Fall 2023: Digital Bias and Machine Learning

In the Fall 2023 iteration of GIRI, students learned about the role of digital automation in biased social systems and learned practical applications of machine-learning techniques for research. Students learned to train and utilize machine learning models in the context of large public and academic datasets relevant to diversity, equity, and inclusion research. Models were trained using the R programming language; the fundamentals of this language were surveyed during the course. Alongside practical approaches to data preparation and modeling, students considered critical approaches and social concerns related to the ethics and epistemology of data collection, presentation, and archiving.