Parthasarathy PD

Parthasarathy PD

Product Accessibility Expert @
Salesforce Pvt Ltd.

Research Scholar @ BITS Pilani, Goa

I love to wear many hats! Currently, I am a Software Professional, Educator, and budding researcher. I have extensive experience in the IT Industry and have played various roles like Software Developer, Scrum Master, Security Specialist, and Accessibility Advocate in different capacities with my previous employer (SAP Labs Pvt Ltd). I am currently working with Salesforce Pvt Ltd. and contribute to the area of Product Accessibility & Inclusive Design. I am pursuing a Ph.D. at the Dept of CSIS, BITS Pilani, Goa Campus, and work closely with the researchers at the Human-Centered Future Computing Lab. On weekends, I dedicate some of my time to teaching at BITS Pilani, WILP Division, as well as being involved with few non-profit organizations focusing on education, inclusion and accessibility.

Interested in knowing a little more about me? You can do so by reading this post.

Interests
Education
  • PhD in CSIS, Pursuing

    BITS Pilani, Goa Campus

  • M.Tech in Software Engineering

    BITS Pilani

Projects

Some of my recent projects (Focus for the next 12 months)…

Research Projects and Collaborations

  • Ethics in CS and K-12 CS Education in collaboration with Dr. Lakshmi G, Shikha Academy
  • A couple of studies on Project-based learning, Jigsaw, and experiential learning in computing education in collaboration with researchers at IIT-Bombay
  • Studies on Academic Integrity and psychology in collaboration with Prof Sujith and Prof Neena, BITS Goa

Long Term Projects (Currently not spending more than 5hours a month on these)

I am currently looking to collaborate on the projects below. If any of the below interests you and you wish to contribute, please reach out to me or schedule a meeting via Meet Partha!.

Inclusive Education!
  • I started working on a very interesting and challenging problem in 2022. There are more than 2 million children with disabilities (CwD's) in India. A quick research suggested that less than 0.01% of schools in India offer science education to children with disabilities! A few major reasons for this are:
    • Inaccessible textbooks to visually impaired
    • Inaccessible laboratories
    • Lack of community, support and policies
    I firmly believe in inclusive education, and I am deeply saddened by the current situation of STEM education not being inclusive enough for CwDs. I know a few researchers at IIT-Delhi working on making books accessible to the visually impaired by creating digitally accessible and tactile books. Few Researchers at IIIT-Bangalore are working on policy and community building.
    Our team contributes to making science laboratories accessible, harnessing the power of technology. I am in touch with a few non-profit organizations (Vision Empower Trust) working to achieve this and fund our work. Currently, we are developing affordable assistive technologies using the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial intelligence (AI) to make science labs accessible. We are testing our products at various schools in Goa and Karnataka and plan to expand across India by late 2024.
    Update: My Colleague and friend, Mrs. Sridari, has started her PhD with our research group at BITS Pilani, Goa Campus, on this problem statement. I am NOT actively working on this problem anymore. If you are interested in this project, please email p20220051@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in and keep me in copy.
Authorship
  • Working on the 2nd Edition of my book titled "NTA UGC NET/JRF/SET Computer Science"
  • I am planning to write reader-friendly animated books on Accessibility, Usability, Software Engineering, AI, and CS Fundamentals
    • Looking for co-authors, graphic designers (specializing in comic design), and content editors to contribute for the above two:
    • Requirement for co-authors - Masters in Computer Science + Qualified NET/JRF or Equivalent Industry experience
    • Requirement for Designers and editors - Skills in Latex and textbook editing and comics design
  • I am planning to create 'shorts' / 'reels' to create awareness on Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility. Looking for illustrators and content creators.

