Eleanor Lin

Eleanor M. Lin

elealin@umich.edu
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I am a second-year Computer Science and Engineering PhD student at the University of Michigan (matriculated Fall 2024), advised by David Jurgens. I obtained my BA at Columbia University, double-majoring in linguistics and computer science. I am primarily interested in natural language processing (NLP), with a particular interest in both applying NLP to understand how multilingual people communicate, as well as building technologies that better serve multilinguals. My work is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

At Columbia’s Speech Lab, I researched code-switching, empathy detection, and dialogue act modeling under the mentorship of Professor Julia Hirschberg. I have also researched the use of large language models for the study of negotiation at the University of Southern California’s Affective Computing Lab, where I was advised by Professor Jonathan Gratch. Previously, working with Professor Vicente Ordóñez Román in the Vision, Language, and Learning Lab at Rice University, I investigated the relationship between images’ visual complexity and image descriptions’ linguistic complexity. Working with Dr. Kate Moore in the Corter Lab at Columbia’s Teachers College, I have also researched communication patterns in collaborative learning. Additionally, I wrote my senior thesis on low-resource speech-to-speech translation, and conducted sociolinguistic fieldwork and language documentation through my undergraduate coursework at Columbia. You can find my curriculum vitae here.

Education

  • University of Michigan, College of Engineering
    Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science & Engineering (GPA: 4.0/4.0)
     Expected 2029
     Honors: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Institutional Nominee for the Google PhD Fellowship Program

Publications

Refereed Publications

  • Let’s Think 一步一步: A Cognitive Framework for Characterizing Code-Switching in LLM Reasoning
    Eleanor Lin and David Jurgens. 39th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025) Workshop: First Workshop on CogInterp: Interpreting Cognition in Deep Learning Models. San Diego, CA. [Blog post] [Paper]

  • Switching Tongues, Sharing Hearts: Identifying the Relationship between Empathy and Code-switching in Speech
    Debasmita Bhattacharya*, Eleanor Lin*, Run Chen, and Julia Hirschberg. INTERSPEECH 2024. Kos Island, Greece. *DB and EL are equal contributors to this work and are designated as co-first authors. [Paper]

  • Detecting Empathy in Speech
    Run Chen, Haozhe Chen, Anushka Kulkarni, Eleanor Lin, Linda Pang, Divya Tadimeti, Jun Shin, and Julia Hirschberg. INTERSPEECH 2024. Kos Island, Greece. [Paper]

Working Papers and Preprints

Presentations

  • Let’s Think 一步一步: A Cognitive Framework for Characterizing Code-Switching in LLM Reasoning
    Eleanor Lin and David Jurgens. 2025 University of Michigan Annual Data Science & AI Summit, Ann Arbor, MI. [Blog post] [Poster]

  • Let’s Think 一步一步: A Cognitive Framework for Characterizing Code-Switching in LLM Reasoning
    Eleanor Lin and David Jurgens. 2025 University of Michigan Human-Centered AI (HCAI) Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI. [Blog post] [Poster]

  • Let’s Think 一步一步: A Cognitive Framework for Characterizing Code-Switching in LLM Reasoning
    Eleanor Lin and David Jurgens. 2025 Michigan AI Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI. [Blog post] [Poster]

  • Investigating Code-Switching as a Cognitive Tool in Large Language Model Reasoning
    Eleanor Lin and David Jurgens. NLP @ Michigan Day, Ann Arbor, MI, March 2025. Poster presentation. [Poster]

  • Instilling discipline in LLM-based negotiating agents
    James Hale, Eleanor Lin, Ian Wu, Zora Rong, Kushal Chawla, Gale Lucas, and Jonathan Gratch. Annual Conference of the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM), Singapore, June 2024. Symposium talk.

Grants, Awards, and Academic Honors

  • Rackham Conference Travel Grant ($900), University of Michigan
    Awarded to cover the cost of travel for the NeurIPS 2025 conference.

  • Computer Science & Engineering Student Funding ($375), University of Michigan, 2025
    Awarded $375 to cover the cost of registration for the NeurIPS 2025 conference.

  • Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 2025
    Selected through competitive application process to receive 3 years of financial support toward graduate study (acceptance rate ~15%). 1500 students total were selected nationwide (with 10 selected specifically from the discipline of natural language processing).

