I am a research assistant professor at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago. My research interests lie in statistical machine learning, particularly in applications to high-stakes decision-making and evaluation problems such as admissions, hiring, grading, and peer review. I draw inspirations from psychology to build human behavioral models, develop algorithms with theoretical guarantees, conduct crowdsourcing experiments, and implement policy changes that make real-world impacts.

Previously, I was a President’s postdoctoral fellow in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) and the Algorithms and Randomness Center (ARC) at Georgia Institute of Technology, working with Ashwin Pananjady and Juba Ziani. I received my Ph.D. in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Nihar Shah. I received my B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley.

My CV is available here (updated 02/2024).

Email: jingyanw [at] ttic.edu


News

Research Overview
The goal of my research is to develop accurate, fair, reliable, and efficient evaluation systems. I draw inspirations from psychology to build human behavioral models, develop algorithms with theoretical guarantees, conduct crowdsourcing experiments, and implement policy changes that make real-world impacts. Specifically, I identify, analyze and improve three interrelated key components: algorithms, people, and design. I extend my insights from research to real policy improvements in practice. For example, we compile the data and evaluate the gender distribution in award-winning papers in 16 top computer science conferences in the past 10 years, which shows prominent differences across conferences. [blog post] We also consider the biases caused by the alphabetical ordering practice in scientific publication. Taking cognizance of this bias arising from alphabetical ordering, the Machine Learning Department at CMU has randomized the ordering of students and faculty on its webpages, along with many other institutions. [blog post] The debiasing algorithm that I have developed is currently deployed in practice with grant review agencies.

Preprints
Journal Publications and Under Review
Peer-Reviewed Conference Publications

Teaching

Misc
I play the violin with the Chicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Next concert:
November 23, 2024 (Saturday at 7:30pm)

Gannon Concert Hall, Holtschneider Performance Center, DePaul University (2330 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614)

During my time in Atlanta, I played with the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra. We performed free concerts in the Atlanta metro area.