Advait Sarkar


Publications & related shenanigans

Last updated April 2025. Jump to: Theses · Talks · Patents

    2025
  1. Download PDF • Details forthcoming AI Could Have Written This: Birth of a Classist Slur in Knowledge Work
    Advait Sarkar
    Extended Abstracts of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2025)
  2. Download PDF • Details forthcoming Gluing Pizza, Eating Rocks, and Counting Rs in Strawberry: The Discursive Social Function of Stupid AI Answers
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2025)
  3. Download PDF • Details forthcoming The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers
    Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee, Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, Ian Drosos, Sean Rintel, Richard Banks, Nicholas Wilson
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025)
    Results from Hank's internship with me at MSR in 2024.
  4. Details forthcoming Dynamic Prompt Middleware: Contextual Prompt Refinement Controls for Comprehension Tasks
    Ian Drosos, Jack Williams, Advait Sarkar, Nicholas Wilson, Sean Rintel, Payod Panda
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2025)
  5. Details forthcoming "How do you know that stuff?": Barriers to expertise sharing among spreadsheet users
    Qing (Nancy) Xia, Advait Sarkar, Duncan Brumby, Anna Cox
    Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) (2025)
  6. Download PDF • BibTeX
    AAAI archive
    DOI: 10.1609/aaai.v39i18.34157
    Also presented as a poster
     Evaluating the Evaluator: Measuring LLMs' Adherence to Task Evaluation Instructions
    Bhuvanashree Murugadoss, Christian Poelitz, Ian Drosos, Vu Le, Nick McKenna, Carina Negreanu, Chris Parnin, Advait Sarkar
    The 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2025)

    7. 2024
  7. Download PDF • BibTeX
    CACM Online
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3649404
    Video (4 min)
    arXiv:2411.02263
     AI Should Challenge, Not Obey
    Advait Sarkar
    Communications of the ACM (CACM 2024)
    Cover story of the October issue of Communications of the ACM, the leading publication for the computing and information technology fields.


  8. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    PPIG Library
    arXiv:2410.18851
     Intention Is All You Need
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2024)

  9. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
     Predictability of identifier naming with Copilot: A case study for mixed-initiative programming tools
    Michael Jing Long Lee, Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell
    Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2024)
    Summary of Michael's project for my course on interaction design for AI.
  10. Download PDF • BibTeX
    arXiv:2412.15030
     When Copilot Becomes Autopilot: Generative AI's Critical Risk to Knowledge Work and a Critical Solution
    Advait Sarkar, Xiaotong (Tone) Xu, Neil Toronto, Ian Drosos, Christian Poelitz
    Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG 2024)
    Paper accompanying my invited keynote talk.
  11. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    arXiv:2405.04382
     Large Language Models Cannot Explain Themselves
    Advait Sarkar
    ACM CHI 2024 Workshop on Human-Centered Explainable AI (HCXAI 2024)
  12. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VL/HCC60511.2024.00062
    Also presented as a poster
     Diversity in Study Participants and a Critique of the "Representative Sample" in Human-Computer Interaction Research
    Advait Sarkar
    2024 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) Workshop on Addressing Challenges in Recruiting Participants for Human-Centric Computing Research Studies
  13. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3663384.3663389
     "It's like a rubber duck that talks back": Understanding Generative AI-Assisted Data Analysis Workflows through a Participatory Prompting Study
    Ian Drosos, Advait Sarkar, Xiaotong (Tone) Xu, Carina Negreanu, Sean Rintel, Lev Tankelevitch
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2024)
  14. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3613904.3642902
    Video (9 min) • Video (5 min)
    arXiv:2312.10893
     The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI
    Lev Tankelevitch, Viktor Kewenig, Auste Simkute, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024)
    🏆 Best paper

  15. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3654777.3676345
    arXiv:2407.02651
     Improving Steering and Verification in AI-Assisted Data Analysis with Interactive Task Decomposition
    Majeed Kazemitabaar, Jack Williams, Ian Drosos, Tovi Grossman, Austin Henley, Carina Negreanu, Advait Sarkar
    37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2024)
    Results from Majeed's internship at MSR in 2023.
  16. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VL/HCC60511.2024.00019
    arXiv:2408.08068
     The Paradox of Spreadsheet Self-Efficacy: Social Incentives for Informal Knowledge Sharing in End-User Programming
    Qing (Nancy) Xia, Advait Sarkar, Duncan Brumby, Anna Cox
    2024 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)

