Rohit Prashanth Vasishta

Contact Me

Oxford University Email (Preferred): <<first name>>dot<<lastname>>at<<cs(dot)ox(dot)ac(dot)uk>>

McGill University Email (For all McGill-related enquiries): <<first name>>dot<<last name>>at<<mail(dot)mcgill(dot)ca>>

Personal Email: <<first name>>1<<last name>>at<<gmail(dot)com>>

My Current Whereabouts:

June 2026: I am excited to share that I will be starting my Ph.D. in Informatics at King's College London in October 2026. I will be working under the supervision of Dr. Edwin Lock.

December 2025: I am currently a Research Assistant at the ASPAI project at Oxford University (funded by ARIA). I am currently working on finding ways to aggregate social preferences to develop safety specifications for AI. For context, the ASPAI project is motivated by the following thought: given that our society is continuously heading towards a technocracy,where most decisions are taken by AI agents. Presumably, they act on our behalf, and make decisions like we do (AI alignment). Or do they ? (The AI alignment problem)

Social choice theory gives us ways to ask rational individuals for their preferences, so we can aggregate them into societal preferences. Think elections, think policy, and think any "vote" you take to decide where your team eats dinner. Such an election is a "preference aggregation" process. We are addressing the critical challenge of aggregating diverse and often conflicting human perpectives on AI safety. The core technology involves novel methods in the tradition of social choice theory to elicit and aggregate stakeholder preferences regarding acceptable risk thresholds and safety conditions.

Academic and Professional Journey

• October 2026: Commencement of my Ph.D. in Informatics at King's College London, under the supervision of Dr. Edwin Lock.

• December 2025-September 2026: Research Assistant, ASPAI, University of Oxford

• 2025-Current: Course Lecturer, School of Computer Science, McGill University

• 2025: Awarded the Best Teaching Assistant award by the Department of Computer Science, McGill University.

• 2023-2025: M.Sc. Computer Science (Thesis), under the supervision of Dr. Adrian Vetta, McGill University

• 2023: Awarded the McCall MacBain Scholarships at McGill: Finalist Award

• 2022-2023: Diploma in Advanced Studies and Research (DipASR), Mathematics and Computer Science, Ashoka University

• 2019-2022: B.Sc. (Hons) Mathematics, Ashoka University

• 2019-2023: Trustee and volunteer, Sitara Akka

Publications and Interests

List of publications: Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Decision theory:

  • Voting.

  • Democratic Optimization.

  • Strategic manipulation.

  • Preference aggregation.

  • Preference elicitation.

  • Philosophical aspects of democratic design.

  • Political, economic and social consequences of democratic structures.

  • Fairness, equitability and transparency in decision-making.

• Algorithms and Complexity

• Combinatorial Optimization

• Game Theory

• Mathematics Education (especially equitable access and creative teaching)

Teaching

• Hillary Term 2026: Class Tutor, Algorithmic Foundations of Collective Decision-Making, Oxford University

• Hillary Term 2026: Tutorial Assistant, Algorithms and Data Structures, Oxford University

• Fall 2025: Course Lecturer, COMP 360: Algorithm Design, McGill University

• Summer 2025: Course Lecturer, COMP 202: Foundations of Computer Programming, McGill University

• Winter 2024: Teaching Assistant, COMP 252: Honors Algorithms and Data Structures, McGill University

• Fall 2024: Teaching Assistant, COMP 251: Algorithms and Data Structures, McGill University

• Fall 2024: Teaching Assistant, COMP 360: Algorithm Design, McGill University

• Winter 2024: Teaching Assistant, COMP 252: Honors Algorithms and Data Structures, McGill University

• Fall 2023: Teaching Assistant, COMP 251: Algorithms and Data Structures, McGill University 

• Spring 2023: Head TA and Lecturer, MATH 1001: Linear Algebra, Ashoka University