Our lab culture is built on collaboration, curiosity, and commitment to rigorous, equitable science.
Last updated: July 2026
1. Lab Vision and Research Goals
The Functional Vision Lab exists to understand how the visual mechanisms underlying learning and cognition develop in early childhood, and to turn that understanding into screening and intervention tools that work for the full diversity of children — across languages, scripts, and socioeconomic contexts. India gives us a rare scientific opportunity: a vast, multilingual population with enormous variation in educational environments. We take that opportunity seriously, and we take the responsibility that comes with it — to children, to schools, and to each other — just as seriously.
Beyond the science, my goal is to train the next generation of rigorous, ethical, and independent researchers. Whatever your role in the lab — Master's student, RA, volunteer, PhD student, or postdoc — you are here to learn, contribute, and grow, and I am here to support that.
A few things I care about deeply, and hope you will too:
- Open, reproducible science. Code and data are shared within the lab. We aim to publish code and data alongside manuscripts and to preprint our work where possible.
- Rigor over speed. We are working with children and with a system (Indian schools, families, and communities) that has trusted us with access. That trust is earned through careful, honest science — not by cutting corners to hit a deadline.
- Genuine collaboration. Different people bring different skills — psychophysics, coding, fieldwork, working with schools and families. We win by teaching each other, not by hoarding expertise.
- Open disagreement. You will not always agree with me or with each other, and that's fine — I want to hear it. Good science depends on people feeling safe enough to push back.
— Maha
2. Code of Conduct
To do good science together, we need clear expectations for how we treat each other. These are non-negotiable.
Essential policies
The lab does not tolerate harassment, discrimination, or misconduct of any kind — this includes conduct related to race, caste, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, region, or language. This applies to every member of the lab regardless of role, seniority, or how long they've been here.
- Discrimination and casteism. India's academic spaces carry their own history of caste-, region-, and language-based exclusion alongside more familiar forms of discrimination. We take all of these seriously. Slurs, jokes, exclusionary behaviour, or differential treatment on any of these grounds will not be tolerated.
- Sexual harassment. IIT Gandhinagar has a statutory Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, covering all faculty, staff, and students regardless of the duration of their association with the Institute. Complaints can be raised confidentially by email or phone to any ICC member. Details: iitgn.ac.in/icc.
- Ragging and bullying. IIT Gandhinagar's Honour Code explicitly prohibits ragging, bullying, and physical, verbal, or emotional abuse, including online harassment. This applies fully within the lab, including to interactions between senior and junior lab members. See iitgn.ac.in/students/honourcode.
- Scientific misconduct. Fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, reviewing, or reporting research will not be tolerated, nor will research practices that risk the wellbeing of our participants — especially given that many of our participants are children. Honest error and honest disagreement in interpretation are not misconduct, and will never be treated as such.
Ground rules
- Be mindful of hierarchy. Indian academic culture often carries strong deference to seniority. I want the lab to be an exception — your ideas, questions, and pushback are valued regardless of your position, and no one should feel they can't speak up because of rank.
- Communicate directly and kindly. Say what you feel, using "I" statements, and listen to understand rather than to respond. Disagreements are normal; look for resolution, not "winning."
- Own your mistakes. Everyone makes them. Acknowledge, apologise sincerely if needed, and move forward without spiralling into self-criticism or public shaming of others.
- Practice forgiveness, with agency. We want a culture where accountability is met with a path forward — while respecting that only the affected person gets to decide when they're ready to move on.
3. Lab Culture
Confidentiality
Personal matters shared with the lab or with me — physical or mental health, financial difficulty, family situations, academic struggles — are confidential unless you explicitly say otherwise. Don't share someone else's sensitive information without their consent, and be mindful of power dynamics when you do ask for that consent.
One exception: some situations involving the safety of minors (see Section 4) create reporting obligations under Indian law that override confidentiality. If this ever applies, I will tell you directly rather than act on it silently.
Shared spaces
Lab members typically share office/lab space in the Cognitive and Brain Sciences area. A few basics that make shared space work:
- Check before scheduling a meeting or bringing a guest into shared space.
- Use headphones for music; step out for long calls.
- Try to solve a problem on your own for a bit before interrupting someone, but always feel free to ask — we're here to help each other.
- Respect others' need for quiet, cleanliness, and focus time.
- If you're unwell, work from home if you can — the lab's work is largely compatible with remote work, except for in-person testing sessions.
Language and communication norms
We work across Hindi, English, Gujarati, and often other Indian languages, especially when running studies in schools. Use whatever language helps a conversation go well — English for lab meetings and written records by default, but don't let language be a barrier to being understood or understanding others. If you're more comfortable raising something in Hindi or Gujarati, do that.
