Colloquium Archive

Bias in Algorithms and the Misuse of Big Data Sets

Henry M. Walker
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Mathematics
Grinnell College

11/03/2021

The news abounds with stories about the uses of algorithms and Big Data.  In this reporting, successes are widely publicized.  However, discussion of bias and challenges is spotty at best.  In many settings, it seems that policies and practices may assume that computing algorithms will be unbiased and objective, and results are not challenged.

And yet, on March 23, the subtitle of a 2019 story in the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, "Data scientists and civil rights groups are raising the alarm about bias in algorithms that determine everything from who goes to jail to how much your insurance will cost".  Also, the subtitle of Cathy O'Neil's book, "Weapons of Math Destruction", highlights, "How Big Data increases inequality and threatens democracy."

This talk will review a range of issues and challenges in deployed computing systems and encourage all to consider the appropriate role of technology in the setting of both policies and practices.
 

Careful what you wish for - an irreverent look at the evolution of graphics APIs

Dave Shreiner
Low-level graphics team lead
Unity Technologies

11/10/2021

Technologists always search for better solutions to problems, and interfacing with GPUs is no exception.  In the almost four decades of commercially-available, hardware-accelerated computer graphics, there have been numerous APIs designed for the task.  This talk takes a look a how some of those interfaces have changed over time, and the impacts that their design has had in application performance, educational aspects, and engineer productivity.

Fall 2021 Short Presentations Of Student Research

11/17/2021

Short presentations of research carried out by Sonoma State Computer Science Students.

  • Yasmine Sanchez, "Sliders"
  • Ali McCormick, "Machine Learning-Driven Emotion Tracking App"
  • Alex Dewey, "Machine Learning for Generalized and Anomaly Forecasting of Network Traffic Demand"
  • Jacques Sarraffe, "User Behaviour Prediction using Smartphone Sensor Data and Machine Learning"

Advanced Software Design Project - CS 470 - Virtual Showcase

Ali Kooshesh
Professor, Computer Science Dept.
Sonoma State University

12/01/2021

Dr. Kooshesh will facilitate a virtual showcase of students’ advanced software design projects from CS 470 this semester.

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