Bio

I earned my PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Irvine, where I was advised by Dr. Mark Steyvers. My interests lie at the intersection of cognitive science and human-computer interaction. I obtain insight into humans’ mental models of AI by designing robust behavioral experiments and developing computational cognitive models.

I spent most of 2023 as a Human-Computer Interaction Intern at Motional, where I was advised by Dr. Krysta Chauncey. Together with an amazing team of ML researchers, UX researchers, and product managers, we work on improving customers’ experience with Motional’s RoboTaxi. I also spent the summer of 2022 interning at Honda Research Institute, where I was hosted by Dr. Kumar Akash.

I hold a Master’s degree in Statistics from UCI. Before coming to UCI, I got my B.Tech. in Engineering from IIT Madras, India. My research experience in academic and industry settings has motivated me to bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical applications. I bring a unique interdisciplinary skill-set, making me well-suited to undertake research at the intersection of social science and artificial intelligence.

Feel free to reach out to me for collaborations or any inquiries related to my research!

Updates

Mar 2024: I defended my PhD thesis titled ‘Human Mental Models of Self, Others, and AI Agents’!

Jan 2024: Our paper investigating people’s perceptions of LLM confidence is out! Check it out - The Calibration Gap between Model and Human Confidence in Large Language Models

Apr 2023: I started working as a Human-Computer Interaction Research Intern at Motional!

Jan 2023: Our paper ‘When Do Drivers Intervene In Autonomous Driving? Contrasting Drivers’ Perceived Risk Across Two Mobility Types’ was accepted for publication as a Late Breaking Report at Human-Robot Interaction 2023

Nov 2022: Presented our work on AI-assisted Decision-Making at the Noyce Symposium, UCSB

Oct 2022: Our paper ‘AI-assisted decision-making: A cognitive modeling approach to infer latent reliance strategies ‘ was published in Computational Brain & Behavior

Oct 2022: Our paper ‘Comparing models of learning and relearning in large-scale cognitive training data sets’ was published in NPJ Science of Learning

Jun 2022: Started my internship at Honda Research Insititute in San Jose as a Human Behavior Modeling Intern

Mar 2022: Our paper ‘An Empirical Investigation of Reliance on AI-Assistance in a Noisy-Image Classification Task’ was accepted for publication as a full paper at HHAI 2022

Dec 2021: Awarded a fellowship by the Irvine Initiative in AI, Law, and Society for 2022

Nov 2021: Presented our work on Metacognitive Bandits and Algorithm Aversion at Psychonomics 2021