DR SOUMYA C. BARATHI
I am a Lecturer and IROHMS researcher at Cardiff University. I am part of a vibrant and diverse research community in the School of Computer Science and Informatics. IROHMS is a research group supported by an accelerator grant in Cardiff University that investigates human centred robotics and human computer interaction. My research goal is to develop interactive personalised immersive applications that are capable of providing optimal user experience by adapting themselves according to the user's emotional state. My current research investigates the use of virtual reality exercise controlled games (VR active games) to motivate healthy and sustainable exercise behaviour. My primary research interests are: Active Gaming, Immersive Media Applications,
and Affective Computing.
I founded a start-up called Exergaming Ltd. Under my leadership as the CEO of Exergaming Ltd, my team built an innovative prototype of an exercise controlled game that tracks movements by just using a camera in devices such as laptops and PCs. I was accepted into the highly competitive Entrepreneur First (EF) programme which has an acceptance rate of less than 3%. EF is an international talent investor and they provide an effective environment to build a technology start-up. I developed a valuable network of a wide range of industry experts and business leaders. The EF webpage is here: https://www.joinef.com/the-programme.
I was a Marie Curie FIRE (Fellow with Industrial Research Enhancement) researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath. I was awarded the FIRE Fellowship via a competitive international process. As part of my Fellowship, I have been trained in public engagement, handling the media, and other professional skills including project management. My research focused on improving performance, user experience, and measuring and analysing affect in high intensity VR exergaming. The FIRE webpage is here: https://www.csct.ac.uk/msca-fire. I was also a member of CAMERA (Centre for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research & Applications), a multi-disciplinary research centre bringing together visual computing, machine learning, human computer interaction, health, human performance and engineering researchers. The CAMERA webpage is here: https://www.camera.ac.uk
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Showcase of Work
October 2021 to Present
Lecturer and IROHMS Researcher at Cardiff University
I am a Lecturer and IROHMS researcher at Cardiff University. I am part of a vibrant and diverse research community in the School of Computer Science and Informatics. IROHMS is a research group supported by an accelerator grant in Cardiff University that investigates human centred robotics and human computer interaction. My research goal is to develop interactive personalised immersive applications that are capable of providing optimal user experience by adapting themselves according to the user's emotional state. My current research investigates the use of virtual reality exercise controlled games (VR active games) to motivate healthy and sustainable exercise behaviour. My primary research interests are: Active Gaming, Immersive Media Applications, and Affective Computing.
December 2020 - Present
FOUNDER AND CEO OF EXERGAMING LTD
I founded a start-up called Exergaming Ltd. Under my leadership as the CEO of Exergaming Ltd, my team built an innovative prototype of an exercise-controlled game that tracks movements by just using a camera in devices such as laptops and PCs. I also developed experience in doing pitching business ideas, market analysis, and business planning. Our webpage is here: https://www.exergaming.net.
September 2020 - January 2020
ENTREPRENEUR FIRST, LONDON
I was accepted into the highly competitive Entrepreneur First (EF) programme which has an acceptance rate of less than 3%. EF is an international talent investor and they provide an effective environment to build a technology start-up. I developed a valuable network of a wide range of industry experts and business leaders. The EF webpage is here: https://www.joinef.com/the-programme.
October 2016 to September 2020
MARIE CURIE FIRE AND CAMERA RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF BATH
I was a Marie Curie FIRE (Fellow with Industrial Research Enhancement) and CAMERA Researcher (Centre for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research & Applications) in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath. As part of my fellowship, I was trained in public engagement, handling media, and other professional skills like project management. I primarily investigated improving performance and player experience in high intensity VR exergaming. My research interests are digital health applications, immersive media, and affective computing. During the course of my fellowship, I published 3 papers in ACM CHI conference which is a top tier international conference with an acceptance rate of less than 25% :
1. Affect Recognition using Psychophysiological Correlates in High Intensity VR Exergaming
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems;
https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376596
2. Guidelines for Affect Elicitation and Tracking in High Intensity VR Exergaming
Momentary Emotion Elicitation and Capture Workshop at ACM CHI, 2020
3. Interactive Feedforward for Improving Performance and Maintaining Intrinsic Motivation in VR Exergaming
Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems;
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173982
June 2015 to June 2016
BUSINESS ANALYST, UNISYS
I was involved in the designing, development, business analysis and testing of USFN (Unisys Secure Family Net). I worked on enhancing the usability of the application by logically grouping the data fields and creating digital mockups of the screens while being a member of the user experience team.
January 2015 - June 2015
ADM INTERN, UNISYS
I worked on the project USFN which stands for Unisys Secure Family Net. It is a robust and flexible system designed to address the unique needs of child welfare agencies. I was involved in business analysis in which the business rules were documented based on the client's requirements and communicated to the development team.
October 2016 to May 2020
PHD
University of Bath, UK;
Title: Interactive Feedforward in High Intensity VR Exergaming;
Advisors: Dr Christof Lutteroth, Prof Eamonn O'Neill, and Dr Michael Proulx;
Examiners: Prof Stephen Payne and Prof Kirsten Cater;
July 2011 to May 2015
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
First Class, SRM University, India;
