Working Groups

Civic Participation

Organized by Paul Gölz (CMU) and Anson Kahng (CMU)

We study the mathematical theory of civic participation, focusing on novel modes of democratic decision making that complement traditional elections.

Conversations with Practitioners

Organized by Matthew Olckers (UNSW Sydney) and Christian Ramirez Romero (USIL)

We aim to bridge research and practice by hosting informal interviews with practitioners who work with disadvantaged and underserved communities.

Data Economies

Organized by Ali Alkhatib (University of San Francisco) and Lucy Qin (Brown University)

The data economies and data markets working group aims to better understand the challenges that arise across the data pipeline from creation, ownership, accessibility, and sharing to data analysis and use.

Developing Nations

Organized by Tejumade Afonja (Saarland) and Chinasa Okolo (Cornell)

We are a group of academic researchers working on understanding and tackling issues pertaining to the role and application of technology in addressing challenges in emerging nations or under-resourced settings.

Discrimination

Organized by Faidra Monachou (Stanford), and Jessica Finocchiaro ( University of Colorado - Boulder)

This group focuses on different research areas, such as understanding the impacts of ranking problems and design of resource allocation mechanisms.

Environment and Climate

Organized by Wanyi Li (Stanford) and Lily Xu (Harvard)

We study how computational methods can help address environmental challenges, particularly those that exacerbate the climate crisis.

Inequality

Organized by Sam Taggart (Oberlin), Chika Okafor (Harvard), and Sera Linardi (University of Pittsburg)

We study how computational methods can either address or exacerbate inequality, both globally and for vulnerable populations in the United States.

Latin America and Caribbean

Organized by Francisco Marmolejo (University of Oxford), Michelle González Amador (UNU-MERIT), Mariajose Silva-Vargas (UNU-MERIT), and Juan Felipe Penagos (Fundación Ceiba)

Major themes include: migration (especially the Venezuelan diaspora), crime (with a focus on youth crime), and education (integrating/engaging at risk youth in educational systems).

Algorithms, Law, and Policy

Organized Doaa Abu-Elyounes (Harvard, Sciences Po) and Duncan McElfresh (University of Maryland)

Some of the topics the group will work on include but are not limited to free speech, content moderation, antitrust, the use of “black box” machine learning models, data-driven algorithms, and decision-support tools.