Research.v.10.06 | Sharifasultana

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.

Decolinizing AI in the Global South

The objective of this project is to decolinize AI and computing in the Global South using local intelligence, which includes myth, language, and arts and crafts. 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.

References: [CHI 2021], [CSCW 2021], [CSCW 2020], [ACM Interactions 2020], and [CHI 2019].

Gender, Harassment, and Transformative Justice

Access points for design action in women’s lives. The most significant relationships that shape women’s lives are the relationships with husbands and in-laws indicated in dark gray. The width of an arrow indicates the frequency with which interactions happen. The length of an arrow gives a sense of the intimacy of the relationship. Dotted arrows indicate relationships rarely drawn on. The gray arc cuts through relationships that are most significantly mediated through husbands and in-laws.

I examine the opportunities and issues that arise in designing technologies to support low-income rural women in Bangladesh. I conduct qualitative and quantitative studies to explore the systemic everyday challenges women face that form the backdrop against which technology design could potentially happen. In this ongoing research, I investigate women's harassment on Social Media and real life and design technologies to support gender justice.

References: [CHI 2021], [COMPASS 2021], [CHI 2018].

(Mis)Information, Rural Computing, and Social Wellbeing

I study the values embedded in mis(information), rural computing, and wellbeing practices. Through my work with rural Bangladeshi people, I inform HCI-design and social wellbeing research about how to design more usable and appropriate technologies by integrating cultural values and local intelligence.

References: [CSCW 2021], [COMPASS 2021], [ACM Interactions 2020], [CHI 2019], [CSCW 2019].

Faith, Stigma, and Access to Computation

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. 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.

References: [CHI 2021], [COMPASS 2021], [ACM Interactions 2020], [CHI 2020/alt.CHI], [CHI 2019], [ICTD 2019].

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.

References: [DSP 2015], [ISCAS 2014], [MWSCAS 2015], [ICIEV 2014], and [ICEEICT 2014].