  • Institutional Nominee for the Google PhD Fellowship Program, University of Michigan, 2025
    One of up to 4 candidates from the University of Michigan selected through a competitive application process.

  • Departmental Honors in Linguistics, Columbia University Program of Linguistics, 2024
    One of two graduating linguistics majors selected for honors, on the basis of the quality of the senior thesis.

  • Computer Science Scholarship Award, Columbia University Department of Computer Science, 2024
    One of two B.A. candidates selected annually on the basis of “outstanding academic achievement in computer science."

  • Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) Fellowship for Advanced Overseas Chinese Language Study, American Councils for International Education, 2024
    Awarded $7000 to cover cost of attendance for Taiwan Intensive Summer Language Program. Conducted post-program outreach: organized information session in partnership with Columbia University Undergraduate Global Engagement, presented study abroad opportunities to 27 students in 2 undergraduate Chinese language classes at the University of Michigan, authored blog post for American Councils' website.

  • Dean's List, Columbia College, 2020 - 2024

  • Work Exemption Program Grant, Columbia University, 2024
    Recipient of $1,820 Columbia Grant to support pursuit of research in the Columbia Speech Lab.

  • Junior Phi Beta Kappa, Columbia University, 2023
    Awarded to 2% of the Columbia College Class of 2024 (26 students) in recognition of breadth, depth, and rigor in scholarship

  • NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates Intern, University of Southern California, 2023

  • Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates Intern, Computing Research Association, 2022
    Awarded $7000 to conduct research at Rice University with Professor Vicente Ordóñez Román.

Research Experience

  • Blablablab, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
    Graduate Student Research Assistant, August 2024 - Present | Adviser: David Jurgens
    Conduct research at the intersection of NLP, computational social science, and sociolinguistics.

  • Speech Lab, Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY
    Research Assistant, January 2022 - May 2024 | Adviser: Julia Hirschberg
    Investigated relationship between empathy and code-switching by detecting empathetic utterances in code-switched speech, using RoBERTa fine-tuned for empathy detection. Investigated relationship between dialog acts and code-switching, by adapting dialog act annotation scheme to better suit, and annotating dialog acts on, code-switched speech. Wrote script to fine-tune Wav2Vec2 for end-to-end dialog act classification on Switchboard Dialog Act Corpus, using PyTorch and Hugging Face Transformers. Contributed to multimodal, multilingual empathetic speech corpus by processing video, audio, text with Jupyter Notebooks, Praat, FFmpeg.

  • Affective Computing Lab, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
    Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Intern, May 2023 - August 2023 | Adviser: Jonathan Gratch
    Developed negotiating agent for online studies of human negotiation behaviors. Engineered large language model prompts for agent NLU/NLG with OpenAI API. Built user interface using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flask. Assembled Qualtrics survey for crowdworkers to evaluate agent.

  • Vision, Language, and Learning Lab, Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX
    Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU) Intern, May 2022 - July 2022 | Adviser: Vicente Ordóñez Román
    Quantified visual and linguistic complexity in MSCOCO image captioning dataset by creating and applying novel visual complexity metric, then fine-tuning BERT to predict visual complexity from image captions. Probed and mitigated content-related biases in resulting models.

  • Natural Language Text Processing Lab, Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY
    Data Annotator, October 2021 – December 2021 | Adviser: Fei-Tzin Lee
    Generated semantic annotations for text generation/summarization in the literary domain.

  • Corter Lab, Department of Human Development, Columbia University, New York, NY
    Research Assistant, March 2021 - June 2021 | Adviser: Katherine Moore
    Identified communication strategies in collaborative learning dialogues by annotating speech acts and analyzing n-gram frequencies with R. Assisted with onboarding new research assistants. [Code]

Media

  • Alumna Spotlight: Meet Eleanor Lin (CC '24)
    Sarah Bryden, Tin Lau, Ben Parkhurst, and Meredith Landman. Columbia University Linguistics Program Blog, December 2025. [Blog post]

Course Projects

  • CSE 692: Advanced Artificial Intelligence, From Motion to Meaning: A Benchmark for Physical Reasoning Through Event Decomposition
    May 2025. Jung-Chun Liu, Eleanor Lin, Zichen Wang. University of Michigan.
    We address the limitations of traditional physical reasoning benchmarks for vision-language models (VLMs) by introducing a new evaluation framework specifically designed to probe VLMs’ understanding of Newtonian mechanics, a fundamental component of intuitive physical reasoning.

