Graduate Student Fellows Program: Meet the Fall 2019 Cohort
Last Friday, the Hariri Institute for Computing welcomed the Graduate Student Fellows (GSF) cohort for the fall of 2019. Among them was Research Assistant Professor Sarah Bargal, who shared her experience as a graduate of the GSF program in the summer of 2017. Holding a B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Computer Science, she is currently focused on making artificial intelligence systems explainable and accountable to humans and society.
The GSF program recognizes select Ph.D. students who are pursuing computational or data-driven research at Boston University. The cohort is comprised of students interested in many uses of computational and data-driven research, with topics ranging from the effects of forest fragmentation to the enforcement of privacy laws.
The six young researchers joining their peers this fall are Alex Best, Kexin Chen, Mona Jalal, Luca Morreale, Marika Swanberg, and Li Zhang. Alex is exploring number theory, the role of computation in mathematic experimentation, and arithmetic geometry with an emphasis on explicit and computational aspects. Kexin is interested in urban and development economics, specifically women’s empowerment in family planning usage and the impact of transportation infrastructure. Mona has contributed to multiple projects on computer vision, language, and crowdsourcing. She recently completed an internship with Twitter, focusing on detecting hateful conduct. Currently a graduate trainee in Urban Biogeoscience & Environmental Health, Luca utilizes computational ecology to quantify the effects of forest fragmentation across large regions. Marika is invested in examining cryptography, algorithms, and privacy and presented her differential privacy paper at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium over the summer. Li is focusing on how the rise of media technology can be used to empower individuals and promote pro-social behaviors.
In addition to being able to make connections with the community and projects of the Hariri Institute for Computing, fellows are also given funding to support and enhance their research experience. Other beneficial resources the Hariri Institute provides fellows include sharing their research at events, participating in reading groups and roundtables, and being featured on the Hariri Institute website.
About the Hariri Institute for Computing
The Hariri Institute for Computing initiates, catalyzes, and propels transformative computational and data-driven research and training initiatives across the landscape of academic disciplines for a better society.