  17. Download PDF • BibTeX
    CMU KiltHub
    DOI: 10.1184/R1/25587552.v1
    arXiv:2310.01297
     Co-audit: tools to help humans double-check AI-generated content
    Andrew D. Gordon, Carina Negreanu, José Cambronero, Rasika Chakravarthy, Ian Drosos, Hao Fang, Bhaskar Mitra, Hannah Richardson, Advait Sarkar, Stephanie Simmons, Jack Williams, Ben Zorn
    Proceedings of the 14th annual workshop on the intersection of HCI and PL (PLATEAU 2024)
  18. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACL Anthology
    arXiv:2402.11734
     Solving Data-centric Tasks using Large Language Models
    Shraddha Barke, Christian Poelitz, Carina Suzana Negreanu, Benjamin Zorn, José Cambronero, Andrew D. Gordon, Vu Le, Elnaz Nouri, Nadia Polikarpova, Advait Sarkar, Brian Slininger, Neil Toronto, Jack Williams
    Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL 2024)
  19. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3613905.3650762
    Video (3 min)
     Creating an authoring tool for K-12 teachers to design ML-supported scientific inquiry learning
    Xiaofei Zhou, Jingwan Tang, Hanjia Lyu, Xinyi Liu, Zhenhao Zhang, Lichen Qin, Fiona Au, Advait Sarkar, Zhen Bai
    Extended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2024)
    20. 2023
  20. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3596671.3597650
     Exploring Perspectives on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Creativity of Knowledge Work: Beyond Mechanised Plagiarism and Stochastic Parrots
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2023)
  21. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3622758.3622882
    arXiv:2311.00382     Will code remain a relevant user interface for end-user programming with generative AI models?
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software (Onward! 2023)

  22. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
    arXiv:2312.16633
     Participatory prompting: a user-centric research method for eliciting AI assistance opportunities in knowledge workflows
    Advait Sarkar, Ian Drosos, Rob Deline, Andrew D. Gordon, Carina Negreanu, Sean Rintel, Jack Williams, Ben Zorn
    Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2023)

  23. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VL-HCC57772.2023.00017
    Microsoft Research blog     ColDeco: An End User Spreadsheet Inspection Tool for AI-Generated Code
    Kasra Ferdowsi, Jack Williams, Ian Drosos, Andrew D. Gordon, Carina Negreanu, Nadia Polikarpova, Advait Sarkar, Benjamin Zorn
    2023 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)
    Results from Kasra's internship at MSR in 2022.
  24. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3596671.3598569
     Is a Return To Office a Return To Creativity? Requiring Fixed Time In Office To Enable Brainstorms and Watercooler Talk May Not Foster Research Creativity
    Tianna Xu, Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2023)
    Results from Tianna's internship at MSR in 2021.
  25. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3582735
    Video (7 min) • Video (30 sec)
    Blog post     Enough With "Human-AI Collaboration"
    Advait Sarkar
    Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2023)
    Featured by the Montreal AI Ethics Institute

  26. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3582741
    Video (8 min) • Video (30 sec)
    arXiv:2306.01643     Should Computers Be Easy To Use? Questioning the Doctrine of Simplicity in User Interface Design
    Advait Sarkar
    Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2023)
    "Really thought-provoking" — Elena Glassman, Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University

  27. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3544548.3580817
    Video (10 min) • Video (30 sec)
     "What It Wants Me To Say": Bridging the Abstraction Gap Between End-User Programmers and Code-Generating Large Language Models
    Michael Xieyang Liu, Advait Sarkar, Carina Negreanu, Benjamin Zorn, Jack Williams, Neil Toronto, Andrew D. Gordon
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023)
    🏆 Honourable mention · Results from Michael's internship with me at MSR in 2022.
  28. Download PDF • BibTeX
    DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2304.07926
    arXiv:2304.07926
     User Perceptions of Automatic Fake News Detection: Can Algorithms Fight Online Misinformation?
    Bruno Tafur, Advait Sarkar
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.07926
    Summary of Bruno's project for my course on interaction design for AI.
    29. 2022
  29. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Springer
    Springer Nature SharedIt (open access)
    DOI: 10.1007/s10606-022-09451-6     Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality in Enterprise Video Meetings During COVID-19
    Rachel Bergmann, Sean Rintel, Nancy Baym, Advait Sarkar, Damian Borowiec, Priscilla Wong, Abigail Sellen
    Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) (2022)

