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Sasha Boguraev

I am a second-year PhD student in the UT Austin Computational Linguistics Group. I am fortunate to be advised by Kyle Mahowald. I work on interpretability, with a focus on what the study of language model internals can tell us more broadly about language and cognition.

Previously, I graduated from Cornell University Summa Cum Laude, with degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Computational Cognitive Science (the latter through the College Scholar Program). During my undergraduate studies, I was fortunate enough to work with Dr. Morten H. Christiansen and Dr. Eugene Vinitsky utilizing Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning to study idiolects in human language. I have also spent time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories working on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.

education

2024 - 2029  PhD Computational Linguistics    UT Austin
             Minor: Computer Science

2020 - 2024  BA Computer Science              Cornell University
             BA Mathematics
             BA Computational Cognitive Science
             (Summa Cum Laude)

selected papers

  1. 🏆 Sasha Boguraev, Christopher Potts, Kyle Mahowald. Causal Interventions Reveal Shared Structure Across English Filler–Gap Constructions EMNLP 2025 Outstanding Paper Award, Oral Spotlight.

  2. Sasha Boguraev, Katrin Erk, Kyle Mahowald, James Shearer, Steve Wechsler. Reinforcement learning produces efficient case-marking systems CogSci 2025.

  3. Sasha Boguraev, Ben Lipkin, Leonie Weissweiler, Kyle Mahowald. Models Can and Should Embrace the Communicative Nature of Human-Generated Math. 4th MATH-AI Workshop at NeurIPS’24.

  4. Sasha Boguraev. What Do You Mean by That? - Idiolects, Casual Miscommunication, and the Evolutionary Fitness of Languages. Undergraduate Honors Thesis, 2024.

news

Nov 2025🏆 Causal Interventions Reveal Shared Structure Across English Filler–Gap Constructions awarded Outstanding Paper at EMNLP 2025!
Aug 2025Causal Interventions Reveal Shared Structure Across English Filler–Gap Constructions accepted to EMNLP 2025 as Oral Spotlight. See you in Suzhou!
Apr 2025Reinforcement learning produces efficient case-marking systems accepted to CogSci 2025
Oct 2024Models Can and Should Embrace the Communicative Nature of Human-Generated Math accepted to 4th MATH-AI Workshop at NeurIPS'24. See you in Vancouver!
Aug 2024Started PhD at UT Austin
May 2024Graduated Cornell!
May 2024Defended thesis, awarded Summa Cum Laude Honors

in the media

I was named one of the Cornell Arts and Sciences Extraordinary Seniors, and had a brief profile written on my time at Cornell.