I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College. I was previously a Roman Family Teaching and Research Fellow in Computer Science at Barnard College. I completed my PhD in Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, where I was affiliated with the Center for Language and Speech Processing and advised by Benjamin Van Durme.

My research interests include natural language processing and computational social science. In particular, I study the reasoning capabilities and biases in natural language processing models. I also apply natural language processing to other fields to glean insights from large amounts of text. Most recently, I have been applying NLP techniques to open problems in public health and social sciences.

If you are a Bryn Mawr or Haverford student interested in natural language processing or data science research, please reach out! I have on-going and new research projects and I am open to ideas that you have as well. In general, I am excited about most problems related to data science and machine learning applied to language. Please read this google doc, it provides an overview of the type of projects my lab works on. If you are interesting in doing a senior capstone/thesis in our lab, you must begin in your senior Fall semester the latest.

I tweet primarily about natural language processing.

Consulting
I regularly provide NLP, Data Science, and Machine Learning consulting for a wide range of organizations. I am currently open to new clients. Please email me to learn more and schedule an initial call.

Office: 200C Park Science Building
Office Hours (Fall 2023):
Monday 2:45-4:00pm
Tuesday 9:30-10:45am
Email: apoliak@brynmawr.edu
Phone: 610-526-5404