Chamber Consultation Hour with Dr. Dipanjan Chakraborty

De-Economist's Editors Rohith (henceforth R) and Anuradha (henceforth A) sat down with Dr. Dipanjan Chakraborty (henceforth D) from the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems to discuss his work, his career and how HCI is an essential component of computer engineering. We present the interview below:

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R: Can you describe your Ph.D. experience at IIT Delhi?

D: I could say that in my Ph.D. I had traveled across India, almost 30,000 km, for various fieldworks funded by IIT Delhi. I had appeared for the GATE examination when I was in B.Tech and got into IIT Delhi for my M.Tech. I had taken four courses in my first semester there, among which I liked the Computer Networks course. Maybe I had a greater understanding of its concepts than others. I had to choose my project supervisor, so I approached my computer networks professor, Dr. Aaditeshwar Seth, for it. He said that the computer networks don’t need to be a conventional network; instead a truck full of magnetic tapes can also transfer the data from one place to another. He explained the areas where there is no conventional network back in 2010 to solve the information communication problems. This area is formally known as ICTD( Information and Communication Technology and Development)- though it’s a broader one, some researchers working in this field  would try to solve this problem. He introduced me to a project on DVDs, the DVD player itself is a simple computer with a microcontroller and capable of running a few instructions. I spent one year understanding the DVD ecosystem, creating different information systems in it. Then to test my designs in the real field, I went to rural Ranchi. Many questions had arisen there, and I realized that it is essential to understand what the users want. 

It was the time when the Anna Hazare movement was happening in Delhi. We used to go there, participate  in hunger strikes. Corruption was a hot topic at that time. As a computer science student who could work on data, I thought, can I not build a system that would either prove or disprove corruption.

I also traveled in rural Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. We were trying to analyze data, verify and increase transparency to the public. Our aim was to conduct the data verification exercise with the beneficiaries at the ground level. The final realization was that technology solves only 10% of the problems while 90% is of the solution is often non-technical.

A: When did you decide to join BPHC?

D: After my Ph.D., I joined a startup named Gram Vaani. It gave me a lot of opportunities to communicate with people across India. Since I had an interest in academia I was actively looking for opportunities. Pitching ICTD to the Indian academia is not easy. I saw that BITS was recruiting on IIT Delhi’s placement portal. Thankfully, the panelists knew my work and I got selected. The journey has been amazing so far, and I am trying to be innovative in my teaching methodology. One difference that I have noticed in the culture of BITS and IITs is that the majority of people in BITS focus on placements. Since there are only one semester projects and fruitful research work on ICTD requires at least a year, the research in this field is difficult for shorter engagements. Most of the research work in the field of CS requires trained and motivated manpower for longer and deeper engagement, the servers and computational equipment are mostly available in the department.

A: What are your research interests?

D: Currently I have 3 to 4 streams of interests. Gram Vaani runs a voice-based social media platform, where people from villages, who aren’t good at operating phones, can communicate and voice their opinions on a public platform. Currently, this is manually controlled. I am interested in automating this to build a voice recognition system for Indian languages that can also operate in noisy conditions. My other research interest lies in building a conversational system that can give precise answers to common questions asked by people from villages, who aren’t good at operating technology. I started working on a conversational system for farmers. Can the farmers ask questions such as “price of seed”, “which fertilizer is the best?” on a phone call or through an application and get pointed answers? We had a basic study on it, and we found out that the source of information is more important than the information. Building trust in these applications is something that I’m working on. Another thread of work that I’m working on is quantifying the media's role and whether it is serving the aspired purpose. In current times, news media has become polarized, and they are focusing on entertaining rather than informing. We are trying to understand the polarization of social media environments. According to the work done so far, we have found out that social media is more polarized as compared to print media. Social media platforms have their own  business model and hence they prefer polarized content. My other research interest includes the estimation of economic parameters. Some countries do not have organizations such as the National Sample Survey of India, that can conduct surveys and give information. Also, even in countries like India, where such organizations are present, a lot of times, the data is manipulated, which leads to the absence of robust data. It becomes very difficult for policy makers to draw policies in the absence of authentic data. Some researchers have worked on using aerial imageries to estimate economic parameters. They include studying drone images to capture mud and metal roof houses and studying vegetation. I am also interested in studying the pandemic after-effects in the field of online education and its feasibility.   

A: Is your work on building trust through conversational agents related to AI4Good?

D: Before AI, we need to understand how we can build trust. Proximity affects trust. For example, the trust that one might have in their neighbor might be stronger than the panchayat head, due to close proximity. Trust might also depend on gender, or the behavior of the source of information.

R: How did you get involved in satire writing?

D: Writing has been my passion since my childhood. I used to write many short stories in school that got published in the school magazine and also a weekly supplement in The Statesman newspaper. I was also the editor of my school magazine. Satire and Comedy always attracted me, which is something that all people might find interesting to read. A few things in the society make no sense then,  Satire writing is a social commentary on these issues. It  so happened that at that time as part of my research work, and I was attempting to address   problems in society. I wrote the last one around in 2016, and I couldn’t find time from then, so I stopped it. But, if there is a platform in BITS, I would like to contribute for sure.

A: Why is awareness about HCI important to society?

D: This is an important question. Currently, the government makes policies, and big companies like FB, Google, or Reliance drive these policies. Let’s take an example of what happened in Jharkhand a few years back. It was mandatory to link one’s Aadhar card to their ration card, through a computer system. Not everybody was able to access this system due to a mismatch in fingerprints, which had worn out as a result of extensive manual work by them for living, which allegedly caused many deaths and starvation. This is called tech determinism when we give a computer the authority to make decisions. Hence, unless we understand and appreciate the interaction between a computer system and humans, and the fact that computer systems should not be treated as an oracle, we will keep making bad technology and bad decisions. Let’s take another example of the application of the Arogya Setu app. In its initial stages, it gave people the location of other people and their COVID status. There had been attacks by neighbors on houses since they were COVID positive. In these cases of tech determinism, HCI plays an important role. These are just two examples of why it is important to understand the interplay between technology, humans and society at large. HCI is a much broader field with several other implications.

R: We have known that you are very much into reading books? Which book did you read last?

D: I read a lot of Dan Brown’s books. The last one I read was The Origin by him. I also read Inferno and, 1984 by Orwell. I am now reading “It can’t happen here”. Now, I shifted to non-fiction these days. I would definitely read Dan Brown and other good fiction, but the other fiction, I was not having any takeaways from it. So, it was a gradual change to non-fiction.

R: What is actually the right time to start pursuing your research interests from the undergraduate level?

D: I would suggest you guys attend any guest lectures or talks that happen on campus. You never know if you are interested in it unless you know about them. Explore what is available around and see if you like them. There is no starting point for it, you can start as early as possible. You can also read the research papers, you will realize the rigor that goes into the research and you may develop an interest in it.

A: How can students contact you and prerequisites?

D: Usually there are no prerequisites, and there is no CGPA cutoff. I currently have 20 students working under me, 8 formal and the others informal. One factor that I might consider is if they’ve done my course where I have seen their performance. The most important factor is your interest and willingness to work. The best way to contact me is via email.