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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26

@upolehsan.bsky.social

1.3K followers 370 following 380 posts

🎯 Making AI less evil= human-centered + explainable + responsible AI 💼 Harvard Berkman Klein Fellow | CS Prof. @Northeastern | Data & Society 🏢 Prev-Georgia Tech, {Google, IBM, MSFT}Research 🔬 AI, HCI, Philosophy ☕ F1, memes 🌐 upolehsan.com

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Nov 16

👋 Intro time!

🎯 I make AI systems explainable + responsible so that people who are not at the table don't end up on the menu.

💼 Incoming CS Asst Prof @ Northeastern + Berkman Klein Fellow @ Harvard.

Into HCI, AI, social sciences? Let's connect! 🤝

#AcademicSky @academic-chatter.bsky.social

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 18h

Peak academic mood: ghosting Nobel Prize for solitude.

✨ The real prize was peace.

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 12d

Academics after a paper deadline.

#academicSky

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 14d

It is eye opening to see the same CS conference venues loudly talking about "accessibility" and "allyship" are forcing people to travel (regardless of visa/health issues) and banning hybrid efforts.

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

We need to stop pretending brilliant science comes from brilliant minds working brilliantly at all times. Most of the stuff in academia is this unglamorous persistence from people who keep showing up.

7/7
n=7
#academicSky #mentalHealth #grit

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

If you're in the fog: Try the smallest possible "show up" today. 🌱
If you know someone struggling: Check on your people.

💪 Because sometimes the gap between "almost didn't exist" and "submitted to CHI" is just... showing up.

6/n

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

Three things that saved me:
📍 Lower the bar, keep the rhythm. Two sentences > zero.
🤗 Lean on kind collaborators. Let people be your structure.
📈 Trust the compound effect. Small deposits add up.

5/n

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

When the fog lifted, the scaffolding was there: notes, drafts, momentum. The paper had been writing itself in the margins while I survived. 🔥

💡 Discipline isn't about peak performance. It's self-love for your future self: showing up today so they have something to build on tomorrow.

4/n

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

🛠️ I assembled a small team. Came to meetings even when I didn't feel like it. Some days I wrote two sentences. Some days I just listened. But I stayed in the room.

Here's what showing up bought me:...

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

Between global (funding crises) & personal (multiple rounds of racial abuse) challenges, my tank was low. 😔

⚡️ So I did the only thing I could: I showed up. Not heroically. Not with perfect focus. Just... present.

🛠️ I assembled a small team. Came to meetings even when...

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 15d

⚠️ The #CHI2026 paper I submitted? It almost didn't exist. That's the BTS part academics never post. So I will…to normalize what I call unglamorous persistence.

This summer was one of my hardest, mentally. 🌥️ Between ...
1/n

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 25d

In a time when academia is under siege, it is worth pausing to remember:
This is why many of us stay. For the joy of making meaning with people who make us feel seen.

I hope you get to hold onto your people...and build things that matter, with them.

6/6
N=6

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 25d

There’s something profoundly meaningful about building with people who have seen you across life stages... the broke TA years, the first conference nerves, the paper rejections and wins. That continuity is a gift. 🌱

5/n

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 25d

🌍 Hard to imagine all of us as faculty and professionals in different places across the world. We grew up a little. But the joy was still there.

Here’s what this reminded me:

- Brilliance in academia is often common.
-Kindness is not.
-And I would take kindness any day.

4/n

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 25d

Paper-writing became our excuse to hang out.

📊 Here's how our sessions went: 60% laughter and inside jokes. 40% deep work. 100% joy. Same hilarious banter. Same goofiness. But maybe with a bit more gray in our hair, and maybe more side chats about health than caffeine hacks. 🩺

3/n

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 25d

🎁 This summer, I invited friends from my grad school days to write a paper. It was the right team --- the kind where there's enough brainpower and chemistry to make any project sparkle.

✨ But the real reason? I missed them. Turns out, they missed me too.

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 25d

🎉 Post-CHI submission reflection: Yes, academia has its mess. But amidst all that, there's one joy I keep coming back to...building something meaningful with people you truly love working with.

This summer....

1/n
#academicsky #chi2026 #collaboration

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · 27d

'Tis that time of the year, homies. May your contributions be accepted by the grumpy R2s

#academicSky #chi2026

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 17

Tried something new today.

Gave quick nods to everyone wearing a respirator at the airport.

Almost everyone nodded back. A few even gestured to the respirator.

A quick "I see you homie" moment.

People understood the assignment y'all.

Reposted by Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Aug 12

#ReleaseTheCuomoList

1.1K 8.9K 35K

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 10

gpt5 writes like it considers mayonnaise is spicy.

and considers salt and pepper as spices.

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 9

Homies, you aren't getting it.

The math isn't wrong.

It's just GPT-5 being "PhD level"

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 6

[Pls repost] Hi folks, do you have any templates for reasonable accommodations letters written by your provider/doc for Long Covid?

I'm collecting samples to help the broader community, esp those who are underserved.

If you feel comfortable sharing, it will help a lot of people.

DMs open.

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 5

The Onion used to make jokes.
Now it does academic ethnography.

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Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 4

2️⃣ Audit for agency leakage:
Implement checks that flag when language oversells cognition and feed those signals into eval and procurement pipelines.

3️⃣ Localize the “mind”:
In Majority World settings, pair cautious tone with localized knowledge grounding so fluency does not paper over epistemic gaps

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhD students Fall'26 @upolehsan.bsky.social · Aug 4

Takeaways for Responsible AI:

1️⃣ Design out miscues:
Prevent C-expressions in sensitive applications.
Use tone constraints and capability disclaimers to fight unearned trust.

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