DataBytes - The National Consortium for Data Science

The goal of DataBytes is to share developments or new perspectives in the field of data science. These events often highlight work happening in industry to provide a pathway to connect industry with academia. We ask that presenters refrain from offering explicit sales or collaborative opportunities during or after the event. NCDS enjoys a close relationship with many higher education institutions, and we facilitate connections based on mutual interest. The NCDS offers other opportunities to provide thought leadership in a variety of platforms, please reach out to Amanda C. Miller to discuss this further or click below to navigate to the interest form.

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DataBytes Events | 2023

June 20, 4pm-5pm – AI Ethics Through the Lens of Causality with Chris Lam, founder and CEO of Epistamai

A Theory of Fairness
To understand fairness, one must unify central ideas from the social sciences and humanities to mathematics and computer science. In this talk, Chris will show how to model a principal cause of algorithmic bias (the structure vs. agency debate in sociology) and directly map it to the two fundamental laws of causal inference (counterfactuals/interventions vs. conditional independence). He will also show how to bridge the field of causal inference to machine learning, providing us with a novel way to visualize the different ways that a supervised machine learning model can discriminate. These causal models may help policymakers on both sides of the aisle to modernize AI regulations so that they are aligned to society’s values.

About the Speaker- Chris Lam
Chris is the founder and CEO of Epistamai, an AI research company based in the Research Triangle that is focused on understanding AI ethics through the lens of causality. The inspiration for his startup came from his work at the Federal Reserve, where he did research on algorithmic bias in credit decisions. He is an evangelist for the emerging field of causal data science, which could help us to solve intractable problems in data science today.

April 20, 2023, 11am-12pm – What does a Data Ethicist Do? With Anisha Nadkarni, Randstad Global

Data ethics is a growing concern in all industries, especially as issues such as algorithmic bias, informed consent, and privacy become more nuanced. Additionally, with artificial intelligence and machine learning tools gaining traction at a rapid speed, it is more imperative than ever that organizations establish strong ethical guidelines around the data collected from client projects, research endeavors, and business affairs. Anisha Nadkarni, Data Ethics Officer at Randstad Global, walks us through a day in the life of a data ethicist, with a Q&A session with Nadkarni at the end of the meeting.

February 14, 2023, 12pm-1pm – Five Ways that Visualization Can Mislead (And How to Fix Them) with Dr. Danielle Szafir

Visualizations allow people to readily analyze and communicate data. However, many common visualization designs lead to engaging imagery but false conclusions. By understanding what people see when they look at a visualization, we can design visualizations that support more accurate data analysis and avoid unnecessary biases. UNC Computer Science Assistant Professor Danielle Szafir walks us through best practices in data visualization and analysis, with a Q&A session with Dr. Szafir at the end of the meeting. View a recording of the event here.