Vidhisha Balachandran

Senior Researcher

Publications

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- Tracing the Traces: Latent Temporal Signals for Efficient and Accurate Reasoning
  
  Martina G. Vilas, Safoora Yousefi, Besmira Nushi, Eric Horvitz, Vidhisha Balachandran
  
  ICLR 2026 | October 2025
  
  Publication
- Just Do It!? Computer-Use Agents Exhibit Blind Goal-Directedness
  
  Erfan Shayegani, Keegan Hines, Yue Dong, Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh, Roman Lutz, Spencer Whitehead, Vidhisha Balachandran, Besmira Nushi, Vibhav Vineet
  
  ICLR 2026 | October 2025
  
  DOI Publication
- Sample More to Think Less: Group Filtered Policy Optimization for Concise Reasoning
  
  Vaishnavi Shrivastava, Ahmed Awadallah, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shivam Garg, Harkirat Behl, Dimitris Papailiopoulos
  
  ICLR 2026 | August 2025
  
  Publication Author's Version
- Phi-4-reasoning Technical Report
  
  Marah Abdin, Sahaj Agarwal, Sahaj Agarwal, Ahmed Awadallah, Vidhisha Balachandran, Harkirat Behl, Lingjiao Chen (lingjiaochen), Gustavo de Rosa, Suriya Gunasekar, Mojan Javaheripi, Neel Joshi, Piero Kauffmann, Yash Lara, Caio César Teodoro Mendes, Arindam Mitra, Besmira Nushi, Dimitris Papailiopoulos, Olli Saarikivi, Shital Shah, Vaishnavi Shrivastava, Vibhav Vineet, Yue Wu, Safoora Yousefi, Guoqing Zheng
  
  April 2025
  
  Publication PDF Video Access
- Inference-Time Scaling for Complex Tasks: Where We Stand and What Lies Ahead
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Lingjiao Chen, Shivam Garg, Neel Joshi, Yash Lara, John Langford, Besmira Nushi, Vibhav Vineet, Yue Wu, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2025-16 | March 2025
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Publication Github
- Unearthing Skill-Level Insights for Understanding Trade-Offs of Foundation Models
  
  Mazda Moayeri, Vidhisha Balachandran, Varun Chandrasekaran, Safoora Yousefi, Thomas Fel, S. Feizi, Besmira Nushi, Neel Joshi, Vibhav Vineet
  
  ICLR 2025 | October 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication Github
- Improving Instruction-Following in Language Models through Activation Steering
  
  Alessandro Stolfo, Vidhisha Balachandran, Safoora Yousefi, Eric Horvitz, Besmira Nushi
  
  ICLR 2025 | October 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication Github
- EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Neel Joshi, Besmira Nushi, Hamid Palangi, Eduardo Salinas, Vibhav Vineet, James Woffinden-Luey, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2024-33 | September 2024
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Preprint Github
- The Art of Saying No: Contextual Noncompliance in Language Models
  
  Faeze Brahman, Sachin Kumar, Vidhisha Balachandran, Pradeep Dasigi, Valentina Pyatkin, Abhilasha Ravichander, Sarah Wiegreffe, Nouha Dziri, K. Chandu, Jack Hessel, Yulia Tsvetkov, Noah A. Smith, Yejin Choi, Hanna Hajishirzi, Vidhisha Balachandran
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | July 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication
- MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning
  
  Shuyue Stella Li, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shangbin Feng, Jonathan Ilgen, Emma Pierson, Pang Wei Koh, Yulia Tsvetkov
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | June 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication

- Tracing the Traces: Latent Temporal Signals for Efficient and Accurate Reasoning
  
  Martina G. Vilas, Safoora Yousefi, Besmira Nushi, Eric Horvitz, Vidhisha Balachandran
  
  ICLR 2026 | October 2025
  
  Publication
- Just Do It!? Computer-Use Agents Exhibit Blind Goal-Directedness
  
  Erfan Shayegani, Keegan Hines, Yue Dong, Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh, Roman Lutz, Spencer Whitehead, Vidhisha Balachandran, Besmira Nushi, Vibhav Vineet
  
  ICLR 2026 | October 2025
  
  DOI Publication
- Sample More to Think Less: Group Filtered Policy Optimization for Concise Reasoning
  
  Vaishnavi Shrivastava, Ahmed Awadallah, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shivam Garg, Harkirat Behl, Dimitris Papailiopoulos
  
