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Shomir Wilson

@shomir.bsky.social

250 followers 380 following 250 posts

Associate Professor of Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics at Penn State. AI and sociotechnical NLP, especially for privacy and fairness. Also posting about academia, photography, and travel. Opinions mine. he/him. http://shomir.net

shomir.net

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Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Nov 15

Hello, world. I often post about #academia on my social networks. Here’s some backstory. shomir.net/academic_jou...

Shomir Wilson - My Academic Journey

Nine universities across four continents, six years on the academic job market, inglorious persistence, and luck.

shomir.net

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 2d

Spare a thought for the prosocial benevolence of labeling curbside appliances as broken. I don't know you and you don't know me, but if you lug this dehumidifier home it will only cause you misery. I wrote "DOES NOT WORK" on a piece of masking tape to protect you from false treasure.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 7d

Thanks to Lycoming College's Lycoming Scholars program for hosting me for a talk today. I enjoyed talking with students and faculty about my lab's research into the social biases of large language models.

I walked around Williamsport afterward and added a fridge magnet to my travel collection.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 13d

I recently wrote a single-author paper that was accepted to SIGCSE, ACM's flagship conference on computer science education. I wanted to deconstruct the guidance of student researchers, for the benefit of faculty and also students. Here's a preprint.

arxiv.org/abs/2510.08885

Rethinking How We Discuss the Guidance of Student Researchers in Computing

Computing faculty at research universities are often expected to guide the work of undergraduate and graduate student researchers. This guidance is typically called advising or mentoring, but these te...

arxiv.org

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 13d

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I liked UDF ice cream more than Graeter’s.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 14d

Four pictures I took during a recent visit to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a former psychiatric hospital now run as a museum.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 19d

The one time I received a phone rejection, for a postdoc position, the hiring faculty member excitedly told me the reason: they received an application from someone with a PhD from [specific highly prestigious university]. I was speechless, and they doubled down on their enthusiasm. It was awkward.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 19d

Similar to @askamanager.org 's recommendation, most rejections in academia are by email. If you receive a rejection at all: I never received a reply for ~60% of the positions I applied for.

Ask a Manager @askamanager.org · 19d

should you reject candidates by phone or email?

A reader writes: Should you always call to let a candidate know that they won’t be getting a job offer? Here’s the context: I’ve gotten calls and emails letting me know when I wasn’t accepted for a position. And my colleagues and I all agree that we hate getting phone calls. It’s awkward! If you […] The post should you reject candidates by phone or email? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

www.askamanager.org

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Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 21d

This Friday (October 17) at West Virginia University I'll give a talk "Natural Language Processing for Privacy Empowerment and Fairness", about my lab's research. It'll be 4pm - 5pm at ESB 501.

Spring 2025 Seminars

community.wvu.edu

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 24d

Map I hadn't generated before because it took a lot of effort: where I've lived (houses in green), where I've performed professional activities (suitcases in blue), and my flights. I'll use this in a series of talks I'm giving for the honors college about going abroad for research and conferences.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 29d

I occasionally write fan mail to people whose work I like, and that's an example of why. I want to make other people feel the way I do when I receive messages like that one.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 29d

"I genuinely wanted to say something about your website. First of all, solid 10/10 photography... Your website gave non-robotic, authentic vibes, and it made me feel natural while exploring it. I loved your energy, and it seems like it would be 'an experience' to be able to work beside you."

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · 29d

I recently received an email from a student at a different university about my advice pages. I asked for and got permission to share the excerpt below on social media.
shomir.net/advice

Shomir Wilson - Advice

I created these guides to help people understand often-unwritten customs and procedures in academia.

shomir.net

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Oct 3

20 years ago this month I bought a pack of red pens. I was a teaching assistant, and I thought I would need them to grade students' work. However, faculty provided the pens when I needed them, and I still have the ones I purchased. I used one this evening to edit a paper I've written.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Oct 2

The technical report from our Dagstuhl seminar "Grand Challenges for Research on Privacy Documents" has been published. Thanks to all the seminar attendees, from 29 universities or private companies spread across 10 countries, for gathering in Germany to collaborate on this. doi.org/10.4230/DagR...

Grand Challenges for Research on Privacy Documents (Dagstuhl Seminar 25021)

doi.org

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Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Sep 26

I mention this incident sometimes in my courses. I use it an example of the importance of human judgement in sociotechnical systems.

Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · Sep 26

Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves the World Day, everybody.

42 years ago today, Lt. Col. Petrov prevented an accidental nuclear war.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisl...

Stanislav Petrov - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Sep 25

This follows an op-ed I published in the Pennsylvania Capital Star, about about how federal research funding supports students. penncapital-star.com/commentary/s...

Students are unsung heroes of university research, and federal research funding cuts hurt them most • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Sharp reductions in funding to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are in the news, and much more depends on their funding than the creation of knowledge. We risk not...

penncapital-star.com

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Sep 25

With support from my university's Office of Strategic Communications, I wrote an op-ed about the importance of international students to research at US universities. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published it today. www.post-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

Shomir Wilson: American strength in AI depends on international students

Gasps and murmurs are unusual at the opening session of an academic conference, but I heard many this summer in Vienna, Austria, at the annual meeting...

www.post-gazette.com

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Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Sep 23

i'll decline this writing suggestion from Gmail.

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Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Sep 19

Sunset over the New Carrollton Metro station, from a recent trip to DC.

Shomir Wilson @shomir.bsky.social · Sep 3

I just saw a Facebook ad for an herbal supplement that was claimed to help with concentration, focus, motivation, and productivity.

Dear reader, its name was Thesis.