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I am an Indian American researcher who is dedicated to aligning the benefits of technology with user needs - a mission I have pursued throughout my career. My research explorations have led me to intriguing locations, including military bases, air traffic control facilities, operating rooms, cardiac device clinics, and studios of musicians.

I am currently a User Research Scientist within Google’s Technology and Society team, where I lead user experience research by partnering with some of world’s most innovative artists, to push the precincts of artistic expression while maintaining a responsible approach to the transformative realm of Generative AI.

Prior to that, I was a Director of Research at Microsoft, where I worked at the intersection of research, ethics, and product innovation. Both an engineer and a psychologist, I can think analytically while keeping in close touch with the human element.

During my tenure at Microsoft, I brought in the perspectives of 13,000+ direct and indirect stakeholders, including traditionally disempowered communities, to help shape AI and emerging technologies such as computer vision, synthetic speech, GPT-3, DALLE-2, intelligent agents, and mixed reality.

More recently, I was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University, hosted by the CRitical AI and Crisis Interrogatives (CRAI-CIS) research group, via the Aalto Science Institute. I was also a Fellow at the World Economic Forum, where I surfaced opportunities for positive impact with AI, to address the needs of a globally aging population.

Prior to joining Microsoft, I worked on creating human-machine systems that enabled people to be effective in complex environments in aviation and healthcare. I spent seven years as a human factors leader at Medtronic taking a user-centered approach to designing systems that communicate with implantables in the human heart. I am fortunate to have worked on several life changing and life saving technologies during my tenure at Medtronic, hold patents, and have received the Star of Excellence Award for innovation. I have also advised several pharmaceutical and medical device companies on their human factors and regulatory strategy for a range of products.

During my graduate school years, I trained under Dr. Frank Durso, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, and collaborated on several projects with the Federal Aviation Administration examining the impact of training and automation support on air traffic controller workload, situation awareness, skill acquisition, trust, and performance. During this time, I also interned for Dr. Mica Endsley, a leading voice on situation awareness, helping develop situation awareness training programs for the U.S Marine Corps and HAZMAT teams.

As an Adjunct Professor at University of Minnesota's College of Design, I mentored students and taught human- automation interaction at the graduate level. I was also the Department Editor of Ergonomics in Design, a magazine for human factors practitioners, for a decade, where my articles were among the most downloaded year to year. I believe in sharing my learnings and to that end have delivered ~80 talks on human-machine interaction and authored 40+ articles. Lastly, I have received awards for my research from the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Foundation, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

I am a fearless learner, an evolving polyglot, a wannabe Bollywood singer, and a lifelong traveler.

All thoughts expressed here are my own.