Barbosa defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Natã Barbosa successfully defended his dissertation, "Exploring Algorithmic Realism in the Data Economy," on January 14. His committee included Associate Professor Yang Wang (chair); Professor Michael Twidale; Gang Wang, assistant professor of computer science at Illinois; and Blase Ur, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago.

Abstract: My doctoral research develops a deeper understanding of the promises of algorithmic interventions for the data economy inspired by algorithmic realism: an algorithmic framework cognizant of political, porous, and contextual aspects of the social world. I design, evaluate, and deploy algorithmic interventions aimed as anticipatory and mitigation measures against ethical issues of different domains of the data economy using three case studies. In each case study, the contingencies and fluidity of the data economy are accounted for and embraced in the designs. Specifically, through the development and evaluation of a human-centric labeling framework for machine learning, anticipatory models of privacy preferences for the smart home, and a technology probe on transparency of profiling in online behavioral advertising, I show how algorithmic interventions can promote ethical practices, balance conflicting forces, and promote user trust in the data economy. Findings illuminate a path of ethics, opportunities for increased user participation amidst power imbalances, and mutual benefits of such interventions in light of the prevailing forces of the data economy. However, findings also reveal a number of challenges such interventions may face, mainly around feasibility, countering economic forces, and mismatched or conflicting expectations between users and service providers of the data economy. I discuss such challenges and offer future research directions around feasibility, algorithmic authority, conflicting forces, mismatched expectations, and shared accountability in highly decentralized data economy systems.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Final projects in Government Information course result in publications

Two students who were enrolled in the Government Information (IS 594) course this past spring are now published authors. Their papers began as their final project for the course, which acquaints students with government publications. With the students' permission, course instructor and Adjunct Lecturer Dominique Hallett submitted the papers to DttP: Documents to the People, and they were published in the journal's most recent edition (Vol. 51, No. 3).

Internship Spotlight: AbbVie

BSIS student Miranda Ma discusses her internship at the AbbVie Innovation Center. Ma advises job seekers to keep an open mind and not limit their job search to a specific industry, especially for a field like user experience.

Miranda Ma

Tilley shares comics research at European universities

Associate Professor Carol Tilley shared her expertise in comics research at several invited talks in Europe this month. Tilley served as the keynote speaker for the international conference, “Comics, the Children and Childishness,” at Ghent University in Belgium. In her keynote, “Re-Centering Children in Comics,” she encouraged researchers studying comics and children to give more focus to the lived experiences of young people, moving away from an over-reliance on studying specific texts or their uses. 

Carol Tilley

Knox testifies before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book bans

Associate Professor Emily Knox testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on September 12. She was one of five witnesses offering testimony for the hearing "Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature." 

Emily Knox

McDowell examines benefits and obstacles of library data storytelling

The effective use of data storytelling could positively impact public library managers' approaches to data collection and their advocacy for libraries, according to Associate Professor Kate McDowell. However, cultural roadblocks to data storytelling must be addressed for the process to be successful, McDowell discovered in a recently completed study.

Kate McDowell