I am a third-year undergraduate majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and minoring in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. I am the CEO and Co-founder of Satchel, a decentralized application which uplifts school communities by facilitating locally-governed projects and bootstrapping capital via DeFi-powered donations and financial primitives. I currently run Blockchain at Berkeley and see a blockchain-enabled future as one avenue towards financial and informational autonomy, agency, and self-determination for populations traditionally oppressed by centralized institutions.

I conduct research at the School of Information in Professor Niloufar Salehi's lab. My research interests are in HCI, social computing, and the design and evaluation of technologies that reclaim the agency of underserved groups, build community resilience, and fortify social movements.

Previously, I worked as a Software Engineering Intern at Facebook on the Volunteering and Community Help Team. Don't hesitate to book a chat, email, or DM me.

publication(s)

Bridging Action Frames: Instagram Infographics in U.S. Ethnic Movements
Darya Kaviani, Niloufar Salehi
ACM CSCW 2022

currently researching

  1. How Instagram infographics in ethnic movements bridge connective and collective action by juxtaposing the insights of activists of the past and present and quantitatively analyzing changes in the Black Lives Matter movement’s Instagram posts.
  2. How scale-based mutual aid technologies create tensions with traditional mutual aid values of solidarity, trust, and security.
  3. How we can leverage blockchain technology to facilitate activist fundraising to combat transaction-blocking from centralized institutions like Venmo.
  4. How we can craft a system that leverages a restorative justice model to respond to interpersonal online harms.

favorite projects

Writivist

A mobile application that streamlines contacting elected officials to with the intention of making civic involvement accessible and effortless. Includes a Template Library, a find my representatives map, and robust email automation.