*Four new faculty fellowships and fifteen new graduate fellowships have been awarded by the* ***Schwartz Reisman Institute*** to outstanding researchers from the University of Toronto. SRI fellowships are awarded to support interdisciplinary research that develop new lines of inquiry and innovative solutions to ensure that advanced technologies will benefit society.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI) is pleased to announce its 2022 fellowship recipients, with the introduction of four new faculty fellows and fifteen graduate fellows from across the University of Toronto’s research community.

Schwartz Reisman fellowships support interdisciplinary research projects that examine the complex relations between technology and society, build new connections between existing fields, and develop innovative applications that contribute to the use of AI for social good.

The 2022 fellowships will enable cutting-edge research that will further SRI’s mission to ensure that new technologies improve life for everyone, and support the expansion of the SRI community through engagement in the institute’s events and public outreach. Faculty fellows will serve a two-year term, while graduate fellows will serve a one-year term.

*Four University of Toronto professors have received Schwartz Reisman faculty fellowships. From left to right: Boris Babic, Tegan Maharaj, Peter Marbach, Lynette Ong.*

2022–24 Schwartz Reisman faculty fellows

Boris Babic, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy
Tegan Maharaj, assistant professor, Faculty of Information
Peter Marbach, associate professor, Department of Computer Science
Lynette H. Ong, associate professor, Department of Political Science

Boris Babic is an assistant professor with a cross-appointment in U of T’s Department of Statistics and Department of Philosophy. His research explores the nature of explainability in AI and the need for revised understandings of this concept—a topic he has presented at SRI’s Seminar Series and will speak about SRI’s upcoming conference, Absolutely Interdisciplinary. Babic’s fellowship project seeks to recontextualize debates around bias and fairness in AI by placing greater emphasis on interpretation of source data.

Tegan Maharaj is an assistant professor in U of T’s Faculty of Information, an affiliate at the Vector Institute, managing editor at the Journal of Machine Learning Research, the top scholarly journal in machine learning, and co-founding member of Climate Change AI. Maharaj’s research interests include responsible AI and the application of AI to policy projects. Her fellowship project will develop methods for modeling risk estimations and impact assessments for new policy frameworks deployed amidst complex situations.

Peter Marbach is an associate professor in U of T’s Department of Computer Science whose research explores social networks and recommendation algorithms. His fellowship project will study the societal impact of social media content recommendation algorithms.

Lynette H. Ong is an associate professor in U of T’s Department of Political Science whose research focuses on the study of autocracies, with a specialization in Asia. Her fellowship research will explore how digital governance in China is harnessed to exert power over its citizens, and the extent to which digital channels enhance or substitute existing mediums of state power and repression.

Fifteen University of Toronto graduate students have received Schwartz Reisman graduate fellowships, hailing from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. Top row (left to right): Parand Alizadeh Alamdari, Reem Ayad, Alexander Bernier, Madelaine Coelho, Sharon Ferguson. Middle row: Anne-Marie Fowler, Paraskevi (Evi) Micha, Wenjun Qiu, Rashad Rehman, Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat. Bottom row: Jad Sinno, Bilal Taha, Jesse Velay-Vitow, Siyue Yang, Yuxing (Yolanda) Zhang.

2022–23 Schwartz Reisman graduate fellows

Parand Alizadeh Alamdari, Department of Computer Science
Reem Ayad, Department of Psychology
Alexander Bernier, Faculty of Law
Madelaine Coelho, Department of Sociology
Sharon Ferguson, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Anne-Marie Fowler, Department of Religion
Paraskevi (Evi) Micha, Department of Computer Science
Wenjun Qiu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rashad Rehman, Department of Philosophy
Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat, Department of Computer Science
Jad Sinno, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Bilal Taha, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jesse Velay-Vitow, Department of Physics
Siyue Yang, Department of Statistical Sciences
Yuxing (Yolanda) Zhang, Faculty of Information

Parand Alizadeh Alamdari is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science, and a member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her research focuses on AI safety, reinforcement learning, deep learning, and AI alignment. Alamdari’s current work aims to build AI agents with the ability to learn social norms and moral values, and be considerate to the well-being and agency of other agents.

