Related papers: Is diversity good?
We argue for a foundational epistemic claim and a hypothesis about the production and uses of mathematical epidemiological models, exploring the consequences for our political and socio-economic lives. First, in order to make the best use…
Studies examining gender differences in introductory physics show a consensus when it comes to a gender gap on conceptual assessments; however, the story is not as clear when it comes to differences in gendered performance on exams. This…
The concept of complexity appears in virtually all areas of knowledge. Its intuitive meaning shares similarities across fields, but disagreements between its details hinders a general definition, leading to a plethora of proposed…
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science (DS) become pervasive, addressing gender disparities and diversity gaps in their workforce is urgent. These rapidly evolving fields have been further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which…
Women are dramatically underrepresented in computer science at all levels in academia and account for just 15% of tenure-track faculty. Understanding the causes of this gender imbalance would inform both policies intended to rectify it and…
Intuitively, a pluralist solution is one in which a single question receives multiple answers. Such pluralist solutions have been proposed in many widely disparate contexts. This paper restates the concept of pluralism with greater…
Physics labs provide a unique opportunity for students to grow their physics identity and science identity in general since they provide students with opportunity to tinker with experiments and analyze data in a low-stakes environment.…
A decision is an act or event of decision taking. Decision making always includes decision taking, the latter not involving significant exchanges with non-deciding agents. A decision outcome is a piece of storable information constituting…
We note the separation of a quantum description of an experiment into a statement of results (as probabilities) and an explanation of these results (in terms of linear operators). The inverse problem of choosing an explanation to fit given…
The goal of a well-controlled study is to remove unwanted variation when estimating the causal effect of the intervention of interest. Experiments conducted in the basic sciences frequently achieve this goal using experimental controls,…
This paper critically examines arguments against independence, a measure of group fairness also known as statistical parity and as demographic parity. In recent discussions of fairness in computer science, some have maintained that…
Wigner found unreasonable the "effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences". But if the mathematics we use to describe nature is simply a coded expression of our experience then its effectiveness is quite reasonable. Its…
Complexity of the problem of choosing among uncertain acts is a salient feature of many of the environments in which departures from expected utility theory are observed. I propose and axiomatize a model of choice under uncertainty in which…
Current trends suggest that significant gender disparities exist within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education at university, with female students being underrepresented in physics, but more equally represented…
In this work, I point out the negative implications for diversity in graduate school resulting from the use of cutoff scores on the GRE in the admissions process. In light of the data presented, as well as a swelling body of evidence…
Gender bias represents a form of systematic negative treatment that targets individuals based on their gender. This discrimination can range from subtle sexist remarks and gendered stereotypes to outright hate speech. Prior research has…
When does society eventually learn the truth, or take the correct action, via observational learning? In a general model of sequential learning over social networks, we identify a simple condition for learning dubbed excludability.…
Grades provide students with their primary performance feedback: signals which affect academic choices. Variations in grading practice among courses impose grade penalties (and bonuses) on students who take them. These grade penalties are…
The emergence and growth of research on issues of ethics in AI, and in particular algorithmic fairness, has roots in an essential observation that structural inequalities in society are reflected in the data used to train predictive models…
We investigated the intersectional nature of race/racism and gender/sexism in broad scale inequities in physics student learning using a critical quantitative intersectionality. To provide transparency and create a nuanced picture of…