4. Working With Children and Schools
This section doesn't have a parallel in most lab-expectations documents, but it's central to how we work. Much of our research involves children, in schools and in the lab, and this comes with specific responsibilities.
- Consent and assent. No child participates without documented parental/guardian consent and age-appropriate child assent, following our IRB/Institutional Ethics Committee-approved protocols. If you are ever unsure whether a procedure is covered by our approved protocol, stop and ask before proceeding — don't improvise with child participants.
- Child protection. All lab members working directly with children must be briefed on our child-safety protocols before their first session, in line with the spirit of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. This includes never being alone with a child outside of an approved, visible setting, and immediately flagging any concern about a child's welfare to me.
- Data privacy. Data from children (video, eye-tracking, behavioural, or otherwise) is de-identified as early in the pipeline as possible and handled with extra care in storage, sharing, and publication. When in doubt about whether something could identify a child or family, ask before you share it — including in lab meetings or conference talks.
- School and community relationships. We are guests in the schools and communities we work with. Be professional, punctual, and respectful of school staff and routines. Any promises made to schools or families (about results, timelines, or compensation) should be cleared with me first.
- Field safety. Fieldwork sometimes means travel, unfamiliar locations, and working outside standard hours. We plan field visits with everyone's safety in mind, especially for members travelling alone or returning late — flag any safety concerns about a site or schedule and we will adjust.
5. Practicalities: Hours, Leave, Funding, Communication
These are meant as sensible starting defaults. Numbers and specifics will be confirmed and updated as the lab grows — ask me if anything below seems off or unclear.
- Work hours. Academic hours are flexible, but we expect meaningful overlap with core hours (roughly 10am–6pm) so we can collaborate in person. No expectation of weekend or holiday work unless there's a genuine deadline or a time-sensitive testing/data-collection window — and even then, this will be discussed in advance, not assumed.
- Leave and vacation. Discuss planned leave with me in advance (about 2 weeks' notice where possible), especially around data collection windows. Indian festival holidays (Diwali, Holi, and others per the Institute academic calendar) and the semester breaks are respected as lab-wide low-activity periods. PhD scholars and RAs should also confirm specific leave entitlements with the Dean of Academic Affairs / HR, as these are set by Institute and funding-agency rules and are periodically revised.
- Health and family leave. You're entitled to medical leave, and the reason is yours to keep private if you wish. Please don't come into the lab while contagious — work from home instead. For parental leave, funding varies by position (PhD fellowship, RA project funding, postdoc fellowship), so talk to me early and we'll work out what's possible on a case-by-case basis.
- Funding transparency. PhD stipends and RA/postdoc salaries at IITs are set by MHRD/DST/UGC and project-funding-agency norms, and are revised periodically — current PhD fellowship rates and RA pay bands vary by qualification and funding source. I will be upfront with you about your funding source, its duration, and any conditions attached to it, and will flag well in advance if a funding gap is likely.
- Communication. WhatsApp and email are our main channels — WhatsApp for quick, day-to-day coordination, email for anything formal or that needs a record. [Add Slack/other tools here if the lab adopts them.] I am most reliably reached by email.
- Coding and open science. Everyone working in the lab for more than a semester is expected to build basic coding fluency (Python/MATLAB/R, as relevant to your project) and to keep code and data organised for eventual publication.
- Onboarding. New members should get IRB/ethics training, child-safety briefing (if working with child participants), and lab systems access (shared drives, code repositories) before starting independent work. Ask your peer mentor or me if anything is missing.
6. Role-Related Responsibilities
a. Principal Investigator
My commitment to you:
- Timely, substantive feedback on your project ideas, analyses, code, manuscripts, and talks.
- Regular meetings, and availability by email/WhatsApp between them.
- Honest perspective on where your project, the lab, and the field are heading.
- Active support for your next step — introductions, letters of recommendation, conference opportunities as funding allows.
- Your wellbeing comes first, ahead of any deadline.
- If you need a recommendation letter, tell me as early as possible (a month's notice is a good rule of thumb) — I can only write a meaningful, personal letter if I've worked with you substantially and had time to prepare it properly.
b. Everyone
- Teamwork. Ask for help when you need it; give it when you can. It's fine to say you don't have the bandwidth right now.
- Lab meetings. Present your work at least once or twice a year — early ideas are welcome, not just finished results. Give feedback constructively; assume good faith.
- Reading and discussion. Stay current with the literature relevant to your project and share interesting papers with the group.
