Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Howard University

Howard’s aim is to engage in scholarship that provides solutions to contemporary global problems, particularly issues impacting the African Diaspora. Within the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence @ Howard we are concerned conducting research related to AI for social good. Some of the initiatives we have within the Center are to 1) study socially and culturally relevant voice assistant technology that specializes in Black English and 2) study how smart diversity equity and inclusion at universities can be improved through AI that helps humans effectively communicate in the workplace.  In this talk, I’ll describe both studies, other works-in-progress, and future directions for the HCAI @ Howard Initiative.

Gloria is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Howard University in Washington, DC. She directs the Institute HCAI@HU and runs the Affective Biometrics Lab with students. She is a technology researcher that focuses on the intersection of human-centered computing, affective computing, and biometrics. She believes her research seeks to give voices to the underserved and marginalized by asking questions like: “how can technology impact positive human emotions while reducing systematic racism and barriers to equity and how can technology build lasting social impact through requiring persons to feel empathy…not just look away?” She has more than fifteen years in Government service and has broadly presented her research throughout industry. Dr. Washington holds a BS in Computer Information Systems from Lincoln University of Missouri, and MS and PhD degrees in CS from The George Washington University. She can be reached at gloria.washington@howard.edu