Briana Vecchione, a doctoral student in the field of information science, has been awarded a grant from the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab to explore tools and resources used by auditors of artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Vecchione’s project, “Open Source Audit Tooling (OAT),” was one of 19 that received funds from the Tech Ethics Lab, which announced the awards last month.
Recognizing the need for tools that allow for thorough and accountable audits of AI systems – at a time when the field of AI is early in its development, Vecchione intends to develop a taxonomy, distribute a survey, and host rounds of interviews with audit tool developers and practitioners. The goal is to “illuminate the landscape of existing tools and encourage solutions that allow for rigorous and accountable scrutiny of AI,” according to the project description on the Tech Ethics Lab’s award announcement.
Based at the Cornell Tech campus, Vecchione addresses issues of auditing and accountability in sociotechnical systems, their social justice roots, and potential public interest implications. She is advised by Karen Levy, associate professor of information science, and Solon Barocas, adjunct assistant professor of information science.
The familiar notes of the Cornell Alma Mater rang through a busy Duffield Hall atrium on Tuesday, December 6, but the source was not the customary afternoon toll from the Cornell Chimes atop McGraw Tower.
It was Sam Meisner ’24 at the keys of his team’s “Piano Painter,” a combination keyboard and musical note visualizer and one of nearly 100 semester-end projects featured in a massive student showcase from five information science courses.
Stretching throughout the atrium, the showcase featured gadgets like the Piano Painter – created for INFO 4320, Introduction to Rapid Prototyping and Physical Computing – freshly designed apps, research posters, and much more.
Here’s a sampling of some of the projects:
INFO 4320: Introduction to Rapid Prototyping
Instructor: Cheng Zhang
Students in INFO 4320 are schooled in modern prototyping techniques like laser cutting, 3D printing, and microcontroller programming. Semester-end gizmos developed for this course never lack for creativity and fun, from automated drink makers and cookie icers, to innovative musical instruments and Lego sorters.
Of note this semester, the Candy Launcher – designed by Lanyue Fang, Chelsea Frisch, Elliot Kann, and Saif Mahmud – combines computer vision with a mechanism that rotates and launches M&Ms. When the system’s corresponding camera detects a human participant, the system turns the candy launcher in the opposite direction and fires away. The intent is to engage the user in a game of catch-the-M&M.
INFO 4500: INFO 4500/COMM 4500/INFO 6500/COMM 6500 – Language and Technology
Instructor: Sue Fussell
Students in INFO 4500 examine how new communication technologies affect the way we produce and understand language and modify interaction with one another.
Julia Atkins, a student in the master of professional studies (MPS) program in information science, surveyed existing research on the linguistic differences in communication and verbal skills between women and men. Among several notable findings, Atkins learned that, in literature, female writers exhibit greater usage of an “involved” style, as opposed to male writers who adopt a more “informational” style, and while both women and men similarly express hard emotions such as anger or fear, there is a significant difference in expressing soft emotions like joy or sadness.
INFO 4340/INFO 5440 – App Design and Prototyping
Instructor: Kyle Harms
This semester, 12 student teams in INFO 4340 collaborated with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) to update and improve usability and access to CCE’s existing vegetable resource website, where growers can find information on what vegetables grow best in particular areas, tips to ensure healthy crops, and general best practices.
Sumi Xu and Jade Zhang, both students with a UX design focus in the MPS program in information science, comprised one team that targeted novice gardens with a fresh website and responsive mobile version.
A big challenge, Xu said, was “matching the final design with the initial wireframes. There were some technical issues, and we couldn’t achieve 100 percent of the original design. But we had to make adjustments and still deliver a prototype that achieves user goals.”
INFO 3450/COMM 3450/INFO 5355 – Human-Computer Interaction Design
Instructor: Gilly Leshed
HCI Design challenges students to consider all phases of the human-centered design process, from user needs and possible design solutions to address those needs, to creating prototypes and evaluating their usability.
This semester, teammates Angela Lee, Sally Yu, and Zexin Gu presented “Cornell Ride,” a design concept for a ride-sharing app exclusively for Cornell students to find carpool options to and from regional airports that offer international flights.
For Lee, a biology major who added information science as a minor this past summer, INFO 3450 was her first team-based information science class and a worthwhile experience.
