Mr Rahat Jahangir Rony Rony

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My research interest includes Human-Computer Interaction and ICT4D

• Intersection of Gender and Technology in Bangladesh (Gates Foundation: 2020-2022)

  • 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 Affordable Wearables for Upper-limb Function Rehabilitation in Bangladesh ( GCRF-UKRI: 2021-2022)

• • 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.

• Digital RMG Mapping in Bangladesh (2020)

  • 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' lives, representing the scenarios of all garment workers. We identified the challenges and qualities of workers' daily lives and devised a possible tool to make their lives easier and better.

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

  • 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.

• Development of the Wearable Security for Women Against Sexual Harassment (2016-2018)

  • 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.

• Google Gender and Technology Research in Bangladesh (Google: 2017)

  • 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, getting their answer 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 enough 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.

• Cyber Security, Privacy Concerns, and Data Breach (2018-2019)

Thesis

Exploring the Opportunities of Low-cost wearable for Upper-Limb Rehabilitation for the Low income Communities in Bangladesh and Wales in the UK

Biography

Rahat Jahangir Rony

• 2022-2025: Ph.D. Student in Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, UK
• 2020 - Present: Research Scientist and Coordinator, DIAL, North South University, Bangladesh. 
• 2021 - Present: Managing Director, Methopoth Limited
• 2019: BSc in EEE, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 2013: HSC in Science, Birshreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 2011: SSC in Science, Mohammadpur Government High School, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Honours and awards

2022

• Full Funded Ph.D. Scholarship: School of COMSC, Cardiff University, awarded this for three years.  

• Gary Marsden Scholarship: SIGCHI Committee issued US$ 3400 to attend ACM COMPASS 2022 

• SIGCHI Development Fund: USD 10000 for organizing an ACM Workshop in Bangladesh 2022. 

2021

• SIGCHI Development Fund:  SIGCHI Committee issued US$ 130 to waive ACM CHI 2021 Registration

2020

• Gary Marsden Scholarship: SIGCHI Committee issued US$ 2800 to attend ACM CHI 2020 

2019

• SIGCHI Student Travel Scholarship (2019): SIGCHI Committee issued US$ 650 to Attend ACM CSCW Winter School in Japan.

• SIGCHI Student Travel Scholarship (2019): SIGCHI Committee issued Travel Scholarship to Attend Summer School in New Delhi.  

• SIGCHI Student Travel Scholarship (2019): SIGCHI Committee issued US$1,800 to attend CHI 2019, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.  

• COMSNETS 2019 Best Poster Award

• COMSNETS 2019 Travel Scholarship (2019): COMSNETS Committee awarded up to US$500 to attend COMSNETS 2019.

2018

• Waiver (2018): UbiComp 2018 Student Registration (US$450) is Completely Waived for Undergraduate Research Contributions.

• SIGCHI Student Travel Scholarship (2018): SIGCHI Committee issued US$280 to attend Summer School of HCI Research at IIT, Mumbai, India 

• SIGCHI Student Travel Scholarship (2018): SIGCHI Committee issued US$350 to attend COMSNETS and ASSET 2018 in Bangalore, India 

2005-2012

• 2nd in Chemistry Category in Intra College Science Fair (2012).   

• Primary School Scholarship (2005 -2008): The Government of Bangladesh

Professional memberships

ACM and SIGCHI Professional Member 

Committees and reviewing

• MOBILE HCI 2023
• INTERACT 2023
• CHI LBW 2022, 2023
• atl.CHI 2021
• AsianCHI 2021, 2022
• Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Elsevier.
• CHI 2020 LBW
• IndiaHCI 2020

Supervisors

Katarzyna Stawarz

Lecturer

Nervo Verdezoto Dias

Senior Lecturer