Technology and Equity

As technology increasingly reshapes and directs our world, questions of fairness and equity become critical areas of inquiry – How biased is the data that feeds the algorithm to decide whether or not you are eligible for a home loan? Can a computer system really determine, better than a judge, if a defendant is a flight risk? Do consumer-sourced ratings on a ride-sharing app open the door for bias against drivers of a particular race? Cornell scholars in Info Sci's Technology and Equity research area examine questions like these while addressing problems of accessibility by building and evaluating computing systems for underserved populations.