Shweta U. Narkar, Ph.D.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute RARE Center

I work at the intersection of AI and science, building systems that can represent, reason over, and explain complex scientific knowledge. My doctoral dissertation combined knowledge graphs, ontologies, and AI to make experimental data in prebiotic chemistry interpretable and reusable, to apply AI models and machine learning techniques on the curated data set.

RPInarkas2@rpi.edu personalshweta.3695@gmail.com

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Research

POLO Ontology

Prebiotic Origins of Life Ontology for experimental prebiotic chemistry. Enables FAIR data, semantic reasoning, and reproducibility over 200+ experiments.

OntologyOWL/RDFSPARQL

EORE Framework

Experiment Ontology for Research in Origins of Life. An ontology for experimental astrobiology data, built upon POLO.

DataJSONMongoDBData ScienceMachine LearningAI

XAI for Model Selection

Applying explainability techniques to support interactive model comparison in AutoML systems. Helps data scientists evaluate candidates beyond performance metrics.

XAISHAPAutoMLExpert-in-the-loop

XAI for Scientific Discovery

Applying interpretability methods to geochemistry datasets to make model predictions transparent and actionable for domain scientists.

XAIScientific ML

Knowledge Graphs

Designing and deploying OWL/RDF/SPARQL knowledge graphs for scientific data, enabling structured querying, provenance tracking, and interoperability.

Knowledge GraphsData ProvenanceFAIR

Publications

Model LineUpper: Supporting Interactive Model Comparison at Multiple Levels for AutoML IUI 2021 cited by 42

Narkar S.U., Zhang Y., Liao Q.V., Wang D., Weisz J.D. · ACM IUI 2021 · ACM · arXiv

Cluster analysis of presolar silicon carbide grains: Evaluation of their classification and astrophysical implications ApJL 2021 cited by 26

Boujibar A., Howell S., Zhang S., Hystad G., Prabhu A., Liu N., Stephan T., Narkar S.U., Eleish A., Morrison S.M., Hazen R.M., Nittler L.R. · The Astrophysical Journal Letters 907(2), L39

POLO: A Prebiotic Origins of Life Ontology for experimental chemistry in prep

Narkar S.U., Riggi V.S., Hendler J.A., Rogers K.L. · Targeting ISWC

A data framework for reproducible prebiotic chemistry experiments in prep

In preparation

Analysis paper in prep

In preparation

Education & Experience

Postdoctoral Research Associate 2025 – present

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute · Advisors: Dr. James A. Hendler & Dr. Karyn L. Rogers

ML Research Intern 2020

IBM Research AI, Yorktown Heights, NY

Developed Model LineUpper, an interactive XAI system for AutoML model comparison. Published at ACM IUI 2021.

Ph.D., Multidisciplinary Science 2025

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

Dissertation: Enriching experimental prebiotic chemistry through semantics and computational technologies.

M.S., Data Science and Analytics Prior

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

B.E., Computer Engineering Prior

Cummins College of Engineering, University of Pune, India