Human-AI Interaction · AI Governance · User-Centered Tech
Afifah Kashif

Afifah Kashif

Hi! I'm Afifah, I'm passionate about leveraging technology for social good on a global scale. My work spans research, design, and governance of AI and robotic systems that center the people who live with them, particularly in caregiving and educational contexts.

Currently working on my dissertation with Dr. Malak Sadek, Dr. Jin Huang, and Dr. Hatice Gunes (AFAR Lab, HIVE Lab) on evaluating and mitigating bias in LLM-powered social robots with human-in-the-loop interventions.

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§ 02 / News

Recent Updates

§ 03 / Experience

Where I’ve Worked

Civic, Open & Resilient Democracy Action Fellow

Odyssean Institute Jacob Haimes (Apart Research) · Dr. Swaptik Choudhury (RAND)

Apr 2026 - Present

Coding expert responses, extracting causal variables, and building causal loop diagrams for an AI governance horizon scan, powering decision-support tools in the 2026 UK assembly.

Research Assistant

PluralisticAI Lab Dr. Zhenzhen Qi (University of Connecticut) · Dr. Avijit Ghosh (Hugging Face)

Mar 2026 - Present

Co-designing a controlled human-subjects study evaluating whether an open-source, multi-persona LLM interface can reduce political polarization. Combining cognitive science, political studies, AI Alignment, game design and HCI.

Robotics Software Engineering Intern

Hello RobotUX + Human-Robot Interaction · Dr. Vinitha Ranganeni

May 2025 - Aug 2025

Designed an interactive dashboard and workflow for managing autonomous robot power systems, combining real-time battery feedback, predictive alerts, and manual override controls. Iteratively prototyped and user-tested for trust, reliability, and operator agency.

Research Assistant

Wordplay ProjectUW Information School · Dr. Amy Ko

Sep 2024 - June 2025

Led design and deployment of an accessible, multilingual programming language learning platform in local schools. Coordinated an open-source contributor community and developed a pre-built “templates” system to scaffold first-time coders.

Backend Software Engineering Intern

HowellCoStealth Startup

Jul 2024 - Sep 2024

Contributed to backend service development at a beta-stage startup, designing products, devising a testing strategy, and using Azure services and Python scripting to enhance backend infrastructure on the mobile app.

Software Engineering Intern

Code.orgProduct-Oriented EdTech Engineering

Jul 2023 - Sep 2023

Developed and designed full-stack web-based, coding games on engineering and product teams. Programmed with React and Ruby on Rails, impacting 80 million students and 2 million teachers worldwide.

Operations & Product Intern

FiveableEdTech Startup

Apr 2021 - Nov 2021

Scaled internal operations and product workflows during the company’s transition into a consumer platform. Led development of a student-facing platform aimed at improving access for first-generation and low-income learners.

§ 04 / Research

Research

P / 01

Governance as Methodology: Toward Anticipatory, Design-Embedded Governance for Human-Robot Interaction

2nd Interactive AI for Human-Centered Robotics Workshop @ ACM/IEEE HRI

Afifah Kashif, Malak Sadek

2026 →
P / 02

Governance at the Edge of Architecture: Regulating NeuroAI and Neuromorphic Systems

arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.01503

Afifah Kashif, Abdul Hameed, Asim Iqbal

2026 →
P / 03

Regulatory Considerations for Physically Assistive Robotics Researchers

Physical Caregiving Robots Workshop @ ACM/IEEE HRI

Afifah Kashif, Amal Nanavati, Maya Cakmak

2025 →
P / 04

Assessing GPT’s Bias Towards Stigmatized Social Groups: An Intersectional Case Study on Nationality Prejudice and Psychophobia

Considering Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in AI Workshop @ ASIS&T

Afifah Kashif*, Heer Patel*

*authors contributed equally

2024 →
P / 05

Broadening Participation in Computing by Designing Hackathons that Engage Local Communities

CMD-IT/ACM Richard Tapia Conference (Workshop Host; first & only undergraduate team)

Afifah Kashif, Andrew Tran, Salma Aly, Egi Rama, Chiku Okechukwu

2024 →
§ 05 / Projects

Selected Projects

Undergraduate Capstone · 2025

Assistive Ointment Care Robot

An assistive system on the Stretch RE2 mobile manipulator that lets people with limited mobility apply topical medication independently, with a custom brush attachment, programming-by-demonstration, and a web-based GUI for area selection and emergency control. Designed around a human-in-the-loop model that preserves user agency in intimate healthcare contexts. Co-designed with people who manage chronic eczema, professional caregivers, and an occupational therapist.

