Pranav Khadpe

I am a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where I work with Chinmay Kulkarni and Geoff Kaufman.

I am a human-computer interaction researcher. I work on problems in social computing and human-centered AI by drawing on ideas from social perception and cognition. Specifically, I focus on: (1) creatively applying computing to address societal problems that can be traced back to social cognition processes (e.g. when the public infers that extreme opinions online are more popular than they actually are, or when students do not speak up in class because they incorrectly infer they are alone in their confusion) and (2) modeling social cognition constructs to make progress on problems in computing (e.g. building socially intelligent AI systems, and systematizing how people interact with AI systems). My work is driven by my curiosity about social cognition processes (e.g. how we infer other people’s mental states, explain people’s behaviors, form impressions, and infer norms) and how these processes interact with computing contexts. I tackle problems using a multi-faceted approach, including developing models of social cognition, building and evaluating interactive systems, and running controlled experiments. Through this work, I hope to show new possibilities for inclusive participation, reducing polarization, supporting collective action, and along the way, deepen my own (and eventually the field's) understanding of social cognition.

Previously, I have been a research intern at Microsoft Research (Human Understanding and Empathy Group and Multilingual Systems Group) and Stanford HCI. My undergraduate degree was in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur.

I'm on the academic and industry job market (2024-25 cycle)! Here is my Research Statement. Please email me if you are aware of positions that may be a great fit.

Support: My work has been supported by the NSF, Google, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, and a UROVO Presidential Fellowship.

Find me: Pittsburgh, PA pkhadpe@cs.cmu.edu @pranavkhadpe