Prof. Nitin Sawhney

Prof. Nitin Sawhney leads the CRAI-CIS (CRitical AI and Crisis Interrogatives) research group in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University. Working at the intersection of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), responsible AI, and participatory design research, he examines the critical role of technology, civic agency, and social justice in society and crisis contexts. Prof. Sawhney has researched speech/audio interaction, wearable computing, distributed open source collaboration, and civic/participatory media at the MIT Media Lab and The New School. At Aalto University, he is the principal investigator for research projects on Reconstructing Crisis Narratives for Trustworthy Communication and Cooperative Agency, Civic Agency in AI? Democratizing Algorithmic Services in the City (CAAI), and Designing Inclusive & Trustworthy Digital Public Services for Migrants in Finland (Trust-M).

Prof. Sawhney is a member of the research program on AI and Society at the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI). At Aalto University, he helped establish the research areas on Digital Ethics, Society and Policy (Digital ESP) and Human-Computer Interaction and Design (HCID). His work has been published in journals including IEEE Multimedia, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Planning Practice & Research, AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication, and Digital Creativity. He is an associate editor for the International Journal of Child Computer Interaction.