Each year, the CCSS annual lecture brings eminent thinkers to Cornell to address the campus and Ithaca community on pressing social issues.
Co-sponsored by:


What We See and What We Value: AI With a Human Perspective
Oct. 5, 2023
4:30pm
Statler Auditorium
Reception to follow
Dr. Fei-Fei Li
Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute
In this talk, Dr. Li will present her research with students and collaborators to develop intelligent visual machines using machine learning and deep learning methods. The talk will focus on how neuroscience and cognitive science inspired the development of algorithms that enabled computers to see what humans see and how we can develop computer algorithms and applications to allow computers to see what humans don’t see. Dr. Li will also discuss social and ethical considerations about what we do not want to see or do not want to be seen, and corresponding work on privacy computing in computer vision, as well as the importance of addressing data bias in vision algorithms. She will conclude by discussing her current work in smart cameras and robots in healthcare as well as household robots as examples of AI’s potential to augment human capabilities.
This popular event, open to the Ithaca community and the campus audience, generally draws an overflow audience and is followed by a reception.
Co-sponsored by the Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and the Center for Data Science for Enterprise & Society Data Science Distinguished Lecture Series.
News Coverage of Dr. Fei-Fei Li
About Dr. Li
Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and Co-Director of Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute. She served as the Director of Stanford's AI Lab from 2013 to 2018. From January 2017 to September 2018, she was Vice President at Google and served as Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud. Dr. Fei-Fei Li obtained her B.A. degree in physics from Princeton in 1999 with High Honors and her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2005.
Dr. Li's current research interests include cognitively inspired AI, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and AI+healthcare, especially ambient intelligent systems for healthcare delivery. She has also worked on cognitive and computational neuroscience. Dr. Li has published over 200 scientific articles in top-tier journals and conferences and is the inventor of ImageNet and ImageNet Challenge, a critical large-scale dataset and benchmarking effort that has contributed to the latest developments in deep learning and AI. A leading national voice for advocating diversity in STEM and AI, she is co-founder and chairperson of the national non-profit AI4ALL, aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in AI education. Dr. Li is an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).
For more on Dr. Li, visit her website here.
Improving Equality of Opportunity in America: New Insights from Big Data
Raj Chetty, Economics, Harvard University
Co-sponsored by the Cornell Department of Economics
Children’s chances of earning more than their parents have fallen from 90% to 50% over the past half-century in America. How can we restore the American Dream of upward mobility for our children? In this talk, Raj Chetty discusses recent work that he and his colleagues at Opportunity Insights have done to study this question. Among other topics, the talk shows how children’s chances of climbing the income ladder vary across neighborhoods, analyzes the sources of racial disparities in intergenerational mobility, and discusses the role of higher education in creating greater income mobility. The talk concludes by discussing how local policymakers can harness big data to increase opportunity in their own communities and institutions.
For more on Raj Chetty, visit his website here.
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Monday, April 18, 2022
Our Racial Moment of Truth
Isabel Wilkerson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Co-sponsors: Cornell Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge and Office of Faculty Development and Diversity
With the high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans at the hands of police and civilians, protests are mounting and debates intensifying. These events have left many people asking just how far we have really come since the days of Jim Crow—and the need for dialogue has never been more acute. In this timely lecture, Isabel Wilkerson addresses the persistence of racial injustice as a national challenge and what history can teach us as we work to resolve it.
For more on Isabel Wilkerson, view her website here.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Democracy, Today: Fake News, Social Networks and Algorithms
David Lazer, Northeastern University
Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer and Information Science
Check out the video recording here.
Co-sponsors: Communication, Computer Science, Information Science
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Thursday, October 24, 2019
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People
Mahzarin Banaji, Harvard University
Richard Clark Cabot Professor of Social Ethics and Chair in the Department of Psychology
Co-sponsors: Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, Department of Psychology, Center of Bright Beams
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Monday, February 11, 2019
Racism and the New Racial Science
Dorothy Roberts, University of Pennsylvania
George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights
Co-sponsors: Cornell Law School, African Studies and Research Center
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Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Matthew Desmond, Princeton University
Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology
Co-sponsor: Center for the Study of Inequality
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Wednesday, November 16, 2016
The CCSS is committed to providing universal access to all of our events and facilities. For disability accommodations (e.g, sign language interpreters, alternative formats) please contact Katie Anderson at socialsciences@cornell.edu or 607-255-3408 as soon as possible.