User:Crepaci

About Me

I'm Charlie Repaci, a senior at Simmons University studying Data Science, with a special interest in Biochemistry and Sociology. This summer I am working with Dr. Shion Guha and doctoral candidate Devansh Saxena on Developing Ethical Algorithms for Placement Stability in the Foster Care System.

Work Log

Week 1 June 1 to June 7

1. Orientation
   • Introduction to other mentors, mentees, and REU heads Dr. Praveen Madiraju and Dr. Dennis Brylow
   • Review of REU calendar and expectations
2. Data Science Bootcamp (talk by Dr. Madiraju)
   • Introduction and basics of data analysis with python (Anaconda and Jypyter Notebook; pandas, numpy, matplotlib, seaborn, scipy)
     • Read in data
     • Pre-processing
     • Modeling
     • Data visualization
3. Good Research Practices (talk by Dr. Brylow)
4. Literature Review
   • A Human-Centered Review of Algorithms used within the U.S. Child Welfare System
   • Toward Algorithmic Accountability in Public Services: A Qualitative Study of Affected Community Perspectives on Algorithmic Decision-making in Child Welfare Services
   • Child Welfare System: Interaction of Policy, Practice, and Algorithms
   • (Supplementary) Risk vs. Restriction: The Tension between Providing a Sense of Normalcy and Keeping Foster Teens Safe Online

Week 2 June 8 to June 14

1. Responsible Conduct of Research Training (talk by Dr. Brylow)
   • Ethical treatment of data
   • Authorship, credit, plagiarism
   • Human participants
   • Intellectual property
   • Conflicts of interest and professional standards
2. Worked on getting Citi certification for all three RCR sessions
3. Technical Writing Workshop (talk by Dr. Brylow and Dr. Madiraju)
   • What the sections of a technical paper are
   • What the publication process is like
   • General tips
4. Literature review
   • Governing Algorithms: A Provocation Piece
   • Algorithmic Accountability Reporting: On the Investigation of Black Boxes
   • Thinking Critically About and Researching Algorithms
   • (Supplementary) Algorithm in Digital Keywords: a Vocabulary of Information, Society, and Culture
5. Meeting with mentors
   • Github created for the project
   • Questions and discussion of the literature reviewed
   • Planned work for the next two weeks