Neil S. Gaikwad

Neil S. Gaikwad is an Assistant Professor at the School of Data Science and Society with a joint appointment in Computer Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. He serves on the Faculty Advisory Council of the UNC Parr Center for Ethics and is a Fellow at the MIT Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values. He holds a Ph.D. in society-centered AI from MIT and an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.

His research advances Public Interest Computing through ethically-aligned human-AI collaboration systems, addressing algorithmic fairness in sustainability domains like poverty alleviation, public health, and climate action. This work develops design principles for equitable AI and evidence-based policy mechanisms for AI governance.

Education includes:

• Ph.D. in Society-Centered AI, MIT
• M.S. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

He has mentored 30+ students who have published influential papers, secured fellowships (including Apple Ph.D. Fellowship), and shaped AI policy. Teaching experience spans Carnegie Mellon, MIT EECS, and MIT Media Lab.

Key awards:

• Karl Taylor Compton Prize (MIT's highest student honor)
• Facebook Research PhD Fellowship
• Rising Star in Data Science (UChicago/Stanford)
• MIT Graduate Teaching Award

Leads the Data-driven Humanitarian Mapping initiative and founded the MIT Graduate Student Symposium Series. Research outputs include open-source systems (Daemo, EteRNA) deployed by UN/ILO and featured in PNAS, AAAI, and ACM conferences.