Daniel Nkemelu

I am a PhD student in Human-Centred Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, advised by Mike Best and Irfan Essa. My research interests are in Machine Learning for Development, Human-Computer Interaction, and Computational Social Science.

My research aims to advance our understanding of and develop tools to tackle digital threats to democracy and political participation within developing, under-resourced contexts. I'm interested in the positives (how people use technology to mobilize, organize, and protest), and the not positives (understanding the spread of hate speech, d(m)isinformation, and online incitement); I build AI-driven tools to address these issues.

Prior to beginning my Ph.D at Georgia Tech in 2019, I received a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Ibadan.

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Selected Publications
Tackling Hate Speech in Low-resource Languages with Context Experts
Daniel Nkemelu, Harshil Shah, Mike L. Best, Irfan Essa
ICTD, 2022
From Treatment to Healing: Envisioning a Decolonial Digital Mental Health
Sachin R. Pendse, Daniel Nkemelu, Nicola J. Bidwell, Sushrut Jadhav, Soumitra Pathare, Munmun De Choudhury, Neha Kumar
CHI, 2022
PARQR: Automatic Post Suggestion in the Piazza Online Forum to Support Degree Seeking Online Masters Students
India Irish, Roy Finkelberg, Daniel Nkemelu, Swar Gujrania, Aadarsh Padiyath, Sumedha Raman, Chirag Tailor, Rosa Arriaga, Thad Starner
Learning@Scale, 2020


Updates

  • May 2022: Won the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Paper Competition w/ Sachin Pendse.
  • May 2022: Summer 2022 Student Researcher @ Google Research.
  • March 2022: Paper accepted at ICTD '22. Presented at conference in Seattle, WA.
  • March 2022: CRA-URMD Graduate Cohort Workshop in San Diego, CA.
  • November 2021: Paper accepted at CHI '22.
  • August 2021: Awarded Roland Ewubare Societal Impact Fellowship @ Georgia Tech.
  • May 2021: Summer 2021 Student Researcher @ Google Research.
  • April 2021: Passed PhD qualifying exam.
  • August 2020: AI4D-IndabaX grant for our work on COVID-19 & Misinformation in Nigeria.
  • April 2020: Paper accepted at Learning@Scale 2020.
  • March 2020: CRA-URMD Graduate Cohort Workshop in Austin, TX.
  • January 2020: Google PhD Summit at Google Atlanta, GA.
  • Aug 2019: Started HCC PhD @ GT.



Service

  • Reviewer: CHI conference - 2022.
  • Student Volunteer: ICTD & ACM Compass, Seattle, WA - 2022.
  • Teaching Assistant: Computing & Society @ Georgia Tech - Fall 2021.
  • Reviewer: Practical ML for Developing Countries Workshop @ ICLR (Virtual) - 2020.
  • Co-organizer: Black in AI Mentoring Program - 2019, 2020.
  • Co-organizer: Black in AI Workshop @ NeurIPS - Montreal, 2018, Vancouver, 2019.
  • Student Volunteer: ITU Kaleidoscope @ Atlanta, GA - 2019.
  • Teaching Assistant: Research Methods in Engineering @ CMU - Spring 2019.
  • Reviewer / Member: Mastercard Foundation Scholars Research Fund Sub-Committee - 2018.



Technology Square Research Building
Atlanta, GA,
USA

cc Jon