Associate Director, CRITO
Professor, Management & Computer Science
The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine

Phone:   (949) 824-1134
E-mail:   avenkate@uci.edu
Website:   http://merage.uci.edu/Faculty/FacultyDirectory/FacultyProfiles.aspx?FacultyID=64

Research interests:
community-based technologies (home informatics and networking; youth and new media; consumers and electronic environments); cross-cultural research

Professor Venkatesh's research focuses on the networked home and how consumers and households are adapting to new technologies of information and communication. In the 1980s he completed a major study (Project NOAH I) for the National Science Foundation (NSF) looking at how American families have adapted to the presence of computers at home. In a follow up NSF study (Project NOAH II) (1997-2000) he extended this line of research and is currently investigating the use of multi-media technologies by families. He is currently an investigator on a multi-year project (Project POINT - 2004-2008) funded by the NSF which examines IT impact on the individual in various settings, home, work-place, community and schools. He recently started a project on Youth and Technologies (Y-Tech).

Professor Venkatesh has developed theoretical and applied models of household/technology interaction based on his ongoing research. His work has implications for the design of virtual environments for consumers and households and also for new product development in the hi-tech industry. He is also studying issues of technology diffusion and adoption in cross-cultural settings--in Scandinavia and India. He has given presentations at several leading universities (UC Berkeley, MIT, University of Wisconsin, Indian Institute of Management, Cornell University, Stockholm School of Economics, Copenhagen Business School, Indian Institute of Technology etc) and also to industry audiences, Microsoft, Intel, Nokia, Ericsson, Electrolux (Sweden) and Philips (Netherlands).

Professor Venkatesh is also interested in cross-cultural research. As a Senior Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) he has conducted field work in India studying consumption patterns among Indian households. He is known for his work on Ethnoconsumerism.

Recently, in August 2007, on behalf of CRITO, he co-hosted a major international conference (HOIT 2007) on Home Informatics and Telematics at the Indian Institute of Technology, India. The conference theme was "ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) for the Next Billion."