CHALLENGE OVERVIEW

Women in History Data Ideation Challenge with TopCoder

 Our team has reviewed the seven winning Topcoder submissions. The results greatly expand our understanding of the possibilities and imperatives facing us as we proceed. Here’s what we know to be true:
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  1. Historic gender and cultural biases perpetuate in the ecology of AI;
  2. Current classification of gender, ethnicity, and race in Wikipedia is flawed and lacking;
  3. Improved data ecologies that account for gender, culture, and history to create better algorithms are vital for popularizing future AI products.

If you’re interested in supporting us with research in this area please be in touch Davar@ivow.ai.
Thanks to our amazing sponsors and advisors:

Meet Our Team of Advisors

​This dataset challenge will be lead by Davar Ardalan, founder of IVOW AI, together with TopCoder as well some 20 experts in data, cultural anthropology, software testing, ​AI & Ethics and engineering are also advising the project: ​
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EXPAND TO SEE LIST OF ADVISORS 
Adam Leon Smith: Adam is a technologist based in Barcelona, Spain. He is an expert on bias in artificial intelligence, and works with ISO and IEEE developing standards on bias. He is also the CTO of Dragonfly, a leading consultancy in AI and software quality.

Ana Moreno is a Computational Linguist for Bitext based in Madrid, Spain. After finishing her studies in languages and translation, she began her international career in Germany and Switzerland. It was back then in 2015 when she first started working on AI, developing a sentiment analysis software for hotel reviews. Ana truly believes that humans and machines will be able to talk to each other at some point in the future. That's why she is currently helping Artificial Intelligence understand humans through natural language processing techniques.

Amir Banifatemi: Amir is General Manager, Innovation & Growth at XPRIZE Foundation and is managing partner of K5 Ventures. As the co-founder of AI Commons, Amir has 25 years of experience in development and growth of emerging and transformative technologies. 

Anna Royzman: Anna is the founder of A Quality Leadership Institute, a non-profit organization whose goal is to become the leading advocate for quality in technology through innovative educational programs. Anna serves as the Executive at Large on Association for Software Testing’s Board of Directors. 

Aprajita Mathur is an inventor, speaker, mentor and leader in space of software testing with an engineering background in Bioinformatics. She has 10+ years of software testing experience. She is also the chapter leader of “Women Who Test” in the Bay area and is working on growing this community. 

Archana Paladugu: Archana is a machine learning engineer, educator and researcher who received her PhD in Computer Science from Arizona State University in 2016 in Computer Vision and applied Machine Learning. She is passionate about personalized education, accessibility, and sustainability. 

Astrid Countee: Astrid is an anthropologist and technologist based in Houston, Texas. She is currently running operations at Cemvita Factory, an energy startup that harnesses synthetic biology for carbon dioxide utilization. Astrid seeks to combine her study of culture and knowledge with solutions based in digital technologies for social good. She is passionate about building inclusive AI systems and innovative technologies for a more diverse and sustainable future. 

Camille Eddy: Camille is a robotics engineer. She studies bias in AI and uses her international speaking platform to teach engineers, testers, and non-technical founders the use cases of de-biasing algorithms released today. Camille is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Idaho.

Coach Kathy Kemper is CEO and Founder of the Institute for Education (IFE), a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit committed to engaging the global community to harness the power of soft diplomacy, data, and innovation. In 2019, Kemper was recognized, alongside Jeff Bezos, as one of Washington Life Magazine’s "Tech 25", a prestigious honor reserved for top technology innovators and disruptors. Extolled as "D.C.’s Networker-in-Chief" by U.S. News and World Report, Kemper regularly convenes timely salons, forums, intimate discussions and invitation-only gatherings that draw senior White House and Congressional leaders, distinguished ambassadors and diplomats, business executives, journalists and technology innovators for debate and discussion. 

Daria Loi is Sr Director and Head of Product Design at Mozilla, where she leads the Experiences & Design organization. Her work revolves around mixing design strategy with UX research to enrich people’s everyday life.  She conducted research and presented her work in most continents, published 80+ articles & papers, holds 10+ patents, and is chair or committee member of numerous journals, institutes and conferences. In 2018 she was recognized as one of Italy’s 50 most inspiring women in tech.

Davar Ardalan: Davar is the Founder and Storyteller in Chief of IVOW, specializing in AI-driven cultural content. She’s also an advisor to the non-profit AI Commons. Prior to this, she was a public media journalist for 20+ years, most of those at NPR News. In May 2014, she was the recipient of a United States Ellis Island Medal of Honor, for individual achievement and for promoting cultural unity. 

