Intersection of Gender and Technology (2020-2022)

• Researchers: Dr. Nova Ahmed, Rahat jahangir Rony, Anik Saha, Anik Sinha, Syeda Shabnam Khan, Ifti Azad Abeer, Shajnush Amir, Md. Sabbir Ahmed, Tanvir Hasan, Zareen Tasnim, Kimia tuz Zaman,  and Mayesha Tasnim.  

The research project aims to understand the intersection of technology usage and financial inclusion through a deepened understanding of barriers and opportunities for advancing women's financial inclusion, including the experiences and perceptions of low-income women from across various regions and occupations.

Project Details: https://sites.google.com/view/alorakash/home 

Developing a Low Cost Wearable For Upper Limb Rehabilitation Of Stroke Patients

• Researchers: Dr. Nova Ahmed, Shajnush Amir Rahat jahangir Rony Dr. Katarzyna Stawarz, Dr. Nervo Dias and Dr. Valerie Sparkes Samuelson Atiba and Catt Turney.

A GCRF-funded project by North South University and Cardiff University. The project is supervised by Dr. Katarzyna Stawarz, Dr. Nervo Dias, and Dr. Valerie Sparkes.

Stroke patients or patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) often have severe health complications. Sometimes, upper limbs are affected, causing weakness and function impairment resulting in difficulty performing everyday tasks. Rehabilitation regimes can help these patients regain upper limb function. However, in countries like Bangladesh, rehabilitation access can be limited and costly, causing patients to turn away from rehabilitation. This causes patients to lose the opportunity to undergo optimal recovery. In this project, we aim to develop a low-cost wearable to aid the upper limb rehabilitation process through technology. Ideally, the final prototype of the wearable would be able to recognize exercises for rehabilitation and give feedback to the user.

We primarily built a prototype, assuming it would recognize hand movements. Afterward, through interviews with Physiotherapy experts in UK and Bangladesh, we understood the nature of upper limb rehabilitation, rehabilitation requirement, and basic exercises. From the expert's insights, we are upgrading the design of the prototype to meet the requirements and needs. We will interview patients and possibly their caregivers and try to understand their perspectives and requirements. From there, we will initiate another iterative design improvement.

Through this project, we can help patients and their caregivers and assist in healthcare using technology.

Assessment of the Driving Behavior and Stress in Multi-modal Road Culture in Developing Countries (2016 – 2018)

• Researchers: Dr. Nova Ahmed, Saad Azmeen-ur-Rahman, Rahat Jahangir Rony, and Md. Tanvir Mushfique.  

Bangladesh has a multi-modal road culture where all possible vehicles (Buses, Trucks, Rickshaws, Cars, Lorries, Ambulances, Vans, and other public vehicles) run on the same road. There are no exact traffic rules and lane maintenance, mainly in the city area. Another way this country has yet to plan constructed roads from the previous. It has broken roads for the lack of proper maintenance, which causes too many traffic jams all over the city nowadays, and we express it as "Bap Re Baap" in Bengali. Roadside factors stress drivers' health and cause lousy driving behavior and road accidents. 

Primarily, we discovered the problems by studying (Qualitative Study) the numerous drivers (almost all types) lifestyles, plans, driving behavior, well-being, stress, etc. Together with this study, we planned to determine their Cardiovascular health during driving at the next step. We developed a low-cost device to measure the real-time heartbeat and possibly sync with GPS location, 3-axis gyro-meter data, and time. This data can be analyzed simultaneously on any Bluetooth communicating device. We have already developed the device several times. Cardio data helps us to find their level of stress.  

We got many intervention points by analyzing the cardio, qualitative, and quantitative studies. Their health situation is not well enough; they do not have a low level of well-being and lead a stressful life. Their life is full of discomfort and also painful. They cannot maintain good driving behavior on the road for their lifestyle and other social issues. Thus, people face bad driving behavior.

We have continued this project until now to find a better solution.  

Google Gender and Technology Research in  Bangladesh (2017)

• Researchers: Dr. Nithya Sambasivan (Google), Dr. Nova Ahmed (Lead), Silvia Ahmed, Rahat Jahangir Rony, Md. Tanvir Mushfique, Shahreen Shahjahan Psyche, Sayeda Shabnam Khan and Sarah Binta Alam Shoilee.  

