research

I develop computational methods to:

  1. understand human social cognition, and
  2. build socially-competent AI that is trustworthy.

Applications: automated writing assistance, intelligent tutoring systems, fact-checking and detecting misinformation, moderating online social media content, supporting argumentation and decision-making, and improving chatbots and embodied social robots.

My Approach: I take an interdisciplinary approach by combining social/cognitive science theory, linguistics and AI/ML to develop state-of-the-art neuro-symbolic methods. A full list of my publications can be found here and on Google Scholar

Broadly, my research falls into three main themes:

  1. Social NLP
  2. Reasoning with Social Norms
  3. Sense-making and Problem-Solving

Social NLP

In this theme, I explore how NLP techniques, and more generally computational methods can be used to explore and uncover patterns in human social behavior.

  1. LREC-COLING
    Recognizing Value Resonance with Resonance-Tuned RoBERTa Task Definition, Experimental Validation, and Robust Modeling
    Noam Benkler , Scott Friedman , Sonja Schmer-Galunder , and 6 more authors
    In Proceedings of the the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING) , Dec 2024
  2. CogSci
    Mapping a Plurality of Explanations with NLP: A Case Study of Mothers and Health Workers in India
    Scott Friedman , Sonja Schmer-Galunder , Vasanth Sarathy, and 8 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society , Dec 2023
  3. SBP-BRiMS
    Cultural Value Resonance in Folktales: A Transformer-Based Analysis with the World Value Corpus
    Noam Benkler , Scott Friedman , Sonja Schmer-Galunder , and 5 more authors
    In International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation , Dec 2022
  4. ACS
    From Unstructured Text to Causal Knowledge Graphs: A Transformer-Based Approach
    Scott Friedman , Ian Magnusson , Vasanth Sarathy, and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems , Dec 2021
  5. LREC
    Developing a Corpus of Indirect Speech Act Schemas
    Antonio Roque , Alexander Tsuetaki , Vasanth Sarathy, and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the Twelveth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation , Dec 2020

Reasoning with Social Norms

In this theme, I develop computational methods and AI/robotic architectures to use social norms when reasoning about actions and understanding natural language.

  1. EMNLP
    “Let’s Argue Both Sides”: Argument Generation Can Force Small Models to Utilize Previously Inaccessible Reasoning Capabilities
    Kaveh Eskandari Miandoab , and Vasanth Sarathy
    In EMNLP Workshop on Customizable NLP , 2024
  2. EMNLP
    Large Language Models Know What To Say But Not When To Speak
    Muhammad Umair , Vasanth Sarathy, and Jan Ruiter
    In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP , 2024
  3. IC2S2
    Fostering Online Civil Sanctuaries with Theory-Informed Automated Content Moderation
    Vasanth Sarathy, Sonja Schmer-Galunder , Dan Thomsen , and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings Ninth International Conference on Computational Social Science , 2023
  4. ACS
    A Neuro-Symbolic Cognitive System for Intuitive Argumentation
    Vasanth Sarathy, Mark Burstein , Scott Friedman , and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems , 2022
  5. COLING
    Reasoning Requirements for Indirect Speech Act Interpretation
    Vasanth Sarathy, Alexander Tsuetaki , Antonio Roque , and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Computational Linguistics , 2020
  6. PhD. Thesis
    Sense-Making Machines
    Vasanth Sarathy
    Tufts University , 2020
  7. THRI
    When Exceptions Are the Norm: Exploring the Role of Consent in HRI
    Vasanth Sarathy, Thomas Arnold , and Matthias Scheutz
    ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (Formerly, Journal of Human-Robot Interaction), Jul 2019
  8. Cog. Arch.
    An Overview of the Distributed Integrated Affect and Reflection Cognitive DIARC Architecture
    Matthias Scheutz , Thomas Williams , Evan Krause , and 3 more authors
    In Cognitive Architectures , Jul 2019
  9. AAAI
    On Resolving Ambiguous Anaphoric Expressions in Imperative Discourse
    Vasanth Sarathy, and Matthias Scheutz
    In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence , Jul 2019
  10. AIES
    Towards the Engineering of Virtuous Machines
    Naveen Sundar Govindarajulu , Selmer Bringsjord , Rikhiya Ghosh , and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the 2nd AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society , Jul 2019
  11. AIES
    Learning Context-Sensitive Norms under Uncertainty
    Vasanth Sarathy
    In Proceedings of the 2nd AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society , Jul 2019
  12. ICRES
    Quasi-Dilemmas for Artificial Moral Agents
    Daniel Kasenberg , Vasanth Sarathy, Thomas Arnold , and 2 more authors
    In International Conference on Robot Ethics and Standards , Jul 2018
  13. ACS
    Learning Cognitive Affordances for Objects from Natural Language Instruction
    Vasanth Sarathy, Bradley Oosterveld , Evan Krause , and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems , Jul 2018
  14. CogInfoCom
    Learning Behavioral Norms in Uncertain and Changing Contexts
    Vasanth Sarathy, Matthias Scheutz , and Bertram Malle
    In Proceedings of the 2017 8th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom) , Jul 2017
  15. CogSci
    Mental Representations and Computational Modeling of Context-Specific Human Norm Systems
    Vasanth Sarathy, Matthias Scheutz , Joseph Austerweil , and 3 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society , Jul 2017
  16. ICDL
    Beyond Grasping - Perceiving Affordances Across Various Stages of Cognitive Development
    Vasanth Sarathy, and Matthias Scheutz
    In Proceedings of the The Sixth Joint IEEE International Conference Developmental Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL) , Jul 2016
  17. KR
    Cognitive Affordance Representations in Uncertain Logic
    Vasanth Sarathy, and Matthias Scheutz
    In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR) , Jul 2016