  • CSE 598: Causality and Machine Learning, "Thanks for saying thanks!": Estimating Causal Effects of Positive Affirmations of Gratitude by TheGratitudeBot on Reddit
    December 2024. Eleanor Lin, Yinuo (Nancy) Xu, Omkar Yadav. University of Michigan.
    Investigated which linguistic properties of positive reinforcement messages are effective in encouraging prosocial behavior on Reddit. Estimated (conditional) average treatment effects of linguistic properties with TextCause and explored treatment effect heterogeneity using causal forests.

  • CSE 593: Human-Computer Interaction, Improving Emotional Expressivity of Text-Based Communications on Touchscreen Mobile Phones
    December 2024. Calvin Chan, Jeremy Huang, Eleanor Lin, Rayhan Rashed, Anny Wu. (Authors listed in alphabetical order.) University of Michigan.
    Iteratively designed text entry system integrating features to enable emotionally expressive communication, applying research and design practices and principles including literature review, contextual interviews, surveying, heuristic evaluation, quantitative evaluation, user testing, prototyping in Figma, statistical analysis, and usability principles.

Teaching Experience

  • Columbia COMS4771: Machine Learning, New York, NY
    Course Assistant, January 2024 - May 2024
    Introduction to machine learning. Held office hours, took attendance, monitored class discussion board, and graded assignments.

  • Columbia LING4903: Syntax, New York, NY
    Teaching Assistant, September 2023 - December 2023
    Introduction to modern formal theories of syntax. Held office hours, took attendance, and graded assignments.

  • Columbia COMS3251: Computational Linear Algebra, New York, NY
    Course Assistant, September 2022 - December 2022
    Introduction to linear algebra and its applications to data analysis. Hosted weekly office hours, moderated class discussion board, graded homework assignments, proctored final exam.

  • Columbia COMS1404: Emerging Scholars Program Seminar, New York, NY
    Workshop Assistant, September 2021 – May 2022
    Facilitated introductory computer science seminar to increase retention of diverse undergraduates. Moderated discussions, took attendance, and emailed weekly announcements.

Journalism Experience

  • The Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor, MI
    Statement Correspondent, May 2025 – July 2025
    Authored two ~2000-word ledes and one ~1600-word secondary article for The Statement, the long-form magazine of The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan's independent student-run newspaper. Pitched stories, conducted interviews, coordinated with editors, contributed photography, and performed archival research. [Articles]

  • Columbia Daily Spectator, New York, NY
    Graphics Deputy Editor, January 2022 – May 2022
    Reported stories incorporating data analysis and visualization using Python, Adobe Illustrator, HTML, and CSS. Co-authored article on disparities in access to healthy food in local area, including interactive map of food sources. Provided data visualizations for article on COVID-19 vaccination rate disparities between different demographic groups. Recruited and trained reporters in data journalism. [Articles]

  • Columbia Daily Spectator, New York, NY
    Graphics Trainee, October 2021 – December 2021
    Reported story on student mental health in online communities, including communicating methodology and results of social media data analysis. [Articles]

  • Columbia Daily Spectator, New York, NY
    Summer Fellow, July 2020
    Pitched, wrote, and published ~3,000-word feature in The Eye magazine, working on a two-week deadline. Conferred with editors, conducted background research, interviewed 6 sources, and wrote article. [Articles]

Science Communication

  • Columbia Science Review, New York, NY
    Writer, September 2020 – December 2021
    Wrote biweekly articles on topics including environmental science, computational social science, biochemistry, and mathematics.

  • Columbia Science Review, New York, NY
    COVID-19 Public Hub Co-Leader, October 2020 – May 2021
    Launched Instagram account (@csrcovidhub) to provide Columbia-relevant COVID-19 information to 200+ followers.

Extracurricular and Volunteer Experience

  • University of Michigan Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships, Ann Arbor, MI
    Mentor for NSF GRF Peer Mentor Network, September 2025 - Present
    Provide application feedback and participate in outreach events to current University of Michigan students applying to the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

  • University of Michigan Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Ann Arbor, MI
    AI Blog Editor, August 2025 - Present
    Create, edit, and proofread the Michigan AI blog, and encourage blog contributions from graduate students in the Michigan AI Lab.

