Category: Data Science

A/B testingAlgorithmsData Science

Christo Wilson Discusses the Ethics of Online Behavioral Experiments

on July 24, 2019

If your company runs A/B tests involving it’s user community, this talk is a must see. Christo Wilson at Northeastern University discusses an analysis his lab ran on how companies use the Optimizely platform to conduct online experiments. Although these experiments tend to mostly be innocuous, there’s a tremendous need for transparency and mechanisms for accountability. How is your company addressing this?

Data for Breakfast

On May 1 of 2019, Dr. Christo Wilson gave a talk on his investigation into online behavioral experiments. The talk was based on a piper entitled Who’s the Guinea Pig? Investigating Online A/B/n Tests in-the-Wild, which he and his students gave at the 2019 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Atlanta, Georgia.

Online behavioral experiments (OBEs) are studies (aka A/B/n tests) that people conduct on websites to gain insight into their users’ preferences. Users typically aren’t asked for consent and these studies are typically benign. Typically an OBE will explore questions such as whether changing the background color influences how the user interacts with the site or whether the user is more likely to read an article if the font is slightly larger.

Sometimes, these studies cross ethical boundaries. For example, Facebook conducted an ethically problematic experiment designed to manipulate the emotional state of its users

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AIData Scienceinclusion

Black In AI workshop call for papers

on July 10, 2019

If you are a student, researcher, or professor at a Historically Black College or University and work actively in data science, machine learning, or artificial intelligence, please consider submitting a paper to the 2019 Black in AI workshop. The deadline is now August 7 — I’d encourage submission even (especially!!) if your research and ideas are still coming together. There are also travel grants available and I’ll post that application soon.

The workshop occurs during the 2019 neurlps conference (this is probably the most attending conference on deep learning and other AI architectures). The specific goal of the workshop is to encourage involvement of people from Africa and the African diaspora in the AI field, and to promote research that benefits (and does no harm to) the global Black community.

Paper submission extended deadline: Tue August 7, 2019 11:00 PM UTC

Submit at: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/BLACKINAI2019

The site will start accepting submissions on July 7th.

No extensions will be offered for submissions.

We invite submissions for the Third Black in AI Workshop (co-located with NeurIPS). We welcome research work in artificial intelligence, computational neuroscience, and its applications. These include, but are not limited to, deep learning,  knowledge reasoning, machine learning, multi-agent systems, statistical reasoning, theory, computer vision, natural language processing, robotics, as well as applications of AI to other domains such as health and education, and submissions concerning fairness, ethics, and transparency in AI. 

Papers may introduce new theory, methodology, applications or product demonstrations. 

We also welcome position papers that synthesize existing work, identify future directions, or inform on neglected/abandoned areas where AI could be impactful. Examples are work on AI & Arts, AI & Policy, etc.

Submission will fall into one of these 4 tracks:

  1. Machine learning Algorithms
  2. Applications of AI 
  3. Position papers
  4. Product demonstrations

Work may be previously published, completed, or ongoing. The workshop will not publish proceedings. We encourage all Black researchers in areas related to AI to submit their work. They need not to be first author of the work.

Formatting instructions

All submissions must be in PDF format. Submissions are limited to two content pages, including all figures and tables. An additional page containing only references is allowed. Submissions should be in a single column, typeset using 11-point or larger fonts and have at least 1-inch margin all around. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines risk being rejected without consideration of their merits. 

Double-blinded reviews

Submissions will be peer-reviewed by at least 2 reviewers, in addition to an area chair. The reviewing process will be double-blinded at the level of the reviewers. As an author, you are responsible for anonymizing your submission. In particular, you should not include author names, author affiliations, or acknowledgements in your submission and you should avoid providing any other identifying information.

Travel grants

Use this link to apply for travel grants to the conference. They are available for eligible attendees, and should be submitted by  Wed July 31, 2019 11:00 PM UTC at the latest (Note that this is one day after the paper submission deadline).

Content guidelines

Submissions must state the research problem, motivation, and contribution. Submissions must be self-contained and include all figures, tables, and references. 

Here are a set of good sample papers from 2017: sample papers 

Questions? Contact us at bai2019@blackinai.org.

BooksData ScienceHistorically Black Colleges

Black data science book giveaway

on July 5, 2019

The Atlanta University Center Consortium — the umbrella organization of Morehouse, Spelman, Clark Atlanta University, and Morehouse School of Medicine — just launched a Data Science Initiative. To celebrate, I am giving away two books!