  ICLR 2026 | August 2025
  
  Publication Author's Version
- Phi-4-reasoning Technical Report
  
  Marah Abdin, Sahaj Agarwal, Sahaj Agarwal, Ahmed Awadallah, Vidhisha Balachandran, Harkirat Behl, Lingjiao Chen (lingjiaochen), Gustavo de Rosa, Suriya Gunasekar, Mojan Javaheripi, Neel Joshi, Piero Kauffmann, Yash Lara, Caio César Teodoro Mendes, Arindam Mitra, Besmira Nushi, Dimitris Papailiopoulos, Olli Saarikivi, Shital Shah, Vaishnavi Shrivastava, Vibhav Vineet, Yue Wu, Safoora Yousefi, Guoqing Zheng
  
  April 2025
  
  Publication PDF Video Access
- Inference-Time Scaling for Complex Tasks: Where We Stand and What Lies Ahead
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Lingjiao Chen, Shivam Garg, Neel Joshi, Yash Lara, John Langford, Besmira Nushi, Vibhav Vineet, Yue Wu, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2025-16 | March 2025
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Publication Github
- Unearthing Skill-Level Insights for Understanding Trade-Offs of Foundation Models
  
  Mazda Moayeri, Vidhisha Balachandran, Varun Chandrasekaran, Safoora Yousefi, Thomas Fel, S. Feizi, Besmira Nushi, Neel Joshi, Vibhav Vineet
  
  ICLR 2025 | October 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication Github
- Improving Instruction-Following in Language Models through Activation Steering
  
  Alessandro Stolfo, Vidhisha Balachandran, Safoora Yousefi, Eric Horvitz, Besmira Nushi
  
  ICLR 2025 | October 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication Github
- EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Neel Joshi, Besmira Nushi, Hamid Palangi, Eduardo Salinas, Vibhav Vineet, James Woffinden-Luey, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2024-33 | September 2024
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Preprint Github
- The Art of Saying No: Contextual Noncompliance in Language Models
  
  Faeze Brahman, Sachin Kumar, Vidhisha Balachandran, Pradeep Dasigi, Valentina Pyatkin, Abhilasha Ravichander, Sarah Wiegreffe, Nouha Dziri, K. Chandu, Jack Hessel, Yulia Tsvetkov, Noah A. Smith, Yejin Choi, Hanna Hajishirzi, Vidhisha Balachandran
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | July 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication
- MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning
  
  Shuyue Stella Li, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shangbin Feng, Jonathan Ilgen, Emma Pierson, Pang Wei Koh, Yulia Tsvetkov
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | June 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication
- MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning
  
  Shuyue Stella Li, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shangbin Feng, Jonathan Ilgen, Emma Pierson, Pang Wei Koh, Yulia Tsvetkov
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | June 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication
- EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Neel Joshi, Besmira Nushi, Hamid Palangi, Eduardo Salinas, Vibhav Vineet, James Woffinden-Luey, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2024-33 | September 2024
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Preprint Github
- EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Neel Joshi, Besmira Nushi, Hamid Palangi, Eduardo Salinas, Vibhav Vineet, James Woffinden-Luey, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2024-33 | September 2024
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Preprint Github

- Tracing the Traces: Latent Temporal Signals for Efficient and Accurate Reasoning
  
  Martina G. Vilas, Safoora Yousefi, Besmira Nushi, Eric Horvitz, Vidhisha Balachandran
  
  ICLR 2026 | October 2025
  
  Publication
- Just Do It!? Computer-Use Agents Exhibit Blind Goal-Directedness
  
  Erfan Shayegani, Keegan Hines, Yue Dong, Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh, Roman Lutz, Spencer Whitehead, Vidhisha Balachandran, Besmira Nushi, Vibhav Vineet
  
  ICLR 2026 | October 2025
  
  DOI Publication
- Sample More to Think Less: Group Filtered Policy Optimization for Concise Reasoning
  
  Vaishnavi Shrivastava, Ahmed Awadallah, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shivam Garg, Harkirat Behl, Dimitris Papailiopoulos
  
  ICLR 2026 | August 2025
  
  Publication Author's Version
- Unearthing Skill-Level Insights for Understanding Trade-Offs of Foundation Models
  
  Mazda Moayeri, Vidhisha Balachandran, Varun Chandrasekaran, Safoora Yousefi, Thomas Fel, S. Feizi, Besmira Nushi, Neel Joshi, Vibhav Vineet
  
  ICLR 2025 | October 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication Github
- Improving Instruction-Following in Language Models through Activation Steering
  