“Compared to my other classes that are very exam-based, in this class you’re working toward an end product rather than taking a final,” she said. “I was learning things and implementing my knowledge by creating this prototype. Coming up with concepts with group members to create a prototype, there’s a lot of self-satisfaction.”
INFO 6310/COMM 6310 – Behavior and Information Technology
Instructor: Sue Fussell
In this course, students learn at the intersection of the behavioral foundations of communication technology and the information sciences.
A Cornell research team that explores privacy in immersive virtual reality would be an example of work that resides in this space. The team – whose members are Jose Guridi, Yeonju Jang, Rachel Kwon, Daniel Molitor, and Sneha Nagarajan – presented their poster, called “Are You Anonymous? Identifying Personal Information from Nonverbal Behaviors in Immersive Virtual Reality” as part of the information science showcase.
The team set out to determine whether or not humans participating in VR are able to glean any personal information about another user – like gender, age, or ethnicity – based on that person’s behaviors in VR. The answer, according to the team’s findings, is no.
Existing research shows that out of a pool of more than 500 participants, a simple machine learning model can identify 95% of users correctly when trained on less than five minutes of VR tracking data per person.
“The literature says machine learning can identify users based on tracking data, but can humans do it?” said Jose Guridi, a doctoral student in the field of information science. “And what we found, at least in this setting, we can’t do it.”
INFO 4420/INFO 6520 – Human Computer Interaction Studio
Instructor: Francois Guimbretiere
Human Computer Interaction Studio tasked three student teams with completing a semester-long design project exploring advanced user interaction design techniques.
Teammates Steph Tan, Michael Sack, Ruidong Zhang, and Huong Pham presented “Enact,” a platform to empower environmental literacy and collective action to tackle climate change. Resource poverty, fatalism, and disownership were three factors that the team identified as to why people aren’t engaged in the climate fight.
To address these factors, the team designed the Enact platform to: empower climate change literacy by improving clarity and accessibility of public information; foster community engagement by facilitating the organization of events and volunteer services; and reduce cognitive effort required by individuals to influence political change.
“Encouraging people to engage with community was a really big thing. We learned that’s a huge part in sustaining political action on the platform,” said Sack, a doctoral student in the field of information science. “The collective impact of voting and environmental literacy in general is most meaningful.”
Louis DiPietro is a writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
Aspen Russell is a doctoral student in information science from Hillsboro, Oregon. She earned a B.S. in computer science from American University and now studies the relationship between what a platform is, how it affects users, and the resulting interactions under the guidance of Natalie Bazarova, Karen Levy, and Drew Margolin.
What is your area of research and why is it important?
Do you ever wonder why the internet feels so toxic? Perhaps you have a great time, but there is a lingering, negative feeling toward the platform itself? I study the relationship between what a platform is (Reddit or YouTube or Twitter), how platforms affect what you are able to do (affordances), and the resulting interactions that occur. I have ongoing projects that codify responses to hate speech and harassment, the politicization of science on YouTube, and the labor of queer beauty vloggers. Each project points to inequitable user experiences and how platforms must shift to provide healthier spaces to congregate.
What are the larger implications of this research?
Essentially every person who wants to participate on social media can. That’s billions of people around the world. As the internet has become more and more centralized around five websites, we need to be cognizant of how these platforms shape our connections to each other. Not only are we choosing to communicate on social media, but we are increasingly required to. Research about the implications of governance, moderation, and peer-to-peer conversation is vital to not only democracy and free speech, but, in a more grounded way, as a safeguard against mechanisms that can harm our relationships, such as misinformation and toxic speech.
Why did you decide to become a mentor with the MAC Mentoring Program?
During my first year as a Ph.D. student, I joined the MAC Mentoring Program as a mentee. As a first-generation scholar who grew up low-income and has various identities not represented in academe, it was pivotal to receive mentorship support. Moving into my third year, I feel I have reached a level of competency about the knowledge generation process and navigating the university that I would be well set to give back. A quote from a colleague years ago still speaks to me: “a hand up and a hand back.” Hands up help you; they provide support. Hands back make sure we are bringing each other along.
Why is it important for students to participate in peer mentoring programs?
