Portrait of Aishwarya Deep Shukla

Aishwarya Deep Shukla

Assistant Professor, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University

Exploring the impact of technology, data, and AI on decision-making in digital environments, and putting those ideas into practice as co-founder of Ednius, an AI-assisted grading platform.

adshukla [at] sfu.ca

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor specializing in Information Systems at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University. My training spans technical foundations (Computer Science and Engineering), management (MBA), and a PhD in Information Systems. That mix shapes how I work across disciplines.

My work looks at how digital platform design, the flow of online information (particularly user-generated content), and the integration of AI shape human behavior and decision processes. I aim for empirical research that both advances theory and gives practical guidance to platform designers, businesses, and policymakers working in the digital economy.

Beyond my academic role, I am also the co-founder of Ednius, where I translate these same research methods (field experiments, applied machine learning, and human-in-the-loop design) into a working AI-assisted grading platform used by universities and certification bodies in North America and Asia.

Before my academic career, I worked in the technology sector, with roles at Tata Motors and Practo. That exposure to how IT actually gets planned, built, and adopted inside organizations still shapes how I think about the practical side of my research.

Education

  • PhD in Information Systems | Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, MD
    Aug 2013 - May 2019
  • MBA | Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai
    Jun 2010 - Apr 2012
  • Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering | Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bangalore
    Aug 2006 - Jun 2010

Experience

Academic Positions

  • Assistant Professor | Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
    Jun 2019 - Present (On parental leave from Dec 2019 - Dec 2020)
  • Lecturer | Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
    Jul 2018 - May 2019

Industry & Venture

  • Co-Founder | Ednius
    Jun 2024 - Present
    AI-assisted grading platform serving universities and certification bodies. 60,000+ submissions graded, ~70% instructor time saved.
  • Research Associate | Practo Inc., Bangalore, India
    Jan 2016 - Jul 2016
    Contributed to research and data analysis projects on user engagement and platform optimization at Practo, a healthcare technology company based in India.
  • Manager (Enterprise Architecture) | Tata Motors Limited, Mumbai, India
    May 2012 - Jun 2013
    Managed projects related to strategic IT infrastructure planning and enterprise systems design for a major manufacturing organization.

Invited Talks

Research from my work on digital word-of-mouth and consumer decision-making in healthcare platforms has been presented as invited research seminars at the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, and the University of Manitoba. The underlying study was subsequently published in Management Science; read it here.

Current venture

Ednius: research methods, in production

Students wait weeks for feedback that is often too generic to act on, and educators spend 10–22 hours a week grading per course. Ednius is an AI-assisted grading platform for universities and certification bodies that closes that gap, generating personalized, rubric-aligned feedback on open-ended student work while the instructor retains final approval on every grade.

Submissions graded
60,000+
Accuracy
97%
Instructor time saved
~70%
Student satisfaction
95%

Four principles anchor the product: educators retain final decision-making authority, student privacy is protected (no PII stored or used for training), feedback is prioritized over grades, and evaluation standards stay consistent across assignments and graders.

Ednius is built the way I run a study: every feature ships behind an A/B test, and design decisions are driven by field-experiment evidence rather than intuition. The platform handles essays, equations, code, diagrams, and handwritten work; integrates with Canvas out of the box (Blackboard and Moodle available on request); and is aligned with FERPA, GDPR, and SOC 2 standards.

Read the full story & research collaboration call → Visit ednius.com →