Shomir Wilson
@shomir.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics at Penn State. AI and sociotechnical NLP, especially for privacy and fairness. Also posting about academia, photography, and travel. Opinions mine. he/him. http://shomir.net
I added another photo collage to my office. This one consists of pictures I've taken in Pennsylvania. Because of space constraints, I wanted to create a shape that was organic, asymmetric, and balanced with nearby objects.
November 13, 2025 at 12:14 AM
I added another photo collage to my office. This one consists of pictures I've taken in Pennsylvania. Because of space constraints, I wanted to create a shape that was organic, asymmetric, and balanced with nearby objects.
Thanks to Lycoming College's Lycoming Scholars program for hosting me for a talk today. I enjoyed talking with students and faculty about my lab's research into the social biases of large language models.
I walked around Williamsport afterward and added a fridge magnet to my travel collection.
I walked around Williamsport afterward and added a fridge magnet to my travel collection.
October 28, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Thanks to Lycoming College's Lycoming Scholars program for hosting me for a talk today. I enjoyed talking with students and faculty about my lab's research into the social biases of large language models.
I walked around Williamsport afterward and added a fridge magnet to my travel collection.
I walked around Williamsport afterward and added a fridge magnet to my travel collection.
Four pictures I took during a recent visit to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a former psychiatric hospital now run as a museum.
October 22, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Four pictures I took during a recent visit to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a former psychiatric hospital now run as a museum.
Map I hadn't generated before because it took a lot of effort: where I've lived (houses in green), where I've performed professional activities (suitcases in blue), and my flights. I'll use this in a series of talks I'm giving for the honors college about going abroad for research and conferences.
October 12, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Map I hadn't generated before because it took a lot of effort: where I've lived (houses in green), where I've performed professional activities (suitcases in blue), and my flights. I'll use this in a series of talks I'm giving for the honors college about going abroad for research and conferences.
i'll decline this writing suggestion from Gmail.
September 23, 2025 at 11:31 PM
i'll decline this writing suggestion from Gmail.
Sunset over the New Carrollton Metro station, from a recent trip to DC.
September 19, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Sunset over the New Carrollton Metro station, from a recent trip to DC.
#soups2025 attendees, if you’re interested, a very red sunset is happening down by the Seattle waterfront.
August 13, 2025 at 3:05 AM
#soups2025 attendees, if you’re interested, a very red sunset is happening down by the Seattle waterfront.
25 years ago I attended the new student orientation for undergraduates at Virginia Tech. I was change-the-world ambitious, but also socially anxious and awkward. ("A shyness that is criminally vulgar", sang The Smiths.) I wanted to make new friends, but I wasn't sure how.
August 5, 2025 at 9:37 PM
25 years ago I attended the new student orientation for undergraduates at Virginia Tech. I was change-the-world ambitious, but also socially anxious and awkward. ("A shyness that is criminally vulgar", sang The Smiths.) I wanted to make new friends, but I wasn't sure how.
This year a majority of first authors are based in China.
July 28, 2025 at 7:15 AM
This year a majority of first authors are based in China.
Growth in submissions and program size
July 28, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Growth in submissions and program size
ACL welcome session: It’s “the largest ACL/NLP conference ever”, with 6K participants (5K in-person and 1K online), 6K reviewers, >1K area chairs, and more stats in this slide. #acl2025
July 28, 2025 at 7:06 AM
ACL welcome session: It’s “the largest ACL/NLP conference ever”, with 6K participants (5K in-person and 1K online), 6K reviewers, >1K area chairs, and more stats in this slide. #acl2025
My pictures: Exterior from the driveway, information plaque, entrance gate, and Wittgenstein-designed door handle. The door handle is on a door along the wall on the southeast side of the property.
July 26, 2025 at 6:52 AM
My pictures: Exterior from the driveway, information plaque, entrance gate, and Wittgenstein-designed door handle. The door handle is on a door along the wall on the southeast side of the property.
Wanted a spot of color to coordinate with shirts and pocket squares. Discovered I could order lapel pins with custom graphics. Decided to use my digital artwork. Realized I'm basically designing jewelry now.
July 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Wanted a spot of color to coordinate with shirts and pocket squares. Discovered I could order lapel pins with custom graphics. Decided to use my digital artwork. Realized I'm basically designing jewelry now.
This August I'll be at SOUPS in Seattle to present our poster titled "The PrivaSeer Project: Large-Scale Resources for Analysis of Privacy Policy Text". It summarizes our NSF-funded work, including a corpus of nearly 4M policies, a search engine to explore them, and analysis of their contents.
June 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM
This August I'll be at SOUPS in Seattle to present our poster titled "The PrivaSeer Project: Large-Scale Resources for Analysis of Privacy Policy Text". It summarizes our NSF-funded work, including a corpus of nearly 4M policies, a search engine to explore them, and analysis of their contents.
I updated the wall, but one of these things is not like the others. To be efficient with work orders, I needed a placeholder.
June 6, 2025 at 3:54 PM
I updated the wall, but one of these things is not like the others. To be efficient with work orders, I needed a placeholder.
"Public figure", apparently.
May 26, 2025 at 9:51 PM
"Public figure", apparently.
Congrats to my research advisee Pranav Venkit on graduating with his PhD! I'm grateful to him for all the work he's done with my lab. I'd also like to thank him for attending commencement. He's not my lab's first PhD graduate, but he's the first I've gotten to hood in ceremony.
May 12, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Congrats to my research advisee Pranav Venkit on graduating with his PhD! I'm grateful to him for all the work he's done with my lab. I'd also like to thank him for attending commencement. He's not my lab's first PhD graduate, but he's the first I've gotten to hood in ceremony.
I'm wearing orange and maroon (approximately) today. In the thread below, some personal memories from what happened at Virginia Tech 18 years ago:
April 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I'm wearing orange and maroon (approximately) today. In the thread below, some personal memories from what happened at Virginia Tech 18 years ago:
Bloodroot flower in the yard, about two inches across. ISO 4000, 100mm, f/13, 1/00s, slightly cropped.
April 14, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Bloodroot flower in the yard, about two inches across. ISO 4000, 100mm, f/13, 1/00s, slightly cropped.
As a cisgender male, supporting my trans and nonbinary friends and relatives on the Transgender Day of Visibility. You’re important to me and I want you to feel safe and respected being who you are.
March 31, 2025 at 2:25 PM
As a cisgender male, supporting my trans and nonbinary friends and relatives on the Transgender Day of Visibility. You’re important to me and I want you to feel safe and respected being who you are.
Congratulations to my PhD advisee Pranav Venkit, who passed his thesis defense! Pranav has accepted an offer to join Salesforce in San Francisco as a Research Scientist.
February 8, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Congratulations to my PhD advisee Pranav Venkit, who passed his thesis defense! Pranav has accepted an offer to join Salesforce in San Francisco as a Research Scientist.