Ph.D. Candidate
Center for Human-Computer Interaction
Department of Computer Science
Virginia Tech

✉️ vikrammohanty@vt.edu

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 final year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. I work at the Crowd Intelligence Lab, where I am advised by Dr. Kurt Luther.

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.

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.

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) award.

Previously, I have 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….