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Nikhita Joshi wins top mathematics doctoral prize in Canada
She was honored for work on digital reading and AI-assisted writing interfaces.
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Pranavi Sharma - Thu, 28, May 2026
- 00:54 EDT
- 20
Nikhita Joshi / University of Waterloo
Nikhita Joshi, a computer science researcher at the University of Waterloo, Canada, has received the 2026 Faculty of Mathematics Doctoral Prize, becoming the first-place recipient among three honored doctoral students from the university’s Cheriton School of Computer Science.
The Faculty of Mathematics has recognized top graduating and graduated doctoral students with the annual award since 2019. This year’s recipients were Joshi, Ahmed Alquraan and Negar Arabzadeh, who received prizes of $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively. The university said this marks the first time all recipients have come from the Cheriton School of Computer Science.
As the top recipient, Joshi has also been nominated for the university-wide Governor General’s Gold Medal, awarded during spring convocation.
Joshi’s research examined whether restricting certain user interface features could improve user performance and engagement. Her work found that limiting text highlighting could improve reading comprehension and that AI-assisted writing tools increased users’ feelings of ownership when they were required to provide longer prompts.
“I’m incredibly honoured to have received this year’s Mathematics Doctoral Prize,” Joshi said. “I’m excited to continue designing, building, and evaluating novel interfaces that purposely constrain user interactions when reading and writing, and to explore how these ideas can extend to other tasks.”
She also credited her doctoral adviser, Professor Daniel Vogel, for his guidance during her Ph.D. studies.
“Huge congratulations to Nikhita,” Vogel said. “This recognition reflects an exceptional trajectory, marked not only by impactful research and an outstanding dissertation, but also her leadership in the HCI community and impressive record of academic honours.”
Joshi is currently an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Université Paris-Saclay.
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