Chandaria took a classic route to the BBC, taking up two summer trainee placements at BBC R&D while studying engineering at Cambridge and then joining in 1999 as a graduate engineer.
She's now a senior R&D engineer, and as well as studying part-time for a masters in innovation and design for sustainability at Cranfield University, she tells us about her work on green technology for the BBC.
"I started working on the 'Green Technology' project last year, looking at the environmental impact of media technology and what we can do to reduce it. As part of this I've been analysing energy use in media distribution. I've also been working with device manufacturers to consider the energy usage of set-top boxes and the potential to reduce this. I'm the only full-time person from BBC R&D on the project but am working with other colleagues from across the BBC, and I'm part of an R&D section led by Jeff Hunter alongside other colleagues developing connected home and mobile technology.
"A lot of the work I do is research and analysis to feed into other projects and strategy, along with creating some prototypes too.
"Before the green technology project, I spent most of my time at BBC R&D in the 'Production Magic' team, working on the application of image analysis, computer vision and tracking technologies to broadcasting. I worked on several collaborative research projects such as Matris (developing markerless camera tracking) and Prometheus (developing a real-time 3D content and delivery system) as well as some much shorter prototyping projects. I also spent several months on secondment to the CBBC Show Bamzooki.
"The progamme used some of our technology to measure the position and orientation of the studio cameras, so that the virtual graphics could be shown from the same viewpoint. When the real and virtual graphics were combined, they appeared to move together. The end result was that the virtual creatures in the programme, the 'zooks' which appeared on TV to actually be in the studio."
• How important is the BBC to the UK's tech industry?
The work we do at R&D provides leadership in industry in the UK and internationally. I think this is recognised by people in those communities but less so outside them.
• Do you worry about the future of the organisation?
Of course. It feels like the pressure on the BBC has never been greater, and I worry about its long-term survival as an independent public service broadcaster. On the other hand, the BBC has been around for over 80 years so I think it is clear how much it is valued by the British public. Public service was definitely a factor in me joining the BBC. In between commercial research and academia, it offered the best of both worlds.
• What one thing would make the BBC better?
A faster regulatory process would speed up the rate at which innovation could be delivered to the audience.