Rayid Ghani
Machine Learning Department and Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
Office: Gates Hillman 8023
Email: rayid at cmu dot edu

Primary Appointment: Distinguished Career Professor, Joint Appointment in Machine Learning Department (School of Computer Science) and Public Policy (Heinz College).

Other CMU Affiliations:

Co-Lead, CMU Responsible AI Initiative
Software and Societal Systems Department, CMU
Block Center for Technology and Society
CMU-NIST AI Measurement Science & Engineering Cooperative Research Center (AIMSEC)
Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology

I am a Professor in the Machine Learning Department (within the School of Computer Science) and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and lead the Data Science for Social Good Lab and Program. I’m also the co-lead of the Responsible AI Initiative at CMU. I work on designing, developing, deploying, and evaluating Machine Learning, AI, and Data Science Systems for solving high-impact social good and public policy problems with a deliberate focus on fairness and equity across human services, public health and healthcare, criminal justice, education, energy, transportation, economic development, workforce development, and public safety.

My work includes collaborative projects with government agencies and NGOs, as well as research in areas such as explainability, bias/fairness/equity, and evaluation. I develop and teach experiential education and training programs for students and professionals in governments, non-profits, and industry.

I also started (at the University of Chicago) and run the Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship (now running at CMU).

AI Governance & Regulation: See my testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Hearing on “Governing AI Through Acquisition and Procurement” and my congressional testimony to the Task Force on AI on ways to reduce AI bias in Financial Services to get an idea of my views in this space.

Areas of Interest and Experience: Machine Learning/Data Science/Artificial Intelligence, Human-AI Collaboration, AI Evaluation, Public Policy, Social Good, Ethics, Fairness, Social Justice and Equity

Policy/Societal Areas: Human Services, Public Health and Healthcare, Criminal Justice, Housing, Economic Development, Workforce Development, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability

Recently (and reluctantly) added buzzwords: Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Big Data (not so recently)

Older buzzwords that are trendy now: Machine Learning

Not so old buzzwords that are not trendy now: Data Mining, Analytics

What I used to do:

• Founder/Director of the Center for Data Science and Public Policy, Research Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, and a Senior Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
• Chief Scientist at Obama for America 2012 campaign, focusing on analytics, technology, and data.
• Senior Research Scientist and Director of Analytics research at Accenture Labs, where I led a technology research team focused on applied R&D in analytics, machine learning, and data mining for large-scale & emerging business problems in various industries, including healthcare, retail & CPG, manufacturing, intelligence, and financial services.

In my ample free time, I advise several analytics start-ups and non-profits, speak at, organize, and participate in academic and industry analytics conferences, and publish in Machine Learning, AI, Data Science, and Public Policy conferences and journals.