March 2009 - Current School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh
I am doing a PhD in the evolutionary genomics of nematodes at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh
Projects and Experience
This section lists, in reverse chronological order, most of the things I have worked on over the last 12 years or so. Seeing as I like freewheeling and working on many things at the same time, this list is a bit unwieldy. Use the sub-categories (on the left) to see smaller sub-sets of the links on this page. Note: Several descriptions straddle categories.
September 2007 - September 2008 School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh
I worked as the bio-informatician for the Edinburgh Sequencing Facility of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and the School of Biological Sciences Sequencing Service (SBSSS) of the University of Edinburgh.
The JAGORI Safe Delhi Campaign site was implented as a Wordpress CMS so that it would be easy to manage with weekly content updates. Although it is a separate website from JAGORI’s main site, it includes design elements from the main site (such as the top navigation bar) to maintain the JAGORI identity.
August 2007
University of Edinburgh
School of Informatics
Specialisms - Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics
More…
February - June, 2006
Member of the Technical Committee for the “Time on Task” study being conducted by World Bank and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD, India), in 6 states. My role so far has been to specify how video recording should be used in this study to give us greater insights into the teaching/learning process in Indian classrooms, and to advise the principal investigators on the software needs of such a study.
March 2006, Educational Initiatives (EI), Ahmedabad
EI (www.ei-india.com) offers products and services that help to accurately measure learning, promote self-learning in children and empower educators and school leaders. I am helping with their research by applying principles of Item Response Theory to the item analysis and selection process, and with the development of a contact program for young students that will help them master key concepts in Mathematics.
Jagori needed a website where they could easily add and update information about their campaigns, services, and products. I customized Wordpress (an open source PHP + MySQL publishing platform) for Jagori, so that the Production team could make changes to their website from anywhere in the world, using just a browser, and without knowing any HTML. More…
www.devraudaipur.com - A boutique eco-tourism hotel in Udaipur that wanted to project a warm and friendly image.
July 2005 - September 2005, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Visiting Scholar: Developed tools for classroom research. Analyzed data for studies on how children learn to read, and how novices and experts watch classroom video.
www.thefamilyindia.org - A WordPress powered site that acts as a content management system. Uses drop down menus and was set up in 24 hours.
www.familyvision.info - Simple HTML + CSS for the Delhi Chapter of The Family India
www.familyindiatsunamirelief.ylog.org - Set up in less than a day to show how The Family India’s Tsunami Relief efforts were progressing.
www.oryx.com - The design brief was that the site must look like a solid, highly competent German technical firm. Uses only CSS to achieve a bottom aligned, three-column layout.
November 2004 - August 2006, Centre for Research in Cognitive Systems, NIIT, New Delhi, India
Research Consultant: Studying emergent phenomena in computer and social systems.
www.wiproeducation.com - A wordpress powered site that allows the Wipro Education team and its partner organizations to update content on their own. Allows multiple paths to the same content depending on how the visitor approaches the site.
www.industrialtheatre.net - A strong, stark and simple design, using Cascading Style Sheets and a simple randomizer javascript to create a quirky ‘industrial’ effect.
Logo concept for Inventiv. inventiv_logo.gif
June 2004 - June 2005, NEEV, India
Senior Researcher: Curriculum mapping; qualitative video-based research on classroom processes.
May 2005, British Council Library, New Delhi, India
Conducted a day-long Mathematics appreciation and enjoyment workshop for 12-14 year students, as part of the Newton’s Playground series of workshops.
May 2004
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Educational Psychology (Division of Cognition, Language, Learning, Instruction and Culture)
More…
August 2002 - December 2003, Cognitive Development Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Designed and maintained two web sites:
- DV Guide - a guide on using digital video for research
- SMIL Tutorial and Examples - a guide on automating research tasks using the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
July 2002 - Current, Ask Dr. Math, Math Forum, Drexel University
Member of the team of Math doctors at www.mathforum.org/dr.math, an award winning online question and answer service for math students and their teachers.
August 2001 - December, 2002, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Teaching Assistant for three semesters for ‘Computer Simulation in the Social Sciences,’ a graduate level methods course that uses the Mathematica programming language to simulate macro-level phenomena using agent-based interactions. The course was taught by Richard Gaylord.
May 2001 - May 2004, Cognitive Development Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research programmer for several projects - with Kevin Miller [University of Michigan, Beckman Institute, TimelySnow]:
- Developed a software system for transcribing and presenting digital video. [DV Tools]
- Wrote MATLAB, Mathematica, and Visual Basic scripts to automate data analysis tasks.