Human Robot Interaction · ROS Watch the demo → Read the paper →
UX Research · 2024-2025

Wordplay, Coding for All

A multilingual, accessible, scaffolded coding environment built with Dr. Amy Ko at the UW Information School. Led template design (pre-structured code blocks students could drag and remix), coordinated an open-source community of nearly 80 contributors, and conducted classroom deployments in a partner school. Anchored the design in literature on inclusive edtech and educational governance.

Service Design · Ed-Tech · Accessibility See photo →
AI Research · 2026

AI x Neuroscience Investigation

Replicated and extended Goldstein et al.’s finding that the human brain and autoregressive language models share computational principles during speech comprehension. Using the Podcast ECoG dataset (9 subjects, 1,330 electrodes), reproduced evidence for next-word prediction, post-onset surprise, and contextual representation. A novel variance partitioning analysis showed that surprisal and contextual embeddings capture largely independent neural signals, supporting the view that prediction and representation are dissociable in the brain’s language system.

Computational Neuroscience · NLP · ECoG Read the paper →
Human-AI Collaboration Research · 2026

Error Overlap in Human-AI Complementarity

Investigated why the most accurate model doesn’t always make the best human-AI team. Across three binary classification tasks, showed that error overlap between model and human (not standalone accuracy) predicts team performance, with the least accurate model sometimes forming the strongest team under learned deferral. Also examined how deferral strategies shift who receives human review, raising fairness concerns.

Algorithmic Decision-Making · Fairness Read the paper →
AI Fairness Research · 2025-2026

LLM Bias Evaluation

My ongoing MPhil dissertation at Cambridge under Dr. Jin Huang, Dr. Malak Sadek, and Dr. Hatice Gunes, evaluating bias in LLM-powered social robots and designing human-in-the-loop interventions to mitigate it.

LLMs · Human Robot Interaction · Evaluation
Community Work · 2025-present

IRC Digital Literacy Program

A program I founded with the International Rescue Committee and a local hospital to teach digital literacy to refugee communities in Seattle. I designed the curriculum, taught weekly classes, and secured grants for translation and access.

Curriculum · Accessibility · Community Partnership
§ 06 / Talks

Talks & Public Speaking

Centre for Human-Inspired AI, CambridgeDissertation Seminar
How Bias Evaluation Methods Disagree: A Comparative Study of Dictionary-Based and LLM-as-Judge Approaches in Conversational AI
May 2026
See photos ↓
Dissertation talk at Centre for Human-Inspired AI
CCBF AI Startup CompetitionSemifinalist
Pitched an LLM evaluation startup at the Cambridge China Business Forum.
May 2026
CHIA Early Career Community EventSpeaker
Presented my work surrounding conversational AI, social robotics, and the bias-to-LLM-to-robotics pipeline.
May 2026
See photos ↓
CHIA Early Career Community Event
A Learning LabGuest speaker
A guest session on questions of who benefits from technology and what powers shape its design, framing technology as inherently social, political, and human.
Mar 2026
Clare College, Cambridge700th Anniversary
“The Politics of Educational Technology”: About how AI in edtech systems isn’t neutral, and the risk of automating inequity at scale if we don’t question what norms our systems center.
Feb 2026
See photos ↓
Clareity talk at Clare College Clareity talk at Clare College
Inclusive Design Futures · Matteo ZallioGuest lecture
Invited to lecture his undergraduate course on Inclusive Design Futures: “An Ethical AI Lens for Neuroinclusive Design,” on treating neuroinclusion not as compliance but as a generative design philosophy.
Feb 2026
HRI 2026Workshop paper presentation
Presented work on anticipatory, design-embedded governance for human-robot interaction.
Mar 2026
See photos ↓
HRI 2026 HRI 2026 HRI 2026 HRI 2026
Karl-Adam Bonniers FoundationNordic Scholars
Gave speech at closing forum hosted by Karl-Adam Bonniers Foundation as part of the Nordic Scholars Leadership Initiative. See post →
Sep 2025
See photos ↓
Nordic Scholars Leadership Institute
HRI 2025Workshop paper presentation
“Regulatory Considerations for Physically Assistive Robotics Researchers” at the Physical Caregiving Robots workshop.
Mar 2025
Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & EngineeringRoundtable
Roundtable discussion with Washington State legislators and industry representatives on the impact of the Allen School. Spoke on community, opportunity, and the importance of diverse voices in shaping technology. See post →
Nov 2024
See photos ↓
Allen School roundtable with legislators
ASIS&T 2024Workshop paper
Co-presented work on intersectional bias in GPT toward stigmatized social groups.
Oct 2024
Tapia Conference 2024Workshop host
First and only undergraduate team to host a workshop at CMD-IT/ACM Richard Tapia, on broadening participation in computing through community-engaged hackathons. See post →
Sep 2024
See photos ↓
Tapia Conference hackathon workshop
§ 07 / Teaching