Jeanne Lim is the founder and CEO of Nama Institute which advocates a conscious approach to living, leading, and innovating. Jeanne a board member and former CEO of Hanson Robotics, and previous to that the CMO and co-character lead of Sophia the Robot. She is also a board member of Kami Intelligence, an AI company developing a conversational AI platform that powers customer service, advisory, and educational solutions. Jeanne has over 25 years of marketing experience in the technology industry, as the Asia Pacific marketing director for Dell, Cisco, 3Com, and the corporate marketing director for a Silicon Valley-funded internet startup. She was the product and business manager for Apple in Asia Pacific, responsible for the launch of many of Apple’s groundbreaking products in the region.

Jennifer Bonine is the CEO and Co-Founder of PinkLion.AI, and the first female Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) testing tech CEO.  PinkLion.AI is the only company successfully integrating, delivering, and managing AI-based testing for gaming platforms and games without access to the code, uniquely adhering to a business model engaged in the United Nations sustainable development goals (“SDGs”).   Employing a human engagement model designed to train app teams using an AI-first strategy, PinkLion retools client workforces, and, in partnership with Test.AI, resolves AI testing challenges that have previously been considered impenetrable. Jennifer collaborates with entertainment, gaming, media, professional sports, and all industries facing problematic AI-based scrutiny, representing PinkLion’s principles of equality, inclusivity, and promise in AI technology. 
 
Juanisa McCoy: Juanisa is a Lead UI/UX Designer. Her expertise involves such organizations as NASA, Oracle, ViaSat, and Cox Communications and where she has had the opportunity to build end-to-end rewarding experiences and interactions that people use every day. Nisa’s passion is people and how to engage and “wow” them. She believes that design can bridge the gap between cultures.

Kashyap Coimbatore Murali: Kashyap is an AI and Deep Learning Developer and Researcher who has programmed and delivered 6 MLH hackathon winning projects and interned at Genpact and EduChat. He is currently the Dean of the Princeton School of AI where he strives to provide world-class AI education for all for free. 

Kee Malesky: Kee directs research at IVOW and edits our publications. Her 30-year career as an award-winning news librarian for National Public Radio prepared her for background research and fact-checking on deadline, which she continues to find fascinating and fulfilling work. 

Mariana Lin: Mariana is a poet and creative writer. She worked as a creative director at Apple, where she was the principal writer for the voice of Siri, overseeing global character development in different languages and countries. She consults as lead character designer for Hanson Robotics’ Sophia. She writes on creativity and AI for the Paris Review.

Marie Smith Morrow: Marie is the Chief Information Officer of Data 360, an AI and machine learning platform as a service that reduces customer and employee acquisition costs by up to 90%. She is the inventor of the proprietary modeling language and system integration for one of the first ubiquitous AI and machine learning platforms which can be used in nearly any industry or organization for massive savings and operational efficiencies.

Nicola McLay: Nikki is a creative director and designer based Aotearoa/NZ. Her background in fine art, design, and digital development has led her to AI where she is drawn to the possibilities that come from weaving tradition and heritage with future systems for social good. 

Nishan Chelvachandran is the Chief Research and Innovation Officer of Saidot. Nishan is also a cybersecurity adviser, strategist, published author and researcher, with years of experience built on the strong foundations of bespoke operational activity in the UK Public Sector. Nishan’s research interests include Big Data keyword and behavioural analytics, and ethical frameworks for mass and automated data surveillance, profiling and decision-making, IoT, AI, and Data Use and Privacy.

Rogerio Lourenco: Rogerio is an information ethnographer. He lives in Rio de Janeiro, and has professional, academic, and life experiences with youth community media, controlled vocabularies, digital culture, metadata, public education, and gamification.

Susanna Raj is an emerging researcher in Cognitive Sciences & Human Computer Interactions. She is an AI enthusiast, interested in its applications for the greater good of humanity. She has worked on human emotion model training for AI at Intel labs and co-authored a research publication on emotion UI models at MobileHCI 2018. A writer and illustrator; she is also an established studio artist, who had her work published in art & literary magazines and exhibited at multiple gallery shows/exhibitions. Her artwork borrows from surrealism, expressionism and impressionism, exploring different methods in presenting abstract concepts.

Tara Javidi: Tara Javidi is Founding co-Director of the Center for Machine-Integrated Computing and Security at UC San Diego. She is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego. Her research interests include theory of active learning, information theory with feedback, stochastic control theory, and stochastic resource allocation in wireless communications and communication networks. She is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society. 

Collaborate with us!

If you're interested in offering technical and or financial support as part this dataset challenge, we'd like to hear from you.
TIMELINE
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April-June 2020: fundraising
June, 15 2020: Challenge is live
TBD: Top 3 Prizes are announced