Background
During the fall semester of my junior year in 2019, I enrolled in LIS 500: Code and Power, a course focused on examining the portrayal of race, gender, religion, and other social constructs in computing. Through critical analysis, we explored topics such as biased training data in machine learning models and discriminatory search results on platforms like Google.
For our final project, my team and I developed a survey inspired by the Harvard Implicit Bias Test. Designed to uncover implicit biases related to race, gender, and other factors, our survey aimed to raise awareness of unconscious prejudices among participants. We crafted original questions to prompt honest responses and tracked survey results using HTML, CSS, and PHP.
What I Did
As part of the team, I contributed to designing the survey questions and developing the website infrastructure. Utilizing HTML, CSS, and PHP, I ensured a seamless user experience and implemented features to track and analyze survey responses. Additionally, I created informative videos to accompany the survey, providing context and insights into the results.
What I Learned
While honing my technical skills in PHP and web development, the course provided a deeper understanding of the societal implications of technology. Discussions on representation and diversity within the tech industry shed light on pressing issues, including biased algorithms and the lack of diversity in major tech companies. This experience sparked critical reflection on the ethical responsibilities of technologists and the importance of addressing systemic biases in technology.
Video Explanations For The Survey
For the survey, I created an Introduction video to welcome the taker of the survey, as well as a video explaining the results of the survey and what they mean