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Nikhil Garg

@nkgarg.bsky.social

2.5K followers 970 following 270 posts

I study algorithms/learning/data applied to democracy/markets/society. Asst. professor at Cornell Tech. https://gargnikhil.com/. Helping building personalized Bluesky research feed: https://bsky.app/profile/paper-feed.bsky.social/feed/preprintdigest

gargnikhil.com

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Mar 10

*Please repost* @sjgreenwood.bsky.social and I just launched a new personalized feed (*please pin*) that we hope will become a "must use" for #academicsky. The feed shows posts about papers filtered by *your* follower network. It's become my default Bluesky experience bsky.app/profile/pape...

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Reposted by Nikhil Garg

Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · 3d

An unexpected challenge at the start of Naomi Saphra’s career shaped her research as a computer scientist. www.quantamagazine.org/to-understan...

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Reposted by Nikhil Garg

Aaron Roth @aaroth.bsky.social · 4d

To contribute to common knowledge :-) I too have been integrating AI tools closely into my research. This paper arxiv.org/abs/2507.09683 with @mkearnsphilly.bsky.social
and Emily was my first experiment with this, and it was just accepted to SODA. I'll describe the process in thread.

Networked Information Aggregation via Machine Learning

We study a distributed learning problem in which learning agents are embedded in a directed acyclic graph (DAG). There is a fixed and arbitrary distribution over feature/label pairs, and each agent or...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Nikhil Garg

chenhaotan.bsky.social @chenhaotan.bsky.social · 13d

🚀 We’re thrilled to announce the upcoming AI & Scientific Discovery online seminar! We have an amazing lineup of speakers.

This series will dive into how AI is accelerating research, enabling breakthroughs, and shaping the future of research across disciplines.

ai-scientific-discovery.github.io

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Reposted by Nikhil Garg

Chara Podimata @charapod.bsky.social · 13d

We have a new paper out today, and I’m so proud of it and the work that went into creating it! Link here: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.184....

The 2024 US presidential election was the first major election in the US since the popularization of LLMs. (1/6)

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · 22d

Great to see systems allowing more user control!

Manoel Horta Ribeiro @manoelhortaribeiro.bsky.social · 22d

Social media feeds today are optimized for engagement, often leading to misalignment between users' intentions and technology use.

In a new paper, we introduce Bonsai, a tool to create feeds based on stated preferences, rather than predicted engagement.

arxiv.org/abs/2509.10776

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Reposted by Nikhil Garg

Johan Ugander @jugander.bsky.social · 26d

📣 Yale workshop, Oct 16-17! 📣 How could/should content ranking work? What's new in content moderation? How can platforms promote civility? Hosted by Yale's Institute for Foundations of Data Science (FDS). Great speakers! Submit posters by 9/22! Spread the word! yalefds.swoogo.com/socialalgori...

New Directions in Social Algorithms Research on October 16-17, 2025 at Yale University

As social media algorithms increasingly mediate social experiences, there has been a rapid increase in research on the effects of how these algorithms are configured, alternatives to engagement-centri...

yalefds.swoogo.com

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · 26d

Thank you!

Reposted by Nikhil Garg

Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 28d

New paper alert!

The @capolicylab.bsky.social and @thepeoplelab.bsky.social partnered with the CA Dept of Social Services and @codeforamerica.org to help low-income Californians find out about and claim tax credits and pandemic stimulus payments, and to learn what works in outreach.

The People Lab @thepeoplelab.bsky.social · 29d

New in @pnas.org! Light-touch government outreach boosted take-up of the Child Tax Credit & stimulus payments among very low-income families—while higher-touch strategies added little.

By: @elizabethlinos.bsky.social, J. Lasky-Fink, V. Dorie, @jrothst.bsky.social

🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Interventions to bolster benefits take-up: Assessing intensity, framing, and targeting of government outreach | PNAS

Behaviorally informed “nudges” are widely used in government outreach but are often seen as too modest to address poverty at scale. In four field e...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Nikhil Garg

Gabriel Agostini @gsagostini.bsky.social · Sep 3

Are you a researcher using computational methods to understand cities?

@mfranchi.bsky.social @jennahgosciak.bsky.social and I organize an EAAMO Bridges working group on Urban Data Science and we are looking for new members!

