Projects and Publications

Designing Explainable AI (XAI) Systems for Novice Technology Users in Low-Resource Settings

It is important to study novice technology users such as CHWs in the Global South due to the critical link they provide between their communities and public health services. As technology and AI in particular shifts to playing a more important role in their work, it will be crucial to understand how XAI can be leveraged to deliver high-quality user experiences and optimal patient outcomes. I have begun this work by surveying XAI literature over the past decade to identify papers that discuss techniques of AI applied in the development, deployment, and evaluation of AI-enabled technologies in the Global South. My work involves developing explainable AI prototypes to understand and characterize important aspects of model decision-making for novice technology users. Future work will entail developing XAI methods catered to users with low levels of technology and AI literacy. Work accepted to COMPASS 2022 and further work in progress.

Analyzing Community Health Worker (CHW) Perceptions of AI-Enabled mHealth

As researchers and technology companies rush in to develop AI applications that aid the health of marginalized communities, it is critical to consider the needs and perceptions of the community health workers and other stakeholders involved in integrating these AI applications into the essential healthcare services provided to low-resource communities. For this work, we piloted a 3-month study, the first of its kind, examining CHW perceptions of AI in rural India. Drawing on data from 21 interviews, we characterize (1) CHWs’ knowledge, perceptions, and understandings of AI; and (2) the benefits and challenges that CHWs anticipate as AI applications are integrated into their workflows, including their opinions on automation of their work, possible misdiagnosis and errors, data access and surveillance issues, security and privacy challenges, and questions concerning trust. Accepted to CHI 2021 (Publication).

Developing Frameworks to Evaluate Patient Reception to the Introduction of AI-enabled Healthcare

In healthcare, the role of artificial intelligence is continually evolving and understanding the challenges its introduction poses on relationships between healthcare providers and patients will require a regulatory and behavioural approach that can provide a guiding base for all users involved. Our work proposes a framework to set guidelines for how AI-enabled technologies should be formally introduced to patients in healthcare settings. The core principles of this framework are set into 5 parts: Acceptability, Comfortability, Informed Consent, Privacy, and Security. Preliminary work accepted to the Data4Good: Designing for Diversity and Development Workshop (AVI), expanded work under review. (Publication).

Please check out my full list of publications here.

Updates

News & Media

  • Jan 2023: Selected to join the Cornell Chapter of the Bouchet Society!!
  • Jan 2023: Our book chapter on Responsible AI in Africa has been published!
  • Dec 2022: Work featured in VICE
  • Nov 2022: Honored to be a recipient of an inaugural Bowers CIS Distinguished Leadership in Service Award!
  • Oct 2022: Awarded a Provost Diversity Fellowship from the Cornell Graduate School!
  • Sep 2022: Awarded a Google-CMD-IT Leap Alliance Dissertation Fellowship!
  • Aug 2022: Selected as a Global Racial Justice Graduate Fellow at the Mario Einaudi Center!
  • Jul 2022: Spending some time in India conducting field research this summer!
  • Jun 2022: Presented my recent work at COMPASS
  • Jun 2022: Had a great time in Seoul attending the Doctoral Consortium at FAccT!
  • May 2022: Honored with the Graduate Diversity and Inclusion Community Outreach Award!
  • Mar 2022: Engaged in the Cornell Graduate Student Research Advocacy Day where I discussed my work with policymakers in D.C. and advocated for increased research funding!
  • Mar 2022: Participated in the Open Data Institute (ODI) International Policy Roundtable on AI & Infrastructure in the Global South
  • Jan 2022: Paper published in Patterns, a publication of Cell Press!
  • Dec 2021: Named as one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2022!
  • Dec 2021: Officially a PhD Candidate, thank you to my committee!
  • Oct 2021: Selected as a NextGen Professors Fellow!
  • May 2021: Recognized as the "Graduate Student of the Year" from Cornell Diversity Programs in Engineering!
  • Feb 2021: Work featured in VentureBeat!

Talks

  • Mar 2023: Invited Talk at the Microsoft Africa Research Institute (MARI) Seminar, Virtual
  • Feb 2023: Invited Talk at the CSRAI Young Achiever Symposium, Virtual
  • Oct 2022: Invited Talk at the University of Washington Change Seminar, Virtual
  • Oct 2022: Lightning Talk at the Ivy Collective Engineering Doctoral Consortium, Philadelphia, PA
  • Sep 2022: Talk at the ACM Tapia Doctoral Consortium, Washington, D.C.
  • Aug 2022: Invited Talk at the University of Queensland AI for Pandemics (AI4PAN) Seminar, Virtual
  • Aug 2022: Invited Keynote at the Deep Learning Indaba Trustworthy AI Workshop, Virtual
  • Jul 2022: Invited Talk at the Microsoft Research Technology & Empowerment Seminar, Bangalore, India
  • Jul 2022: Invited Talk at Google Research India Bangalore, India
  • Jun 2022: Talk at the Big Data & AI in the Global South CRAFT Session (FAccT 2022) Seoul, Korea
  • Apr 2022: Invited Guest Lecture for Technology for Underserved Communities (INFO 6600), Cornell University Ithaca, NY
  • Nov 2021: Invited Guest Lecture for Computing for the Socio-Techno Web at Wellesley College, Virtual
  • Jun 2021: Invited Talk at the Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the American Museum of Natural History, Virtual
  • May 2021: Invited Talk at the 2nd ELLIS Workshop on Human-Centric Machine Learning, Virtual
  • May 2021: Invited Keynote Talk at the Practical Machine Learning for Developing Countries Workshop @ ICLR 2021, Virtual
  • Apr 2021: Invited Speaker at the Try AI Speaker Series, Virtual
  • Mar 2021: Invited Talk and Pitch Mentor for the Disrupt the System (DTS) Ideathon at Cornell University, Virtual

Panels

Asks

I'm looking to build collaborations with researchers working on responsible AI (AI ethics, AI policy, etc.) in the Global South and/or focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa. Please get in contact if you're interested in working together!

Resources

Interested in applying to grad school or finding fellowships to fund your studies?

If you have any opportunities to share, please feel free to make a pull request!