- Developed information visualization techniques using Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG). [SVG Data Visualizations]
- Wrote Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) code for creating complex research video presentations (synchronizing multiple views, adding voiceovers, close captioning). [SMIL Examples]
September 2000 - May 2004, Cognitive Development Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Assistant - with Kevin Miller [University of Michigan, Beckman Institute, TimelySnow]:
- Analysed sequences of behavioral interactions and determined country specific patterns in the video data of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 1999) [Finding-Patterns-In-Sequences-Kumar-2004.pdf];
- Studied how teachers learn from video cases of math education;
- Analysed the differences between American and Chinese fourth grade mathematics lessons;
- Investigated the influence recreational math activities may have on children’s understanding of mathematical concepts and their intrinsic motivation to learn mathematics.
June 2000 - July 2000, SECMOL, Ladakh, India
Resource Person: Assisted a mathematics program for primary teachers organized by the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh.
May 2000, Nirantar, Lucknow, India
Resource Person: Trained rural middle-school math teachers in the use of innovative math activities.
March 2000 - May 2000, AmSoft Systems, New Delhi, India
Documentation Designer: Designed and implemented an SGML based documentation system for a dynamic information server developed for Kidata AG (Germany)
November 1999 - May 2000, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India
Research Assistant: Collected and analysed data, and drafted a report for a study on the policy implications of Operation Blackboard - a primary education resource initiative by the Government of India. The study was conducted by Dr AK Jalaluddin (former Jt Director NCERT, UNDP Consultant for Bangladesh Education, and Director, Directorate of Adult Education, India)
May 1999 - September 1999, Centre for Research in Cognitive Systems, NIIT, New Delhi, India
Research Associate: Studied the impact of a project on ‘Minimally Invasive Education’ (MIE). Presented a paper on “Learning from Kiosks” at the F13 Conference at Dwarka, August, 1999. More…
November 1999 - February 2000, NEEV, and Cambridge Primary School, New Delhi, India
Coordinated and implemented the math program at a learning improvement project for Grade III children conducted by Prof AK Jalaluddin.
June 1999, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi, India
Illustrated course material for the distance education B.Ed Program.
March 1999, National Commission for Women, New Delhi, India
Designed a poster on Sexual Harassment which was released on International Women’s Day and eventually used all over India.
May 1999 - June 1999, NEEV, New Delhi, India
As a Co-organizer and Facilitator, I developed and implemented the Mathematics curriculum of a month-long creative learning workshop organized by Prof AK Jalaluddin
April 1999, Army Public School, Udhampur (Army HQ, Northern Command), India
Conducted a week long Mathematics appreciation and enjoyment workshop for all Grade IX students.
July 1998 - September 1999, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi, India
Created innovations in mathematics education as a consultant for the middle school Mathematics program. I worked in conjunction with the regular mathematics teachers and, based on their requirements, designed and implemented games and activities in and out of the classroom that either introduced a new concept, developed mathematical skills or reinforced a particular idea. The primary objective was to make learning mathematics more interesting and fun.
July 1998 - January 1999, AmSoft Systems, New Delhi, India
Software Engineer and Resource provider: Planned resources for projects, staffed and trained project teams, and studied new technologies.
January 1998 - June 1998, AmSoft Systems, New Delhi, India
Trainee as part of the Practice School II program of BITS, Pilani: Designed and developed a template based TV and Web Information graphics production system.
August 1995 - December 1997, BITS Pilani
Art editor for the college yearbooks published in 1995, 1996 and 1997
May 1996 - June 1998, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, India
Co-authored (with Jaya Narasimhan) and illustrated a series of three Mathematics textbooks for middle school published by a division of McGraw Hill. (ISBN 0-07-463294-9, 0-07-463295-7, 0-07-463297-3). The series has been acclaimed for its use of cartoons and puzzles.
August 1996 - March 1997, BITS, Pilani
Designed and edited Cactus Flower, the college annual magazine. More…
May 1996 - July 1996, The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, India
Wrote and illustrated features for the newspaper. I was a Trainee as part of the Practice School I program of BITS, Pilani
June 1995 - July 1995, R&D Center, National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), New Delhi, India
Resource person for teaching animation to children of the age group 9 to 12, as part of a five day LEDA (Learning through Exploration and Development Activity) workshop.
January 1995 - May 1995, Center for Software Development, BITS Pilani, India
Course design and animation for multimedia courseware on ‘Multiplication for Kids’ and ‘The Physics of Sound’.
June 1998
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani
More…
May 1994 - June 1994, R&D Center, NIIT, New Delhi, India
Animation and Graphics for an interactive multimedia package on AIDS Awareness and Sex Education