Akshay Kore

Designer and a maker at heart with a healthy disregard for the impossible. I love technology, books, sometimes people. Slightly elaborate, impatient, hyperactive; although I think these are good qualities most of the time. There is a perpetual battle between the meticulous and the fast; most times I prefer fast. I have completed a Masters in Interaction Design(HCI) from the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay, worked with the Artificial Intelligence and Research group at Microsoft R&D and am currently leading design for the SME vertical at ClearTax.

Experience

AI Product Designer
Observe.ai
April 2020 – Present
Building an AI first product at Observe.ai

Senior UX Designer
ClearTax
October 2019 – March 2020
Leading design for the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) vertical at ClearTax.

User Experience Designer
Microsoft R&D, India
July 2016 – October 2019
Currently working with the Artificial Intelligence and Research group. Primary work involved in voice interfaces, smart devices, virtual and augmented reality, and accessibility tools.

Research consultant
CSMVS Museum, Mumbai
March – November 2016
A research project in collaboration with the museum’s Art Conservation Centre in Mumbai, aimed at using technological interventions to display undisplayed artifacts. The project was on display at the ConservArte Exhibition 2016. Primary work involved in developing low cost techniques for capturing images and videos for holograms, design and development of a 3D holographic interface and a Kinect based touch interface for exploring artifacts.

Research Internship – LookUp Mumbai
JSW Foundation, Mumbai
December 2015 – February 2016
Worked on research and fieldwork for LookUp Mumbai, a new media installation at the CSMVS Museum (formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum) in Mumbai. The project was done with Ar. Preeti Sanghi in collaboration with Prof. Sarah Kenderdine from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

UI / UX and Data Visualization Internship
Information Design Lab – IDC, IITB
May – June 2015
Worked on a project visualizing infrastructure data of Mumbai through an interactive medium. Conducted interviews with policy makers, city planners and urban designers. A map based interface was designed and the user interactions and user experience was developed. The project was done under the guidance of Prof.Venkatesh R.

Urban Design Intern
EGIS, Mumbai
October 2013 – February 2014
Worked on the development plan for Mumbai city. The work was done with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and primarily involved: urban planning and land use allocation, urban design for street level features, data modeling of the city zones through GIS systems and data analysis of land use

Co-Founder
O-LAP, Mumbai
2013 -2015
A startup venture with focus on design, research and fabrication of parametric products (products based on computation of different parameters associated with a product). A number of methods in design of products as well as design of spaces in urban homes were explored. The design was done mainly keeping in mind a person living in a metropolitan city. The venture received a number of recognitions and awards.

Education

Masters in Interaction Design
IDC IIT Bombay
2014 – 2016

Bachelors in Architecture
Mumbai University
2009 – 2014

Other courses

Introduction to Data Science in Python (University of Michigan)

Machine Learning Foundations: A Case Study Approach (University of Washington)

Neural Networks and Deep Learning (Deeplearning.ai)

Positions of Responsibility

Course on design for AI and ML based systems
ISB Hyderabad 2019

Design Incubation Coordinator
Microsoft 2017 – 2019

Workshop on Augmented Reality
Microsoft 2019

Intern mentor
Microsoft 2018

Workshop on Augmented Reality
Microsoft 2018

Workshop on building interactive voice devices
Microsoft 2018

Workshop on the Basics of Blockchain
Makespace Bangalore 2018

Institute Placement Co-ordinator
IIT Bombay 2015 – 2016

Speaker : Insights lecture series
L.S.Raheja School of Architecture, Mumbai 2016

College Trophy head : Back to basics, NASA
Mumbai 2015 – 2016

College Trophy head : Product design, National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA)
Mumbai 2010 – 13

Have Brain. Will Learn.

Skills

Design Methods
User Experience Design, User Studies, Usability Evaluation, Heuristic Evaluation, Service Design, Contextual Inquiry, Affinity Mapping, Quantitative research, UX Writing, Design sprint

Programming
HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java, Python, C#, PHP, SQL, SSML

Frameworks and Libraries
Bootstrap, Skeleton, Jquery, D3, numpy, pandas, Android+Wear, WordPress, Vuforia, ARCore, Mapbox js, Google maps api, Leaflet JS, WebVR, AFrame IO, Dialogflow, Bot framework

Softwares
Unity 3D, Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, AfterEffects, Premiere Pro, Sketch, Autocad, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Sketchup, Blender, Rhino+Grasshopper, Figma

Others
Machine learning, Deep learning and Neural networks, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Wearables, Product Design, Voice User Interfaces

It is much more important to be brave than perfect

In the News

CityLab (Online)- “An Interactive Land-Use Map of Mumbai Is Finally Here”

Midday Mumbai (Print + Online)- “IIT-B student designs ingenious map to beat MCGM’s website maze”

The Hindu (Print + Online)- “Mapping Mumbai for Mumbaikars”

Proptiger (Online)- “Mumbai’s Interactive Land-Use Map Will Help Urban Planners”

Proptiger (Online Interview)- “Land-Use Maps Will Make Urban Data Easily Available: Akshay Kore”

Visualoop (Online)

Verve Magazine (Online + Print)- “‘Make’-ing A Better India”

Volzero (Online)- “From humble beginnings and endless research”

Journal of Indian Institute of Architects (Print), March 2011

The Times of India (Print), 24th February 2012

The Society Interiors Magazine (Print), April 2013

Awards and Recognition

Award of Excellence for Innovation
Artificial Intelligence and Research, Microsoft 2018

Search Technology and Intelligence Hack award
Artificial Intelligence and Research, Microsoft 2018

Most popular hack for Softie humanoid robot
Hackathon, Microsoft India 2018

Patent : File exchange by maintaining copy of file system data
Microsoft 2017

Third Prize at the Lenovo National Game Design Competition
Mumbai 2016

First Prize at the E-Cell IIT Bombay Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
Mumbai 2015

Icreate SparkUp Idea Fund – Research Grant
Mumbai 2015

TEDx Gateway featured startup
Mumbai 2015

First Prize at the Godrej ‘Small ideas for a Big Change’ Competition
Mumbai 2014

‘The Most Innovative Design’ for the academic year
L.S.Raheja School of Architecture, Mumbai 2013-14

First Prize in Product design at a national level
The Annual NASA Convention,
Haryana 2013

Shortlisted in the top 12 Design solutions for the International Design Competition
Part of an exhibition at The University of Westminster, London 2013

First Prize in Product Design at a national level
The Durian Society Interiors Competition
Bangalore 2013

First Prize for the Back to Basics competition
Best Plausible Reasoning to Myths in Chitrakoot India
The Annual NASA convention
Ahmedabad 2012

First Prize in Product Design at a national level
The annual NASA Convention
Hubli 2011

First Prize at the Resonance Architectural Design competition
Mumbai 2011

Interests

Big Data, Data Science, Statistics, Information Design, Data Visualization, Urban Design, User Research, Smart City, Voice Interfaces, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things (IOT), Wearables, Mobile Computing, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, User Experience, User Interface, Tangible Interfaces, Motion Sensing, New Media, Entrepreneurship…the Internet, Reading, Writing words and code.