Reem Ayad is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology whose research focuses on moral judgement in the context of human-machine interaction and the use of virtual AI assistants. Ayad’s current work seeks to find out whether nurturing feelings of “closeness” with such machines influences our moral judgement of them.

Alexander Bernier is a PhD student in the Faculty of Law, whose research utilizes law and economics to understand and develop new regulatory strategies for biomedical research. Bernier’s goal is to use these new regulatory strategies in order to develop autonomous biomedical databases that can improve efficiency and accountability in healthcare delivery.

Madelaine Coelho is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology completing a collaborative specialization in women’s health with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the intersections between gender, violence, and technology. With a background in both computer science and sociology, Coelho will explore the efficacy of using technology to prevent gender-based violence within different cultural contexts.

Sharon Ferguson is a PhD student at Ready Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, whose interests lie in computational social science and human-computer interaction. Her research uses social networking data and natural language processing methods to learn about design and collaboration practices, how discrimination occurs on platforms, and how we can build tools that nudge participants towards inclusivity.

Anne-Marie Fowler is a PhD candidate in the Department for the Study of Religion, in collaboration with the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. Her work leverages philosophies of science, time, and infinity in proposing AI ethics as a function of the ongoing learning, anticipation, and construction of knowledge. Fowler’s previous research engaged in policy advisory around the US Treasury, US Federal Reserve, and global debt systems.

Paraskevi (Evi) Micha is a PhD candidate in computer science, and a postgraduate affiliate of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her research interests lie at the intersection of computer science and economics, including computational social choice, algorithmic fairness, algorithmic game theory, mechanism design, and incentives in machine learning.

Wenjun Qiu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research area lies at the intersections of AI, machine learning, law, privacy, and security. Qiu uses software techniques to investigate and ensure data privacy on mobile and web devices. She is currently building an automated privacy policy analysis tool to improve the readability, transparency, and accountability of privacy policies.

Rashad Rehman is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy, and a collaborative specialist in bioethics through the Joint Centre for Bioethics. His current research explores how novel genetic screening biotechnology impacts the quality of life of those who are born with intersex conditions. A medievalist at heart, Rehman also writes on ancient and medieval ethics.

Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science doing a collaborative doctoral specialization on South Asian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Rifat’s research lies at the intersection of computing and faith, exploring the computing practices of faith-based communities.

Jad Sinno is a PhD candidate in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Their research focuses on transcultural psychiatry, mental health, and the wellness of gender and sexual diverse individuals. Sinno’s current work explores the association between online dating apps and wellbeing among queer adults in Canada.

Bilal Taha is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, an affiliate with the Vector Institute, and a member of the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine. His research explores the intersection of signal and image processing, and machine learning applications for health care. Currently, he is working on medical biometric models with a goal of developing algorithms that leverage biometrics to ensure security, fairness, and be able to recognize emotions.

Jesse Velay-Vitow is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics, and a fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research investigates the phenomenon of ice stream deglaciation in ice-ocean interactions. Outside of the physics of climate, he is also interested in the intersection between climate modeling, policy, economics, and governance.

Siyue Yang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Statistics Sciences working on the interplay between statistics and machine learning. Her research aims to facilitate assessments of algorithmic fairness in healthcare settings. Yang is working on the development of imputation-based statistical methods to precisely evaluate algorithmic fairness with much less labelled data.

Yuxing (Yolanda) Zhang is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Information, whose research interests include critical data studies, media theory, platform studies, media infrastructure, ethics of AI, precision agriculture, space media, and knowledge politics. Her current work examines the socio-political and ethical implications of data-driven agroecological technologies in China.