Technologies for Development, ICTD 2006 (Paper)
(PPT)
·
Pawar, U.S., Pal,
J., Uppala, S., and Toyama, K. (2006) Effective Educational Delivery in
Rural Computer Aided Education: Multimouse. Proc. of Digital Learning DL
2006
·
Pal, J., Pawar,
U.S., Brewer, E., and Toyama, K. (2006) The case for multi-user design for
computer aided learning in developing regions, Proc. of WWW 2006 (Paper)
·
Kim,
T., Moraveji, N., and Pawar, U.S. (2007) A Mouse on Each Desk: A Method for
Supporting Unison Response during Remote Teaching, Microsoft Research
Technical Report. Redmond, WA. January 2007
·
Moraveji,
N., Pawar, U.S., and Kim, T. (2007) Modeling
Chinese Classrooms for Low-Cost Real-Time Distance Education, Microsoft
Research Technical Report. Redmond, WA. April 2007 (Paper)
Copyright © 2007, Microsoft Corp. Last updated on April 11th 2007