- Onboarding others. Help new members (especially volunteers and junior RAs) get oriented — you were new once too.
c. Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Associates
You're expected to work with significant independence — designing studies, leading analyses, and increasingly, co-mentoring students. I'll loop you into grant writing, collaborations, and career-planning conversations as your interests develop. In turn, I'll look to you as a source of technical and mentorship leadership in the lab.
d. PhD Students
You are training to become an independent researcher with your own line of work. Expect deep involvement in study design, analysis, and writing on your primary project, along with contributions to shared lab infrastructure (protocols, pipelines, field logistics). Committee meetings, conference presentations, and eventually a job search are natural checkpoints for feedback — bring them to me early.
e. Master's Students
Your thesis or project work should give you a genuine, hands-on experience of the full research cycle — from question to data to write-up — scoped to fit your timeline. We'll agree on a clear, well-defined project early on, with milestones that work backward from your submission deadline. Ask early if the scope needs adjusting; it's much easier to resize a project in month two than month ten.
f. Research Assistants (RAs)
Whether you're full-time project staff or working alongside coursework, your role centres on specific, well-defined responsibilities — data collection, coding, participant coordination, or analysis pipelines — agreed on when you join. You'll get direct supervision and training on any protocol before you run it independently. Long-term, engaged RAs (particularly on longitudinal projects) are recognised for their contribution through co-authorship where warranted (see Section 8) or acknowledgement.
g. Volunteers and Short-Term Interns (including summer interns)
Welcome — and thank you for contributing your time. Expect a scoped, supervised task or mini-project appropriate to the time you have (weeks to a summer), clear guidance from me or an assigned mentor, and honest feedback on your work. Because your involvement is often brief, authorship is uncommon but not ruled out for exceptional, sustained contributions (see Section 8); acknowledgement in publications and a reference/LOR for future applications are the norm. If you're a minor volunteer or intern (e.g., a school student), additional supervision and parental consent apply.
7. Mentorship
Mentorship goes both ways. Mentors owe their mentees clear expectations, regular check-ins, and honest, constructive feedback. Mentees owe their mentors clarity about what they need and realistic effort on agreed tasks.
Taking on a mentee (often an RA, Master's student, or intern) is optional, and it's a real commitment — regular check-ins and the bandwidth to actually guide someone through their project. If your bandwidth changes mid-project, tell your mentee and me as early as possible so we can find a path forward, rather than letting someone drift unsupported.
For prospective volunteers, interns, or RAs reaching out to join the lab: I read every inquiry, and where I don't have capacity myself, I'll try to connect you with someone in the lab who does.
8. Authorship
Authorship should reflect real scientific contribution, and we'd rather be transparent about our norms up front than let expectations stay implicit and cause conflict later.
- Basis for authorship. The core question we ask: would this project be where it is without this person's contribution? This can be intellectual, methodological, or technical (e.g., building a critical piece of the analysis pipeline) — not just time spent. Drawing on ROIs or running a handful of sessions over a few weeks typically isn't sufficient on its own; sustained, substantive engagement (usually more than a single summer) usually is.
- When it's discussed. Authorship and author order are not fixed at the start of a project — they're revisited as the team and contributions evolve, and explicitly discussed before a manuscript or preprint is submitted.
- Order. Following standard practice in our field, first author = led the project and did the majority of the work; senior/last author = typically the PI; middle authors ordered by extent of contribution. For long-term projects reused across multiple papers, we credit major data-collection contributors via authorship on at least the first paper using that data, and via citation on subsequent ones unless their involvement continues.
- Documentation. For any project with more than one contributor, the project lead should keep a simple running note of who did what — this makes authorship conversations easier and less fraught later, and protects everyone, including RAs and short-term contributors, from being overlooked.
- Conflicts. If you're unsure about your authorship status or have concerns, raise it with me directly and early — waiting until submission makes it harder to resolve fairly.
9. Where to Go When Issues Arise
Your experience in this lab matters, and problems — interpersonal, academic, or otherwise — should have somewhere to go.
Lab level.
Start with me if you can. If the issue involves me, or you'd rather not raise it with me directly, talk to a senior lab member.
Institute level.
Wellbeing.
Please look after yourself, and reach out for support early rather than waiting until things feel unmanageable. IIT Gandhinagar's counselling and wellness services are available to all students and staff — ask me or Student Affairs for current contact details if you need them.
This document is a living one and will be revised as the lab grows. If something here doesn't match your experience, or you think it should say something it doesn't, tell me — that's exactly the kind of feedback that makes it better.
