
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
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Email: sharifas [at] illinois [dot] edu
My research interests are in human-computer interaction (HCI) and information, communication technologies and development (ICTD) and Data for social good. In my work, I frequently use qualitative and quantitative methods. My goal is to contribute to HCI research by designing, building, deploying, and evaluating computing technologies and to help improve the lives of underserved communities.
Online Sexual Harassment and Gender Justice

In this ongoing research, I investigate women's harassment on Social Media and design technologies to support gender justice.
A part of this project was published in CHI2021 and received a Best Paper Honorable Mention.
`Designing from the Within': A Feminist-HCI Framework

I examine the opportunities and issues that arise in designing technologies to support low-income rural women in Bangladesh. I conduct qualitative studies to explore the systemic everyday challenges women face that form the backdrop against which technology design could potentially happen.
A part of this work was published in CHI 2018 and won a Best Paper Award.
Rural Wellbeing, (Mis)Infromation and Social Media

I study wellbeing practices and misinformation among the rural communities in Bangladesh to design more usable and culturally appropriate technologies.
This work was published in CSCW 2021 with Diversity and Inclusion Recognition and in CSCW 2019.
`Otherness', Morality, and Rationality in Computing

I study the knowledge, materials, and politics involved in rural Bangladeshi local art, culture, visuals and computing in rural witchcraft, Nakshi-Katha, and Hindu idol-making practices and find how HCI research may benefit by making a deeper engagement with various local moral values, emphasizing communal relationships, and neutralizing radicalism.
Faith, Hunch, and Cultural Norms in Data-driven Practices

I explore the social and cultural factors that influence the online betting practices among the villagers and how bets harmonize with users’ faith, hunch, and cultural practices, along with statistical recommendations.
A part of this work was published in CHI2021.
Designing to address the Challenges of Accessing ICTs

Shada Bakso is a hardware device, designed by us, to explore the fears of using mobile phones among the rural women of Bangladesh. My probe study with the rural women using Shada Bakso suggests that rural women's fear of technology further initiates technology non-use.
This work was published in COMPASS 2021 and ICTD 2019.
Bangladeshi `Internet Infrastructure'

I study the technicians behind the internet connection set up, support, maintenance, and repair in Bangladesh. By engaging with these low-educated communities, I study their knowledge, training, and experiences and how they reflect those in practice.
Computation in Making of Musical Instruments

I study the local musicians and musical instrument makers in rural Bangladesh and study how they compute, detect and modify the tunes in their work with their limited resources and how they engage their traditional knowledge in the absence of modern technology supports.
Speech Emotion Recognition(SER)

Previously I worked on SER. I concluded that to design a speaker-independent SER system should focus on speaker independent features of speech signals. My frequency-based analysis provided significantly higher accuracy than many of the state-of-art works. My algorithm produced 80.55% correct results while the best known previous algorithm had 56.98% of success.
I have published the results at ICIEV 2014, ICEEICT 2014, ISCAS 2014, MWSCAS 2015 and DSP 2015.