Mentorship is important for two reasons. First, academe was not built for marginalized scholars. Second, if we are to persist we must be tapped into a network of support. Having peers as mentors provides a bridge between the mentorship provided by your committee and the lived reality of being a Ph.D. student. What I have personally found validating is seeing women, queer people, and disabled people senior to me succeeding. It fundamentally changes my relationship to who I am in academe and has been pivotal in redefining what impact I want to make in my next career.
What are your hobbies or interests outside of your research or scholarship?
When I am able to take a day off and rest, I immediately feel myself drawn to writing. A conversation can spur a blog post, a scenic vista manifests as a poem, and returning home can turn into a chapter of fiction. I have also made incredibly meaningful friendships during my time at Cornell. This semester we have enjoyed live music, apple picking, and cider tasting together!
Why did you choose Cornell to pursue your degree?
I was the first student at American University to major in both computer science and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. While this was exciting, when I turned to Ph.D. programs it was incredibly difficult to find where I belonged and could succeed. Information science programs are an ideal fit and Cornell is top in the field. I was particularly excited at working with Natalie Bazarova, who runs the Social Media Lab. From a practical level, Cornell is an Ivy-League university, which is fully-funded and provides unprecedented opportunities when you graduate.
A multitude of digital resources provides information to asylum seekers and other immigrants, but content is often outdated, and potential users worry they may be vulnerable to online tracking.
“If I am undocumented, I’m not going to go to a website and click on a search option that says, ‘I’m undocumented,’” a legal professional told Cornell researchers. “I’d be terrified of who’s taking that information. Where’s it going?”
Fear of tracking and the use of digital tools in the context of public benefits in the U.S. are among the major barriers to immigrants accessing online resources and benefits more generally, found the multidisciplinary research team of experts in communication, health and law.
To mitigate those concerns, websites, apps, social media and other digital tools disseminating information to immigrants should collect the minimum personal data necessary and clearly state privacy policies, the scholars recommend in a new study focused on U.S. asylum seekers’ informational needs and how best to design digital tools supporting them.
Putting recommendations into practice, the team has also developed Rights for Health, a website dedicated to sharing accurate and accessible information on health and legal benefits available to immigrants in the U.S. – the world’s largest immigration system with nearly 45 million foreign-born residents, about 14% of the population.
“It can be a very complex system to navigate, even for professionals,” said Aparajita Bhandari, a member of the Cornell Social Media Lab and doctoral student in the field of communication whose research explores digital technologies for vulnerable communities.
Bhandari is the lead author with Natalie Bazarova, M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’09, professor of communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Social Media Lab, of “Multi-stakeholder Perspectives on Digital Tools for U.S. Asylum Applicants Seeking Healthcare and Legal Information,” published Nov. 11 in Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) on Human-Computer Interaction and presented at the ACM’s recent conference on computer-supported cooperative work and social computing.
The researchers interviewed 24 asylum applicants in the U.S. representing 18 countries, and 13 health care and legal professionals who work with asylum applicants and other immigrants.
Insights from that range of stakeholders, they said, informed a more complete and nuanced understanding of asylum seekers’ information needs and barriers to using currently available digital tools. The team reported the following additional challenges and design recommendations:
Informational uncertainty: A constantly changing legal landscape and variation in federal, state and local policies can result in inaccurate information, with potentially serious consequences for immigrants unsure of which sources to trust. Recommendation: Be transparent about information sources and when they were last updated. Despite concerns about online surveillance, the researchers said U.S. asylum seekers generally perceived websites ending in .gov and .edu as more trustworthy.
Accessibility: Access to information could be limited by costly internet access, language barriers and a lack of digital literacy – though the researchers found asylum seekers used digital sources routinely for daily activities. Recommendation: Use simple, clear and consistent language and icons to help overcome language barriers, possibly including images instead of blocks of text, like visual resources provided on the Rights for Health website.
Contextual sensitivity: Professionals emphasized that immigrants’ experiences and eligibility for benefits depend heavily on their location and social context. Recommendation: Scope tools appropriately to address immigration issues nationally or engage deeply with a few issues. Work with established community groups to navigate contextual differences and gain immigrant communities’ trust.
