Longs Peak from Lily Mountain, Estes Park, CO

Welcome! I'm Nikhil, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Colorado State University.

I direct the SIGNAL (Situated Grounding and Natural Language) Lab at CSU, where we study the understanding of linguistic and situational context using computational, formal, and simulation methods. My research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, and the Army Research Office. I or my research has been featured in outlets such as NPR and the Wall Street Journal.

Research

My major research projects are listed below. Broadly, I use simulation and multimodal methods to research human language understanding, communication, and cognition in a computational context, and have applied these methods to questions in HCI/HRI, linguistics, spatial reasoning, and data exploration, among others.

Current Funded Projects

Friction for Accountability in Conversational Transactions

Friction for Accountability in Conversational Transactions

Institute for Student-AI Teaming

Institute for Student-AI Teaming

Selected Past Funded Projects

Embodied Computational Metacognition

Embodied Computational Metacognition

BabyBAW

BabyBAW

Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives

Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives

Communicating With Computers

Communicating With Computers

About Me

Autumn trees in Concord, MA

I got my Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 2017, followed by a three-year postdoc leading lab research on the DARPA-funded Communicating With Computers program. I also have an M.A. in Computational Linguistics from Brandeis (2013) and a B.S. in Computer Games Development from DePaul University (2010). I've worked in various aspects of AI, linguistics, defense, gaming, and education for a number of years.

As an academic, my research revolves around using computational models of intelligence to tell us more about human intelligence, and how our methods of perceiving and interacting with the world determine how we communicate about it.

I've lived in Maryland, New Mexico, Chicago, Ohio, and most recently, Boston, MA, where I began my academic career. I currently live in Fort Collins, CO, with my wife, Heather, and our kids, Ananya and Rohan. When not practicing computational shamanism, I run long distances, play heavy metal guitar, and enjoy pretending to be an author and a chef. Here are my two cats.

If you are interested in collaborating, drop me a line below!

Contact

Before you send your message, please read the Frequently Asked Questions. If that page doesn't answer your question, please use the form below. I regret that I may not be able to respond to every properly conducted query, but I will try. If you are an aspiring student or researcher, please do not cold e-mail my @colostate.edu address! I will not respond to messages like this! Use the contact form instead. If you want a response, please read this page first. If you don't follow the instructions, your email will be deleted without review.

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