Caroline Sanders visited the design students discussing Feminist Data Sets, unfamiliar with the term I found Caroline Sanders lecture and workshop interesting in a number of ways. The behind the scenes of how the data is human-made and how there is a bias when it comes to inputing this data. I like how she is aware of what’s going on in the world when it comes to human rights and how there needs to be change when it comes to Machine Learning (ML). What really drew my attention was the discussion around google searching and how google recognizes what is a profession hairstyle versus a non-professional hairstyle. Discussing that it’s not just algorithms, its the training data. How facial recognition in some aspects don’t scan black faces but will scan white faces. The machine is trained to do that, but the behind the scenes are humans putting in that data. I felt like that was an interesting topic to talk about. Planning for the future we need to focus on how these design systems can work for all and not just for a few. Redistribution with data and society and how people need to have a choice when it comes to data being used for a better future.
The discussion after the workshop was helpful as well from then to now, and how things started for her. Giving us insight on her careers and how to go about getting yourself out there. How to approach things the right way and putting certain things inside a portfolio without being afraid and just go for it.