Computing platforms shape our interactions with other people: how we collaborate, how we socialize, and even how we govern. By changing these computing platforms, we change human behavior: as Winston Churchill said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” How do we design these computing systems effectively and responsibly? My research in human-computer interaction advances systems, designs, and models for social computing systems. In doing so, I aim to shed light on long-standing research questions: How do we cross the gap between social scientific knowledge and concrete system designs that manifest this knowledge into pro-social interactions? How can we model human attitudes and behavior to help us craft technology and social policy? How should we design our computational tools if we want them to be successfully embedded into society?

Bio: Michael Bernstein is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he is a Bass University Fellow and Interim Director of the Symbolic Systems program. His research focuses on designing social, societal, and interactive technologies. This research has been reported in venues such as The New York Times, Wired, and TED AI. Michael has been recognized with an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the UIST Lasting Impact Award, and the Computer History Museum's Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Prize. He holds a bachelor's degree in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, as well as a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT.

Publications

Lindsay PopowskiLindsay Popowski, Yutong Zhang, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
CSCW 2024honorable mention
Joseph SeeringJoseph Seering, Manas Khadka, Nava Haghighi, Tanya Yang, Zachary Xi, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
CSCW 2024honorable mention
Melissa A. Valentine, Amanda L. Pratt, Rebecca Hinds, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2024
Melissa A. Valentine, Roger E. Bohn, Amanda L. Pratt, Prachee Jain, Sara J. Singer, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
CSCW 2024
Yoonho Lee, Michelle LamMichelle Lam, Helena Vasconcelos, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein, Chelsea Finn
UIST 2024
Angèle Christin, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein, Jeffrey T. Hancock, Chenyan JiaChenyan Jia, Marijn N. Mado, Jeanne L. Tsai, and Chunchen Xu
SM+S 2024
Michelle S. LamMichelle S. Lam, Janice Teoh, James Landay, Jeffrey Heer, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
CHI 2024
Omar ShaikhOmar Shaikh, Valentino Chai, Michele Gelfand, Diyi Yang, and Michael Bernstein
CHI 2024
Amy X. ZhangAmy X. Zhang, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein, David Karger, and Mark Ackerman
CSCW 2024
Chenyan Jia*Chenyan Jia*, Michelle S. Lam*Michelle S. Lam*, Minh Chau Mai, Jeff Hancock, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2024best paper
Joon Sung ParkJoon Sung Park, Joseph O'Brien, Carrie Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris, Percy Liang, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
UIST 2023best paper
Wanrong He, Mitchell L. GordonMitchell L. Gordon, Lindsay PopowskiLindsay Popowski, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
CSCW 2023best paper
Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein, Angèle Christin, Jeffrey Hancock, Tatsunori Hashimoto, Chenyan JiaChenyan Jia, Michelle S. LamMichelle S. Lam, Nicole Meister, Nathaniel Persily, Tiziano PiccardiTiziano Piccardi, Martin Saveski, Jeanne Tsai, Johan Ugander, Chunchen Xu
JOTS 2023
Omar ShaikhOmar Shaikh, Hongxin Zhang, William Held, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein, and Diyi Yang
ACL 2023
Michelle S. LamMichelle S. Lam, Zixian Ma, Anne Li, Izequiel Freitas, Dakuo Wang, James A. Landay, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CHI 2023
Hancheng Cao, Yujie Lu, Yuting Deng, Daniel McFarland, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
CHI 2023best paper
Helena Vasconcelos, Matthew Jörke, Madeleine Grunde-McLaughlin, Tobias Gerstenberg, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein, Ranjay KrishnaRanjay Krishna
CSCW 2023honorable mention
Zixian Ma, Rose Wang, Li Fei-Fei, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein, Ranjay KrishnaRanjay Krishna
NeurIPS 2022
Michelle S. LamMichelle S. Lam, Mitchell L. GordonMitchell L. Gordon, Danaë Metaxa, Jeffrey T. Hancock, James A. Landay, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2022
Joon Sung ParkJoon Sung Park, Joseph SeeringJoseph Seering, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2022
Joon Sung ParkJoon Sung Park, Lindsay PopowskiLindsay Popowski, Carrie J. Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris, Percy Liang, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
UIST 2022
Ranjay KrishnaRanjay Krishna, Donsuk Li, Li Fei-Fei, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
PNAS 2022
Mitchell L. GordonMitchell L. Gordon, Michelle S. LamMichelle S. Lam, Joon Sung ParkJoon Sung Park, Kayur Patel, Jeffrey T. Hancock, Tatsunori Hashimoto, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CHI 2022Best Paper
Durim MorinaDurim Morina, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2022
Christina A. Pan, Sahil Yakhmi, Tara P. Iyer, Evan Strasnick, Amy X. ZhangAmy X. Zhang, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2022
Xinlan Emily Hu, Rebecca Hinds, Melissa A. Valentine, Michael S. BernsteinMichael S. Bernstein
CSCW 2022
Joseph SeeringJoseph Seering, Brianna Dym, Geoff Kaufman, Michael BernsteinMichael Bernstein
JOTS 2022
More publications...
Michael Bernstein professional headshot
Associate Professor
Computer Science Department
Stanford University

Gates Computer Science
Room 384
353 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford CA 94305-9035

Office hours:
Fr 3pm-4:15pm
Teaching 2024–2025:

Previous courses

2020–2021
Fall
Winter
2013-2014

Talks and Events
11 Nov
14 Dec
NeurIPS workshops

Ph.D. alumni
Mitchell
Mitchell Gordon
Assistant Professor, MIT
Ranjay
Ranjay Krishna
Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Geza
Geza Kovacs
Senior Research Scientist, Google
Niloufar
Niloufar Salehi
Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley
Ethan
Ethan Fast
Co-founder, Vcreate
Justin
Justin Cheng
Staff Research Scientist, Discord
Daniela
Daniela Retelny Blum
Senior UX Researcher, Instagram
Joy
Joy Kim
Senior Research Scientist, Adobe
Chinmay
Chinmay Kulkarni
Associate Professor, Emory
Postdoc alumni
Farnaz
Farnaz Jahanbakhsh
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Chenyan
Chenyan Jia
Assistant Professor, Northeastern University
Joseph
Joseph Seering
Assistant Professor, KAIST
Amy
Amy X. Zhang
Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Mark
Mark Whiting
Senior Computational Social Scientist, University of Pennsylvania
Nicolas
Nicolas Kokkalis
Founder, Pi Network