Teaching

University of CambridgeCS & HCI Supervisor
Held Oxbridge-style supervisions across Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction; covering core CS theory and practice (polymorphism, encapsulation, design patterns) alongside HCI methods.
Oct 2025 - Mar 2026
International Rescue CommitteeFounder & Instructor
Founded a digital literacy program in partnership with Kabul Seattle Community Services and the International Rescue Committee. Designed the curriculum, taught weekly, secured grants and volunteers.
Jan 2025 - present
Stanford Code in PlaceSection Leader
Delivered Python curriculum to global students; weekly virtual sessions of 15 with 80% attendance.
Apr - May 2024
CPIA1 RomaLanguage & Literacy Teacher
Co-taught language and integration courses for migrant mothers in Rome; learned the importance of community centered work.
Jan - Mar 2024
University of WashingtonTeaching Assistant
TA for Intro Programming and Hardware/Software Interface. Guided 600+ students through OOP and data structures, held weekly office hours across three courses for a cohort of 1,500, and helped students debug Java, C and assembly programs.
Jan 2023 - Mar 2025
§ 08 / Skills

My (Not Just Technical) Skills

Software Engineering

Python JavaScript / TypeScript Ruby (Rails) C HTML / CSS SQL React Backend (Azure, AWS, REST APIs) Open-Source Community Management

AI & Robotics

LLM Evaluation & Benchmarking Human-in-the-Loop Methods Multi-Agent / Multi-Persona Systems Prompt Engineering Hugging Face PyTorch ROS / ROS2 Stretch RE2 (Hello Robot) Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)

Governance & Policy

Anticipatory Governance AI Safety Fundamentals Sociotechnical Risk Analysis Regulatory Analysis Standards Bodies (ISO/IEC, NIST) Multi-Stakeholder Coordination

Research & Writing

Human-Subjects Studies Qualitative Coding & Thematic Analysis Causal Modeling Mixed-Methods research Literature Synthesis Survey Design Academic Writing Public Speaking & Workshop Facilitation Teaching & Curriculum Design

Design / UX

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) User Research & Interviewing Co-Design / Participatory Design Accessible Design Prototyping (Figma) Usability Testing

Languages

English (native) Urdu / Hindi (native)
§ 09 / Personal

Off the screen

When I’m not at a computer, I love to hike, sew + design clothes, ride motorcycles, and travel!

Map Hikes from around Washington!

Click a pin for details. Map data © OpenStreetMap.

Gallery A few of my favorite travels :)

Get in touch.

I am always down to chat about my work, interests, potential collaborations, or to grab a coffee :)

Email
ak2687@cam.ac.uk
LinkedIn
in/afifah-k
Research
Google Scholar
Based in
Cambridge, UK & Seattle, USA
© 2026 Afifah Kashif
Last updated May 2026
Cambridge · UK  /  Seattle · USA