  30. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    PPIG Library
    arXiv:2208.06213     What is it like to program with artificial intelligence?
    Advait Sarkar, Andrew D. Gordon, Carina Negreanu, Christian Poelitz, Sruti Srinivasa Ragavan, Ben Zorn
    Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2022)

  31. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    CEUR Workshop Proceedings
     Is explainable AI a race against model complexity?
    Advait Sarkar
    Workshop on Transparency and Explanations in Smart Systems (TExSS 2022), at the 27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2022)
  32. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    IEEE Xplore
    DOI:
    10.1109/VL/HCC53370.2022.9833131
    Summary blog post     End-user encounters with lambda abstraction in spreadsheets: Apollo's bow or Achilles' heel?
    Advait Sarkar, Sruti Srinivasa Ragavan, Jack Williams, Andrew D. Gordon
    2022 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)


  33. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3491102.3501833
    Video (8 min) • Video (30 sec)
     "It's Freedom to Put Things Where My Mind Wants": Understanding and Improving the User Experience of Structuring Data in Spreadsheets
    George Chalhoub, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2022)
    Results from George's internship with me at MSR in 2021.
  34. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3533406.3533417
    Video (8 min)     Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings
    Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel
    Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2022)
    Results from Carlos' internship at MSR in 2021.
    35. 2021
  35. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445634
    Video (5 min) • Video (30 sec)
    Summary blog post     Spreadsheet Comprehension: Guesswork, Giving Up and Going Back to the Author
    Sruti Srinivasa Ragavan, Advait Sarkar, Andrew D. Gordon
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)


  36. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    DOI: 10.1145/3411763.3451793
    ACM Digital Library
    Video (5 min) • Video (30 sec)
    Also presented as a poster
    Microsoft Research blog
     The promise and peril of parallel chat in video meetings for work
    Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel, Damian Borowiec, Rachel Bergmann, Sharon Gillett, Danielle Bragg, Nancy Baym, Abigail Sellen
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI '21 Extended Abstracts)



  37. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445265
    Video (5 min) • Video (30 sec)
     TweakIt: Supporting End-User Programmers Who Transmogrify Code
    Samuel Lau, Sruti Srinivasa Ragavan, Ken Milne, Titus Barik, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
    Results from Sam's internship with me at MSR in 2020.
  38. Download PDF • BibTeX
    AoIR archives
    DOI: 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12113
     Managing boundaries while working from home, 1960-present
    Hannah Zeavin, Nancy Baym, Rachel Bergmann, Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel, Abigail Sellen, Devon Powers, Sierra Bray, Cynthia Barboza-Wilkes, Andrea Alarcon
    AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021
  39. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    AoIR archives
    DOI: 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12113
     Video on/off: managing visibility in remote videoconferencing
    Nancy Baym, Rachel Bergmann, Sean Rintel, Advait Sarkar, Damian Borowiec, Abigail Sellen
    AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021

    40. 2020
  40. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI:
    10.1109/VL/HCC50065.2020.9127254
     Understanding and Inferring Units in Spreadsheets
    Jack Williams, Carina Negreanu, Andrew D. Gordon, Advait Sarkar
    2020 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)

  41. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Cambridge Core
    Cambridge Core Share (open access)
    DOI: 10.1017/S0956796820000234
    ICFP presentation video
     Elastic Sheet-Defined Functions: Generalising Spreadsheet Functions to Variable-Size Input Arrays
    Matt McCutchen, Judith Borghouts, Andrew D. Gordon, Simon Peyton Jones, Advait Sarkar
    Journal of Functional Programming (JFP) (Volume 30, pp. e26)

    Results from Matt's internship at MSR in 2017.
  42. Download PDF • BibTeX
    MSR publication page
     Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19
    Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen
    Technical Report 2020-10-FOW-SIM1, Microsoft Research
  43. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VL/HCC50065.2020.9127258
     Correspondence-based analogies for choosing problem representations in mathematics and computing education
    Aaron Stockdill, Daniel Raggi, Mateja Jamnik, Grecia Garcia Garcia, Holly Sutherland, Peter Cheng, Advait Sarkar
    2020 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)
  44. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Springer
    Springer Nature SharedIt (open access)
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-44914-8_27     Higher-Order Spreadsheets with Spilled Arrays
    Jack Williams, Nima Joharizadeh, Andrew D. Gordon, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 29th European Symposium on Programming (ESOP 2020)


