Event Details

Speaker: Yu-Ru Lin, Univ. of Pitt.

Location: Virtual Only via Zoom

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Abstract: In the realm of machine learning and data-driven decision-making, the risk of spurious and biased associations poses significant challenges to the integrity and reliability of AI systems. In this talk, I will introduce how visual analytic designs can empower data practitioners in navigating these complex issues. First, through a human-in-the-loop workflow, we tackle the problem of AI blindspots in classification models, where key patterns are often missed or misleading. Our design offers visually interpretable statistical methods to quantify and understand concept associations. It also includes debiasing techniques to address misleading patterns in data. Second, we tackle Simpson’s Paradox, a phenomenon where associations in data appear contradictory at different levels of aggregation, leading to cognitive confusion and incorrect interpretations. Our design offers an intuitive causal analysis framework and a human-centric workflow, enabling users to identify, understand, and prevent spurious associations, leading to more accountable causal decision-making. Together, these design frameworks contribute to making AI more trustworthy, offering robust tools for overcoming the challenges of spurious and biased associations in machine learning through advanced visual analytics.

Speaker Bio

Yu-Ru Lin is an Associate Professor in the School of Computing and Information and the Research Director of the Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security (Pitt Cyber) at the University of Pittsburgh, where she directs the PITT Computational Social Dynamics Lab (PICSO LAB). Her research lies at the intersection of Computational Social Science, Data Mining, and Visualization. She specializes in using social network and text data along with statistical learning tools and social theories to study phenomena spanning societal events and policy, anomalous behaviors, and other crucially important complex patterns concerning collective attention and actions, as well as human and social dynamics in response to societal risks. Her work has appeared in prestigious scientific venues and has been featured in the press, including WSJ, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, MIT News, and NPR. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 refereed journal and conference papers and served on more than 50 conference program committees in the areas of big data, network science, and computational social science. She has served as a chair/co-chair of leading computational social science, web mining, and social media conferences such as AAAI ICWSM and TheWebConference/WWW (Web & Society Track). She currently serves as an Editor-in-Chief of AAAI ICWSM and an Associate Editor for multiple journals, including PLOS ONE,  Springer EPJ Data Science, Nature's Scientific Reports, and Frontiers in Big Data. She was selected as a Fellow of Kavli Frontiers of Science, National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Website: http://www.yurulin.com/ 

Host: Zhuoyu Shi, POC: Pete Zamar

If speaker approves to be recorded for this AI Seminar talk, it will be posted on our USC/ISI YouTube page within 1-2 business days: https://www.youtube.com/user/USCISI.