Rediet Abebe

Rediet Abebe (Amharic: ረድኤት አበበ; born 1991) is an Ethiopian computer scientist working in algorithms and artificial intelligence. She is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.[1] Abebe is the first female computer scientist and second Junior Fellow with a computer science Ph.D. to be inducted into the Society and the first Black woman to be appointed a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rediet Abebe
Born
Rediet Abebe

May 1991 (1991-05) (age 29)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Alma mater
Known forMechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG)
AI for social good
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisDesigning Algorithms for Social Good (2019)
Doctoral advisorJon M. Kleinberg
Websitewww.cs.cornell.edu/~red/
md4sg.com

Abebe's research develops mathematical and computational frameworks for examining questions related to discrimination, poverty, and inequality.[2] She co-founded Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG), a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary research initiative working to improve access to opportunity for historically disadvantaged communities.[3] She is also an advocate for representation and equity in computing and is the co-founder for Black in AI.[4]

Early life and education

Abebe was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to parents who are civil servants.[5] She was educated in the Ethiopian National Curriculum at Nazareth School before winning a merit-based scholarship awarded to four students from the country to attend the International Community School of Addis Ababa when she was in eighth grade.[5]

Abebe attended Harvard University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and later a Master of Science degree in applied mathematics. As an undergraduate, she co-authored research papers in mathematics, physics, and public health.[6][7] She completed her master's degree from Harvard SEAS, conducting research with professor David C. Parkes. While at Harvard, Abebe contributed to The Harvard Crimson as a staff writer, where she focused on the Cambridge public school system (2009-2011).[8]

After college, she attended the University of Cambridge as a Harvard-Cambridge scholar. [9] She was the Governor William Shirley Scholar at Pembroke College.[10] She completed the Mathematics Tripos and earned a Master of Advanced Studies in pure mathematics under the supervision of Imre Leader.

Abebe completed her doctoral degree in computer science at Cornell University, where she was advised by Jon Kleinberg.[11] (She also completed graduate minors in economics and sociology.)[12] Her dissertation made notable contributions across multiple fields in computer science, receiving the 2020 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award and an honorable mention for the ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award. She is the first Black woman to complete a Ph.D. in computer science in the university's history. [13]

Research and career

Abebe's research develops techniques in AI and algorithms to improve access to opportunity for historically marginalized communities.[14] Her work has introduced new algorithmic frameworks for examining questions related to poverty and inequality. Her paper using search queries to understand health information needs in Africa is one of the first known works to employ large Web and social media-based analysis to study health across all 54 nations in Africa.[15] [16] [17]

In 2018, Abebe presented her talk Can Algorithms Reduce Inequality?[18] at TEDxLosGatos.[19]

Throughout 2019 Abebe served on the National Institutes of Health Working Group on AI along AI experts including Kate Crawford, Dina Katabi, Daphne Koller, and Eric Lander.[20] The working group was tasked with developing a comprehensive report and recommendations, which were unanimously approved by the Advisory Committee to the Director and NIH General Director Francis Collins.[20]

In 2019, Abebe was inducted into the Harvard Society of Fellows.[21] She is the second Junior Fellow with a CS Ph.D., the first female computer scientist, and the first Black computer scientist in the Society's history.[22]

Abebe will join the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley as an Assistant Professor, where she will be a member of both the theory and artificial intelligence research groups. She will be the first Black female professor in the history of the department and the second in the history of the College of Engineering.[23]

Mechanism Design for Social Good

Abebe co-founded the Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) initiative, a multi-disciplinary research collective that uses algorithms and mechanism design to tackle inequality, with Kira Goldner, in 2016. Abebe has since been co-organizing the initiative with Irene Lo and Ana-Andreea Stoica. MD4SG hosts an annual workshop series highlighting work and connecting the community of researchers committed to using algorithms to improve societal welfare.