  45. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Interactive project walkthrough
    Project on GitHub     Excello: exploring spreadsheets for music composition
    Henry Mattinson, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2020)
    This paper summarises Henry's undergraduate dissertation.
  46. Download PDF • BibTeX
    DOI: 10.1145/3334480.3382806
    ACM Digital Library
     Gridlets: Reusing Spreadsheet Grids
    Nima Joharizadeh, Advait Sarkar, Andrew D. Gordon, Jack Williams
    Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2020)
  47. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    DOI: 10.1145/3334480.3382807
    ACM Digital Library
     Spreadsheet Use and Programming Experience: an Exploratory Survey
    Advait Sarkar, Judith Willemijn Borghouts, Anusha Iyer, Sneha Khullar, Christian Canton, Felienne Hermans, Andrew D. Gordon, Jack Williams
    Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2020)

  48. Download PDF • BibTeX
    CEUR Workshop Proceedings
     Cross-domain Correspondences for Explainable Recommendations
    Aaron Stockdill, Daniel Raggi, Mateja Jamnik, Grecia Garcia Garcia, Holly Sutherland, Peter Cheng, Advait Sarkar
    Workshop on Explainable Smart Systems for Algorithmic Transparency in Emerging Technologies (ExSS-ATEC 2020), held in conjunction with the 25th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2020)
    49. 2019
  49. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/3301275.3302268
    Summary blog post     Assessing Public Perception of Self-Driving Cars: the Autonomous Vehicle Acceptance Model
    Charlie Hewitt, Ioannis Politis, Theocharis Amanatidis, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User interfaces (IUI 2019)
    A summary of Charlie's project for my course on interaction design for AI. The papers below by Sam Bell, Jesse Mu and Sian Gooding are also results from the same course.
  50. Download PDF • BibTeX
    DOI: 10.1145/3290607.3312975
    ACM Digital Library
    Also presented as a poster
    Summary blog post     Do We Need Natural Language? Exploring Restricted Language Interfaces for Complex Domains
    Jesse Mu, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2019)

  51. Download PDF • BibTeX
    DOI: 10.1145/3290607.3313072
    ACM Digital Library
    Also presented as a poster
    Summary blog post     Perceptions of Chatbots in Therapy
    Samuel Bell, Clara Wood, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2019)

  52. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
     Usability of Probabilistic Programming Languages
    Alan Blackwell, Luke Church, Martin Erwig, James Geddes, Andy Gordon, Maria Gorinova, Atilim Gunes Baydin, Bradley Gram-Hansen, Tobias Kohn, Neil Lawrence, Vikash Mansinghka, Brooks Paige, Tomas Petricek, Diana Robinson, Advait Sarkar, Oliver Strickson
    Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2019)
  53. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-30281-8_1     End-User Probabilistic Programming
    Judith Borghouts, Advait Sarkar, Andrew D. Gordon, Neil Toronto
    International Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of Systems (QEST 2019) (pp. 3–24)
  54. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACL Web
    DOI: 10.18653/v1/W19-4024
    Summary blog post     Comparative judgments are more consistent than binary classification for labelling word complexity
    Sian Gooding, Ekaterina Kochmar, Advait Sarkar, Alan Blackwell
    Proceedings of the 13th Linguistic Annotation Workshop (LAW XIII) (pp. 208–214), co-located with ACL 2019

  55. Download PDF • BibTeX
    DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.1905.13072
    arXiv:1905.13072
     Somewhere Around That Number: An Interview Study of How Spreadsheet Users Manage Uncertainty
    Judith Borghouts, Andrew D. Gordon, Advait Sarkar, Kenton P. O'Hara, Neil Toronto
    arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.13072
  56. Download PDF • BibTeX
    CEUR Workshop Proceedings
    Summary blog post     Evaluating Rule-based Programming and Reinforcement Learning for Personalising an Intelligent System
    Ruixue Liu, Advait Sarkar, Erin Solovey, Sebastian Tschiatschek
    2nd Workshop on Explainable Smart Systems (ExSS 2019), held in conjunction with ACM Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2019)
    Results from Ruixue's internship with me at MSR in 2018.
  57. BibTeX
    Taylor & Francis
    DOI: 10.1080/09638288.2018.1563832
    PubMed
    Summary blog post     Setwise comparison: efficient fine-grained rating of movement videos using algorithmic support - a proof of concept study
    Saskia Steinheimer, Jonas F. Dorn, Cecily Morrison, Advait Sarkar, Marcus D'Souza, Jacques Boisvert, Rishi Bedi, Jessica Burggraaff, Peter Kontschieder, Frank Dahlke, Abigail Sellen, Bernard M. J. Uitdehaag, Ludwig Kappos, Christian P. Kamm
    Disability and Rehabilitation, 2019
    Writeup of our 2016 CHI paper for a medical audience.
    58. 2018
  58. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VLHCC.2018.8506584
     Calculation View: multiple-representation editing in spreadsheets
    Advait Sarkar, Andrew D. Gordon, Simon Peyton Jones, Neil Toronto
    2018 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (pp. 85–93)

