About Me

Identity

My permanent name is Spruha Sumukh Satavlekar. For about 28 years I was known as Triveni Keskar, and still am, in some parts of the world.

I am a fourth-year research scholar at IIT Bombay, Educational Technology and I was awarded the Pradhan Mantri Research Fellows scholarship for my future work in 2020.

So, how is the Ph.D. going on?

Enrolled from January 2021, at the Centre for Educational Technology I was notified of being selected as a lateral PMRF fellow in December 2020 cycle! This event changed my life! Educational Technology at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, for doctoral studies, I have completed a few core courses. The list of all courses completed with credits can be seen under the heading 'what do I study during Ph.D.?'

From January 2021, I am pursuing the challenge of abstractness in computational thinking - how many novice learners find it difficult to relate with the imaginary processes, scenarios, reactions and syntaxes of existing solutions to begin learning computational thinking. 'How do we overcome this challenge?' is the key question we try to fathom in the years ahead.

The proposed solution to this problem lies in use of Real-world IoT programmable (smart) Objects to introduce computational thinking to novice learners. We have named this as AuthentiCT, making CT authentic! This project is a brainchild of my Ph. D. advisors- Prof. Sridhar Iyer and Dr. Shitanshu Mishra with another research scholar from the department Ashutosh Raina. This project is partially funded by ACM India and we have given a talk about it in annual conference COMPUTE 2021 on 19th November. The slides from our talk are here:

ACM Compute 2021 Report (1).pdf

In May 2021, I received the news of being selected as a lateral entry PMRF fellow in Dec 2020 cycle and this news has changed my life!

What do I study during Ph.D.?

Enrolled from January 2021, in the Interdisciplinary Programme in Educational Technology at IITB, India, for doctoral studies, I have completed a few important courses.

The list of all courses completed with credits can be seen here:

Being busy before Ph.D.

Prior career experiences:

The latest visitorship I did at HBCSE was a segway into EdTech and CT for me. We got to engage young learners with creation of artwork using TurtleArt's visual programming interfaces. I was fascinated by some of their preferences, mental mechanisms and programming ideas to generate extremely complex artefacts.

MOOCourses learnt from NPTEL and Coursera:

Employer: MakersLab, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai

Project Handled: Mentor for Online TurtleArt workshop – Constructionist Learning with SugarLabs TEL

Duration: March 2020 to June 2020

My prior career experiences have helped shape my interest in computing, as for the longest time in my working life, I have processed data that will then create automatic triggers to some actions. For example, I had to find a mechanism to automatically adjust thresholds to trigger detection of lightning signals, decrypt the received signals from satellite and create a digital phase correction mechanism for received MRI signals.

Employer: Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research, Mumbai

Projects Handled:

1. Lightning Detection Sensor Network

2. Indian Regional Navigation Satellite Systems

3. Indigenous Magnetic Resonance Imaging System

Duration: July 2016 to September 2019

This was my very first professional software coding experience. I got great exposure to working with a team on long term projects with waterfall model of development and incidentally, we began transitioning to agile development soon after my batch joined the team. Thus, even though there was computational thinking based learning growing in designing UI screens with Javascript, my major focus was on learning agile style of incremental iterative development and feedback seeking behaviour which stayed on with me over the years.

Employer: J P Morgan Chase, India, Private Banking

Designation: Technical Analyst

Project Handled: Credit Mortgage Account Opening Web Portal

Duration: July 2012 to August 2013

Escaping the routine

Trekking and mountaineering:

I enjoy hiking and mountaineering in groups and have been to several expeditions till now. I have been trained from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarakhand in Basic Mountaineering Course. The banner of this page is from Leh, clicked during my travel with family in August 2021.

Latest expedition:
Mt. Yunam (20000 ft) at Bharatpur, India

Previous Expeditions:
Darjeeling-Sikkim cycling
Spiti circuit cycling
Mizoram Trekking and Caving with YHAI
Goa Cycling Expedition with YHAI
Jalori Pass Cycling Expedition with YHAI

Reading:
Current reading list includes:
All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
Jung-E-Kashmir by Lt. Col. Shyam Chavhan
The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah

All time favourite books:
Tottochan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
A Man's Search for Meaning by Dr. Victor E Frankl
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Raarangadhang by Prabhakar Pendharkar

Still Learning

Educational background:
August 2020: Enrolled as Ph.D. Research Scholar at IITB

June 2019: Masters of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications (CGPA 8.28).

September 2017: MOOC courses in Qualitative Research Methods and Research Writing, Teaching and Learning in Engineering, Effective Engineering Teaching in Practice, Learning Analytics, (SWAYAM), Python for Everybody, Agile meets Design Thinking.

May 2012: Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology with 72.5% from Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Mumbai University.

Feb 2008: HSC Maharashtra board examination 80% from Birla College, Kalyan.

March 2006: SSC Maharashtra board examination 88% from G.E.I.’s High School, Kalyan.

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