Jennifer Chayes's guest appearances

Jennifer Chayes

Microsoft Research Podcast

Women in Data Science

Chris White

Max Welling

Peter Lee

Peyton Jones

Kevin Scott

Amos Miller

Brad Smith

Nathalie Riche

Janet George

Ben Zorn

Newsha Ajami

Layla El Asri

Desmond Patton

Mark Hamilton

Karen Hao

OwlTail

Attaining tenured status at a major university is often the culmination of an academic’s career; giving it up is unthinkable for most. But after 10 years at UCLA, Jennifer Chayes was offered a job at Microsoft. The offer, she says,“scared me to death,” but she took the job and is now managing director for Microsoft Research in New England, New York and Montreal. “There are brass rings that come along,and they always come along at the most inopportune times,and they look really scary, but I believe that we should grab them when they come along,” Chayes says during a conversation with Stanford’s Margot Gerritsen, Stanford professor and host of the Women in Data Science podcast. Chayes is a big advocate of eliminating biases in search algorithms and believes that data scientists have “the opportunity to build algorithms with fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics, or FATE.”  FATE, a group that formed at one of Chayes’ labs, works to address inequity in the field. In one particular instance, the group discovered that certain searches yielded certain results. Searches looking for computer programmers, for example, typically returned results for people with male names. The change Chayes' team implemented in the search algorithm removed that built-in bias. Removing bias from hiring is not only fair, it results in better outcomes, she says. “I think that you’re more likely to ask the right questions if you have been on the wrong side of outcomes. So you’re much more likely to see a lack of fairness or bias as a problem before it happens.” Chayes believes that the fieldof data science is changing and that the increase in underrepresented voices will be critical to the future of the field moving forward.

Attaining tenured status at a major university is often the culmination of an academic’s career; giving it up is unthinkable for most. But after 10 years at UCLA, Jennifer Chayes was offered a job at Microsoft. The offer, she says,“scared me to death,” but she took the job and is now managing director for Microsoft Research in New England, New York and Montreal. “There are brass rings that come along,and they always come along at the most inopportune times,and they look really scary, but I believe that we should grab them when they come along,” Chayes says during a conversation with Stanford’s Margot Gerritsen, Stanford professor and host of the Women in Data Science podcast. Chayes is a big advocate of eliminating biases in search algorithms and believes that data scientists have “the opportunity to build algorithms with fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics, or FATE.” FATE, a group that formed at one of Chayes’ labs, works to address inequity in the field. In one particular instance, the group discovered that certain searches yielded certain results. Searches looking for computer programmers, for example, typically returned results for people with male names. The change Chayes' team implemented in the search algorithm removed that built-in bias. Removing bias from hiring is not only fair, it results in better outcomes, she says. “I think that you’re more likely to ask the right questions if you have been on the wrong side of outcomes. So you’re much more likely to see a lack of fairness or bias as a problem before it happens.” Chayes believes that the fieldof data science is changing and that the increase in underrepresented voices will be critical to the future of the field moving forward.

Jennifer Chayes | Eliminating Bias

2018 marks the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, Massachusetts, so it’s the perfect time to talk with someone who was there from the lab’s beginning: Technical Fellow, Managing Director and Co-founder, Dr. Jennifer Chayes. But not only does Dr. Chayes run the New England lab of MSR, she also directs two other highly renowned, interdisciplinary research labs in New York City and Montreal, Quebec. Add to that a full slate of personal research projects and service on numerous boards, committees and foundations, and you’ve got one of the busiest and most influential women in high tech. On today’s podcast, Dr. Chayes shares her passion for the value of undirected inquiry, talks about her unlikely journey from rebel to researcher, and explains how she believes her research philosophy – more botanist than boss – prepares the fertile ground necessary for important, innovative and impactful research.

2018 marks the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, Massachusetts, so it’s the perfect time to talk with someone who was there from the lab’s beginning: Technical Fellow, Managing Director and Co-founder, Dr. Jennifer Chayes. But not only does Dr. Chayes run the New England lab of MSR, she also directs two other highly renowned, interdisciplinary research labs in New York City and Montreal, Quebec. Add to that a full slate of personal research projects and service on numerous boards, committees and foundations, and you’ve got one of the busiest and most influential women in high tech. On today’s podcast, Dr. Chayes shares her passion for the value of undirected inquiry, talks about her unlikely journey from rebel to researcher, and explains how she believes her research philosophy – more botanist than boss – prepares the fertile ground necessary for important, innovative and impactful research.

045 - Leading Labs with Dr. Jennifer Chayes