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Finale Doshi-Velez facts for kids

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Finale Doshi-Velez
Finale Doshi-Velez at Women in Data Science 2017.jpg
Doshi-Velez interviewed in 2017
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Trinity College, Cambridge
Scientific career
Institutions Harvard University
Thesis Bayesian nonparametric approaches for reinforcement learning in partially observable domains (2012)

Finale Doshi-Velez is a computer scientist and a professor at Harvard University. She works with machine learning and computational statistics. Her research often helps improve healthcare.

Early Life and Education

Finale Doshi-Velez went to the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School. After that, she studied aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She earned her first master's degree from MIT in 2007.

In 2007, Doshi-Velez won a special scholarship called the Marshall Scholarship. This allowed her to study at Trinity College, Cambridge in the UK. There, she earned her second master's degree. She then returned to MIT for her postgraduate studies. She focused on a type of statistics called Bayesian nonparametric statistics.

Later, she worked at Harvard Medical School. She was a postdoctoral fellow in bioinformatics. This field uses computer science to understand biological data. Today, she is a professor at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Research and Career

Doshi-Velez uses big data to help with medical problems. This includes finding out what diseases people have. She joined Harvard University in 2014.

Doctors use symptoms to figure out what is wrong with a patient. Doshi-Velez combines this information with computer models. These models can help predict hidden diseases. She uses special statistical methods to do this.

She works on finding patterns in data for different health conditions. These include autism spectrum disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. For example, she found that some people with autism spectrum disorder might be more likely to have other mental health issues. She also works on making medicine more personal for patients. This includes people with HIV and depression.

A big part of her work is making sure her computer programs are easy to understand. She wants doctors to be able to see how the programs make their predictions.

Public Talks

Finale Doshi-Velez has given many talks to explain her work to a wider audience. She has given two TED Talks. These talks were called The Possibility of Explanation and AI for Understanding Disease. In 2017, she also spoke at Google. There, she talked about making artificial intelligence fair and responsible.

Awards and Honours

Finale Doshi-Velez has received several awards for her work:

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