Sruti S Ragavan

I am on the academic and research job market in India. If you are hiring a  HCI and/or Software Engineering researcher / assistant professor, please drop me a note. My CV, research and teaching statements can be found here.

Hi there!  If you are wondering how to pronounce my name, it is  /ʃrut̪i/ or sh-ru-thi.

I am a human-computer interaction researcher, so I am excited by anything that has to do with people and technology (especially with respect to information and problem solving!). The cool thing is that I get to people watch as part of my job! In the past, this has mostly been programmer watching, with elements of information seeking, or AI, or such thrown in. 

Currently, I am a HCI researcher in the Calc Intelligence group at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom, where I obsess about various aspects of end-user programming (i.e., helping non-programmers program to accomplish some task). 

Before joining Microsoft Research, I got my M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science advised by the awesome Margaret Burnett at Oregon State University.  Before that, I was a software developer at ThoughtWorks. (I still strongly identify myself as a developer!). 

Outside of Computer Science, I have an interest in Indian history, philosophy, textile, performing arts and mythology. I’m a student and teacher of Sanskrit. My recent fun activity is the study of Panini’s Ashtadhyayi (in bits and blobs) and Valmiki Ramayana in its original, along with its Sanskrit commentaries [The commentaries are exemplars of good scientific writing!]. Starting Fall 2021, I am a high school teacher in the US, teaching Sanskrit for foreign language credits via the SAFL program.

I’m married to Dr. Sudarshan Narayanan, a materials scientist, violinist and Sanskrit teacher.