About
Hi, I am Shashank Ahire, a PhD candidate at Leibniz University Hannover, supervised by Prof. Michael Rohs. My research interest is in developing conversational agents to improve the health and well-being of knowledge workers. Unhealthy work patterns among knowledge workers can lead to conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic illnesses. I believe that conversational agents can be effective in providing proactive health reminders to address issues like sedentary behavior, stress, and dehydration during work.
I pursued my Master of Research (MRes) in Computing and Future Interaction Technologies at Swansea University under the guidance of Prof. Matt Jones. During my master's program, I conducted research on "Designing a Smart Speaker for Emergent Users: Human-AI Symbiosis." Previous research has demonstrated that AI-powered smart speakers often struggle to understand emergent user requests. To address this challenge, I implemented a Human-AI integration approach to improve the responsiveness and efficiency of smart speakers, particularly for emergent (marginalized) users in India.
Additionally, I served as a Research Associate for 4.5 years under the supervision of Prof. Anirudha Joshi at IDC IIT Bombay. During my tenure, my research focused on Text Input, Accessibility, and Emerging technologies. Through collaborations, I have contributed to research papers presented at various international conferences, including CHI, MobileHCI, INTERACT, and IndiaHCI.
Furthermore, I regularly participate in the review process for papers submitted to conferences such as CHI, CUI, IndiaHCI, and the IMWUT Journal.
Updates
Publications
Designing a Smart Speaker for Emergent Users: Human Plus AI Response Shashank Ahire IndiaHCI '22: In Proceedings of the 13th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction |
Ubiquitous Work Assistant:Synchronizing a Stationary and a Wearable Conversational Agent to Assist Knowledge Work Shashank Ahire, Michael Rohs, Simon Benjamin CHIWORK '22: In Proceedings of Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work |
How Compatible is Alexa for Dual-task? — Design Recommendations for Building Dual-task Compatible Intelligent Personal Assistance Shashank Ahire, Aaron Priegnitz, Oguz Önbas, Michael Rohs, Wolfgang Nejdl HAI '21: In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction |
Tired of Wake Words? Moving Towards Seamless Conversations with Intelligent Personal Assistants Shashank Ahire, Michael Rohs CUI '20: In Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Conversational User Interfaces |
Streetwise: Smart Speakers vs Human Help in Public Slum Settings Jennifer Pearson, Simon Robinson, Thomas Reitmaier, Matt Jones, Shashank Ahire, Anirudha Joshi, Deepak Sahoo, Nimish Maravi, Bhakti Bhikne CHI '19: In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Sustainabot – Exploring the Use of Everyday Foodstuffs as Output and Input for and with Emergent Users Honorable Mention award at CHI 2019 Simon Robinson, Jennifer Pearson, Mark D Holton, Shashank Ahire, Matt Jones CHI '19: In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Revisiting “Hole in the Wall Computing”: Private Smart Speakers and Public Slum Settings Simon Robinson, Jennifer Pearson, Shashank Ahire, Rini Ahirwar, Bhakti Bhikne, Nimish Maravi, Matt Jones CHI '18: In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Make Yourself at Phone: Reimagining Mobile Interaction Architectures With Emergent Users Simon Robinson, Jennifer Pearson, Thomas Reitmaier, Shashank Ahire, Matt Jones CHI '18: In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Performance of Accessible Indic Gesture-based Keyboard Best paper award at Interact 2017 Pabba Anu Bharath, Charudatta Jadhav, Shashank Ahire, Manjiri Joshi, Rini Ahirwar, Anirudha Joshi Interact '17: IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction |
Chameleon Devices: Investigating More Secure and Discreet Mobile Interactions via Active Camouflaging Honorable Mention award at CHI 2017 Jennifer Pearson, Simon Robinson, Matt Jones, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Ahire, Deepak Sahoo, Sriram Subramanian CHI '17 Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Does prediction really help in Marathi text input?: empirical analysis of a longitudinal study Girish Dalvi, Shashank Ahire, Nagraj Emmadi, Manjiri Joshi, Anirudha Joshi, Sanjay Ghosh, Prasad Ghone, Narendra Parmar MobileHCI '16: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services |
Shift+Tap or Tap+LongPress?: The Upper Bound of Typing Speed on InScript Sanjay Ghosh, Anirudha Joshi, Manjiri Joshi, Nagraj Emmadi, Girish Dalvi, Shashank Ahire, Swati Rangale CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
A Protocol to Evaluate Virtual Keyboards for Indian Languages Best paper award IndiaHCI 2015 Girish Dalvi, Shashank Ahire, Nagraj Emmadi, Manjiri Joshi, Nirav Malsettar, Debasis Samanta, Devendra Jalihal, Anirudha Joshi IndiaHCI'15: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on HCI, IndiaHCI 2015 |
Interaction design for Indian needs lab, IIT Bombay Shashank Ahire, Girish Dalvi, Manjiri Joshi, Anirudha Joshi Interactions: Volume 22 Issue 5, September-October 2015 |
Better Together: Disaggregating Mobile Services for Emergent Users Simon Robinson, Jennifer Pearson, Matt Jones, Anirudha Joshi, Shashank Ahire MobileHCI '17: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services |
Media player for Semi-illiterate users Shashank Ahire, Charudatt Surve, Bharat Prajapati, Yogesh Parulekar IndiaHCI '14: Proceedings of the India HCI 2014 Conference on Human Computer Interaction |