- Research Assistant
Neil Gaikwad is a doctoral scholar at the MIT Media Lab, specializing in human-centered machine learning and public policy for sustainable development. He develops data-driven human-AI interaction algorithms and social computing systems for sustainable development, with a focus on increasing fairness and transparency in public policy decisions, analyzing large-scale datasets emerging from Earth remote sensing satellites and socio-economic processes. He earned a master's degree from the School of Computer Science atCarnegie Mellon University, where he worked at the Robotics Institute. At MIT, he works with Professor Danielle Wood.
Neil's current research focuses on enhancing fairness and transparency in policy decision making in global food and humanitarian systems. He is developing Global Farm Pulse, a human-centered machine learning system, to better understand the adverse impact of underlying physical processes and socio-economic policies on global food security under climate extremes. Drawing upon this understanding, he is designing equitable market mechanisms and policies to support vulnera… View full description
Neil Gaikwad is a doctoral scholar at the MIT Media Lab, specializing in human-centered machine learning and public policy for sustainable development. He develops data-driven human-AI interaction algorithms and social computing systems for sustainable development, with a focus on increasing fairness and transparency in public policy decisions, analyzing large-scale datasets emerging from Earth remote sensing satellites and socio-economic processes. He earned a master's degree from the School of Computer Science atCarnegie Mellon University, where he worked at the Robotics Institute. At MIT, he works with Professor Danielle Wood.
Neil's current research focuses on enhancing fairness and transparency in policy decision making in global food and humanitarian systems. He is developing Global Farm Pulse, a human-centered machine learning system, to better understand the adverse impact of underlying physical processes and socio-economic policies on global food security under climate extremes. Drawing upon this understanding, he is designing equitable market mechanisms and policies to support vulnerable farmers and decision-makers to mitigate the consequence of meteorological disasters and socio-economic breakdowns. This research is supported by the MIT Quest for Intelligence, an institute-wide initiative on Artificial Intelligence.
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.
Web Neil S. Gaikwad
Twitter neilsgaikwad
Arts: Explore the Planet Earth