Koustuv Saha

About

Koustuv Saha is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, starting his position in Fall 2023. He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in 2021 and holds a B.Tech. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. His research interests include social computing, computational social science, human-centered machine learning, and FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics in AI). He adopts machine learning, natural language processing, and causal inference analysis to examine human behavior and wellbeing using digital data such as social media and multimodal sensing data. His work questions the underlying assumptions of data-driven inferences and explores the possible harms associated with them. His research is situated in an interdisciplinary and human-centered context, bearing implications for various stakeholders. Saha has published his work at venues including CHI, CSCW, ICWSM, IMWUT (UbiComp), Scientific Reports, JMIR, and FAccT. He has received several awards, including the 2021 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from Georgia Tech's College of Computing, the Foley Scholarship Award from the GVU Center, and the Snap Research Fellowship. His research has been recognized with the Outstanding Study Design Award at ICWSM and has been covered by media outlets such as the New York Times, Vox, CBC Radio, NBC, and others. Prior to his academic…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Virology
• Medicine
• Cognitive science
• Knowledge management
• Geography
• Psychiatry
• Human–computer interaction

Selected publications

• Mental wellbeing effects of disclosing life events on social media

  Scientific Reports · 2025-07-02 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Life events are noteworthy moments that we often share on social media. However, how such online disclosures of life events impact our mental wellbeing is largely unknown. This study examines the effects of these disclosures using data from 236 participants. Regression models reveal that individual differences and event attributes significantly influence wellbeing. Through a quasi-experimental design, we find that sharing life events on Facebook positively impacts wellbeing by increasing positiv…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Identifying Suicide-Related Language in Smartphone Keyboard Entries Among High-Risk Adolescents

  2025-09-03 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Adolescent suicide rates have risen over the past two decades, underscoring the need for improved risk detection strategies. Although natural language processing (NLP) tools are increasingly used to flag suicide-related content, little is known about how such approaches perform on adolescents’ smartphone communications. Addressing this gap, this study leverages passively-collected smartphone data to identify suicide-related language in adolescents’ keyboard usage via NLP. We developed a lexicon…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Designing Beyond Language: Sociotechnical Barriers in AI Health Technologies for Limited English Proficiency

  2026-04-13 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Limited English proficiency (LEP) patients in the U.S. face systemic barriers to healthcare beyond language and interpreter access, encompassing procedural and institutional constraints. AI advances may support communication and care through on-demand translation and visit preparation, but also risk exacerbating existing inequalities. We conducted storyboard-driven interviews with 14 patient navigators to explore how AI could shape care experiences for Spanish-speaking LEP individuals. We identi…

  PublisherDOI

• Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study on Social Media

  Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media · 2025-06-07 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Given the limited understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted mental health on college campuses, this paper examines the evolution of the mental health of college students since the onset of the pandemic. We conducted a large-scale study on over 1.2M posts on 173 U.S. college subreddits over 17 months. In particular, we adopted a quasi-experimental approach to examine how the different stages of the pandemic (isolation period, normalization period, and vaccination period) impacted change…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mapping Caregiver Needs to AI Chatbot Design: Strengths and Gaps in Mental Health Support for Alzheimer's and Dementia Caregivers

  ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare · 2026-03-24 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Family caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (AD/ADRD) face significant emotional and logistical challenges that place them at heightened risk for stress, anxiety, and depression. Although recent advances in generative AI—particularly large language models (LLMs)—offer new opportunities to support mental health, little is known about how caregivers perceive and engage with such technologies. To address this gap, we developed Carey, a GPT-4o–based chatbot designe…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Munmun De Choudhury

  147 shared

• S. Mo Jang

  67 shared

• Orestis Papakyriakopoulos

  65 shared

• Kaveh Khoshnood

  Yale University

  62 shared

• Joseph D. Tucker

  61 shared

• Weiming Tang

  Shenzhen University

  60 shared

• Kamila Janmohamed

  Yale University

  60 shared

• Chris T. Bauch

  University of Waterloo

  60 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2010

• M.S., Computer Science

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2006

• B.S., Computer Science

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2004

Awards & honors

• Adamic-Glance Early Career Distinguished Award, AAAI Interna…
• OpEd/Public Voices Fellow, 2025
• Best Paper Honorable Mention, CHI, 2024
• Georgia Tech College of Computing Outstanding Dissertation A…
• Best Paper Honorable Mention, WristSense, 2020

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Jiawei Hanh-146
• Kaiyu Guanh-86
• ChengXiang Zhaih-83