Maryam Kamvar Garrett

Employment

Google Inc, 2004 - present
Senior Research Scientist
2nd Engineer on Google's Mobile Team and currently a Research Scientist for Google Voice (Search and General Input by Voice)

Sampling of work:
Voice Input to Android Devices
Contributor to the Voice Input Method for Android. Through the microphone button on Android keyboards, we allow users to speak into any text box (eg - emails, sms messages, web forms). This makes text-input on the go much easier.
Mobile Search Analysis
Research lead on mobile user understanding. The goal of this research is to understand how mobile search users differ from computer-based search users, and we focus heavily on the distribution and variability of tasks that users perform from each platform. Our research has been published extensively at academic conferences, used internally for product strategy, and externally for marketing purposes.
Google Suggest for Mobile Maps
Development lead for the implementation for client-side solution of Google Suggest for Mobile Maps on Windows Mobile Devices. This was the first mobile "Google Suggest" client.
Personalized Mobile Homepage
Development lead on this iGoogle feature which allowed users to drag and drop their iGoogle modules onto a representation of their mobile device. This allowed for easy customization of their mobile iGoogle page.

Recipient of 2Operating Committee Awards. One for work done on internal systems.
17 patents filed during Google Tenure
8 academic papers published during Google Tenure

Education

Columbia University, Degree Awarded June 2008
Ph.D. Computer Science
Dissertation: Using Context to Improve Query Formulation and Entry from Mobile Phones
Advised by Dr. Shumeet Baluja and Professor Steven Feiner

Princeton University, Degree Awarded June 2002
A.B. Computer Science with Certificate in French
Nominated for and inducted into Sigma XI: National Scientific Research Society
Departmental GPA: 3.7/4.0; GRE: Q-770 A-800 V-650

Publications

Invited Journal Papers
Deciphering Trends in Mobile Search
Maryam Kamvar, Shumeet Baluja
cover feature in IEEE Computer Magazine August 2007, Special Issue on Search
 PDF
Refereed Conference Papers
Say What? Why users choose to speak their web queries
Maryam Kamvar and Doug Beeferman
paper to appear in INTERSPEECH 2010, International Conference on Spoken Language Processing
 PDF
Computers and iPhones and Mobile Phones, oh my! A logs-based comparison of search users on different devices
Maryam Kamvar, Melanie Kellar, Rajan Patel, Ya Xu
paper at WWW 2009, International World Wide Web Conference
 PDF
What's Up CAPTCHA? A CAPTCHA Based on Image Orientation
Rich Gossweiler, Maryam Kamvar, Shumeet Baluja
paper at WWW 2009, International World Wide Web Conference
 PDF
Query Suggestions for Mobile Search: Understanding Usage Patters
Maryam Kamvar, Shumeet Baluja
paper at CHI 2008, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
 PDF
The Role of Context in Query Input: Using contexual signals to complete queries on mobile devices
Maryam Kamvar, Shumeet Baluja
paper at Mobile HCI 2007, Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (2007)
 PDF
A Large Scale Styde of Wireless Search Behavior: Google Mobile Search
Maryam Kamvar, Shumeet Baluja
paper at CHI 2006, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
 PDF
Book Chapters
Google Search by Voice: A case study
Johan Schalkwyk, Doug Beeferman, Francoise Beaufays, Bill Byrne, Ciprian Chelba, Mike Cohen, Maryam Kamvar and Brian Strope
in Visions of Speech: Exploring New Voice Apps in Mobile Environments, Call Centers and Clinics Springer (2010)

Patents (6 published applications, 11 pending applications)

Systems and Methods for Socially-Based Correction of Tilted Images: US. Pat. Application 20100104220 - Filed Apr 29, 2010
Overloaded Communication Session: US Pat. Application 2007013958 - Filed Jan 02, 2007
User interface for mobile devices: US Pat. 11478835 - Filed Jun 30, 2006
Customized Data Retrieval Applications For Mobile Devices Providing Interpretation of Markup Language Data: US Pat. 11229980 - Filed Sep 19, 2005
Dispatch system to remote devices: US Pat. 11186291 - Filed Jul 21, 2005
Systems and methods for browsing multimedia content on small mobile devices: US Pat. 10814520 - Filed Mar 31, 2004

 

* "OC Awards recognize projects with audacious achievements that add significant value to Google. These projects signify achievements that go above and beyond, not business-as-usual. They are strategically important and unique in the industry."