Fill the interest form on our page: urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io

Urban Data Science & Equitable Cities | EAAMO Bridges

EAAMO Bridges Urban Data Science & Equitable Cities working group: biweekly talks, paper studies, and workshops on computational urban data analysis to explore and address inequities.

urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Sep 4

Great!!

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Sep 2

This is an excellent course, and I partially based my own bayesian data analysis course on it

Aki Vehtari @avehtari.bsky.social · Sep 1

My Bayesian Data Analysis course at Aalto is starting in 20mins. There are now 375 registered students, but as the course is not compulsory for most, I expect about 230 students to finish it. All the course material is available online at avehtari.github.io/BDA_course_A...

Bayesian Data Analysis course

avehtari.github.io

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 28

Thank you!

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 28

In both, he followed up with operational levers on how to *mitigate* these disparities, after extensive conversation with practitioners. His work has contributed to a developing a data dashboard and ongoing deployment efforts of the levers

arxiv.org/abs/2503.23118
arxiv.org/abs/2410.14825 (EC 2024)

Optimizing Library Usage and Browser Experience: Application to the New York Public Library

We tackle the challenge brought to urban library systems by the {holds system} -- which allows users to request books available at other branches to be transferred for local pickup. The holds system i...

arxiv.org

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 28

In another, he worked with the NY Public Library to understand how the holds system (which allows users from one branch to request books from another) leads to a net flow of books away from poorer neighborhoods, where users are more likely to browse in person

ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AA...

Identifying and Addressing Disparities in Public Libraries with Bayesian Latent Variable Modeling | Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

ojs.aaai.org

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 28

In one project, he worked with NYC Parks to quantify heterogeneous reporting in crowdsourcing -- conditional on ground truth, more advantaged folks report problems faster. The key idea was that *duplicate* reports allow us to tease apart reporting from ground truth
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Quantifying spatial under-reporting disparities in resident crowdsourcing - Nature Computational Science

Zhi Liu et al. develop a method to measure disparities in reporting delays in urban crowdsourcing systems, uncovering socioeconomic disparities and providing actionable insights for interventions that...

www.nature.com

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 28

*Proud advisor moment* My (first) PhD student Zhi Liu (zhiliu724.github.io) is 1 of 4 finalists for the INFORMS Dantzig Dissertation Award, the premier dissertation award for the OR community. His dissertation spanned work with 2 NYC govt agencies, on measuring and mitigating operational inequities

Zhi Liu

About me

zhiliu724.github.io

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 27

Same haha, just very creepy emails

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 25

Wonderful, congrats! Is there a link to the piece available?

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 22

This seems true to me. A common review I write for papers is that the theory/model doesn't actually contain the real mechanism behind the empirical phenomenon used to motivate it

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 22

Yes, wonderful! both I and @sjgreenwood.bsky.social will be there, let's find a time to chat!

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 22

Will you be at the NYC AT Proto event today? would be great to (finally) connect!

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 21

I didn't realize this, and it is cool

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 20

Another thing you can do, especially as the semester starts, is help folks onboard effectively, so that they see that there's enough activity. This post for example is a great guide for AI folks

bsky.app/profile/nsap...

Naomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social · Apr 26

I wrote something up for AI people who want to get into bluesky and either couldn't assemble an exciting feed or gave up doomscrolling when their Following feed switched to talking politics 24/7.

The AI Researcher's Guide to a Non-Boring Bluesky Feed | Naomi Saphra

How to migrate to bsky without a boring feed.

nsaphra.net

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 20

Bluesky is promising as a scientific communication platform, but discovery of posts is still a problem -- we're trying to solve that!

bsky.app/profile/whys...
bsky.app/profile/pras...

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · Aug 19

Hey everybody! @drjuliawester.bsky.social and I have a new paper!

We surveyed over 800 scientists, science communicators, and science educators who use social media.

Conclusion: Scientists no longer find Twitter useful or pleasant, and many have switched to Bluesky! 🧪🌎🦑

doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky

Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

doi.org

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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 20

We try to avoid self-promoting too much, but we (with @sjgreenwood.bsky.social) built a personalized feed with posts about papers from your network. Many people say it's the closest they can get to old academic twitter, and I hope you enjoy it and share with others too!

bsky.app/profile/pape...

Paper Skygest Team @paper-feed.bsky.social · Aug 19

**Please repost** If you're enjoying Paper Skygest -- our personalized feed of academic content on Bluesky -- we'd appreciate you reposting this! We’ve found that the most effective way for us to reach new users and communities is through users sharing it with their network

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