The Marquand House Collective comprises eleven experts in AI auditing spanning computing, law, policy, social science, and journalism. Members coined the term “algorithm audit” in a 2014 publication. The full group convened in 2024 at Marquand House in Princeton, New Jersey.
Marc Aidinoff
Marc Aidinoff is an assistant professor of history of science at Harvard University. His forthcoming book, Rebooting Liberalism: The Computerization of the Social Contract from 1974 to 2004, examines the computerization of government services and the changing expectations of citizenship. He has previously served as a science and technology policy advisor in the Biden-Harris and Obama-Biden administrations.
Lena Armstrong
Lena Armstrong is a computer science PhD student at Harvard University. Her research focuses on human–computer interaction, algorithmic justice, and AI auditing and has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She leverages interdisciplinary approaches to investigate bias and opacity in automated systems, create frameworks to audit AI, and discover how to empower people through more transparent and equitable systems.
Esha Bhandari
Esha Bhandari is director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, where she works on litigation and advocacy to protect freedom of expression and privacy rights in the digital age. She litigated the case Sandvig v. Barr, a First Amendment challenge to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act on behalf of online discrimination researchers. Bhandari is an adjunct professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law, where she coteaches the Technology, Law, and Policy Clinic. She contributed a chapter to the treatise Feminist Cyberlaw on the legal landscape for digital journalism and research.
Ellery Roberts Biddle
Ellery Roberts Biddle is a Philadelphia-based journalist who covers technology and the ways it affects people’s lives and rights around the world. Her work has earned accolades from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Fetisov Journalism Awards, the European Journalism Centre, and the Orwell Foundation. A former fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and former managing editor at Coda Story, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, and Compiler News, among other outlets.
Motahhare Eslami
Motahhare Eslami is an assistant professor at the School of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), and Software and Societal Systems Department (S3D) at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research is broadly in human–computer interaction, AI, social computing, and data mining, and aims to engage diverse stakeholders in the design and governance of AI systems, ensuring that those most affected by AI systems are given a voice in shaping these technologies. Eslami was named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics, and her work has been recognized with several awards at top-tier ACM and AAAI conferences.
Karrie Karahalios
Karrie Karahalios is a professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she directs the Social Algorithms Lab. Karahalios’s award-winning research focuses on AI and community-centered computing. She studies and builds sociotechnical systems, exploring algorithm awareness, algorithmically mediated social media feeds, content moderation systems, accessibility, group dynamics, and just infrastructures, to name a few. She coauthored the original paper on algorithm auditing and was a plaintiff in Sandvig v. Barr, whose outcome acknowledged auditing for civil rights should not be criminal. She was previously at the University of Illinois where she founded the Center for Just Infrastructures.
J. Nathan Matias
J. Nathan Matias is a computer scientist and social scientist who organizes citizen behavioral science for a safer, fairer, more understanding internet. A Guatemalan American, Matias is founder of the Citizens and Technology Lab at Cornell University. His award-winning scientific research, published in Nature, Science, PNAS, and other leading journals, has enlisted the public to audit social technologies and measurably improve the digital lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Matias also cofounded the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, which works to support and defend independent research on technology and society.
Danaé Metaxa
Danaé Metaxa is Raj and Neera Singh Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. They have coauthored one other book, Auditing Algorithms: Understanding Algorithmic Systems from the Outside In, the authoritative academic review on AI auditing. Metaxa researches algorithmic bias, representation, and justice in sociotechnical systems, and works with legal, industry, and policy groups including the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Alondra Nelson
Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, where she leads the Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab. Nelson is the author of award-winning books, including The Social Life of DNA. She led development of the White House “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” served on the United Nations High-level Advisory Body on AI, and was recognized on the inaugural TIME 100 list of the most influential people in AI.
Christian Sandvig
Christian Sandvig is the director of the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) and H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Information at the University of Michigan. He coauthored the original academic paper on algorithm auditing, coining the term, and was a plaintiff in Sandvig v. Barr, a lawsuit that changed the definition of hacking in the United States. He previously worked as a computer programmer at a Fortune 500 company, for the government, and at a tech start-up, and was a faculty member at the University of Illinois and Oxford University. His research focuses on the consequences of computer systems that automatically curate and organize culture and information.