Here’s an excerpt from the announcement:

The AUCC Data Science Initiative brings together the collective talents and innovation of computer science professors from Morehouse College and other AUCC campuses into an academic program that will be the first of its kind for our students,” said David A. Thomas, president of Morehouse College. “Our campuses will soon produce hundreds of students annually who will be well-equipped to compete internationally for lucrative jobs in data science. This effort, thanks to UnitedHealth Group’s generous donation, is an example of the excellence that results when we come together as a community to address national issues such as the disparity among minorities working in STEM.

Announcement of the Atlanta University Center data science initiative at http://d4bl.org/conference.html

To commemorate and honor the founding of this initiative, I’ve set up two book giveaways at Amazon. The first book is W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. W.E.B. DuBois was a sociologist who taught at the Atlanta University Center. His visualizations of African American life in the early 20th century still set the standard for data visualization and this book is a collection of visualizations that he and his Atlanta University students produced for the 1900 Paris Exposition. If Atlanta University students were doing amazing data science 100 years ago without laptops, we can only guess what the future holds. Click this link to get your book.

The second book is Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life by Dr. Ruha Benjamin, a contemporary African American scholar at Princeton whose work addresses “the social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine”. Click this link to get a copy of Captivating Technology.

There is only one copy per book available so the first person to click gets the book.

If you want to know more about the work being done by Black data scientists, you should check out the DATA FOR BLACK LIVES III conference.

I’ll close with one of the sessions from the first Data for Black Lives conference. Where are the Black (data) scientists? Definitely at the Atlanta University Center!

Data ScienceHistorySocial Justice

Remembering Bill Jenkins

on May 17, 2019

As Chelsea Manning is again sent to jail for refusing to abandon basic press freedoms, I am reminded of Bill Jenkins.

Mr Jenkins passed away recently. He was an epidemiologist (and Morehouse graduate ) who bravely exposed the horrific Tuskegee experiments, as Ms Manning exposed egregious human rights violations that occurred during US military operations.

If you are not aware of the Tuskegee experiment, the US Health Service allowed Black men to be untreated for sexually transmitted diseases for three decades. It was a controlled experiment to determine the effects of untreated syphilis. The participants were all poor Black sharecroppers — men recruited through Tuskegee University, believing that they were getting free healthcare in exchange for helping to develop a drug to fight “bad blood”. None of those who had syphilis were given access to penicillin, even after the study supposedly ended. Many perished or suffered irreversible harm.

One outcome was the establishment of informed consent, and other ethical practices we take for granted when we walk into a doctor’s office, or signup for a clinical trial. Jenkins learned of the study, and started asking questions, despite being told to ignore it, or just “look the other way”. In the current climate, Mr Jenkins might have well faced prison. Some principles are worth suffering for, some causes are just that important.

Thank you Bill Jenkins, thank you Chelsea, and thank you to the others doing the right thing.

Black History MonthData ScienceHistory

Black history month book giveaway!

on February 3, 2019

In honor of the U.S. Black History Month commemoration, I am giving away two copies of the book
W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America.

What do you have to do to be a winner? Be one of the first to create and send in a visualization inspired by the set of infographics on Black America that Dr. W.E.B. DuBois developed for the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Any visualization that you implement that is relevant to the peoples of SubSaharan Africa or the SubSaharan diaspora is relevant too!

Just email me or post as a comment. The first two submissions get the book, and I’ll try to hook up something outstanding works too!

BooksData ScienceMigration

The Little Shop of Data Science Stories

on December 31, 2018

I am happy to announce that The Little Shop of Stories bookstore in Decatur, GA is awesome for data science! A few blocks away from us, it is such a regional treasure for children’s books and events. Diane has brought game changing books, authors, and programs to Atlanta and environs.

But last week I was ecstatic when I came across a treasure of data visualization on the shelves.

Who knew data science could bring this much joy?

The book I am referring to is W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. But if you live in the Atlanta area, please get it at Little Shop — Amazon can make it without your dollars.

You may be aware of Dr W.E.B. DuBois work in championing and defining civil rights for peoples of the African diaspora during the first half of the twentieth century. You might be aware of his book The Souls of Black Folk , his leadership of the NAACP, and his intellectual nurturing of African independence efforts. But his work at the Atlanta University Center (now Clark Atlanta University) stands the test of time for how to do good data visualization.

Visualizing Black America pulls together the amazing visualizations that he and his AUC students developed for the 1900 Paris Exposition. They are beautiful, innovative, meticulous and tell the story of Black America at the beginning of the 20th century.

that he and his AUC students developed for the 1900 Paris Exposition. They are beautiful, innovative, meticulous and tell the story of Black America at the beginning of the 20th century.

We are so lucky in the Atlanta area to have a bookstore with the vision to stock this treasure. Stop through if you are in the ATL.

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