April 24th, 11am - 12:30pm PST
Coded Bias Hosted Discussion
The PSCSTA film discussion will be hosted by professional facilitators Belicia Smith and Elizabeth Borneman and sponsored by the national CSTA (bios below). CSTA National has already sponsored similar hosted discussions on Coded Bias in CSTA chapters and educator groups around the country.
Belicia Smith works with CSTA and K-12 school districts on adopting and improving their CS/STEM equity teaching practices, strategies, and policies. She works with students and educators in the classroom setting as well as administrators and other school leaders at a structural level. Her work in education includes family and community engagement.
Belicia was an integral member of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab Online Course team who developed the Becoming a More Equitable Educator course. As a learning designer at Harvard University, she worked directly with faculty to create equitable online and hybrid experiences for students worldwide. She currently sits on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity Advisory Board at Minds Matter Boston designing training materials for adults committed to mentoring BIPOC high school students interested in liberal arts and/or STEM college trajectories.
Belicia holds a B.A. in English Literature with a focus on African American literature from CSU Sacramento and an M.A. in Education with a focus on Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Elizabeth Borneman works with CSTA and K-12 school districts on adopting and improving their CS/STEM equity teaching practices, strategies, and policies. She’s engaged with this work from the classroom level to the administrative and structural level, out to wider family and community levels. She’s also a former middle school coding teacher.
Elizabeth’s expertise is in learning design and engineering. She facilitates workshops around ethical community-based data science and equitable CS education. She’s a published researcher currently researching these topics at MIT through the Data + Feminism Lab, and Teaching Systems Labs.
Elizabeth holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from Georgetown University and an M.Sc in Media Studies from MIT.
SYNOPSIS (Movie Trailer & Awards)
When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that most facial-recognition software misidentifies women and darker-skinned faces, she is compelled to investigate further. It turns out that artificial intelligence, which was defined by a homogeneous group of men, is not neutral. What Buolamwini learns about widespread bias in algorithms drives her to push the U.S. government to create the first-ever legislation to counter the far-reaching dangers of bias in a technology that is steadily encroaching on our lives.
Centering on the voices of women leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected, Coded Bias asks two key questions: what is the impact of Artificial Intelligence’s increasing role in governing our liberties? And what are the consequences for people stuck in the crosshairs due to their race, color, and gender?
About Joy Buolamwini: The MIT Media Lab researcher who founded the Algorithmic Justice League, an organization that looks to challenge bias in decision-making software. View Joy Buolamwini’s TED Talk.