Coder • Researcher • Math-Enthusiast • Artist
Hello! I am a Ph.D. student in the Machine Learning Department
at Carnegie Mellon University. I research how machine learning
and generative AI can support idea generation and intrinsic
motivation for engaging with wicked, future-facing problems in
project-based learning, design, and entrepreneurship. I am
advised by
Dr. Nikolas Martelaro
(Human Computer Interaction) and
Dr. Tom Mitchell
(Machine Learning Department).
While at Carnegie Mellon University, I won the
Tools Competition 2024
Award Catalyst Award ($50k) for my proposal
"Artificial Mentors for Student-Driven Projects", and have since been researching how people select, elaborate,
and iterate on their project proposals. In SP2025-FA2025 I
worked with
Dr. Peter Scupelli's design courses to understand barriers for high quality
reflection and task engagement in future-facing sustainable and
societal design.
Previously, I have worked on AI safety and large language models
projects through internships at Microsoft Research (advised by
Dr. Adam Kalai
&
Dr. Rosa Arriaga), Indico Data (advised by
Madison May), and The MITRE Corporation (advised by
Dr. John Henderson).
I finished my undergraduate at
Olin College of Engineering
majoring in
Engineering: Computing. There, I worked as a computing researcher in Olin's
Microbiology and Bioinformatics lab advised by
Dr. Jean Huang, in Olin's Satellite + Spectrum Technology & Policy group
advised by
Dr. Whitney Lohmeyer, and on a senior capstone research project advised by
Fidelity Center for Applied Technology.
Experience
CMU Augmented Design
CMU Learning Environments
Olin Microbiology Lab
Olin Satellite Lab
Fidelity R&D
Microsoft Research
Indico Data R&D
MITRE NLP Lab
Cumulus Digital Systems
The MITRE Corporation
Boston University
Ph.D. Researcher @ CMU Augmented Design Capability Studio
March 2025 - Present
Advised by Professor Nik Martelaro
- Identified user behaviors and needs while creating and selecting project pitches by analyzing students' LLM chat logs in a CMU introduction to entrepreneurship class brainstorming session.
- Ongoing.
-
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Using large language models to simulate multiple humans and replicate
human subject studies
G. Aher, R. I. Arriaga, and A. T. Kalai.
ICML 2023, *Oral.
Evaluating the FCC's $10 Billion Gamble: Successfully Accelerating
Access to Spectrum in Auction 107
G. Aher, P. Post, P. Boyalakuntla, G. Miner, L. Heinrich, Y. Mao,
J. A. Musey, W. Lohmeyer.
Journal of Information Policy (2023).
Analysis of Geostationary Federal Communication Commission Satellite
Applications from 2000 to 2022
P. Post, K. Fleming, K. Canavan, S. Cho, G. Aher, W. Lohmeyer.
Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets (2023).
Posters & Workshops
AI Mentors for Student Projects: Spotting Early Issues in Computer
Science Proposals
G. Aher, R. Schmucker, T. Mitchell, Z. C. Lipton
AAAI 2025, *Oral Spotlight, Workshop on Innovation and
Responsibility in AI-Supported Education (iRAISE)
What Factors Affect Microbial Community Composition?
Northeastern Microbiologists: Physiology, Ecology, and Taxonomy (NEMPET
2021)
SOARing with Drones in Education
Massachusetts Computer Using Educators (MassCUE 2018)
Refining Private Set Intersection Under Secure Multi-Party
Computation
Boston University, Greater Boston Research Opportunities for Women
(GROW 2018)
Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, and Amazon Web Services
International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE 2018)
Projects
React.js + DigitalOcean + SQLite + Auth0 Football Pick-Em' site used by 40+ active weekly users
Fullstack React Development
Read MoreAlgorithms and implementations for small-world (local clustering) and scale-free (hubs) graphs
Generating Realistic Graphs
Read MoreDeep learning object-detection trials on pre-training, multi-label, small & imbalanced targets
Faster R-CNN for Handwriting Detection
Read MoreConstant time querying, compressing huge index numbers, and bypassing the curse of global updates
Data Structures for Large Scale Information Retrieval
Read MoreCharacterizing repeating protein patterns on bacteria image with 2D Fourier Transform
Fourier Transform Detective Story
Read MoreBrowse Projects By Category
Teaching, Leadership, and Academic Service
51-150 Mini 2 CMU School of Design (Instructor & Researcher, Fall 2025): Personal Design Future (project-based learning course)
51-150 Mini 1 CMU School of Design (Teaching Assistant & Researcher, Fall 2025): Personal Design Future (discussion-based course)
10-643/10-743/11-805 CMU Machine Learning Department & Language Technologies Institute (Teaching Assistant, Fall 2025): Socio-technical Evaluations of Generative AI
ENGR3599A-SL Olin College (Instructor Student-Led Course, Spring 2023): Advanced Algorithms
MTH2110 Olin College (Teaching Assistant Head Grader, Fall 2022): Discrete Mathematics
GirlsWhoCode Olin College (Branch Leader, Fall 2022)
Data Science and ML Lunch-and-Learn Olin College (Organizer & Presenter, Fall 2021)
ENGR2510 Olin College (Teaching Assistant, Fall 2022)
Einstein's Workshop Coding & STEM Classes (Teaching Assistant, 2017 - 2019)
Shishu Bharati Indian Language K-8 (Teaching Assistant, 2015 - 2019)
FIRST Lego League Robotics (Mentor, Fall 2018)
Some art...
My hobbies include drawing, rock-climbing, and playing board games :)