Kristen Vaccaro
Kristen Vaccaro is an assistant professor of computer science & engineering at the University of California San Diego, where she is also a member of the Design Lab. Her research explores how to design machine learning systems—particularly those found in social media, like content moderation and newsfeeds—to be understandable, trustworthy, and just. This research has been published in top conferences in human–computer interaction, including CHI, CSCW, and UIST. She earned her PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has also worked as a researcher at the MITRE Corporation.
Marc Aidinoff is an assistant professor of history of science at Harvard University. His forthcoming book, Rebooting Liberalism: The Computerization of the Social Contract from 1974 to 2004, examines the computerization of government services and the changing expectations of citizenship. He has previously served as a science and technology policy advisor in the Biden-Harris and Obama-Biden administrations.
Lena Armstrong is a computer science PhD student at Harvard University. Her research focuses on human–computer interaction, algorithmic justice, and AI auditing and has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She leverages interdisciplinary approaches to investigate bias and opacity in automated systems, create frameworks to audit AI, and discover how to empower people through more transparent and equitable systems.
Esha Bhandari is director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, where she works on litigation and advocacy to protect freedom of expression and privacy rights in the digital age. She litigated the case Sandvig v. Barr, a First Amendment challenge to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act on behalf of online discrimination researchers. Bhandari is an adjunct professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law, where she coteaches the Technology, Law, and Policy Clinic. She contributed a chapter to the treatise Feminist Cyberlaw on the legal landscape for digital journalism and research.
Ellery Roberts Biddle is a Philadelphia-based journalist who covers technology and the ways it affects people’s lives and rights around the world. Her work has earned accolades from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Fetisov Journalism Awards, the European Journalism Centre, and the Orwell Foundation. A former fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and former managing editor at Coda Story, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, and Compiler News, among other outlets.
Motahhare Eslami is an assistant professor at the School of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), and Software and Societal Systems Department (S3D) at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research is broadly in human–computer interaction, AI, social computing, and data mining, and aims to engage diverse stakeholders in the design and governance of AI systems, ensuring that those most affected by AI systems are given a voice in shaping these technologies. Eslami was named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics, and her work has been recognized with several awards at top-tier ACM and AAAI conferences.
Karrie Karahalios is a professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she directs the Social Algorithms Lab. Karahalios’s award-winning research focuses on AI and community-centered computing. She studies and builds sociotechnical systems, exploring algorithm awareness, algorithmically mediated social media feeds, content moderation systems, accessibility, group dynamics, and just infrastructures, to name a few. She coauthored the original paper on algorithm auditing and was a plaintiff in Sandvig v. Barr, whose outcome acknowledged auditing for civil rights should not be criminal. She was previously at the University of Illinois where she founded the Center for Just Infrastructures.
J. Nathan Matias is a computer scientist and social scientist who organizes citizen behavioral science for a safer, fairer, more understanding internet. A Guatemalan American, Matias is founder of the Citizens and Technology Lab at Cornell University. His award-winning scientific research, published in Nature, Science, PNAS, and other leading journals, has enlisted the public to audit social technologies and measurably improve the digital lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Matias also cofounded the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, which works to support and defend independent research on technology and society.
Danaé Metaxa is Raj and Neera Singh Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. They have coauthored one other book, Auditing Algorithms: Understanding Algorithmic Systems from the Outside In, the authoritative academic review on AI auditing. Metaxa researches algorithmic bias, representation, and justice in sociotechnical systems, and works with legal, industry, and policy groups including the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, where she leads the Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab. Nelson is the author of award-winning books, including The Social Life of DNA. She led development of the White House “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” served on the United Nations High-level Advisory Body on AI, and was recognized on the inaugural TIME 100 list of the most influential people in AI.
Christian Sandvig is the director of the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) and H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Information at the University of Michigan. He coauthored the original academic paper on algorithm auditing, coining the term, and was a plaintiff in Sandvig v. Barr, a lawsuit that changed the definition of hacking in the United States. He previously worked as a computer programmer at a Fortune 500 company, for the government, and at a tech start-up, and was a faculty member at the University of Illinois and Oxford University. His research focuses on the consequences of computer systems that automatically curate and organize culture and information.
Kristen Vaccaro is an assistant professor of computer science & engineering at the University of California San Diego, where she is also a member of the Design Lab. Her research explores how to design machine learning systems—particularly those found in social media, like content moderation and newsfeeds—to be understandable, trustworthy, and just. This research has been published in top conferences in human–computer interaction, including CHI, CSCW, and UIST. She earned her PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has also worked as a researcher at the MITRE Corporation.