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Contact

Email: varsha.koushik@colorado.edu

About me

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. My advisors are Shaun Kane and Tamara Sumner. My broad research interest lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Accessibility. My research focuses on exploring accessible smart technologies to empower people with disabilities in their everyday activities. I previously received my M.S. in Computer Science from University of Colorado Boulder.

I'm on the job market! Please send me a message if your department(or one you know) is interested in a HCI researcher who designs adaptive accessible technologies for people wih disabilities

AR smart displays for everyday activties

Advisor: Shaun Kane

2019-present

People with cognitive disabilities often face difficulties in remembering, learning, and making decisions, which can impact their everyday activities. To overcome challenges, individuals use reminder applications on handheld devices, like smartphones or tablets. However, these multipurpose devices are compact and can easily be misplaced. Furthermore, individuals need to constantly pause their tasks to view instructions on these devices. Repeatedly switching contexts can negatively impact their ability to complete tasks and may result in discontinued practice or abandonment. Smart home devices, like voice assistants and “smart” appliances, are promising solutions to naturally integrate prompts within everyday activities. Specifically, Augmented Reality (AR) based smart assistants can situate visual information in the location of tasks; thereby, reducing the amount of contextual switching between tasks and assistive devices. Besides contextual prompts, individuals often require devices that adapt support based on their abilities. Therefore, smart devices could combine contextualization and customization by embodying individualized AR-based prompts and feedback. One approach to support customization is to allow individuals to write rules or algorithms on how devices should support them. Introductory block-based programming tools can enable people with cognitive disabilities to write algorithms and reflect on support for everyday tasks.

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Computing Education for Empowerment

Advisor: Shaun Kane

2018-2019

Computing has become an intergral part of most jobs across disciplines, making computational skills essential for the workforce. However, there exist limited resources for people with cognitive disabilities to practice skills that might help them in independenlty performing everyday activities. This research focuses on designing and developing more accessible technologies that can support and empower people with cognitive disabilities in becoming more independent.

Publications:
[1] Paper CHI 2019

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StoryBlocks

Advisor: Shaun Kane
2017-2018

Block based langauges like Scratch, Blockly, MIT App Inventor, Snap etc. are widely popular as a first step towards traditional programming. They offer many benefits including simpler syntax, easier interactions, and support creativity and expression through games, animations, stories and other interactive media. However, these visual based languages are not accessible to people with visual impairments, and thus they limit access to introductory programming tools. In this reserach, I have designed a tangible programming game called StoryBlocks, which uses physical blocks to create story programs, and the physical stories are converted to audio stories with differnt voices and sound effects using computer vision. This multimodal interface has been designed to supoort collaborative activities around introductory computing in K-12 classrooms.


Publications:
[1] Paper CHI 2019 Best Paper Honorable Mention [Top 5%]
[2] Demo ASSETS 2017

News:
[1] STEM Blog Article CU Boulder Science Buffs

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GOBY

Advisor: Shaun Kane
2017

Today, blind athletes use a tapper to warn them, when they approach the swimming pool wall. The tapper walks along the pool with a long stick with a tennis ball like round object attached to the end of the stick, and taps on the shoulder or the head when blind swimmers approach the pool wall. This approach is inefficient, and it can be expensive to employ a tapper. We designed a wearable activity tracker called Goby, which is worn on the thigh, and uses a downward facing camera to trace the swimmer's position in the pool. Goby detects the black T- shaped line and gives audio feedback to warn the swimmer, when they approach the wall, or swim outside their lane.


Publications:
[1] Poster ASSETS 2017

News:
[1] CU Boulder Today ATLAS Expo Article
[2] CU Boulder New Venture Challenge Finalist 2017: Social Impact

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PseudoBlocks

Advisor: Clayton Lewis
2016-2017

lock-based languages are used to teach programming to novices, through the creation of interactive games, stories and animations. However, programs are created using visual representations, which are not accessible to blind and visually impaired users. We designed a non-visual block based language called PseudoBlocks, which uses pseudo-spatial keyboard movements to create programs, and produces audio outputs. In its current form, PseudoBlocks can be used to create simple melodies.


Publications:
[1] Poster ASSETS 2016
[2] Workshop Paper VL/HCC PPIG 2016