Joint CS/EE Networking Seminar Series
Jeanna Matthews
Abstract:
Increasingly big decisions about the lives of individuals are being made in a partnership between human decision makers and computer systems. Algorithmically moderated platforms are making profound impacts on our personal and public relationships such as how we find a job, how we get our news, even how we find a spouse. This is fundamentally changing the landscape of our societal decision-making processes - from hiring decisions, to decisions about news amplification, to criminal justice decisions - and making them vulnerable to new types of attacks and influences. To build the world we want, we need algorithms and platforms to be accountable and transparent. I will discuss the role of algorithmic accountability in securing these decision-making processes, using examples from my current work in criminal justice software and media manipulation.
Biography:
Jeanna Matthews is an associate professor of computer science at Clarkson University and an affiliate at Data and Society. She has published work in a broad range of systems topics from virtualization and cloud computing to social media security and distributed file systems. She has been a four-time presenter at DEF CON on topics including security vulnerabilities in virtual environments (2015 and 2016), adversarial testing of criminal justice software (2018) and trolling (2018). She is an ACM Distinguished Speaker, a Fulbright Specialist, founding co-chair of the ACM Technology Policy Subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence and Algorithm Accountability and a member of the ACM Technology Policy Committee. She has been a member of the ACM Council (2015-present), chair of the ACM Special Interest Group Governing Board ( 2016-2018) and the chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS) from 2011 to 2015. Her current work focuses on securing societal decision-making processes and supporting the rights of individuals in a world of automation. She received a 2018-2019 Brown Institute Magic Grant to research differences in DNA software programs used in the criminal justice system. Jeanna received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Ohio State University in 1994 and a B.A. in Spanish from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 2015.
