News
Bias-NRT Faculty and Trainee Featured in SBU News
H. Andrew Schwartz, associate profess of Computer Science, and Gilvir Gill, PhD candidate in Computer Science, were recently featured in the SBU News article, "Using AI and Social Media to Track Depression in Communities. "
"A study led by Stony Brook University researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) and social media posts to assess the rates of depression and anxiety in nearly half of American counties, and found that the measurements produced more reliable assessments than population surveys." Continue Reading
PI Susan Brennan Featured in SBU Magazine
Stony Brook University Magazine, Spring 2024
"The Reality of AI"
By Rob Emproto
"Artificial intelligence (AI) — the ability of a computer program or machine to learn, react and interact meaningfully — has been grabbing headlines for some time now, and for good reason. It is all around us, visible in ways we never imagined. With the use of AI, computer programs can write stories, create art and music, and converse with humans, but what it can’t do is think for itself — it only can understand information input by humans."
Bias-NRT Fellow, Rosa Bermejo, and Trainee, Alexandra Athonioz, Present Posters at
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2024 Annual Convention
San Diego, California
February 8-10, 2024
Rosa and Alex are both students in the Department of Psychology's Social and Health program and are working with Dr. Bonita London.
Social Media and Social Networks: College Student Experiences with Vicarious Racism
Rosa M. Bermejo and Dr. Bonita London
Retention of Underrepresented Students in STEM: Lessons from Stony Brook's Simons
STEM Scholars Program
Alexandra Anthonioz, Chelsie O. Burchett, Toni Pena, Erwin Cabrera, Natasha McCombs,
Brady Brick, Catherine Scott, and Dr. Bonita London
Bias-NRT Trainees and Fellows Attend the Women in AI Ethics 2023 Annual Summit
New York, New York
December 1, 2023
Top row: Ritik Raina (Department of Psychology, Cognitive Science), Tina Behzad (Bias-NRT
Trainee, Department of Computer Science), Rosa Bermejo (Bias-NRT Fellow, Department
of Psychology, Social & Health), and Dana Golden (Bias-NRT Fellow, Department of
Economics).
Front row: Alexandra Anthonioz (Bias-NRT Trainee, Department of Psychology, Social
& Health), MacKenzie Johnson (Bias-NRT Trainee, Department of Psychology, Cognitive
Science), Kalina Kostyszyn (Bias-NRT Fellow, Department of Linguistics), and Amie
Paige (Bias-NRT Fellow, Department of Psychology, Cognitive Science).
Bias-NRT Trainee, Medhini Urs, Presents Poster at the Society for Judgment and Decision
Making 2023 Annual Meeting
San Francisco, California
November 17-20, 2023
Medhini is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Psychology's Cognitive Science Program and is working with Dr. Christian Luhmann.
Extracting information from obstetricians' judgments using order-constrained models
Alexandra Ortmann, Medhini Urs, Daniel R. Cavagnaro, Michel Regenwetter, Christian
C. Luhmann
Bias-NRT Trainee, James May, Gives Talk at Pscyhonomic Society's 2023 Annual Meeting
November 16-19, 2023
San Francisco, California
James is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Psychology's Cognitive Science Program and is working with Dr. Susan Brennan.
A Brief Intervention to Help Listeners Process an Unfamiliar Non-Native Accent
James May, Jeanne Charoy, Emily Napoli, Chikako Takahashi, Jean Hendrickson, Marie
Huffman, and Susan E. Brennan
Participating Faculty Member on Bias-NRT, Klaus Mueller, Named 2024 IEEE Fellow
"Professor Klaus Mueller, from the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University, was recently recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Board of Directors as a 2024 IEEE Fellow for contributions in image reconstruction and visualization. IEEE is a professional organization dedicated to the advancement of technology for the benefit of humanity. This is a tremendous honor as less than 0.1% of the voting members are selected for this elevation."
Watch Bias-NRT Fellows, Carl Wiedemann and Kalina Kostyszyn, present their paper, A Computational Decision Tree Approach to Inform Post-Conviction Intake Decisions, at The Innocence Project's 2023 Just Data Conference!
Bias-NRT Team Attends 2023 NRT Annual Meeting in Tempe, Arizona
From left to right: Kristen Kalb-DellaRatta (Project Coordinator,) Catherine Good (Project Evaluator), Kalina Kostyszyn (Bias-NRT Fellow), and Carl J. Wiedemann (Bias-NRT Fellow)
Bias-NRT Fellow, Evan West, Awarded the Nisha and Vinod Singhi Fellowship
"The Nisha and Vinod K. Singhi Graduate Fellowship was created by Vinod Singhi ‘83, an alumnus of Stony Brook University’s Department of Computer Science. The Singhi family created this generous fellowship to reciprocate the way that Vinod felt supported during his time at Stony Brook.
Through this fellowship, in May 2023, doctoral student Evan West was awarded $5,000 to support his education and research. West is the first Singhi Fellow selected for the award."
NSF Spotlights Bias-NRT
In an exclusive interview with PI, Susan Brennan, and Project Coordinator, Kristen Kalb-DellaRatta, NSF highlights Bias-NRT's impact and mission to bridge the data sciences and human-centered sciences through convergent research projects. Brennan speaks about the motivations for the NRT and how the project is training graduate students to be ethical in their research by examining their own biases as well as the biases in the data and institutions around them. Reflecting on Bias-NRT's first year, the article focuses on the research efforts of the Post-Conviction Project and their goal to create a transparent ML framework for Innocence Organizations combatting wrongful convictions.
Bias-NRT Obtains SUNY and NYSED Approval for the Advanced Graduate Certificate in Human-Centered Data Science
The Bias-NRT Team worked with the Graduate School and the Provost's Office in order to obtain SUNY and NYSED approval for this AGC. Trainees, Fellows, and other PhD students from participating departments are eligible to enroll for the upcoming Spring 2024 semester.