“There’s so much information out there, but it’s often presented in complicated legal language that even a native English speaker would have a difficult time parsing,” Bazarova said. “We’ve tried to provide a road map and framework for how to design better digital tools for immigrants and other vulnerable populations.”
In addition to Bhandari, Bazarova, Kaur and Yale-Loehr, co-authors of the research included Diana Freed, doctoral student in the field of information science at Cornell Tech; Faten Taki, instructor of pharmacology research in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine; Tara Pilato, medical student and member of the Human Rights Impact Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine; Jane Powers, Ph.D. ’85, senior extension associate at BCTR; and Tao Long ’21. Winice Hui ’21, applications programmer at the Social Media Lab, supported the website’s development.
Research funding came from the Migrations initiative supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Cornell’s Office of Academic Integration; and the Cornell Immigration Law and Policy Program, which is partly funded by the Charles Koch Foundation.
Recognizing design’s integral role in the development of technologies reshaping the built environment and how we live and work, Cornell has established the multicollege and transdisciplinary Department of Design Tech.
The new department seeks to bridge and enhance design and technology disciplines and departments across the university, complementing and building upon strengths in the design arts, design science, design engineering and design professions.
The College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) will administer the Department of Design Tech in partnership with the College of Human Ecology (CHE), Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, Cornell Engineering and Cornell Tech in New York City.
The department is the product of more than two years of discussions by the deans of those colleges and a faculty task force that also includes representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences and Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. They were charged by Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff’s Radical Collaboration initiative – which identified Design + Technology as one of 10 strategic areas – to assess how best to strengthen and expand design education and research in emerging technologies at Cornell.
“The relationship between design and technology has never been more important to society,” Kotlikoff said. “The Department of Design Tech will foster collaborations across disciplines and campuses that promise to advance design education and research at Cornell and beyond.”
J. Meejin Yoon, B.Arch. ’95, the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of AAP and lead dean for Design Tech, said the collaborating colleges recognized that each could benefit from, and contribute to, an integrated vision for design and technology that moved beyond disciplinary barriers.
Partnering with Yoon are Rachel Dunifon, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean of CHE; Kavita Bala, inaugural dean of Cornell Bowers CIS; Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering; and Greg Morrisett, the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech.
“Synergizing advancements in design and technology is not only imperative to design education at Cornell, but critical for preparing the next generation of designers, engineers, scientists, technologists and creatives to take on some of the most complex challenges of our time,” Yoon said. “Design Tech will pose, develop and answer questions with applied design and technology that can define new models for transdisciplinary design and thought.”
Design Tech’s inaugural chair is Jenny Sabin, the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture. Sabin co-chaired the 12-member Design + Technology faculty task force with Wendy Ju, associate professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech.
From additive manufacturing to artificial intelligence, Sabin said, we are seeing a contemporary paradigm shift and fusion across scales of the digital, physical and biological. In that context, she said, design and technology increasingly rely on each other to innovate.
Examples of Cornell research at the intersection of design and technology, Sabin said, include designing for human behavior in the context of autonomous vehicles; origami-inspired robots; additive manufacturing in space; 3D printing of programmable and sometimes living architectural materials; and the development of wearable interfaces responsive to changes in biodata.
“Design Tech will not only bridge our fields and faculty, but fill gaps in emerging, high-demand areas such as product design, interaction design, materials design and digital media design,” Sabin said. “At Cornell, we are uniquely positioned to be pioneers in this burgeoning space given our expertise in design, robotics, nanotech and materials science, computer science and beyond.”
The department’s first degree offering, pending approval from New York state, will be an interdisciplinary master’s in design technology anticipated for the 2024-25 academic year. Straddling the Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech, the two-year program will build upon AAP’s existing master’s in Matter Design Computation and incorporate lessons learned from “Design and Making Across Disciplines,” a four-year collaboration with Cornell Tech piloting transdisciplinary, studio-based teaching models that intersect with design tech research. Additional degrees and undergraduate courses may be proposed.
During a planning year ahead, a faculty steering committee drawn from the Design + Technology task force will work to launch the department and formalize the new master’s program.
The Radical Collaboration initiative will facilitate hiring by the partner colleges of core faculty members in design, science and engineering who will co-teach courses and engage in collaborative research.