Sense-making and Problem-Solving

In this theme, I explore how we simplify the complexity of physical and social world (use of knowledge, cognitive biases, etc.) for the purposes of efficient problem-solving. I develop computational methods and architectures for fast human-like learning and problem solving.

  1. ICSR
    Towards Human-Robot Co-Creative Collaboration Through Interactive Task Dialogue
    Helen Long , Jingwen Fen , Emma Bethel , and 3 more authors
    In International Conference on Social Robotics , 2024
  2. IJCAI
    Analogical Reasoning Within a Conceptual Hyperspace
    Howard Goldowsky , and Vasanth Sarathy
    In IJCAI Workshop on Analogical Abstraction in Cognition, Perception, and Language , 2024
  3. CogSci
    Using Puzzle Video Games to Study Cognitive Processes in Human Insight and Creative Problem-Solving
    Vasanth Sarathy, Nicholas Rabb , Daniel Kasenberg , and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society , 2024
  4. AAMAS
    LgTS: Dynamic Task Sampling using LLM-generated sub-goals for Reinforcement Learning Agents
    Yash Shukla , Wenchang Gao , Vasanth Sarathy, and 3 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) , 2024
  5. ACS
    Portals and Spaces: An Egocentric Knowledge Representation for Reasoning about Actions and its Implementation
    Christopher Geib , Jeffrey Rye , and Vasanth Sarathy
    In Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems , 2022
  6. ICCC
    BIPLEX: Creative Problem-Solving by Planning for Experimentation
    Vasanth Sarathy, and Mathias Scheutz
    In 13th International Conference on Computational Creativity , Jul 2022
  7. ICDL
    RAPid-Learn: A Framework for Learning to Recover for Handling Novelties in Open-World Environments
    Shivam Goel , Yash Shukla , Vasanth Sarathy, and 2 more authors
    In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning , Jul 2022
  8. AAMAS
    SPOTTER: Extending Symbolic Planning Operators through Targeted Reinforcement Learning
    Vasanth Sarathy, Daniel Kasenberg , Shivam Goel , and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems , Jul 2021
  9. AAMAS
    A Novelty-Centric Agent Architecture for Changing Worlds
    Faizan Muhammad , Vasanth Sarathy, Gyan Tatiya , and 5 more authors
    In Proceedings of 20th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems , Jul 2021
  10. ACS
    MacGyver Problems: AI Challenges for Testing Resourcefulness and Creativity
    Vasanth Sarathy, and Matthias Scheutz
    Advances in Cognitive Systems, Jul 2018
  11. Frontiers (Neuro)
    Real World Problem-Solving
    Vasanth Sarathy
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Jul 2018
  12. NAECON
    Knowledge Acquisition in the Cockpit Using One-Shot Learning
    Evana Gizzi , Lisa Le Vie , Matthias Scheutz , and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE National Aerospace and Electronics Conference , Jul 2018