Arkadiy Saakyan

Arkadiy Saakyan

PhD Candidate in Computer Science at Columbia University

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👤 About

I am a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at Columbia University advised by Prof. Smaranda Muresan. Broadly, my research focuses on explainable understanding of pragmatics with Large Language Models, e.g. whether and how LLMs can understand figurative meaning (in text and in visuals), textual style (pragmastylistics), and cultural and social norms.

During my graduate studies, I interned at Google DeepMind and AWS AI. Before starting my PhD, I completed my B.A. at Columbia College and worked as a data scientist at UBS.

📄 Publications

* denotes equal contribution

🖼️ Figurative Meaning

Arkadiy Saakyan, Shreyas Kulkarni, Tuhin Chakrabarty, Smaranda Muresan

Accepted to Proceedings of NAACL 2025. (Long paper)

Tuhin Chakrabarty*, Arkadiy Saakyan*, Olivia Winn*, Artemis Panagopoulou, Yue Yang, Marianna Apidianaki, and Smaranda Muresan

Findings of ACL 2023. (Long paper)

Tuhin Chakrabarty, Arkadiy Saakyan, Debanjan Ghosh, and Smaranda Muresan

Proceedings of EMNLP 2022. (Long paper)

Tuhin Chakrabarty, Arkadiy Saakyan, and Smaranda Muresan

Proceedings of EMNLP 2021. (Long paper)

✍️ Textual Style

Arkadiy Saakyan and Smaranda Muresan

Proceedings of ACL 2024. (Long paper)

🌍 Cultural & Social Norms

Sky CH-Wang*, Arkadiy Saakyan*, Oliver Li, Zhou Yu, and Smaranda Muresan

Proceedings of EMNLP 2023. (Long paper)

Oliver Li, Mallika Subramanian, Arkadiy Saakyan, Sky CH-Wang, and Smaranda Muresan

Proceedings of EMNLP 2023. (Short paper)

🔍 Other

Arkadiy Saakyan, Tuhin Chakrabarty, and Smaranda Muresan

Proceedings of ACL 2021. (Long paper)

Tuhin Chakrabarty, Kanishk Singh, Arkadiy Saakyan, Smaranda Muresan

Findings of EMNLP 2023. (Long paper)

💼 Industry Experience

Student Researcher, Google DeepMind

Summer 2024 with Deepak Ramachandran, Najoung Kim

Applied Research Scientist Intern, AWS AI

Summer 2023 with Yassine Benajiba, Giovanni Paolini

🧑‍🏫 Mentorship (Reach out if you are looking for research opportunities!)

  • Oliver Li (2022-2023, Columbia Undergraduate, published 2 papers)
  • Mallika Subramanian (2022-2023, Columbia Masters, published 1 paper)
  • Shreyas Kulkarni (2023-2024, Columbia Masters, published 1 paper)
  • Kanishk Singh (2023-2024, Columbia Masters, published 1 paper)

🤝 Service

Conference Reviewer

ACL (2023, 2024), EMNLP (2023, 2024), NAACL (2023), EACL (2023)

📚 Teaching

BC3997: LLMs: Foundations and Ethics

Teaching Assistant with Prof. Smaranda Muresan (Spring 2025)

Course Website

BC3997: Natural Language Processing

Teaching Assistant with Prof. Smaranda Muresan (Fall 2024)

Course Website

COMS W4995: Neural Networks and Deep Learning

Teaching Assistant with Prof. Richard Zemel (Fall 2023)

🐱 Other

Pictures of the cutest cat in the world (according to me).