Designing an AI-driven Neighborhood Navigator with Black and Latinx NYC Residents

  • Dr. Desmond Upton Patton | Associate Dean for Innovation and Academic Affairs, founding director of the SAFE Lab and co-director of the Justice, Equity and Technology lab at Columbia School of Social Work
  • Race and Technology: A Research Lecture Series

An interdisciplinary team of social scientists, computer scientist, designers, and researchers from the SAFElab at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, School of Engineering and Applied Science and Data Science Institute partnered with the Research and Evaluation Center (REC) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to develop a Neighborhood Navigator which assesses patterns and changes in the sentiment of quality of life, wellbeing, community, and living conditions among residents of New York City. The Neighborhood Navigator uses community focus groups and one-on-one interviews in concert with artificial intelligence (AI) techniques (e.g. natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision) to provide short-term, recurring feedback on resident sentiment. Over time, greater precision in the AI components could lead to reduced dependence on surveys and more cost-efficient sustainability. The tool will provide policymakers with insight into public sentiment about government work and allow them to respond accordingly.

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By and featuring Dr. Patton

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Speaker Details

Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, Associate Dean for Innovation and Academic Affairs, founding director of the SAFE Lab and co-director of the Justice, Equity and Technology lab at Columbia School of Social Work, is a leading pioneer in the field of making AI empathetic, culturally sensitive and less biased.

Series: Race and Technology: A Research Lecture Series