Research
My research goal is to create platforms and networks where local resident groups can collect, make sense of, and disseminate environmental information to address issues of pollution and environmental injustice. I use low-cost sensor technology, social computing systems, and community science frameworks to design and implement projects to document and address environmental harm. Through facilitating workshops on data storytelling and using participatory action research, I follow the priorities of participants and help build their capacity to understand and articulate their demands, infusing their lived experiences with local and regional data.
My work spans three main lines of research:
- designing social computing systems
- activating community science data
- youth participatory action research
Click here to read my full research statement.
Click here to read a little more about my reserch projects.
PUBLICATIONS
- Refusing the Urban Laboratory – Abhishek Viswanathan, Bobbie Fan – Technoscience & Society - University of Toronto Press (forthcoming)
- An Exposure-Based Video Game (Dr. Zoo) to Reduce Needle Phobia in Children Aged 3 to 6 Years: Development and Mixed Methods Pilot Study – 2023 – Pat Healy, Celine Lu, Jennifer S Silk, Oliver Lindheim, Reagan Harper, Abhishek Viswanathan, Dmitriy Babichenko - JMIR Serious Games 2023
- The Impact of COVID-19 on Communication Network Outages – 2022 – Faris Alotibi, Alekhya Velagapudi, Akshay Madan, Kuheli Sai, Abhishek Viswanathan, Amy Babay, David Tipper, Prashant Krishnamurthy - 18th International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN)
- Analysis of Power Consumption of the MQTT Protocol – 2017 – Abhishek Viswanathan - Master’s Thesis – D-Scholarship @ Pitt
INVITED TALKS, PRESENTATIONS
- Guest Lecture on Data Storytelling for PIA 2096: Data Visualization in R for Public Policy Capstone - 2023
- Poster Presentation at UPitt Infrastructure Sensor Collaboration (UPISC) Workshop - 2023
- AI/ML & Environmental Justice Seminar – The Air Quality Landscape in Pittsburgh – Institutions, Collaboration, and Change – Northeastern University Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute – 2022
- Panelist at Year of Data and Society – Sustaining Impacts - 2022
- Presentation of “Liar Liar Grants on Fire - Institutional Complicity in Expanding the Smart Surveillance State” at the Smartification of Everything Symposium - 2022
- Facilitator of virtual roleplaying game – “Legend of Smartopia” – Smartification of Everything Symposium - 2022
Website designed by Darya Noor Kharabi.