Awards

Winner at the Unilever Case Competition for Sustainable Packaging at MIT’s Retail Conference 2022 (end-to-end)

Selected as the Graduate Community Fellow for MIT’s IDHR Office

Received a Teaching Assistantship for Intro to Mechanical Engineering at MIT

Best in Category ‘Connecting’ IxDA Interaction Awards 2020 at Interaction20 Milan, 2020

Poster-paper showcase at WDO Edu Forum 2019 in Hyderabad, October 2019

Commendation Certificate for Bachelor’s Thesis Project, 2019

Eminence and Excellence Award at IBM, 2019

Shortlisted for the Indian Institute of Human Settlement (IIHS) Urban Fellows Programme, 2019

Appreciation for Commendable Work at IBM, 2020

Shortlisted for the Open Science Design Fellowship by National Law University, Delhi, 2018

Second year project was selected to be displayed at the Srishti Annual Graduation Expo, 2017

Featured in Homegrown’s article ‘8 Successful Indian College Entrepreneurs’, 2017

ACM CHI 23 in Hamburg, Germany!

I conducted a course called ‘Making The Web Accessible to the Aging Population’ at the ACM CHI in Hamburg, Germany, from 24th April to 28th April!

There were 17 participants in the course, and the course ran across 2 sessions of 1 hour 25 minutes each.

Read this blog written by the MIT AgeLab regarding my course -

Manasi Vaidya Uses AGNES with Web Developers at Conference in Germany

Award IxDA.jpg

My Bachelor’s thesis project ‘Enhans’ won the ‘2020 Best in Category - Connecting’ Award at the IxDA Interaction Awards 2020

Milan Italy 2020

Work experience

 

The MathWorks Inc.

User Experience Researcher (July 2023 - Current)

  • Conducting research for the Verification and Validation group of products in the Design Automation space at MathWorks.

  • Active member of the Accessibility working group at the company where we are trying to make MATLAB and Simulink as accessible as possible for screen-reader users.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

September 2022 - May 2023

MIT AgeLab (agelab.mit.edu)
Research Assistant

September 2021 - August 2022

MIT Local Innovation Group (MIT D-Lab)
Research Assistant

MIT Ideation Lab
Team Lab Instructor (Fall 2021 - 2.00 Introduction to Design)

MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs
Teaching Assistant (Fall 2021 - 9th Grade Mechanical Engineering)

MIT IDHR Office
Research and Design for the Institute Discrimination and Harassment Response (IDHR) Office

IBM

July 2019 – August 2021

I work for the Cognitive Power Systems at IBM as a User Researcher and Experience Designer. The product I work for is called ‘PowerVC - Power’ which is a Virtualization Center and Cloud Management tool. Through design we aim to reduce the cognitive load that system administrators experience while using the product by improving the user experience of the product.

NIMHANS, Bangalore

January 2019 – July 2019

Research-driven approach to understand the target demographic and create content that overcomes the low medical vocabulary, language barriers, low doctor-patient ratio. I created a set of interventions like explainer videos for the various conditions, audio-visual consent forms, and take-way pamphlets for improving the doctor-patient communication at the hospital in order to help the patient make informed decisions.

GE Healthcare

May 2018 – July 2018

I conducted market research for the scope of healthcare management applications catering to cancer care, created the initial prototype based on the results from the research. The application catered to creating seamless communication amongst patients who are diagnosed with cancer, their family members, and their caregivers.

Different teams I have worked with..

With Dr. Hima Pendharkar from NIMHANS

With Dr. Hima Pendharkar from NIMHANS

With the Development Team at IBM PowerVC

With the Development Team at IBM PowerVC

With the Cognitive Power Systems Design Team

With the Cognitive Power Systems Design Team

 

Education

 

M.S. in Engineering and Management (Integrated Design Management)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Cambridge, MA, USA.

 

Bachelor of Design in Information Arts and Information Design Practices

Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology — Bangalore, India

CGPA— 8.33 on 10

Certifications

 
  1. Advancing Accessibility by IBM

    Click here to view certification

  2. Acccessibility Advocate by IBM

    Click here to view certification

  3. Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner by IBM

    Click here to view certification

  4. Enterprise Design Thinking - Team Essentials for AI by IBM

    Click here to view certification

  5. Cognitive Practitioner by IBM

    Click here to view certification

  6. Conducting Usability Testing - by Interaction Design Foundation

    Click here to view certification

  7. Human-Computer Interaction - by Interaction Design Foundation

    Click here to view certification

Speaking and Volunteering

This section summarizes the different organizations I have volunteered for and the events I have given talks at.

 
  • Ladies That UX, Bangalore

  • Saamarthya Foundation

  • IndiaHCI 2019

  • Teach For India

  • Hashu Advani College of Special Education

  • Homegrown Media

  • Taxi Fabric

Various events at which I have volunteered..

 
Student Volunteer Team at IndiaHCI 2019

Student Volunteer Team at IndiaHCI 2019

LTUX Event at cure.fit Bangalore

LTUX Event at cure.fit Bangalore

LTUX Event at Koramangala Social

LTUX Event at Koramangala Social