Bias-NRT's Post Conviction Project Presenting at The Innocence Project's Just Data: Advancing the Innocence Movement Conference
Using machine learning and data analytic tools, The Post-Conviction Project is working to develop a transparent and user-friendly framework that can support intake decisions for Innocence Organization staff. On November 9th, 2023 lead authors, Kalina Kostyszyn and Carl Wiedemann, will present their paper titled, A Computational Decision-Tree Approach to Inform Post-Conviction Intake Decisions. The paper will be published in the associated issue of The Wrongful Conviction Law Review.
RSVP to the 2023 Just Data: Advancing the Innocence Movement Conference:RSVP
Bias-NRT Trainee, Alexandra Anthonioz, Highlighted in Department of Psychology's October Newsletter
"Alexandra Anthonioz (Social & Health PhD Candidate) published a first author paper in Modern Psychology Studies titled "Stepping Beyond the Bars: A Comparative Analysis of Personality Traits in Previously Incarcerated Males and Females". This study sought to explore differences in a previously incarcerated individual’s personality traits based on biological sex and the potential impacts these findings may have on incarceration and our criminal justice system as whole. "
PI, Susan Brennan, speaks on Council for Graduate Schools' Plenary Panel, Preparing Graduate Students to Address Bias in Data Science
Panel Speakers: Nicol Turner Lee (Senior Fellow, Governance Studies and Director,
Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution) and Susan Brennan (Distinguished
Professor, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University)
Moderator: Michael Cunningham, Associate Provost, Graduate Studies and Research, Tulane
University
"The interdisciplinary field of data science holds out great promise for research and innovation. All too often, however, graduate students are exposed to the promises of data science and artificial intelligence without an understanding of the biases that may be inherent in their methods and applications. This session will consider some of the risks of bias in data science as well as a model for preparing graduate students to anticipate and respond to this challenge."
Bias-NRT Trainee, Sekine Ozturk, Presented Poster at the Society for Affective Science 2023 Conference
Facial Expressions May Forecast Depression Diagnosis in 5 Years
Sekine Ozturk, M.A., Roman Kotov, Ph.D., Aprajita Mohanty, Ph.D.
Bias-NRT Fellow, Rosa Bermejo, Will Be Joining the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a Summer Intern!
Rosa Bermejo joined Bias-NRT in the fall of 2022 and has shown herself to be a leader amongst our trainees. Rosa is currently co-leading a newly formed research project dealing with wrongful convictions and an exploration of the National Registry of Exonerations. Rosa is a 4th year PhD student in the Social and Health Psychology program, advised by Dr. Bonita London, Co-PI on Bias-NRT. Congratulations, Rosa!
Bias-NRT Fellow, Carl Wiedemann, Presented Poster at the 2023 SPSP Annual Convention
How Considering Future Consequences of Purchase Decisions Relates to Beliefs About
the Utility of Money Through Rational Decision Making
Carl J. Wiedemann & Antonio L. Freitas, Ph.D.
"On March 8, 2023, University Libraries hosted ChatGPT & Generative AI: An SBU Forum. Dean Karim Boughida moderated a faculty, staff, & student panel with interest and expertise in large language models (LLM) and how they might intersect with higher education..."
Photo from left: Rose Tirotta-Esposito, Susan Brennan, Sowad Ocean Karim, Owen Rambow,
and Karim Boughida
Photo credit: Victoria Pilato
Bias-NRT attends 2023 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC
From left to right: Rosa Bermejo (NRT Fellow), Kristen Kalb-DellaRatta (Project Coordinator), Susan Brennan (Principal Investigator)
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Announces New Graduate Program in Data Science
"Stony Brook University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences has announced a new graduate program in data science (DAS), which will offer both MS and PhD degree programs in data science beginning in Fall 2023."
Data science program faculty (front row, starting fourth from left) Wei Zhu (Applied Mathematics and Statistics), C.R. Ramakrishnan (Computer Science) and Pei Fen Kuan (Applied Mathematics and Statistics), along with several program students. Photo by John Griffin.
"Twenty-three members of Stony Brook University’s faculty and staff have received the 2021-2022 State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.
The awards acknowledge the dedication and accomplishments of instructional faculty, librarians and professional staff across SUNY campuses and encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence."
Dr. Adryan Wallace, Faculty on BIAS-NRT, Selected to Present at United Nations Conference
on Africa
"Adryan Wallace, assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, was recently selected by the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa
(OSAA) to present at an upcoming conference on 'Africa’s fiscal space, fragility,
and conflict.'"
NSF Awards Nearly $3 Million for Graduate Research Training in Data Science and AI
"Data science and artificial intelligence (AI) have become powerful tools for generating
new knowledge, fueling innovation and dealing with some of society’s most pressing
problems. However, 'big data' and machine learning tools can perpetuate biases that
advantage some people, while disadvantaging others."
Back row: Memming Park (Associate Professor, Neurobiology & Behavior and IACS affiliate faculty), Susan Brennan (Area Head and Professor, Cognitive Science Program, Psychology), Jeffrey Heinz (Professor, Linguistics/IACS core faculty), Adryan Wallace (Assistant Professor, Africana Studies/Women’s Studies/Political Science), CR Ramakrishnan (Professor and Graduate Program Director, Computer Science), Reuben Kline (Associate Professor, Political Science). Front row: Wei Zhu (CEAS Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and International Programs; Professor, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and IACS affiliate faculty), Bonita London (Professor, Social and Health Program, Psychology), Owen Rambow (Professor and IACS Endowed Chair, Linguistics/IACS) Photo by John Griffin