  • Engaging Scientists in Policy and Advocacy, Ann Arbor, MI
    Secretary and Social Media Coordinator, July 2025 - Present
    Keep accurate records to ensure continuity of ESPA's institutional memory, so that we can also continuously improve our initiatives. Ensure timely communication of relevant opportunities to members. Increase ESPA's public visibility, furthering our mission of fostering publicly engaged science and science communication. Foster useful collaborations and connections between ESPA and aligned organizations/individuals via social media.

  • Café con Ling, Virtual
    Mentor, December 2024 - Present
    Mentor current undergraduates in the Columbia University Linguistics Program, through student-led mentoring program which provides by-appointment office hours.

  • Michigan Taiwanese Student Association , Ann Arbor, MI
    Volunteer, August 2024 – Present
    Build community among Taiwanese graduate students at the University of Michigan by assisting operations and providing transportation at monthly social events.

  • University of Michigan College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI
    Common Reading Experience Book Selection Committee Volunteer, November 2024 - February 2025
    Review 2 books to facilitate the process of selecting a book for the University of Michigan College of Engineering's Common Reading Experience, which aims to foster community, non-technical skills, and curiosity among engineering students. Provide feedback via surveys and group discussion.

  • University of Michigan Language Resource Center, Ann Arbor, MI
    Language Bank Program Volunteer, November 2024 - Present
    Translate documents from English to Mandarin Chinese for University of Michigan departments/schools and external non-profit organizations.

  • University of Michigan Graduate Society of Women Engineers, Ann Arbor, MI
    Outreach Volunteer, August 2024 - Present
    Served on graduate school information panel sharing insights with undergraduates on applying to graduate school, finding undergraduate research opportunities, and developing mentoring relationships. Conducted K-12 outreach with Community Action Network by volunteering for museum visit serving children from under-resourced families in Washtenaw County.

  • University of Michigan Computer Science and Engineering Graduate Students, Ann Arbor, MI
    Member, August 2024 - Present
    Advised computer science PhD applicant by providing detailed feedback on application materials, as well as general advice about the application process, through the Student Application Support Program. Hosted Tea Time social hour to build community among graduate students.

  • Columbia College Alumni Association, Virtual
    Odyssey Mentoring Program Mentor, October 2024 - December 2024
    Mentored 1 Columbia College undergraduate through holistic discussion of academics, career paths, and personal goals.

  • University of Michigan Computer Science and Engineering Division, Ann Arbor, MI
    Building Bridges in CSE PhD Studies Volunteer, October 2024 - November 2024
    Conducted outreach to underrepresented undergraduates by delivering talk introducing my research and the U-M CSE graduate program at Florida International University. Hosted one-on-one coffee chats with prospective computer science graduate school applicants.

  • University of Michigan Computer Science and Engineering Division, Ann Arbor, MI
    EECS 110: Discover Computer Science Interview Volunteer, September 2024 - November 2024
    Volunteered to be interviewed by a current student in EECS 110: Discover Computer Science, a course designed to introduce underrepresented students to computer science. Provided student interviewer with perspectives on potential CS career paths, graduate school, research, and internships.

  • Columbia University Women in Computer Science, New York, NY
    Academic Committee Co-Lead, August 2023 - May 2024
    Organized academic-related programming to support gender-diverse Columbia University computer science students, including workshops on course selection and lunches with female computer science professors. Hosted weekly coffee chats to provide students with advising on computer science internships, research, and courses.

  • Columbia University Application Development Initiative, New York, NY
    Mentor for Computer Science Mentorship Program, October 2022 - December 2023
    Supported 2 Columbia University undergraduates majoring in computer science with one-on-one academic and preprofessional advising.

  • Columbia University Women in Computer Science, New York, NY
    Community Committee Chair, August 2022 - May 2023
    Organized activities focused on building a gender-diverse community of Columbia University computer science students, including an information session introducing the technical interview process, as well as social activities such as arts and crafts nights. Hosted weekly coffee chats to provide students with advising on computer science internships, research, and courses.

Miscellaneous

AKA 林書宜 (Lín Shū-yí / Lîm Su-gî). 客家媽媽的硬頸寶貝。台灣暑期密集語言項目畢業生.

Website design inspired by jr4fs.github.io.