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
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..
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
Advancing Accessibility by IBM
Acccessibility Advocate by IBM
Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner by IBM
Enterprise Design Thinking - Team Essentials for AI by IBM
Cognitive Practitioner by IBM
Conducting Usability Testing - by Interaction Design Foundation
Human-Computer Interaction - by Interaction Design Foundation
Writing
I write and share articles about user experience research, heathcare design, accessibility, and other topics that I find interesting and help me grow as a designer.
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