Cognitive science & psychology · education research in development
I work with first-generation children and study learning beyond the usual classroom.
In low-income communities, I teach mixed-age groups, design hands-on activities and lead learning events. Those experiences are shaping my questions about the abilities children bring to a room, and which environments let those abilities show.
Selected research
Ongoing honors thesis · experimental research
I designed and ran a temporal bisection pilot with Indian adults to examine a culturally acquired mental timeline effect. My honors thesis extends that work by testing whether the effect persists when response mappings are reversed.
Completed · developmental observation
I produced a longitudinal case study of a Grade 5 first-generation learner I had taught for three years, combining classroom observation with developmental theory.
Ongoing · independent collaboration
With guidance and brainstorming support from Dr. Karyn Allee of Mercer University, I design and lead a marketplace pilot for 72 mixed-age children. We use culturally relevant, strengths-oriented play to explore school readiness.
I led a five-person binaural beats and attention study, assisted with Apis mellifera olfactory-memory work, and participated remotely in Dr. Roberta Golinkoff's child-development lab meetings, reading and discussing research on infant learning. My roles and dates are detailed in the CV.
Forthcoming: I have been selected as a volunteer with Dost Education's Ready to Learn Programme for research and data cleaning.
Learning design & facilitation
Mixed-age classrooms, too few volunteers and uncertain attention have taught me to solve problems quickly while keeping the learning goal intact.
Pratigya Abhiyan · Academic Head
I teach children and coordinate volunteers in mixed-age classrooms. Planning starts with who is in the room, what each child needs and what the available people and space can support.
UDAAN · performance design
Across three editions I moved from leading a 21-child dance to shaping the performances, volunteer roles and parent-facing story of UDAAN 2026.
STEM Conclave 2026 · student experience lead
For 100 first-generation girls considering science, I mapped four stations, briefed volunteers and helped make an engineering campus feel possible to explore.
Where the questions lead
I want to understand which competencies and forms of agency become visible in informal or community learning spaces, and what in those environments makes that possible.
Guided play and play-based learning are approaches I want to explore with pre-K and elementary children, particularly first-generation and low-income learners.
My learning has happened in scattered places. Cognitive science and psychology helped me understand the processes behind learning; working with children showed me how different things can look in practice. Research projects introduced me to the rigor and intellectual environment I want to explore more deeply. Doctoral training would help me bring those threads together, investigate my questions systematically, and build culturally relevant, community-centred research with a collaborative group that can guide and challenge me.
Selected builds
Small tools and programmes that grew from work with children.
An Indian-adapted AAC device to make communication easier for neurodivergent children, shaped by my work at Samadhan India.
Try Bolo ↗An early-literacy phonics app for teaching children English phonetic sounds, built from my teaching at Pratigya.
Try Akhar Awaaz ↗From Sprout, a question emerged: “Is the child developmentally ready to take advantage of this opportunity?”
Explore Sprout ↗A little about me
My BSc in Cognitive Science with a Psychology minor gave me a foundation. Teaching and designing experiences with children showed me the area I want to study more seriously. The longer I work with them, the more I notice that the classroom alone cannot explain how they learn. I want to study the wider environments around them too.
Outside work, my interests include indie dogs, occasional basketball and vibe coding.
Selected recognition
BeVisioneers inaugural-cohort fellow · UNCTAD Global Youth Forum 2025 delegate · Theirworld Global Youth Ambassador · Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition Silver Awards (2022 and 2023)
See details →Contact
I'm open to research conversations and collaborations around children's learning, play and the environments that shape what becomes possible.
Shortcuts to the work and a way to reach her.