{"675133":{"#nid":"675133","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Juba Ziani Awarded NSF Grant to Pioneer Long-Term Fairness in Algorithmic Decision-Making","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAssistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/users\/juba-ziani\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EJuba Ziani\u003C\/a\u003E, in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EH. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE)\u003C\/a\u003E, has been awarded a CAREER grant from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ENational Science Foundation (NSF)\u003C\/a\u003E, for his research on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=2336236\u0026amp;HistoricalAwards=false\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u201cBeyond Fair Algorithms: Mathematical Foundations for Long-Term Fairness with Humans in the Loop\u201d\u003C\/a\u003E.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/new.nsf.gov\/funding\/opportunities\/faculty-early-career-development-program-career\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EThe Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)\u003C\/a\u003E is considered one of the highest recognized forms of achievement with the NSF. As a Foundation-wide movement, the NSF acknowledges and selects early-career faculty who can serve as leaders in research and education, to further advance the organization\u0027s mission. \u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;The NSF grant provides a significant opportunity to advance this work over the next five years, enabling deeper exploration and real-world integration of their research findings.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EZiani\u2019s research aims to provide mathematical foundations for long-term fairness in algorithms \u2013 particularly those that significantly impact people\u0027s lives, such as job placements, loan approvals, and educational opportunities.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIdentifying Pipeline Problems\u003C\/strong\u003E\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMotivated by both professional and personal experiences, Ziani is driven to explore fairness beyond surface-level adjustments, to understand and address the long-term impacts of algorithmic decisions on diverse populations. \u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn interesting challenge in Ziani\u0027s research is creating new mathematical models that accurately reflect the long-term impacts of algorithmic decisions. \u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrent models often fail to account for dynamic human responses and the compounding nature of decisions over time. \u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe don\u0027t just make one decision right now about a person in real life, we make many, many, many, many decisions about people and we have to think about how all of these decisions are going to interact with each other.\u201d \u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough his work, Ziani wants to emphasize the importance of early intervention in educational pipelines to prevent long-term disparities and the intergenerational effects of an individual\u2019s socioeconomic status.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo mitigate this, he wants to further explore the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and grounding theoretical work in empirical data.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EConnections and Contributions\u003C\/strong\u003E\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy collaborating with education researchers, Ziani will gather and analyze data to better understand when and how to correct disparities through various interdisciplinary approaches.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKey collaborators in Ziani\u0027s research such as \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/users\/tuba-ketenci\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETuba Ketenci\u003C\/a\u003E, Director of Educational Outreach, and other experts in education and social economics, are essential for understanding the complexities of education pipelines and ensuring the practical applicability of his models.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u0027s really hard to fix those problems when you\u0027re intervening so late, like at the university admissions level, after disparities have compounded over years.\u201d\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy developing mathematical and game theory models, Ziani plans to offer more comprehensive and systematic approaches to fairness in AI. \u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EZiani hopes his research will push the field of AI fairness to consider broader and longer-term impacts. With acknowledging the risks of developing incorrect models, he recognizes that those barriers could lead to negative real-world outcomes.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELooking ahead, Ziani aspires to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical applications in AI fairness, with an emphasis on moving away from static modeling of human behavior and to consider the dynamic, long-term effects of continuous decision-making.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy advancing new mathematical models and collaborating with experts across disciplines, Ziani seeks to address the never-ending complexities of real-world applications and contribute to a more equitable future.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E__\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENews contact: Camille C. Henriquez, Communications Manager | chenriquez8@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJuba Ziani has received an NSF grant to develop mathematical foundations that ensure long-term fairness in algorithmic decision-making, addressing critical impacts on education, employment, and socioeconomic disparities.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"ISyE Professor Juba Ziani, was awarded the NSF CAREER grant to support advancing algorithmic fairness"}],"uid":"36284","created_gmt":"2024-06-18 07:10:21","changed_gmt":"2024-06-18 09:12:25","author":"chenriquez8","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-06-14T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-06-14T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"674203":{"id":"674203","type":"image","title":"Juba Ziani","body":null,"created":"1718701857","gmt_created":"2024-06-18 09:10:57","changed":"1718701857","gmt_changed":"2024-06-18 09:10:57","alt":"Juba Ziani","file":{"fid":"257686","name":"juba ziani headshot icon.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/06\/18\/juba%20ziani%20headshot%20icon.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/06\/18\/juba%20ziani%20headshot%20icon.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1221732,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/06\/18\/juba%20ziani%20headshot%20icon.jpg?itok=mCVa7wLo"}}},"media_ids":["674203"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.juba-ziani.com","title":"Juba Ziani Website"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=2336236\u0026HistoricalAwards=false","title":"NSF Award Description"}],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}