  59. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    PPIG Library
    Full proceedings     How do people learn to use spreadsheets? (Work in progress)
    Advait Sarkar, Andrew D. Gordon
    Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2018) (pp. 28–35)

  60. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-91376-6_47
     Visualising latent semantic spaces for sense-making of natural language text
    Ana Šemrov, Alan F. Blackwell, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, 2018 (DIAGRAMS 2018) (pp. 517–525)
    This paper summarises Ana's undergraduate dissertation.
    61. 2016
  61. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VLHCC.2016.7739668
    System on GitHub     Visual discovery and model-driven explanation of time series patterns
    Advait Sarkar, Martin Spott, Alan F. Blackwell, Mateja Jamnik
    2016 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (pp. 78–86)
    🏆 Highly commended (honourable mention)
  62. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858199
    Video abstract
    Microsoft project showcase
    Summary blog post     Setwise Comparison: Consistent, Scalable, Continuum Labels for Machine Learning
    Advait Sarkar, Cecily Morrison, Jonas F. Dorn, Rishi Bedi, Saskia Steinheimer, Jacques Boisvert, Jessica Burggraaff, Marcus D'Souza, Peter Kontschieder, Samuel Rota Bulò, Lorcan Walsh, Christian P. Kamm, Yordan Zaykov, Abigail Sellen, Siân E. Lindley
    Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016) (pp. 261–271)
    Plain English summary at Sparrho "Research Perspectives"

  63. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Eurographics DL
    DOI: 10.2312/eurovisshort.20161173
    Summary blog post     Clarifying hypotheses by sketching data
    Mariana Mărășoiu, Alan F. Blackwell, Advait Sarkar, Martin Spott
    18th Eurographics/IEEE VGTC Conference on Visualization, 2016 (EuroVis 2016)
    🏆 Honourable mention · This paper summarises Mariana's M.Phil. dissertation.
  64. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858221
    CHI presentation video
    Video abstract · Slides [PDF]     A Live, Multiple-Representation Probabilistic Programming Environment for Novices
    Maria I. Gorinova, Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell, Don Syme
    Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016) (pp. 2533–2537)
    This paper summarises Maria's undergraduate dissertation.

  65. Download PDF • BibTeX
    ACM Digital Library
    DOI: 10.1145/2851581.2892547
    Also presented as a poster     Constructivist Design for Interactive Machine Learning
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2016) (pp. 1467–1475)
    Summary by Francisco Bernardo
  66. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
    Full proceedings     Towards spreadsheet tools for end-user music programming
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2016) (pp. 228–231)
  67. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
    Full proceedings
    Summary blog post     A gaze-directed lens for touchless analytics
    Abhishek Chander, Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2016) (pp. 232–241)
    This paper summarises Abhishek's undergraduate dissertation.
  68. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VLHCC.2016.7739694     Transforming Spreadsheets with Data Noodles
    Maria I. Gorinova, Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell, Karl Prince
    2016 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (pp. 236–237)
    69. 2015 and older
  69. Download PDF • BibTeX
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    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VLHCC.2015.7357211     Interactive visual machine learning in spreadsheets
    Advait Sarkar, Mateja Jamnik, Alan F. Blackwell, Martin Spott
    2015 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (pp. 159–163)
    Commentary by Patrick Durusau
  70. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VLHCC.2015.7357228
    Also presented as a poster     Spreadsheet interfaces for usable machine learning
    Advait Sarkar
    2015 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (pp. 283–284)

