Ro Encarnación

AI policy + HCI researcher, technologist, hobby collector

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Where I’m at – I am a PhD student in the Penn HCI lab and am fortunate to be advised by Dr. Metaxa. My research interests are in transdisciplinary action research at the intersection of algorithmic justice for historically excluded communities, AI policy, and HCI. I am interested in addressing unobservable and complex bias and inequity in AI systems broadly, and public-sector sociotechnical decision-making systems, in particular. My ultimate goal is to bridge community-engaged sociotechnical action research with practical technology policy and regulation.

Where I’ve been – My research journey began in the DS3 program at Microsoft Research NYC (I recommend all interested undergrads to apply!). Before Penn, I had the privilege and opportunity to serve as a TechCongress Congressional Innovation Fellow in the office of Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke. I’ve also worked as a software engineer at the Stanford Computational Policy Lab, Capital One, and as a Civic Technology Fellow at Microsoft Cities.

Where my roots are – I was born, raised, and educated in the Bronx and am a proud NYC public school system and CUNY grad. I hold a B.A. in Computer Science from CUNY Lehman College.

latest news

Dec 2024 I’m currently running a hybrid AI policy reading group out of the Penn HCI lab and I welcome anyone who would like to deliver a talk on a relevant topic to the group! Check out more info here.
May 2024 Princess Sampson, Hita, Lena, and myself in the Penn HCI lab are NSF GRFP awardees! Tweet
Apr 2024 I was recently profiled on Penn Engineering’s blog. Thank you to the writing team for featuring my work.
May 2023 I am excited to be joining the IBM Responsive and Inclusive Technologies team as a Research Scientist intern this summer.
Apr 2023 “Representation, Self-Determination, and Refusal: Queer People’s Experiences with Targeted Advertising” was accepted to ACM FAccT 2023!