2019 Way Klingler Young Scholar Award RecipientDr. Shion Guha wants to make Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and hopefully the world, a better place. And he has just the algorithms to do so. He firmly believes that the time is now for computer scientists to harness the power of big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning for the public good, instead of developing yet another algorithm for pushing advertisements to our mobile devices.
Guha, an assistant professor of mathematics, statistics and computer science, hopes to help various organizations manage social and public policy issues that affect vulnerable and marginalized populations more effectively using algorithms to tackle foster care improvements, trust in crime analysis and water resource policymaking.
Specifically, the unique approach that Guha takes in this work is to incorporate transient, undefined and often chaotic human values, decisions, insights and ethics within quantitative models.
This type of research area is interdisciplinary and collaborative, working with colleagues from campus and other universities with the goal of improving the development of Milwaukee and Wisconsin and yet generalizable to many similar settings across the country.
