PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Arnavi Chheda-Kothary

Also known as Arnavi Chheda

Arnavi Chheda-Kothary is a University of Washington researcher who applies AI to help blind and low-vision people use visual information. She completed computer science and human-centered design degrees at UW, studied for a Columbia master's degree, worked at Microsoft, and managed an engineering team at Ai2. Her papers include work on Molmo, ArtInsight, and GeoVisA11y. Her 2024 artwork study and 2026 GeoVisA11y paper won Best Paper Awards at ASSETS and CHI. She is a doctoral student in computer science at UW and leads a project on multimodal AI for blind and low-vision children's storytelling.

Works
14
Citations
44
h-index
4
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2012–2016

    Two degrees at UW

    She completes bachelor's degrees in computer science and human centered design and engineering at the University of Washington from 2012 to 2016.

  2. 2016–2021

    Engineering at Microsoft

    From 2016 to 2021, she works at Microsoft as a software engineer and software engineering manager.

  3. 2021–2023

    Graduate research at Columbia

    From 2021 to 2023, she studies for a computer science master's degree at Columbia and conducts graduate research in Professor Brian Smith's Computer-Enabled Abilities Lab.

  4. 2023–2025

    Managing an Ai2 team

    From 2023 to 2025, she leads an Ai2 frontend team that helps researchers build real-world applications. In 2024, she coauthors Molmo and PixMo, a paper presenting Molmo as an open family of vision-language models.

  5. 2024–2025

    ArtInsight and an ASSETS award

    In 2024, she coauthors a study of how blind and low-vision family members engage with their sighted children's artwork. The paper wins an ASSETS Best Paper Award. In 2025, she coauthors ArtInsight, an AI-powered system that uses large language models to describe children's artwork and generate questions for family discussion.

  6. 2026

    GeoVisA11y for screen readers

    In 2026, she coauthors GeoVisA11y, an LLM-based question-answering system that makes geovisualizations accessible to screen-reader users through natural-language interaction. The paper wins a CHI 2026 Best Paper Award.

  7. Since 2023

    PhD study at UW

    She joins the Makeability Lab as a PhD student in 2023. As of October 2026, she is a PhD student in the Paul G. Allen School and leads the active BLV Children's Story Creation project, which studies how multimodal AI can support blind and low-vision children's creative storytelling.

Career

  1. Since 2023University of WashingtonResearcher
  2. 2023–2025Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)Frontend team lead
  3. 2021–2023Columbia UniversityGraduate researcher
  4. 2016–2021MicrosoftSoftware engineer and software engineering manager

Education

  1. 2023Columbia UniversityMaster's degree in computer science
  2. From 2023University of WashingtonPhD student
  3. 2016University of WashingtonBachelor's degrees in computer science and human centered design and engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Engaging with Children's Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families2024 · International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS) · 13 citations
  2. ArtInsight: Enabling AI-Powered Artwork Engagement for Mixed Visual-Ability Families2025 · ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) · 11 citations
  3. OLMoTrace: Tracing Language Model Outputs Back to Trillions of Training Tokens2025 · Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) · 6 citationsWith Ali Farhadi, Bailey Kuehl, Noah Smith and Pang Wei Koh
  4. AltGeoViz: Facilitating Accessible Geovisualization2024 · IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics (VIS) · 5 citationsWith Jeffrey Michael Heer
  5. Understanding Blind and Low Vision Users' Attitudes Towards Spatial Interactions in Desktop Screen Readers2023 · International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS) · 4 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Washington. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  2. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Washington. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 3% to 32%Includes University of Washington. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 3% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Washington. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Arnavi Chheda-Kothary arnavick.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. New PhD Student Arnavi Chheda Joins the Makeability Lab | Makeability Lab makeabilitylab.cs.washington.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. [2409.17146] Molmo and PixMo: Open Weights and Open Data for State-of-the-Art Vision-Language Models arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. [2407.18874] Engaging with Children's Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. [2502.19263] ArtInsight: Enabling AI-Powered Artwork Engagement for Mixed Visual-Ability Families arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Makeability Lab Awards | Makeability Lab makeabilitylab.cs.washington.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. GeoVisA11y: An AI-based Geovisualization Question-Answering System for Screen-Reader Users - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  8. Arnavi Chheda-Kothary | Makeability Lab makeabilitylab.cs.washington.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  9. BLV Children's Story Creation | Makeability Lab makeabilitylab.cs.washington.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.