Ro Encarnación
researcher, technologist, tech policy wonk, and a tiny bit creative

Where I’m at – I am a PhD student in the Penn HCI lab and am fortunate to be advised by Dr. Metaxa. I am broadly interested in transdisciplinary research at the intersection of algorithmic justice, technology policy, and society. In particular, I am interested in examining unobservable and complex bias and inequity in sociotechnical systems to understand and address the immediate and delayed impacts of consequential decision-making algorithms on historically excluded communities. My ultimate goal is to bridge community-centered, -informed, and -guided 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 privelege 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.
highlights
May 2023 | I am excited to be joining the IBM Responsive and Inclusive Technologies team as a Research Scientist intern this summer! |
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Apr 2023 | “Representation, Self-Determination, and Refusal: Queer People’s Experiences with Targeted Advertising” was accepted to ACM FAccT 2023! |
Jun 2022 | I will officially be starting my PhD journey at Penn HCI under the advisement of Dr. Danaë Metaxa! |
Apr 2022 | “Adaptive Sampling Strategies to Construct Equitable Training Datasets” was accepted to ACM FAccT 2022! |