In addition to Sabin and Ju, Design Tech’s inaugural faculty will include Heeju Park, associate professor in the Department of Human Centered Design (CHE); Timur Dogan, associate professor of architecture (AAP); François Guimbretière, professor of information science (Cornell Bowers CIS); and Uli Wiesner, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Cornell Engineering).
“It’s extremely exciting to realize this new model that is truly transdisciplinary and collaborative with support from the university’s leadership and five colleges that are all aligned,” Sabin said. “We’re grateful to be a part of it.”
Three students and three recent alumni from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science received the inaugural Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) awards.
Administered by Cornell Bowers CIS’ Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the awards recognize graduate and undergraduate students who’ve committed to creating a more inclusive culture within Cornell Bowers CIS and broadly in the fields of computing and information science.
The award ceremony, postponed from earlier this year due to Covid concerns and held Nov. 16, honored award winners from the Spring 2022 semester.
“The DEIB awards recognize change agents who are not only informing and shaping our data-driven, connected world but challenging and dismantling systemic barriers for underrepresented innovators in STEM fields,” said LeeAnn Roberts, director of Cornell Bowers CIS’ Office of DEI. “These students embody the leadership, collaboration, and community building necessary to ensure that computing and information technologies of tomorrow represent and benefit all of us.”
In her remarks, Kavita Bala, dean of Cornell Bowers CIS, noted programs throughout the college and its departments, as well as student-led organizations that help students navigate their education and find strong support systems.
“While we have made great progress, we also recognize there is still work to be done,” Bala said. “Looking ahead, the college aims to further grow the diversity of backgrounds, identities, intellectual persuasions, and passions of our students. Our hope is our graduates will be ever more reflective of the world and communities from which they come, and the futures they will shape.”
Graduate students who received awards are:
Chinasa Okolo, a doctoral student in the field of computer science, studies how frontline healthcare workers in rural India perceive and value artificial intelligence. At Cornell, Okolo has mentored undergraduate students in research projects, participated as a mentor for the CUEMPower program through Diversity Programs in Engineering (DPE), and mentored tens of prospective applicants to graduate programs. Within Cornell Bowers CIS, Okolo has served on a host of committees including the CIS Director of Diversity and Inclusion Search, Computer Science Task Force on Fighting Racism, Computer Science Dean Search Committee, Computer Science Visit Days, and the Ph.D. Admissions Committee. She also serves as the co-president of Graduate Underrepresented Minorities in Computing (GradURMC), helping to foster community between marginalized students in Computing and Information Science. She is co-advised by Nicki Dell, Bharath Hariharan, and Aditya Vashistha.
Sara Venkatraman, a doctoral student in the field of statistics and data science, uses statistical methods to analyze temporal and spatial phenomena. Advised by Martin Wells and Sumanta Basu, Venkatraman has published research examining the association between citywide lockdown and COVID-19 hospitalization rates in multigenerational households in New York City. She also collaborates with the Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. This past summer, she worked on urban planning research with the NYC Department of Design and Construction through a Public Interest Technology fellowship from Cornell Tech.
Undergraduate recipients of the DEIB awards are:
Oluwatise Alatise CS ‘23. She serves as mentorship chair of the Underrepresented Minorities in Computing (URMC) student group and previously served as co-president for Women in Computing at Cornell (WICC). Alatise led the Introduction to Digit Product Design course run by Appdev and has introduced design to students in both URMC and WICC. “She has been an incredible mentor for so many people,” wrote Alatise’s nominator. “She is an incredible friend and makes everyone in both URMC and WICC feel so supported from small ways, such as class advice or introducing design to so many individuals, and advocating consideration for URMs to be included in Appdev.”
Natalie Kalitsi IS ’22. Together with Miah Sanchez – a fellow DEIB award winner, Kalitsi served as co-president of the URMC student group. Kalitsi’s numerous accomplishments at Cornell include: helped secure more than $20,000 in corporate sponsorships and Cornell Giving Day funds to support URMC; helped URMC students secure internships; worked with Cornell Bowers CIS leaders to establish the URMC Summer Opportunities Fund; collaborated with Cornell Bowers CIS leaders to refine the CSMore program; secured 10 LeetCode premium subscriptions and distributed them within the URMC community, and much more.
