Pooja Viswanathan
B. Math Honours Computer Science (Bioinformatics Option) - University of Waterloo
Ph.D. Computer Science (Assistive Technology) - University of British Columbia
Post-Doctoral Fellow - University of Toronto and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
Email: Pooja (dot) Viswanathan (at) uhn (dot) ca

Photo by: Martin Dee, University Photographer, Public Affairs, UBC

My new website can be found here

Current Projects:

An Intelligent Powered Wheelchair for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment

Snap'N'Dose - A dosage calculator android app for childrens' medication


Publications

P. Viswanathan, P. Alimi, J. Little, A. Mackworth, A. Mihailidis, "Navigation Assistance for Intelligent Wheelchairs," in Proceedings of International Conference on Technology and Aging (ICTA), Toronto, Canada, 2011. *Received Honorable Mention in Student Scientific Competition*

P. Viswanathan, J. Little, A. Mackworth, A. Mihailidis, "Adaptive Navigation Assistance for Visually-Impaired Wheelchair Users," in IROS Workshop on New and Emerging Technologies in Assistive Robotics, San Francisco, California, 2011.

P. Viswanathan, J. Little, A. Mackworth, A. Mihailidis, "Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Help (NOAH) for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study," in Proceedings of ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS), Dundee, Scotland, 2011.

P. Viswanathan, T. Southey, J. J. Little, and A. Mackworth, "Place Classification Using Visual Object Categorization and Global Information," in Proceedings of Canadian Conference in Computer and Robot Vision, Halifax, Canada, 2011.

P. Viswanathan, J. Little, A. Mackworth, A. Mihailidis, "Adaptive Prompting for Intelligent Wheelchairs", in NIPS Workshop on Machine Learning for Assistive Technologies, Whistler, Canada, 2010.

P. Viswanathan, "Adaptive Prompting for Intelligent Wheelchairs", in Workshop for Women in Machine Learning, Vancouver, Canada, 2010.

P. Viswanathan, J. Little, A. Mackworth, and A. Mihailidis, "The Future of Powered Mobility: Intelligent Wheelchairs" in Symposium on Wheelchair Mobility in Older Adults: Are We Ready to Roll?, International Society for Gerontology (ISG) 7th World Conference: Technologies for Health, Quality of Life and Aging-in-place, pp. 137-141, Vancouver, Canada, 2010.

P. Viswanathan, T. Southey, J. J. Little, and A. Mackworth, "Automated place classification using object detection," in Proceedings of Canadian Conference in Computer and Robot Vision, pp. 324-330, Ottawa, Canada, 2010.

P. Viswanathan, D. Meger, T. Southey, S. Helmer, S. McCann, M. Muja, M. Dockrey, M. Joya, D. G. Lowe, J. J. Little, and A. K. Mackworth, "Combining Automated Visual Search and Place Categorization" (Invited Talk), CVPR Workshop on Visual Place Categorization, Miami, 2009.

P. Viswanathan, D. Meger, T. Southey, J. J. Little, and A. K. Mackworth, "Automated Spatial-Semantic Modeling with Applications to Place Labeling and Informed Search", in Proceedings of Canadian Robot Vision, Kelowna, Canada, 2009. pdf

S. Helmer, D. Meger, P. Viswanathan, S. McCann, M. Dockrey,P. Fazli, T. Southey, M. Muja, M. Joya, J. J. Little, D. G. Lowe, "Semantic Robot Vision Challenge: Current State and Future Directions", in Proceedings of IJCAI Workshop on Competitions in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Pasadena, 2009. pdf

D. Meger, S. Helmer, M. Muja, P. Viswanathan, S. McCann, M. Dockrey, M. Joya, J. J. Little, D. G. Lowe, "Curious George II: Parallelized Multi-Cue Visual Search" (Poster), The Semantic Robot Vision Challenge at CVPR, Alaska, 2008.

P. Viswanathan, A. Mackworth, J. J. Little, J. Hoey, and A. Mihailidis. "NOAH for wheelchair users with cognitive impairment: Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Help" (Short Paper), in Proceedings of AAAI Fall Symposium on AI in Eldercare: New Solutions to Old Problems, pages 150 - 152, Washington D.C., 2008. pdf poster

P. Viswanathan, "Intelligent Powered Wheelchairs for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment" (Student Abstract and Poster), in Proceedings of the Precarn Intelligent Systems Conference, Windsor, 2008.

