60 Seconds with WITS Northeast 2020 Speaker — Maureen McElaney
Maureen McElaney is a Developer Advocate for IBM. Her session at WITS Northeast is Digital Discrimination: Cognitive Bias in Machine Learning.
Why is speaking at WITS important to you?
Though I will be traveling in to WITS Northeast from my home in Vermont, I grew up in Delaware County, graduated from La Salle University, and started my career in Philly. I’m honored at the opportunity to return home to share the things I’m passionate about and learn from and with the brilliant women of Philadelphia. Giving this particular talk is important to me because I believe that artificial intelligence can have a positive impact on society but like any advancement in technology we have a serious responsibility to ensure we don’t cause harm with the technology that we build. Connecting this message to women in tech and teaching them how to combat it is a surefire way to empower people with knowledge who are uniquely incentivized to do something about it.
Most useful article you’ve read in the last month?
As this year is the 100 anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, I appreciated this article pointing out that not ALL women in the United States have enjoyed the right to vote over this timeframe. Women in tech organizations MUST focus on this history to be able to break the cycle of harming the most vulnerable, good intentions to increase diversity are not enough. If our diversity in tech efforts only advance the rights of straight white cis women then we are just upholding white supremacy. https://wearyourvoicemag.com/columns/100-years-of-white-feminism/white-suffragettes-white-supremacy
When you were a kid what was your dream job?
As a kid I dreamed of becoming the Pope. Alas, it was not meant to be. All I really wanted was his hat though, to be honest.
Tell us something about your session
We must contend with the fact that data is generated based on human behavior. Machine learning models and algorithms are built by humans. No matter what our role is in this, as technology practitioners it is our responsibility to build systems that are fair and free from unjust bias. And the tools to combat this are within our reach.
What other session/speaker are you excited to see?
The focus of my work at IBM’s Center for Open Source Data and Ai Technology is based about trust and transparency in the machine learning lifecycle, so Nancy Chacko’s talk, “Big Data & Machine Learning: With Great Data Comes Great Responsibility” is high on my list to see! As someone involved with teaching people about tech, I know it’s often a struggle for them to get connected with that first role. I’m really excited to see “Navigating the Workforce After Coding Bootcamps” with Shanique Thompson, Naomi Johnson, and Stephanie Harris. As a person who cares deeply about human centered design in tech, I’m excited to learn from Bianca Jackson through her talk “Real Relationships: Understanding a New Framework for Building Community, Success and Happiness through the Digital World” and Andrea Goulet’s talk, “Empathy is a Technical Skill.”
Register here to see Maureen at WITS Northeast in Philadelphia on April 23 & 24.
