Explore publications.

Efficiency in farming productivity and optimum utilization of resources in the agriculture sector in developing countries is a challenge that can be addressed with technological advancement. There is also a strong need to work on the farming community’s engagement to make better farming decisions. This study aims to create an expert knowledge-based system (KBS) in a mobile application to help Indian farmers improve their agricultural practices and increase crop productivity. A prototype mobile application, ‘Farm-n-Pedia,’ is designed and used to fulfill the farmers’ informational and engagement needs. It provides a tool for agriculture management using a single platform. The expert KBS incorporates a crowdsourcing system as part of the knowledge base and interface design. The mobile application enables the users to access the worldwide information they want, get personalized expert guidance, interact with the local agrarian community, know about the latest farming techniques and technology, crowdsource data collection and increase agricultural productivity.

Virtual healthcare information technologies (HIT) are being adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic. We propose that even after Covid-19, virtual HIT can still have great potentials to address the challenges brought by the aging population on healthcare systems. The key questions are (1) what kinds of virtual HIT will be useful for seniors and (2) how these HIT will affect senior citizens’ health-related quality of life (HRQL)? Centered on the concept of HRQL and grounded on task-technology fit (TTF) theory, this paper builds a framework of useful virtual HIT in the context of long-term care for seniors. The framework proposes senior citizens’ human characteristics (i.e. restricted mobility, deteriorated working memory and attention, and social isolation) will influence their health-related tasks (task adaptability, autonomy, and interdependence). A set of virtual healthcare systems can be designed to fit seniors’ tasks. These HIT will increase seniors’ HRQL through increased task-technology fit (i.e. quality of healthcare, timeliness of healthcare, and relationships with seniors). This framework can serve as a base for researchers and practitioners in their endeavor to design more suitable HIT for seniors.