Sachita Nishal
PhD Candidate, Northwestern University
Hi, I'm Sachita! I'm a 5th-year PhD candidate at Northwestern University, advised by Dr. Nick Diakopoulos. My research lies at the intersection of HCI, AI, and science communication, exploring how sociotechnical systems for news production can support the practice of science journalism, through upholding users' personal and professional values.
Specifically, I focus on: 1) designing and evaluating AI-infused systems to support journalists' processes of information discovery, sense-making, and writing, and 2) examining technology's broader impacts on the news and information ecosystem.
I've presented my work at HCI and AI conferences (CSCW, CHI, DIS, FAccT, IC2S2) and journalism events (Big Local News, SRCCON). I also blog about my work here (on and off).
You can email me at: nishal [at] u.northwestern.edu
News
April 2025: I'll be co-organizing the workshop on News Futures at CHI 2025 in Yokohama, Japan! We'll explore the design of sociotechnical systems for news production and consumption, and hopefully develop new research ideas for the field going ahead!
April 2025: Our short paper titled Designing for Agency in LLM-Infused Writing Support Tools for Science Journalism has been accepted to the workshop on Tools for Thought at CHI 2025! This work comes out of my internship at MSR FATE last summer; stay tuned for more on this over the next year.
March 2025: I'm officially ABD, I passed my prospectus exam exploring the design of sociotechnical systems for creativity support in science journalism. Now on to the dissertation!
Recent Blog Posts
Learning to scope (and also breathe) —
Some idle thoughts in the aftermath of my prospectus defense
Recent write-up on LLMs and uncertainty —
One way news practitioners can think about uncertainty in LLM outputs
A prototype newsgathering tool for science journalists —
A recent write-up about work presented at C+J 2024.