I am a Ph.D. Computer Science student in the Principles of Expressive Machines (POEM) Lab under the advisement of Dr. Chris Martens, at NC State University. I model and study large populations of humans by simulating small-scale social interactions that take into account real-world geographic constraints, logistics, lifestyles, and social influence dynamics. With my research I aim to support a variety of applications, such as examining the implications of social science theories and developing playable, explorable story worlds. I believe my research would afford increased entertainment, immersion and replayability for users.
Prior to NC State, I was a Research Lab Associate Intern at Disney Research Pittsburgh under the advisement of Dr. Boyang Li in the Narrative Intelligence Lab. Before that I completed my M.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology under the advisement of Dr. Mark Riedl in the Entertainment Intelligence Lab.
PhD in Computer Science (Specializing in Narrative Intelligence), 2017 - present
North Carolina State University
MS Computer Science (Specializing in Interactive Intelligence), 2014 - 2016
Georgia Institute of Technology
B.Engg. Computer Engineering, 2007 - 2011
University of Mumbai
This work expands on and extends work previously pubished for the Lyra System towards the Ph.D. Computer Science qualifier requirement at NC State University. We conducted a human-subjects study of Lyra to evaluate the generated conversations and affinity groups for their believability and to inform future iterations of the simulation. The conversations were found to be moderately believable, rating 3.3 out of 5 on a Likert Scale. Additionally, survey respondents ascribed humanity to the actions of the virtual agents, associating them with competitiveness, persuasiveness, and intention. We believe this further adds to the believability of our system. In the long run, successful simulation of opinion change in social dynamics provides a foundation for computational recognition, prediction, and interfacing with human social behaviour.