AG 1, AG 2, AG 3, INET, AG 4, AG 5, D6, SWS, RG1, MMCI   Info

Public Audience

English

60 Minutes

Saarbrücken

Technology and new communication tools have permeated all aspects of our lives. From finding a romantic partner to booking the next holiday - our choices and transactions are increasingly mediated by digital tools and online platforms, leaving behind digital traces. Simultaneously, earth observation satellites provide a real-time window into global changes, letting us observe anything from urbanization to garden parties during covid-19 lockdowns. This “digitization of everything” creates a wide range of opportunities as well as challenges by letting us monitor and interact with society at scales and speeds never seen before. Societal Computing tries to make use of these afforded opportunities by advancing computational research on both (i) computing _of_ society, i.e., measuring, describing, and understanding societal phenomena, and (ii) computing _for_ society, i.e., working with partners on digitally assisted interventions to address societal challenges.

 
In this talk, I’ll present examples of Societal Computing work done by myself and interdisciplinary collaborators in the domain of international development and humanitarian response. Apart from highlighting advances in data innovation, I’ll describe real-world ethical challenges related to fairness, such as “leaving behind” the most vulnerable during crisis response, and risks of abuse, such as mapping undocumented migrants. I’ll close by outlining plans for an Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing (IDISC) with the goal of strengthening research collaborations between computer science and both the social sciences and humanities.

Jennifer Müller

+49 681 9325 2900

--email hidden

Zoom

997 1565 5535

passcode not visible

logged in users only