Abebe was honored as a pioneer in the 2019 MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 in part for her work co-founding MD4SG.[24][25] Her dissertation received the 2020 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award and an honorable mention for the ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award for offering foundations of the emerging area of Mechanism Design for Social Good.[26]

Black in AI

Abebe co-founded Black in AI, a network of 1,500 researchers working on AI, with Timnit Gebru, in 2016.[27][28] The organization arranges annual workshops at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) and offers networking and collaborative opportunities. Through Black in AI, Abebe has spearheaded programs such as a graduate application mentoring program for which she was honored in the 2019 Bloomberg 50 list as a one to watch.[29]

During her time at Cornell University, she helped with efforts that led to an unprecedented number of Black students enrolling in the computer science doctoral program.[30] For these efforts and other contributions to major AI initiatives to use AI for social good, Abebe was given the Cornell Social Justice award in 2019. [23][31]

Awards and honors

Abebe's awards and honors include:

  • 2020: ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award[32]
  • 2020: ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award (honorable mention)[33]
  • 2020: Innovation for Equity, Rising Star Award[34]
  • 2019: Harvard Society of Fellows, Junior Fellow
  • 2019: MIT Technology Review, 35 Under 35[35]
  • 2019: Bloomberg 50, One to Watch[36]

References
  1. "Current and Former Junior Fellows". Harvard Society of Fellows. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  2. "Meet the Innovators Under 35". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  3. "Mechanism Design for Social Good". md4sg.com. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  4. "Black in AI". blackinai.org. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  5. "How Ethiopia's Rediet Abebe is using algorithms and AI to address socio-economic inequality". Levers in Heels. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  6. Harding, Charles; Pompei, Francesco; Burmistrov, Dmitriy; Welch, H. Gilbert; Abebe, Rediet; Wilson, Richard (2015). "Breast Cancer Screening, Incidence, and Mortality Across US Counties". JAMA Internal Medicine. 175 (9): 1483–9. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.3043. PMID 26147578. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  7. Trifunovic, Luka; Dial, Oliver; Trif, Mircea; Wootton, James R.; Abebe, Rediet; Yacoby, Amir; Loss, Daniel (2012). "Long-Distance Spin-Spin Coupling via Floating Gates". Physical Review X. 2 (1): 011006. arXiv:1110.1342. Bibcode:2012PhRvX...2a1006T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.2.011006. S2CID 1275824.
  8. "Rediet T. Abebe - Writer Page". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  9. "Cambridge Scholars". Harvard Magazine. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  10. "The Harvard-Cambridge Scholarships – Former Scholars". The Harvard-Cambridge Scholarships. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  11. "Jon Kleinberg – Home Page". Cornell University. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  12. "Rediet Abebe - Teaching". Retrieved 2020-12-26.
  13. "In December, Rediet Abebe Will Become the First Black Woman to Receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Cornell". The Cornell Sun. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  14. "Mechanism Design for Social Good – MIT Technology Review". MIT Technology Review Events. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  15. "Grad Student Leads Group on Algorithms and AI for Social Good". Communications of the ACM. 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  16. "New Research Uses Search Data To Understand Public Health Needs". Forbes. 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  17. "How AI researchers used Bing search results to reveal disease knowledge gaps in Africa". VentureBeat. 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  18. "Can Algorithms Reduce Inequality? - Rediet Abebe - TEDxLosGatos". TEDx Talks. October 29, 2018. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  19. "TEDxLosGatos". TED. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  20. "ACD Working Group on Artificial Intelligence". NIH Advisory Committee to the Director. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  21. "Rediet Abebe". Berkman Klein Center. 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  22. "Current and Former Junior Fellows". Harvard Society of Fellows. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  23. "Cornell's first black female CS Ph.D. blazed her own trail". Cornell Chronicle. May 21, 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
  24. "Meet the Innovators Under 35 – MIT Technology Review". MIT Technology Review Events. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  25. "35 Innovators Under 35 - Pioneers". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  26. "ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award". Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  27. Forbes (2019-02-22). "Rediet Abebe, Co-Founder of Black in AI, talks about the need for more diversity in AI job roles, and why she founded her own organization". @forbes. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  28. "Rediet Abebe". Berkman Klein Center. 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  29. "The Bloomberg 50". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  30. "2019 Diversity & Inclusion Distinguished Award Winners : Graduate School". gradschool.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  31. "2019 Diversity & Inclusion Distinguished Award Winners : Graduate School". gradschool.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  32. "ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award". Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  33. "ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award". Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  34. "Innovation for Equity". Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  35. "MIT Technology Review". Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  36. "Bloomberg 50". Retrieved 2020-09-07.


Rediet Abebe publications indexed by Google Scholar

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