Miah Sanchez CS ’22. During her time at Cornell, Sanchez served as URMC co-president with Kalitsi, a fellow DEIB award winner, and helped advocate for the creation of the Cornell Bowers CIS’ Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As a leader within URMC, Sanchez managed an E-board of 30 students, created a scholarship to support URMs and their summer endeavors, and mentored five students – all women in Bowers CIS – some of whom have gone on to serve in leadership roles in URMC and other Cornell groups, like AppDev. Outside of URMC, Sanchez worked as a teaching assistant for CS 2110 and CS 2800. She is currently a software engineer at Figma in New York City.
Ziqing Wang SDS ’22. Prior to the pandemic, Wang volunteered with the Southern Tier AIDS program, introducing visitors to the program and its various resources including HIV testing, social workers, affiliated physicians/nurses, syringe exchanges, and other NGO organizations. In addition, Wang was involved in an Alternative Break program that sought to serve at-risk youth at the Mountain Lake Academy, a residential educational program in Lake Placid, New York. During the pandemic, as discrimination against Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) individuals became more evident, she was motivated to work with the Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE) to study disparities in vaccine uptake. That work led to a paper – since submitted to the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, and an earlier version was presented at various conferences – that revealed large disparities in immunization across ethnic groups and analyzed the dynamics of the disparities over time.
The DEIB awards are made possible by the generous support of the Hopper Dean Foundation.
Louis DiPietro is a writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
Dhruv Agarwal, a doctoral student in the field of information science, has been named a 2023 Quad Fellow for his strong record of academic and professional success and inspirational commitment to positive change.
Born and raised in India, Agarwal builds technologies for underserved communities that are often low-income and low-literate. Advised by Aditya Vashistha, assistant professor of information science, Agarwal works on explainable artificial intelligence in the context of healthcare and sustainability. He graduated magna cum laude in computer science from Ashoka University, and then spent two years working at Microsoft Research on air pollution and mental health. He is passionate about interdisciplinary research and real-world impact and hopes to bridge the technological disparity in society.
An initiative of the governments of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, the Quad Fellowship – administered by Schmidt Futures – is designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists. This program sponsors 100 exceptional American, Japanese, Australian, and Indian master's and doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to study in the United States.
Agarwal is among the 100 members of the inaugural Quad Fellowship cohort. The program received more than 3,200 applications.
Dhruv Agarwal is a doctoral student in information science from Gurgaon, India. He studied computer science at Ashoka University in India as an undergraduate and now looks to design responsible AI technologies for marginalized people in high-stakes settings at Cornell.
What is your area of research or scholarship and why is it important?
I design, build, and evaluate technologies for underserved communities. Specifically, my goal is to design responsible AI technologies for marginalized people in high-stakes health care settings. While AI has had a dramatic impact on health care already, these technologies are currently excluding billions of those who are illiterate, speak low-resource languages, live in poverty, or do not have access to the internet. I want to (a) understand how underserved communities engage with such systems and then (b) build and deploy new AI systems that are fair, transparent, and explainable in real-world settings to improve health outcomes.
What are the larger implications of this research or scholarship?
Ill-designed technologies have the potential to cause harm to the very communities they are designed to serve. For example, technologies like AI have had a disproportionate negative impact on marginalized communities globally. My work will focus on building AI products that low-resource users understand, thereby giving them more agency on when (or when not) to trust AI. For example, just like a government employment scheme in India would not work without knowing the realities of rural employment, AI-infused technologies are unlikely to work at scale without a dialogue with these “next billion users.” Therefore, my work will inform AI policy that can effectively shape nation-scale technology.
What does it mean to you to have been selected as an inaugural Quad Fellow?
Since the Quad Fellowship focuses on the social and policy impact of STEM, my selection is a recognition that the problems I work on are important beyond the academic community.
What will this fellowship allow you to do that you might not have been able to otherwise?
The fellowship involves a cross-cultural exchange between students from four different countries. This includes a residential experience in Australia in the summer of 2023. These avenues will allow me to discuss my work and test its generalizability across various communities. The fellowship will also allow me to learn how to translate academic research into actionable policies that aim to achieve social good.
