Amit Sarker

As a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I am exploring the fields of data privacy and fairness in decision-making from private data. Specifically, my current research focuses on the design and implementation of visual data exploration platforms tailored for Differentially Private data, alongside an exploration of the fairness implications within Differential Privacy algorithms. I am advised by Prof. Narges Mahyar and Prof. Ali Sarvghad in the HCI-VIS Lab at UMass.

Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a research assistant at the Cognitive Agents and Interaction Lab (CAIL), where my work encompassed a diverse range of real-world problem-solving. These included tackling challenges in multi-agent coordination, optimization, as well as planning and scheduling. More specifically, I applied local search and particle swarm optimization (PSO) based algorithms for solving Continuous Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (C-DCOPs) in multi-agent systems.

I started my professional career as a Software Engineer (QA) at TigerIT Bangladesh Limited. During this time, I worked to enhance system reliability and performance by identifying essential system requirements and integrating cutting-edge technologies. My focus included the development and analysis of methodologies for a contact tracing module aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. I was also involved in designing and executing comprehensive test plans and developing automation scripts to ensure that software functionalities met the highest standards of quality. I received my bachelor's degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Dhaka (Dhaka, Bangladesh) advised by Prof. Md Mosaddek Khan.

My current research interests are:

• Differential Privacy & Fairness
• Data Visualization
• Natural Language Processing
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Multi-Agent Systems