  71. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
    Full proceedings     Confidence, command, complexity: metamodels for structured interaction with machine intelligence
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2015) (pp. 23–36)
    Early sketches of an idea that was much better expressed in Chapter 3 of my PhD. Please read and cite that instead ☺
  72. Download PDF • BibTeX
    PPIG Library
    Full proceedings     The impact of syntax colouring on program comprehension
    Advait Sarkar
    Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2015) (pp. 49–58)
    Writeup of my project for Alan Blackwell's "Usability of Programming" MPhil course. · Blog post on IProgrammer · Hacker News discussion
  73. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Eurographics DL
    DOI: 10.2312/eurovisshort.20151138
    Summary blog post     Interaction with uncertainty in visualisations
    Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell, Mateja Jamnik, Martin Spott
    17th Eurographics/IEEE VGTC Conference on Visualization, 2015 (EuroVis 2015)
    "Perhaps my favorite short paper" [at EuroVis 2015] — Robert Kosara, Research Scientist at Tableau Software
  74. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Springer
    Springer Nature SharedIt (open access)
    DOI: 10.1007/s11116-015-9599-9     Comparing cities' cycling patterns using online shared bicycle maps
    Advait Sarkar, Neal Lathia, Cecilia Mascolo
    Transportation, 2015 (Volume 42, Issue 4, pp. 541–559. Special Issue: Emerging, Passively Generated Datasets for Travel Behavior and Policy Analysis)
    This article summarises much of my master's thesis.

  75. Download PDF • BibTeX Visual analytics as end-user programming
    Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell, Mateja Jamnik, Martin Spott
    Psychology of Programming Interest Group Work-In-Progress Workshop, January 2015 (PPIG-WIP 2015)
  76. Download PDF • BibTeX
    IEEE Xplore
    DOI: 10.1109/VLHCC.2014.6883022     Teach and Try: A simple interaction technique for exploratory data modelling by end users
    Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell, Mateja Jamnik, Martin Spott
    2014 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (pp. 53–56)
    Also presented as a poster at Microsoft Research Cambridge PhD Summer School 2014
  77. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Full graduate symposium proceedings     Hunches and Sketches: rapid interactive exploration of large datasets through approximate visualisations
    Advait Sarkar, Alan F. Blackwell, Mateja Jamnik, Martin Spott
    Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, Graduate Symposium, 2014 (DIAGRAMS 2014) (pp. 18–22)

Theses

  1. Download PDF • BibTeX
    Cambridge Computer Laboratory Technical Report
     Interactive analytical modelling
    Advait Sarkar
    PhD, University of Cambridge, 2016
    If you would like to cite my PhD (thank you!), kindly cite it as 2016 (rather than the 2018 tech report).
  2. Pulse of the world's bicycles: towards data-driven methods for the design and administration of bicycle sharing systems
    Advait Sarkar
    Master's thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013
  3. An inductive logic programming system implemented in Haskell
    Advait Sarkar
    Undergraduate dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2012

