NRT-HDR: Detecting and Addressing Bias in Data, Humans, and Institutions

Data science has become a powerful tool for generating new knowledge, fueling innovation, and dealing with society's most pressing problems. Harnessing this data revolution requires broadening the participation of U.S. citizens in the data science workforce, especially of women and other under-represented groups. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to Stony Brook University (the State University of New York at Stony Brook) will prepare a diverse pool of students to become fluent in both data sciences and human-centered sciences.

The program will enable students to conduct convergent research in problem domains that blend data science with deep disciplinary knowledge. The project anticipates training sixty-eight (68) Ph.D. students, including thirty-four (34) NRT-funded trainees, recruited from both the human-centered sciences (HCS, consisting of Psychology, Linguistics, Economics, Neurobiology & Behavior, Political Science, and Sociology) and the data sciences (DS, consisting of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics & Statistics).

In the U.S., scientifically oriented domestic students tend to gather in distinct siloes, with significantly higher proportions of women in HCS than in DS fields. HCS students are well-trained in the traditional empirical methods of their fields. However, many do not identify as "data scientists." These HCS students may lack the preparation to dive into graduate coursework in computer science to acquire cutting-edge research skills in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data that could empower their research.

And many DS students lack a deep theoretical and practical understanding of how datasets are collected and their limitations. Moreover, DS students may lack the skills to assess the impacts of data-based technology upon human beings and society.

In this two-pathway training model, DS trainees will take graduate coursework in an HCS domain, earning a certificate in the Human-Centered Sciences. Meanwhile, HCS trainees will take any needed intensive bridge courses to prepare them for graduate coursework in DS and earn an Artificial Intelligence certificate. Trainees will come together in three team-taught research practica centered on a relevant and inclusive theme: bias—in data, in humans, and in institutions.

These practica will focus on discovering how the use of powerful quantitative methods can camouflage biases (both implicit and explicit) that, in a given context, advantage some human beings and disadvantage others. Both trainees and trainers will practice techniques for detecting and addressing biases in themselves and their research, as well as within social and institutional settings.

Together, they will join convergent research collaborations that target pervasive problems of inequity and the ethical uses of technology.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.