Lifting New Voices to Address Ethics and Equity in AI
June 12 to June 27, 2020 | Howard University | Washington D.C.
ATTENTION: SICSS-Howard-Mathematica has been postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19.
Participation in the SICSS-Howard/Mathematica: Lifting New Voices to Address Ethics and Equity in AI is open to Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and untenured faculty within 7 years of their Ph.D. However, there are no restrictions based on citizenship, country of study, or country of employment. Most participant costs during the session, including housing and most meals will be covered, and most travel expenses will be reimbursed up to a set cap. About thirty participants will be invited.
The Summer Institute aims to bring together computational social scientists across all levels of technical experience. Participants with less experience with social science research will be expected to complete additional readings in advance of the Institute, and participants with less coding experience will be expected to complete a set of online learning modules on the R programming language. Students doing this preparatory work will be supported by a teaching assistant who will hold online office hours during the two months before the Institute.
We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially applicants from groups currently under-represented in computational social science. We evaluate applicants along a number of dimensions: 1) research and teaching in the area of computational social science, 2) contributions to public goods, such as creating open source software, curating public datasets, and creating educational opportunities for others, 3) likelihood to benefit from participation, 4) likelihood to contribute to the educational experience of other participants, and 5) potential to spread computational social science to new intellectual communities and areas of research. Further, when making our evaluations, attempt to account for an applicant’s career stage and previous educational opportunities.
Applicants for the SICSS-Howard/Mathematica: Lifting New Voices to Address Ethics and Equity in AI must submit the following documents: (i) personal statement (maximum 1000 words). Include any economic, cultural, and/or social experiences, obstacles you have overcome, and or community service that shaped your interests in computational social science and your desire to attend the SICSS at Howard University (ii) research statement (maximum three pages) describing any current research, your general interest in computational social science, and your interest in the expressed topical focus of SICSS-Howard/Mathematica: “Ethics and Equity in AI” if any and (iii) a curriculum vitae.
In order to be guaranteed full consideration, all application materials must be submitted by the due date at 11:59pm. All application materials must be submitted through the SICSS-Howard/Mathematica application form. Applications that are not complete by the deadline may not receive full consideration. We will notify applicants solely through e-mail, and will ask participants to confirm their participation very soon thereafter.
Inquiries can be sent to sicss.howard.mathematica@gmail.com.
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Yes, you may apply to more than one summer institute, but not at the same time. For example, you can apply to SICSS-Howard/Mathematica, and then if you are not accepted you can apply to one of the other locations if it has a later deadline. However, you cannot have applications under review at two locations simultaneously.
Recommendation letters are not required for SICSS-Howard/Mathematica.
You can host a partner location of the Summer Institutes of Computational Social Science (SICSS) at your university, company, NGO, or government agency.