What are your hobbies or interests outside of your research or scholarship?
I am a sports fanatic, I love watching and playing all sorts of sports! I played lawn tennis competitively until high school and enjoy playing squash and soccer. I also love cooking!
Why did you choose Cornell to pursue your degree?
Of course, the field of information science at Cornell is amongst the best in the world working toward socially impactful usage of technology. The deciding factor for me, however, was the sense of community I saw at the (virtual) visit days which gave me the confidence to pick Cornell as my home for the next five years.
It’s time for end-of-the-year “best of” lists, and two faculty members affiliated with the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science made this year’s list for Forbes 30 under 30: Science.
Allison Koenecke, assistant professor of information science, and Nikhil Garg, assistant professor at ORIE and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, and a field member in computer science and information science, both made the cut.
Forbes selected Koenecke for her research on fairness in algorithmic systems. Her work has uncovered racial disparities in speech recognition systems – such as the kind used in virtual assistants – showing that despite recent advances, the technology still underperforms for Black users. Additionally, in an analysis of online ads promoting California's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Koenecke showed that disparities in ad targeting algorithms resulted in fewer Spanish speakers signing up.
Nikhil Garg made the list for his work on designing more equitable economic and social systems. He uses algorithms, machine learning, and data science to better understand a range of issues, including gerrymandering, surge pricing in ride-hailing, and polarization on Twitter. Garg’s recent research studies and addresses disparities in crowdsourcing and government service allocation, including in New York City and Chicago.
Matthew Law is a doctoral candidate in information science from Moorestown, New Jersey. He earned a B.A. in philosophy at Georgetown University and a B.S. in computer science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and now studies how robots can help humans make creative decisions at Cornell under the guidance of Guy Hoffman.
What is your area of research and why is it important?
I study how robots can help humans make creative decisions when designing. Our robots use physical materials, like wooden blocks or paper notecards, to communicate ideas with human users. For example, one of our robots works with humans to organize ideas written on notecards into thematic clusters. Robots can employ scalable computational methods that complement human experience and intuition for design problems. For example, a robot might search for and evaluate many alternatives to a human’s initial design. Since humans frequently think with their hands, interacting with robots through familiar materials offers an accessible interface to these benefits.
What are the larger implications of this research?
Human-robot collaboration is commonly used for physical tasks like fabrication or surgery. My research seeks to extend this knowledge to support cognitive and design activities. Many everyday problems involve complex design choices–for example, planning a class schedule involves managing constraints, balancing requirements and personal goals, and making decisions on partial information. I believe that affordable, desktop-scale robots offer a completely new way to think about supporting design activities with technology, building on existing and familiar material practices, like affinity-diagramming, to help people reflect on their choices, consider alternate opinions, resolve areas of uncertainty, and document their work.
Why did you decide to become a mentor with the MAC Mentoring Program?
I learned a lot of things as a Ph.D. student through trial and error and wanted to use my experiences to help others navigate challenges that I’ve learned are quite common among students, like dealing with imposter syndrome, making the most out of your relationship with your advisor, or choosing a research question. I also wanted to grow myself as a mentor and learn more about different academic cultures and experiences. Students in the MAC mentoring community span academic disciplines and the breadth of their experiences has really expanded my perspective on mentorship and academic life.
Why is it important for students to participate in peer mentoring programs?
Relationships are an important part of academic life and doing a Ph.D. can sometimes feel quite solitary. Participating in peer mentorship programs is a great, low-risk way to find and build support networks that offer community and resources. There are also a lot of hidden curricula in navigating a research career, and peer mentorship is one way that students can work together to help each other overcome this. Finally, serving as a mentor is a great way to learn about and develop effective mentorship practices and philosophies.
What are your hobbies or interests outside of your research or scholarship?
I have been slowly learning how to draw cartoons and have been incorporating this into how I teach and communicate my work. I also have four cats and like to play tennis badly with my wife.
Why did you choose Cornell to pursue your degree?
I was really attracted by the unique way that Cornell’s field of information science values creative and human-centered work. Our field has a genuine commitment to understanding the human side of technology through multiple, cross-disciplinary lenses. This provides the opportunity and resources to pursue ideas in creative and multi-faceted ways.
