Biography:Sorelle Friedler

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Short description: American computer scientist
Sorelle Alaina Friedler
Sorelle Friedler at Data & Civil Rights Conference.jpg
Friedler in 2015
Alma materSwarthmore College
University of Maryland, College Park
Scientific career
InstitutionsHaverford College
Alphabet Inc
ThesisGeometric algorithms for objects in motion (2011)

Sorelle Alaina Friedler is an American computer scientist who is an Associate Professor at Haverford College. She is the co-founder Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. Her research seeks to prevent discrimination in machine learning.

Early life and education

Friedler earned her bachelor's degree at Swarthmore College.[1] She moved to the University of Maryland, College Park for her graduate studies, where she studied geometric algorithms.[2]

Research and career

Friedler joined Alphabet Inc. as a software engineer,[1][3] where she worked with X on the development of weather balloons that can provide internet access to remote communities.[1]

Friedler has advocated for the careful use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.[4] In particular, she has spoken about how biased data and algorithms reinforce social inequality.[4] In 2015 she was made a Fellow at the Data & Society Research Institute.[citation needed]

Friedler has worked with Josh Schrier and Alexander Norquist on the application of data mining to accelerate materials discovery.[5][6] They created a computer algorithm capable of predicting whether a set of reagents will create a crystalline materials when mixed in a solvent and heated.[7] To create the tool, they compiled a database of almost 4,000 chemical reactions, wrote an algorithm that could mine for patterns in data and provide insight about why some experiments fail while others succeed.[8] The algorithm was correct 89% of the time, whilst researchers (human) predictions only had a 78% success rate.[8] Friedler and her co-workers published the database online (darkreactions.haverford.edu/) to encourage other researchers to share their data.[8]

Awards and honors

  • 2006 AT&T Labs Fellowship Program[9]
  • 2009 Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship[10]
  • 2019 Chace/Parker Teaching Award[11]
  • 2019 Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge[11]

Selected publications

Personal life

Friedler is married to Rebecca Benjamin.[12]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 tferrick (27 November 2016). "Dr. Sorelle Friedler | ENGLISH HOUSE GAZETTE" (in en-US). https://ehgazette.blogs.brynmawr.edu/tag/dr-sorelle-friedler/. 
  2. Friedler, Sorelle Alaina (2011) (in en). Geometric algorithms for objects in motion.. Place of publication not identified. ISBN 978-1-244-64662-9. OCLC 829982183. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/829982183. 
  3. "Sorelle Friedler | Auditing, Explaining, and Ensuring Fairness in Algorithmic Systems | Institute for Advanced Study". https://ias.umn.edu/sorelle-friedler-auditing-explaining-and-ensuring-fairness-algorithmic-systems. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Sorelle Friedler" (in en-US). https://csci.williams.edu/sorelle-friedler/. 
  5. Hernandez, Daniela (2016-05-06). "Why Machines Should Learn From Failures" (in en-US). Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-machines-should-learn-from-failures-1462538020. 
  6. "Three Haverford Scientists Receive NSF Funding for Collaborative Project" (in en). 19 September 2013. https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/three-haverford-scientists-receive-nsf-funding-collaborative-project. 
  7. Ball, Philip (2016). "Computer gleans chemical insight from lab notebook failures" (in en). Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19866. http://www.nature.com/news/computer-gleans-chemical-insight-from-lab-notebook-failures-1.19866. 
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cepelewicz, Jordana. "Lab Failures Turn to Gold in Search for New Materials" (in en). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-failures-turn-to-gold-in-search-for-new-materials/. 
  9. Friedler, Sorelle A.; Mount, David M. (2010-08-01). "Approximation algorithm for the kinetic robust K-center problem" (in en). Computational Geometry 43 (6): 572–586. doi:10.1016/j.comgeo.2010.01.001. ISSN 0925-7721. 
  10. "Dissertation Fellowships | The University of Maryland Graduate School". https://gradschool.umd.edu/funding/student-fellowships-awards/dissertation-fellowship. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 "Sorelle Friedler Awarded Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge Funding" (in en). 29 May 2019. https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/sorelle-friedler-awarded-mozilla-responsible-computer-science-challenge. 
  12. "Rebecca Benjamin, Sorelle Friedler (Published 2010)" (in en-US). The New York Times. 2010-07-23. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/fashion/weddings/25Benjamin.html. 

External links