EDUCATION

Master of Science, Computer Science (Human Computer Interaction)

                University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (CGPA: 3.34)

Expected – May 2009

Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering

SSN College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, India (First Class)

June 2007

TECHNICAL SKILLS

HCI Skills

User Centered Design & Evaluation– Contextual Inquiry, Task analysis, Story Boarding, Focus Groups, Personas, Prototyping,  Cognitive walkthrough, Heuristic evaluation, Usability testing.

Computer Skills

Design – Working experience with Microsoft Publisher, Visio and Adobe Illustrator.

Languages - C, C++, Java, HTML, CSS.

Web Programming – JSP, Javascript

Operating Systems – Windows 9x-XP/Vista, Linux.

Databases – Oracle, MS-SQL, MySQL.

Others – MS ISA Server 2004, MS Office Suite, Sony Vegas, Cubase SX, Argo UML, Violet.

WORK

EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant, GroupLens Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Develop the interaction design to study user preferences in their experience with recommender systems.

Develop experimental design, conduct user studies and perform data analysis to test research hypotheses.

September 2008- present

Research Intern, MXR Lab, Interactive and Digital Media Institute (IDM), National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Developed user interaction design, experimental design and user studies with available resources for multiple projects.

Prepared extensive case studies and design documentation to facilitate project handover.

June 2008 – August 2008

TEACHING

EXPERIENCE

Teaching Assistant (GUI Design & Evaluation), Computer Science Dept., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Guided and evaluated project teams and provided feedback on their projects on Graphical User Interfaces and their usability.

Evaluated projects, assisted in grading weekly assignments, final presentations and managed the class website.

January 2008 – May 2008

PROJECTS

QOOT – Cute 3D Virtual World, IDM, National University of Singapore

Designed user interaction to support safe social networking in a 3D virtual world for pre-teens.

Created user scenarios and personas to solicit user responses to see how they view haptic interaction as an extension to online interaction.

June 2008 – August 2008

‘HumanLens’ – Comparing Humans and Recommender Systems, GroupLens Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Compared predictive capabilities of humans and an online recommender system to better understand how users use data given to them. (to be published in proceedings of ACM RecSys ’08).

December 2007 – May 2008

‘U Course’ Course Scheduler, Course Project, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Designed multiple schedule views to help users choose alternatives.

Gathered requirements, evaluated by walkthroughs, heuristic evaluations and usability tests.

August 2007 – November 2007

User Controlled E-mail Service, Course Project, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Designed a client to let power users multiple email accounts using a single login on a command prompt.

Designed user interaction to allow users to create aliases for different mailing groups, classify incoming emails.

November 2007 – December 2007

LEADERSHIP

EXPERIENCE

Head-Communications, Sponsorship and Public Relations, Instincts 2007, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India.

Led event management, logistics, sponsorship and publicity for the national cultural festival.

January 2007 – March 2007

Organizational Head, Reviewer, Public Relations, Paradigm 2006, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India.

Reviewed paper submissions in collaboration with faculty members.

Enforced stringent measures to keep out plagiarized entries.

June 2006 – August 2006

President, English Literary Club, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India

Led in-campus literary events.

Secured sponsorships for literary events.

Chosen among best organizers for the year 2006 – 2007.

 July 2006 –  April 2007

Chief Editor and Creative Head, Instincts 2006, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India.

Designed college souvenir for a national level performing arts festival.

Led college souvenir sales generating profit ($1800 in 2005 and $3910 in 2006).

  August 2005 – August 2006

PAPERS

Vinod Krishnan, Pradeep Narayanashetty, Mukesh Nathan, Richard Davies and Joseph Konstan. Who Predicts Better? – Results from an Online Study Comparing Humans and an Online Recommender System, in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, Recsys ’08 (to be published).

October 2008

Vinod Krishnan, Nitin K. Sharma, “Symptom Based Detection of Drunk Driving”, in Proceedings of the ICDCIT ’06 Graduate Research Workshop.

December 2006

AWARDS

Semifinalist in national technical design contest iTalent, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry-CII.

December 2006

REFERENCES

Joseph Konstan (Advisor)

Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

(612) 625-1831, konstan@cs.umn.edu

John M. Kruse (Supervisor)

Senior Human Factors Specialist, 3M Corporate Research

Adjunct Faculty, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

(651) 737-3281, kruse013@umn.edu

Adrian David Cheok (Intern Mentor)

Director, Mixed Reality Lab, Interactive and Digital Media Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Professor, Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.

+65 6516 7514, adriancheok@mixedrealitylab.org