Postdoctoral Researcher
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

✉️ vikrammohanty@acm.org

I build and study tools that leverage the complementary strengths of artificial intelligence and collective human intelligence for solving complex, real-world problems.

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, where I work with Dr. Aniket Kittur and Dr. Nik Martelaro.

My research broadly focuses on 1) leveraging the strengths of imperfect AI algorithms through the design of intelligent user interfaces, 2) addressing AI last-mile challenges with the help of crowdsourced human expertise, 3) supporting users with tools to validate incorrect data resulting from algorithms and crowds, and 4) understanding the role of underlying algorithmic interventions on user behaviors. Currently, I am investigating how human-AI collaborative workflows can enhance the creative processes of engineers and designers at scale, enabling innovative solutions and cross-domain inspirations.

I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, where I was advised by Dr. Kurt Luther at the Crowd Intelligence Lab. As part of my research, I developed Civil War Photo Sleuth (CWPS), a free, public website, for helping users identify unknown portraits from the American Civil War era, using AI and crowdsourcing. The platform currently serves an online community of over 20,000 users, who have uploaded over 30,000 photos to the website. CWPS has been covered in Time, Smithsonian, Popular Mechanics, Slate, and the History Channel. It has since evolved into a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, The Photo Sleuth Foundation.

My work has received the Microsoft Cloud AI Research Challenge Grand Prize (2018), the ACM CHI Honorable Mention (2023) award, the ACM IUI Best Paper (2019) award, and the AAAI HCOMP Best Poster/Demo (2018 and 2023) award.

Previously, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Bosch Research. I have also worked as a research intern at Toyota Research Institute, VSCO and Dataminr. I completed my undergraduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Outside work, I spend my time learning Japanese 🇯🇵 (こんにちわ), piano 🎹, and chess ♟️ (1. e4). I also enjoy hiking, exploring museums, and watching movies and shows from around the world.

Please feel free to reach out if you want to talk about life, the universe, and everything else….