- Research Assistant
Web Neil S. Gaikwad
Twitter neilsgaikwad
Arts: Explore the Planet Earth
RESEARCH
Neil Gaikwad is a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in human-centered machine learning and social computing for sustainability. He develops human-machine collaboration algorithms, social computing systems, and mechanisms to study, model, and (re-) design socio-technical systems to balance economic, social, and environmental needs for sustainable development, analyzing large-scale datasets emerging from social processes, Earth remote sensing satellites, and socio-economic interactions. He earned a master's degree from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked at the Robotics Institute.
Neil's current research focuses on the economic and social sustainability of markets under weak institutional enforcements and global food systems. He is developing human-centered machine learning for decoding the impact of social and the Earth’s physical processes on global food security and supply c… View full description
Web Neil S. Gaikwad
Twitter neilsgaikwad
Arts: Explore the Planet Earth
RESEARCH
Neil Gaikwad is a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in human-centered machine learning and social computing for sustainability. He develops human-machine collaboration algorithms, social computing systems, and mechanisms to study, model, and (re-) design socio-technical systems to balance economic, social, and environmental needs for sustainable development, analyzing large-scale datasets emerging from social processes, Earth remote sensing satellites, and socio-economic interactions. He earned a master's degree from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked at the Robotics Institute.
Neil's current research focuses on the economic and social sustainability of markets under weak institutional enforcements and global food systems. He is developing human-centered machine learning for decoding the impact of social and the Earth’s physical processes on global food security and supply chain. Drawing upon this understanding, he is designing precision agriculture markets to enhance food security by helping marginalized farmers mitigate the impact of meteorological disasters and market breakdowns. This research is part of the MIT Quest for Intelligence, an institute-wide initiative that aims to unlock the nature of intelligence and harness it to make a better world.
Neil's research has been published in premier artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction conferences (AAAI, ACM UIST, ACM CSCW, ACM CHI) and a scientific journal (PNAS), and featured in the New York Times, Bloomberg, WIRED, and the Wall Street Journal. His honors include the Facebook Fellowship Award, an MIT Arts Scholar, an IJCAI Distinguished Program Committee Member, the ACM UIST Honorable Mention, the MIT Graduate Teaching Award, presented annually to one MIT professor or teaching assistant from each school, for excellence in teaching a graduate level course, and the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, the highest student award presented by MIT in recognition of excellent achievements in citizenship and devotion to the welfare of MIT.
ARTS
Neil is a practicing photographer and an MIT arts scholar. His artwork inspires his scientific endeavors. His exhibition Beyond the Boundaries captures the complexities of our planet, including 3,000 years old glacier landscapes, the Western Ghats (Sahyadri) of India, cultures, and pressing societal challenges such as climate change. Neil's photography work has been published in National Geographic. For more information, please visit `Explore the Planet Earth’ on Facebook and Instagram.