Invited talks

  1. Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for Thought
    Advait Sarkar
    IBM Research Human-Centered AI Speaker Series, 24 March 2025
  2. Invited panellist: Collective Generative Futures
    Advait Sarkar
    Panel discussion, conference on Collective Generative Futures at the Cambridge Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence (CHIA), 14 March 2025
  3. Design Approaches for Critical Thinking with Generative AI
    Advait Sarkar
    Invited lecture at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, 3 March 2025
  4. Some Provocations for Human Interaction with Generative AI
    Advait Sarkar
    Workshop on Human-Centric and Outcome-Focused Approaches to AI Governance, University of Warwick, 16 January 2025
  5. Invited panellist: How does AI change creative work processes and creative industries?
    Advait Sarkar
    Panel discussion, The Future of Creative Work Conference 2024, Imperial Business Design Studio, Imperial College London, 16-17 September 2024
  6. When Copilot Becomes Autopilot: Generative AI's Critical Risk to Knowledge Work and a Critical Solution
    Advait Sarkar
    Invited keynote for IIT Bombay IoE-SCPP CET Workshop on "Co-Intelligence: Designing Technology for Learning using AI", 11 December 2024
    Glasgow Interactive Systems (GIST) Seminar, University of Glasgow, 13 June 2024
    Cambridge Society for the Application of Research (CSAR) award reception, University of Cambridge, 19 June 2024
    Invited keynote at the 2024 Annual Conference of the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group, London, 4 July 2024
  7. Does Code Still Matter? What Programming with AI is Really Like
    Advait Sarkar
    SAP Inspiration Sessions, 26 February 2024
  8. The Impact of Generative AI on the Creativity and Practice of Knowledge Work
    Advait Sarkar
    Invited lecture, Interaction Sciences (module for UCLIC Human-Computer Interaction MSc.), UCL Interaction Centre, University College London, 9 December 2024
    Invited lecture, Interaction Sciences (module for UCLIC Human-Computer Interaction MSc.), UCL Interaction Centre, University College London, 4 December 2023
  9. Cogito, =SUM: The Hidden History of Spreadsheets and How They Transform the World
    [UCLIC talk listing]
    Advait Sarkar
    UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC) Research Seminar Series, University College London, 1 March 2023
  10. Creativity on a schedule? How hybrid work affects collaborative research
    Advait Sarkar and Tianna Xu
    Symposium on Flexible Work: Hybrid Work and the 4-Day Workweek, 9 March 2022
    University of Edinburgh Business School (UEBS) and the Chartered Institute Of Personnel And Development (CIPD)
  11. Artificial intelligence: let's lose the hype and think practically [Video on YouTube]
    Advait Sarkar
    TEDx Cambridge University, March 2018
  12. After sight
    Advait Sarkar and Alex Taylor
    Ways of Machine Seeing, June 2017
    Cambridge Digital Humanities Network, Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute, and Cambridge Big Data
    A discussion of how assistive tools for the blind, driven by computer vision, can offer alternative perspectives on sight, and their ethical implications.
  13. Design uncertain: how might we present, compute, and interact with uncertainty?
    Advait Sarkar
    Invited lecture, BA Design Live project module on Designing Decisions, 24 February 2017
    Goldsmiths, University of London
  14. Mining bicycle sharing system data to uncover the pulse of the world's cities
    Advait Sarkar
    Workshop on Data Science for Smart Infrastructure, 31 May 2016
    Cambridge Big Data Strategic Research Initiative
  15. When artificial stupidity takes over the world
    Advait Sarkar
    A beautiful brAIn, Pint of Science UK, May 2016
    Press coverage: Cambridge TV interview
  16. Exploratory modelling tools for visual analytics
    Advait Sarkar
    Workshop on Visual and Cognitive Analytics
    The 35th Annual International Conference of the British Computer Society's Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence (SGAI), December 2015 (AI-2015)
  17. Darwin and the Search for the Master Algorithm [talks.cam]
    Advait Sarkar
    Cambridge University Charles Darwin Society, 18 November 2015
  18. Improving the Usability of Analytics [Digital Service blog]
    Advait Sarkar
    Data Science Show and Tell, UK Government Digital Service, Cabinet Office, 11 December 2014
  19. Applied Probabilistic Algorithms for Big Data Analysis [PDF slides]
    Advait Sarkar
    University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Research Students' Lecture Series, 3 November 2015 [talks.cam]
    Queens' College Wednesday Computer Science Talks, 13 May 2015 [Queens' compsci blog]
    University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Research Students' Lecture Series, 28 October 2014 [talks.cam]
    University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Research Students' Lecture Series, 1 May 2014 [talks.cam]
  20. Usability Issues in Mixed-Initative Visual Analytics [PDF slides]
    Alan F. Blackwell and Advait Sarkar
    Workshop on Visual Analytics — Present and Future of Human-Computer Interaction in Data Analytics
    The 33rd Annual International Conference of the British Computer Society's Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence (SGAI), December 2013 (AI-2013)

Patents

  1. Generation of multi-dimensional array of intermediate values in multiple code executions, 2023
  2. Generation of interactive utterances of code tasks, 2023
  3. Model capability extraction, 2023
  4. Responding to task prompt on declarative code using language model, 2023
  5. Table column operations for spreadsheets (2), 2023
  6. Multi-endpoint mixed-reality meetings (3), 2022
  7. Multi-endpoint mixed-reality meetings (2), 2022
  8. Table column operations for spreadsheets, 2022
  9. Spreadsheet with reuse functionality, 2021
  10. System and method for generation and execution of elastic sheet-defined functions and arrays, 2019
  11. Spreadsheet cell calculation view providing multiple-representation editing, 2019
  12. Multi-endpoint mixed-reality meetings, 2019
  13. Natively handling approximate values in spreadsheet applications, 2019
  14. Managing electronic documents (2), 2017
  15. Managing electronic documents, 2017
  16. Managing electronic slide decks, 2017