Usha had this rare opportunity to experience and contribute across a diverse range of work domains. She started her career in BITS Pilani as a faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. She taught courses spanning all levels of undergraduate and post graduate education. Incorporating newer ways of assessments and examinations has been her forte at BITS Pilani. In 1995, she was instrumental in bringing in computer-based examinations for both formative and summative examinations across foundation and core courses of computer science and information systems. She also served as the Chief Coordinator of the Centre for Software Development where students worked on several industry-sponsored software projects.
Gaining from the rich domain expertise in a discipline growing at a breakneck speed, she went on to set up a learning solutions company, delivering immense value to her customers from ideation to design to implementation. She conceptualized, designed and created eLearning modules for the K12 segment from classes 1 to 6. The range of technology-enabled learning products involved stunning visual effects, focus on cognitive development and scope for experimentation.
She then ventured to play a leadership role in a mid-sized Indian IT organization at Mphasis in 2007, dealing with HR Excellence and Learning. One of her biggest achievements was getting Mphasis certified as a PCCM (People Capability Maturity Model) Level 5 company, a certification awarded by Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. For managing diverse portfolios at Mphasis, Usha was awarded the CEO Award of Exceptional Leadership in 2015 by the then CEO of Mphasis.
An opportunity to build a university of repute from ground-up in Myanmar at Myanmar Institute of Information Technology (MIIT) came her way in 2016. It provided Usha with tremendous prospects – strengthening her Computer Science expertise, implementing processes and policies in an young university, extending the possibilities of newer assessments and examinations, building curriculum for academic programs, and managing information technology systems.
On returning to India in May 2022, she became part of another start-up educational institution – Chanakya University – as a professor of Computer Science. She furthered her passion for assessments and examinations by implementing newer ways in both core and institutional foundation courses.
Usha strongly believes that she has seen more than two sides of a coin. In each of her organizations, she has worn multiple hats at the same time, each distinct from the other. She is passionate about assessment methods in the university system, especially those that are strongly aligned to outcome-based education. The significant contribution in the university system has been an assessment framework that she employed in all the courses, irrespective of the type of courses.
Usha holds two Masters’ degrees from BITS Pilani in Computer Applications and in Software Systems and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Osmania University. She is a gold medallist in the Master’s degree in Software Systems. She holds the distinction of securing only A grades in all the courses of both the Master’s degrees.
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