Recent

Accomplishments

Some of my recent accomplishments are:

  • The New York Times recognizes me for reporting accessibility bugs in their Wordle and Strands Games!
  • Selected to conduct a "Train-the-trainer" Workshop as part of ACM Compute to train CS Faculty across the country on digital accessibility
  • Our team won the Salesforce Global AI~A11Y Hackathon 2024
  • Awarded the ACM India Anveshan Setu Fellowship 2024-2025, chosen as one of 46 Fellows nationwide. [Fellowship Location: IIT-Bombay]
  • Selected for the Computing Research in Curricula: Knowledge, Education & Training (CRiCKET 2024) Workshop at IIT-Gandhinagar (50 selected from 700+ applicants).
  • Internationally Certified Accessibility Professional
  • Speaker @ Software Engineering Research in India (SERI), India
  • Dept of Homeland Security, US Certified Accessibility SME
  • Won the Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Award: 2022-2023
  • "Inclusive Education by making science labs" project selected for mentorship by Clinton Global Initiative
  • Presented progress of Accessible Science Labs (EMPOWER 2023 @ IIT Madras, Winners 2022)
  • Sold 300+ copies of my first book titled "NTA UGC NET/JRF/SET Computer Science"

Recent Publications

Some of the work where I have contributed in the past 24months…

  • "Reflections on Incorporating Digital Accessibility in an Operating Systems Course", ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science (SIGCSE)- Virtual, 2024 Full Paper Track (Accepted) - Dec 2024
  • "FlashHack: Reflections on the Usage of a Micro Hackathon as an Assessment Tool in a Machine Learning Course", ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science (SIGCSE)- Virtual, 2024 Full Paper Track (Accepted) - Dec 2024
  • "Harnessing Jigsaw Learning for Effective Visualization Tool Exploration", Technology4Education by EdTech Society and IIT-B, (Accepted), Dec 2024
  • "Teaching Digital Accessibility in Computing Education: Views of Educators in India", 20th ACM International Conference on Computing Education Research (ICER Aug 2024 - A Ranked Conference) - Full Paper Track, Australia
  • "Influence of Personality Traits on Plagiarism Through Collusion in Programming Assignments", 20th ACM International Conference on Computing Education Research (ICER Aug 2024 - A Ranked Conference) - Full Paper Track, Australia
  • "Digital Conscience: Investigating the State of Ethics in CS Curricula in India", 20th ACM International Conference on Computing Education Research (ICER Aug 2024 - A Ranked Conference) - Poster Track, Australia
  • "Exploring the Need of Accessibility Education in the Software Industry: Insights from a Survey of Software Professionals in India", 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'24 A* Conference) - SEET Track, Portugal
  • "Teaching Digital Accessibility to Industry Professionals using the Community of Practice Framework: An Experience Report", 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'24 A* Conference) - SEET Track, Portugal
  • “Serious Games for Enhancing Accessibility Awareness and Skills", ACM CompED 2023, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education
  • “Integrating Accessibility in a Mobile App Development Course", ACM SIGCSE 2023, ACM SIGCSE Proceedings
  • “An Accessibility-focused Android Development Course", Poster Presentation, EMPOWER 2022
  • “Inclusive Thinking Questionnaire: Preliminary Results", ACM SIGCSE TS 2022, ACM Proceedings, USA

Teaching

As of Oct 2023, I have delivered more than 250 credit hours of instruction to Master’s students, reaching a total of 10000+ students.

Current Courses:

# Course Name Code Role No of Students Rating (5)
1 Data Structures and Algorithm Design DSECLZG519 Lead Instructor 740 NA Yet
2 Data Structures and Algorithms CTZG519 Lead Instructor 40 NA Yet
3 Operating Systems ZC364 Lead Instructor 220 NA Yet

Details of the courses taught in the past 12 months is as below:

# Course Name Code Role No of Students Rating (5)
1 Data Structures and Algorithm Design DSECLZG519 Lead Instructor 755 4.91
2 Dissertation CT093 Examiner 20 NA
3 Operating Systems ZG364 Lead Instructor 192 4.63

Non-Credit Courses:

# Course Name Code Role No of Students Rating (5)
1 Python fundamentals for Data Science DSECLPFDS Lead Instructor 780 4.91
2 Python fundamentals for AIML AIMLPFDS Lead Instructor 1105 4.91

I am also responsible for the smooth functioning of the PGP AIML Programme and act as a Lead TA from the beginning of this offering (Currently we are in Cohort 9). I am also pivotal in bringing innovation in pedagogy, suggestions to improve online examinations, establishing accommodations for students with disabilities, etc. I am also trying out new pedagogies to teach computing to K-12 students.

Some of the voluntary Feedback received about my sessions can be found here

Contact

  • pdparthasarathy.03@gmail.com / parthasarathypd@wilp.bits-pilani.ac.in (If you are a BITS Pilani, WILP student use this ID)
  • Book an appointment