I am a doctoral student at the School of Information, the University of Michigan, advised by Prof. Kentaro Toyama. My general interests lie in human-computer interaction (HCI) and information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD). I work with women from South Asia with respect to their social media privacy concerns and their health needs, along with designing technologies to improve maternal and child health. For my Ph.D. thesis research, I am interested in researching issues of privacy and sensitive disclosure of information for women from South Asia, especially with respect to social media.

Prior to my Ph.D., I was working in Pakistan as a teaching fellow at Information technology University (ITU), where I completed my master’s in Computer Science and worked closely with Prof. Kentaro Toyama to design a mobile-based information system for expecting mother in collaboration with public hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan. I also worked as a research and technical lead on various grants funded by G&M Foundation, Google, and DFID that focuses on social media privacy concerns of women in Pakistan, pre and postpartum concerns of women and their family members in Pakistan, and designing digital repository of vaccination system in Punjab, Pakistan.

Areas of interest

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), Social Media Privacy, Maternal and Child Health, South Asian Communities

Honors & Awards

Fulbright Scholarship (2019, declined)

Best Paper Award (2018)
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018)
Fourteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS, 2018)

STEM Role Model Nominee (2018)
Nominated as a role model for women in STEM in Pakistan

Australian Award Fellowship (2017)
Technology ecosystem workshop in Melbourne, Australia

United Nations Peach Technology Fellowship (2017)
UN University, Macau

IDDS Fellowship (2015)
Design thinking fellowship, Chennai, India

Gold Medal (2015)
Masters in Computer Science, ITU

Gold Medal and Roll of Honor (2011)
BS Electrical Engineering, GCU

Education

Ph.D. in Information (Sept. 2019 - Present)
School of Information, University of Michigan (UMSI), Ann Arbor, MI

Masters in Computer Science (Sept. 2012 - Aug. 2014)
Information Technology University (ITU), Punjab, Pakistan

Undergrad in Electrical Engineering (Sept. 2006 - Aug. 2010)
Government College University (GCU), Lahore, Pakistan