P. Viswanathan, J. Boger, J. Hoey, A. Mihailidis, "A Comparison of Stereovision and Infrared as Sensors for an Anti-Collision Powered Wheelchair for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments", Technology and Aging - Selected Papers from the 2007 International Conference on Technology and Aging, A. Mihailidis, J. Boger, H. Kautz, L. Normie, eds., Vol. 21, pp 165-172, Assistive Technology Research Series, IOS Press, 2008. pdf

P. Viswanathan, C. Kwan, M. Ng, S. Wolfman, "A Survey of Practices, Effort, and Outcomes in UBC CS's Recruitment and Retention Programs" (Poster), SIGCSE, Portland, Oregon, 2008.

P. Viswanathan, J. Boger, J. Hoey, P. Elinas, A. Mihailidis, "The Future of Wheelchairs: Intelligent Collision Avoidance and Navigation Assistance", Geriatrics and Aging, 10(4):253-6, 2007. pdf

P. Viswanathan, J. Boger, J. Hoey, P. Elinas, J. Little, A. Mackworth and A. Mihailidis, "An Intelligent Powered Wheelchair for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments" (Poster and Extended Abstract), in Proc. of the Vancouver Society for Cognitive Science 2007 Conference: Robotics for Society, Vancouver, 2007. pdf

P. Viswanathan, A. Mackworth, J. Little and A. Mihailidis, "Intelligent Wheelchairs: Collision Avoidance and Navigation Assistance for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment" (Poster and White Paper), in Proc. of the Workshop on Intelligent Systems for Assisted Cognition, Rochester, 2007. pdf

P. Viswanathan, J. Boger, J. Hoey and A. Mihailidis, "A Comparison of Stereovision and Infrared as Sensors for an Anti-Collision Powered Wheelchair for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments," in Proc. of the 2nd International Conference on Technology and Aging (ICTA), Toronto, 2007 (full-length paper in IOS Press book "Technology & Aging").

P. Viswanathan, "An Intelligent Wheelchair for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment" (Student Abstract and Poster), in Proc. of the Precarn Intelligent Systems Conference, Montreal, 2007.

P. Viswanathan, "An Intelligent Wheelchair to Assist Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment" (Student Abstract and Poster), accepted at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: "I Invent the Future", Orlando, 2007.


Awards
First Maria Klawe Women in CS Award 2010
Anita Borg Scholar 2009
NSERC CGSD Scholarship 2008-2011
Anita Borg Finalist 2008
Precarn Student Scholarship 2007
Anita Borg Grace Hopper Conference (GHC) Scholarship 2007
Tapia-GHC Bridge Day Scholarship 2007
NSERC CGSM Scholarship (upgraded to PGSD stipend) 2007-2008
ACM-W Scholarship for Attendance at Research Conferences 2007
Precarn Student Scholarship 2006
Graduation - Honours with Distinction 2006


Departmental Activities:

Committee Member, Outreach, April 2008 - Present
Committee Member, Focus on Women in Computer Science (FoWCS), April 2007 - Present
Committee Member, Communications, April 2007 - Present
President, Computer Science Graduate Students Association (CSGSA), April 2007 - April 2008
Committee Member, CS Finance Committee, April 2007 - April 2008
Steering Committee Member: Web Administrator and Online Registration/Payment Coordinator, MackFest, February 2007 - December 2007
Hourly Teaching Assistant, CSPC 101, September 2007 - December 2007
Full-Time Teaching Assistant, CPSC 430, September 2006 - April 2007


UBC CS Links

Robuddies
LCI Forum


Past Research Projects:

Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Help (NOAH) for Elderly Wheelchair Users with Cognitive Impairment in Long-Term Care
Supervisors: Alan Mackworth and (University of British Columbia), Jim Little


Anti-Collision Wheelchair for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments
Supervisor: Alex Mihailidis (University of Toronto)

A Haptic Glove for Tactile-Vision Sensory Substitution for Wayfinding
Supervisors: John Zelek, Richard Mann (University of Waterloo)

Dynamical Modelling of the Eukaryotic Cell Cycle
Supervisors: Brian Ingalls, Bernie Duncker, Brendan McConkey (University of Waterloo)