Implemented and evaluated projects in the area of collocated use of mobile devices. Projects included study of aural/visual displays, quantification of mobile device access time, use of collocated media sharing in both civilian (Samsung) and military (DARPA ASSIST) applications and the design of more ergonomic input devices for mobile users.
See http://nirmalpatel.com/research.html for more details.

Provided assistance for undergraduate class called The Art of Prototyping Intelligent Appliances (APIA). APIA is class which engages undergraduate students in building physical prototypes in addition to writing software. Duties involve procuring materials needed by students and spending time outside of class explaining more detailed issues when trying to build practical, real world usable prototypes.

Worked on HCI issues regarding use of direct input on tiled display systems. Specifically concerned with performing drag actions across multiple displays. Used a two-stage process to first determine how the user reacts to the bezels between displays followed by creation and evaluation of a technique to mitigate interference of the bezel.

Provided assistance and created teaching materials for the Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing class. Setup $100,000 rapid prototyping lab and explained how to use equipment as well as how to build circuitry required for implementing projects. Provided individual guidance to approximately 20 groups of students. Seven groups went on to publish papers in academic conferences. Two students joined the CCG and became Graduate Research Assistants.

Worked with existing platforms to create rhythm and dance games for mobile phones. The games leveraged wireless sensors placed in player’s shoes as the main form of input. I was later provided with funding for pursuing my first year of my Ph.D. program. The prototype was later shown by Motorola during Linux World 2006 and CTIA 2006.
See http://nirmalpatel.com/research/mdr.html for more details and a demo video.

I was the first point of contact for students in Georgia Tech’s Introduction to Computer Science course. Graded and provided individual feedback on all assignments for approximately 20 students. Held weekly lecture for students to cover material presented in class and provide extra guidance.

Starting in freshman year, provided technical and programming support for group projects. Developed infrastructure to allow for rapid development of mobile speech based applications and used the infrastructure to develop Dialog Tabs, Speech Courier and Calendar Navigation Agent.

CHI 2011 Proceedings co-chair
Pervasive 2011 Web Chair

Judge for Georgia Institute of Technology Undergraduate Research Symposium
Mentored undergraduate student Phong Su Si. He won the undergraduate research award for the College of Computing in the Georgia Institute of Technology Undergraduate Research Symposium

Reviewer: CHI, International Journal on Human Computer Studies, Pervasive Health

Liaison for CCG during work with Samsung Research

Mentored undergraduate student Scott Gilliland in completion of a Senior Research Project. http://nirmalpatel.com/research/curveball.html
Gave talk on in-car gesture controlled systems to Toyota ITC Research in Palo Alto

Supporting equal access to mobile E911 for deaf users through the implementation of a software TTY for cell-phones, presented at NENA Conference, Orlando, FL

Travelled to Samsung Labs in Suwon, Korea to present work and give demonstrations of Mobiphos

Presented Mobile Dance Revolution at LinuxWorld in San Francisco. Maintained technology for demonstration and spoke with guests

President's Undergraduate Research Award

Hope Scholarship