Google Gender and Technology Research in Bangladesh is the HCI Research Project by Google, the USA, and North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, about the Challenges of Using Technology of Women in Developing Countries. This research occurs in many countries on different continents, such as South America, Africa, And Asia. 

My Lead Researcher (Dr. Nova Ahmed) invited and requested me to join; I found it a challenging project for us. Because technology is not so friendly to our women, and to get the answer from them to the question “WHY?” is very difficult here. Our society is very conservative, Patriarchal and women do not want to share their things with all others. We tried to drill them (Participants) up for relevant answers. To deal with all the analysis, we realize that women are very helpless here and feel that they are not independent to express themselves and created to be ruled by others. The most significant focus of this project is the challenge of using technology and harassment. The world has developed many apps and devices for safety, but by doing this project, we understood the fundamental issue of harassment. Men do all women harassment, but we never talk about it, and somehow we never think of it. So the better solution can come from the men, and it happens only because of our mentality. 

We reach out to several communities of women in three different regions in Bangladesh, including married, unmarried, students, cleaners, garment workers, retired women, etc., and in both higher and lower-class societies. We interviewed all of them, and each interview was more than 2 hours. We also recorded the video and audio of each conversation. We get uncountable stories of their different life stages, dreams, and surrounding societies. 

Several papers have been published regarding this project and awarded Best Paper Award in SOUPS 2018 and CHI 2019. I was acknowledged in these papers as a young researcher. 

Development of Wearable Security for Women Against Sexual Harassment (2016 – 2019)

• Researchers: Dr. Nova Ahmed, Saad Azmeen-ur-Rahman, Rahat Jahangir Rony, and Md. Tanvir Mushfique. 

In developing countries, women are not secure on the streets, in quiet areas, and outdoors at night. They are vulnerable to sexual harassment, eve-teasing, kidnapping, etc. When faced with these circumstances, women seek help from bystanders, family members, and rescue departments. However, soliciting help from others is not always possible. Existing technology is a mobile phone application requiring a person in trouble to access the mobile phone during a crisis. Again, some wearable commercial solutions, such as VIGILANT and REVOLAR, are expensive considering a developing country like Bangladesh.

So we have developed a cheap inconspicuous security system capable of sending out the message with the GPS location of the victim to desired places and Facebook Timeline posts as “I am in DANGER!! Please Help!!”. The device can be used as a wearable accessory (Bracelet or Wearable Headset) or carried in a handbag. We named the system Protibaadi, meaning “Defendant” in Bengali. 

This system (PROTIBAADI) combines miniaturized hardware with the versatility of a smartphone application. The system architecture is provided with both hardware and application segments. We generate an ASCII combination in the device, and a communication module sends that signal to a smartphone app. Finally, the smartphone app sends out alert messages for help.

Digital RMG Mapping in Bangladesh 2020

• Researchers: Dr. Nova Ahmed, Rahat Jahangir Rony, and Kimia Zaman

In Bangladesh, around 4 million garment workers are working in more than five thousand garment factories all around the country. Most of the factories are situated in Dhaka and Chittagong divisions in Bangladesh, along with the membership of BGMEA and BKMEA. This study briefly explores garment workers' lifestyles through qualitative interviews with n= 55 garment workers (32 workers were female and 23 were male) from 40 garments in 6 different groups. We uncover several areas of workers' life, representing the scenarios of all garment workers. We identified the challenges and qualities of workers' daily life and devised a possible tool to make their life easy and better.

Report: Rahat Jahangir Rony, Kimia Tuz Zaman and Nova Ahmed. 2020. Stories Beneath Needle: Understanding Ready-made Garments Workers in Bangladesh. Report on Digital RMG Mapping in Bangladesh Project, BRAC University. 

Cyber Security Concerns and Data Breach (2018-2019)

• Researchers: Rahat Jahangir Rony, Dr. Nova Ahmed, Tamanna Motahar, MD Tanvir Mushfique, Sayeda Shabnam Khan, Rio Chakma, Partho Anthony D’ Costa, Kazi Shafat Sadman and Gazi Fakhrul Islam 

Updates are coming soon.  (I am the team lead and designer of this project. Paper is under review in CHI 2020 as sole author)