Farkhandah Komal

Growing up in a developing country, Farkhandah has been determined to make the most of her abilities and forge a successful career. She uses the experiences in her current focus, researching human-computer interaction. After completing her BSc in information technology at the University of Sargodha (Pakistan), Farkhandah worked in industry for two years, gaining experience of PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Keen to pursue her interest in human-computer interaction further, Farkhandah studied an MSc in computer science at the University of Lahore (Pakistan). She also took an advanced level course in human-computer interaction, assessing adaptive user interfaces. She has since submitted a research article to a well-reputed international journal, which is currently under review.

Farkhandah then had a desire to gain a PhD, which led her to applying to Birmingham City University, where her interests aligned with research supervisor Chris Creed. These interests involved researching to work for disabled people in order to improve accessibility of web interfaces for them. Farkhandah was inspired to go down this route after continually reading about accidents and types of motor disabilities which leave users unable to use computers with their hands. Therefore, her research looks into providing these users with gaze-based interfaces, helping people with disabilities to use computers to their full ability.