  Alessandro Stolfo, Vidhisha Balachandran, Safoora Yousefi, Eric Horvitz, Besmira Nushi
  
  ICLR 2025 | October 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication Github
- The Art of Saying No: Contextual Noncompliance in Language Models
  
  Faeze Brahman, Sachin Kumar, Vidhisha Balachandran, Pradeep Dasigi, Valentina Pyatkin, Abhilasha Ravichander, Sarah Wiegreffe, Nouha Dziri, K. Chandu, Jack Hessel, Yulia Tsvetkov, Noah A. Smith, Yejin Choi, Hanna Hajishirzi, Vidhisha Balachandran
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | July 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication
- MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning
  
  Shuyue Stella Li, Vidhisha Balachandran, Shangbin Feng, Jonathan Ilgen, Emma Pierson, Pang Wei Koh, Yulia Tsvetkov
  
  NeurIPS 2024 | June 2024
  
  DOI Publication Publication
- Phi-4-reasoning Technical Report
  
  Marah Abdin, Sahaj Agarwal, Sahaj Agarwal, Ahmed Awadallah, Vidhisha Balachandran, Harkirat Behl, Lingjiao Chen (lingjiaochen), Gustavo de Rosa, Suriya Gunasekar, Mojan Javaheripi, Neel Joshi, Piero Kauffmann, Yash Lara, Caio César Teodoro Mendes, Arindam Mitra, Besmira Nushi, Dimitris Papailiopoulos, Olli Saarikivi, Shital Shah, Vaishnavi Shrivastava, Vibhav Vineet, Yue Wu, Safoora Yousefi, Guoqing Zheng
  
  April 2025
  
  Publication PDF Video Access
- Inference-Time Scaling for Complex Tasks: Where We Stand and What Lies Ahead
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Lingjiao Chen, Shivam Garg, Neel Joshi, Yash Lara, John Langford, Besmira Nushi, Vibhav Vineet, Yue Wu, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2025-16 | March 2025
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Publication Github
- EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models
  
  Vidhisha Balachandran, Jingya Chen, Neel Joshi, Besmira Nushi, Hamid Palangi, Eduardo Salinas, Vibhav Vineet, James Woffinden-Luey, Safoora Yousefi
  
  MSR-TR-2024-33 | September 2024
  
  Published by Microsoft
  
  Preprint Github

Vidhisha Balachandran

Publications

Tracing the Traces: Latent Temporal Signals for Efficient and Accurate Reasoning

Just Do It!? Computer-Use Agents Exhibit Blind Goal-Directedness

Sample More to Think Less: Group Filtered Policy Optimization for Concise Reasoning

Phi-4-reasoning Technical Report

Inference-Time Scaling for Complex Tasks: Where We Stand and What Lies Ahead

Unearthing Skill-Level Insights for Understanding Trade-Offs of Foundation Models

Improving Instruction-Following in Language Models through Activation Steering

EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models

The Art of Saying No: Contextual Noncompliance in Language Models

MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning

Tracing the Traces: Latent Temporal Signals for Efficient and Accurate Reasoning

Just Do It!? Computer-Use Agents Exhibit Blind Goal-Directedness

Sample More to Think Less: Group Filtered Policy Optimization for Concise Reasoning

Phi-4-reasoning Technical Report

Inference-Time Scaling for Complex Tasks: Where We Stand and What Lies Ahead

Unearthing Skill-Level Insights for Understanding Trade-Offs of Foundation Models

Improving Instruction-Following in Language Models through Activation Steering

EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models

The Art of Saying No: Contextual Noncompliance in Language Models

MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning

MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning

EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models

EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models

Tracing the Traces: Latent Temporal Signals for Efficient and Accurate Reasoning

Just Do It!? Computer-Use Agents Exhibit Blind Goal-Directedness

Sample More to Think Less: Group Filtered Policy Optimization for Concise Reasoning

Unearthing Skill-Level Insights for Understanding Trade-Offs of Foundation Models

Improving Instruction-Following in Language Models through Activation Steering

The Art of Saying No: Contextual Noncompliance in Language Models

MEDIQ: Question-Asking LLMs for Adaptive and Reliable Clinical Reasoning

Phi-4-reasoning Technical Report

Inference-Time Scaling for Complex Tasks: Where We Stand and What Lies Ahead

EUREKA: Evaluating and Understanding Large Foundation Models

Contact Vidhisha Balachandran

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