As a 2021 Rotary Global Grant Scholar, I spent nine months in the beautiful and quaint city of Cambridge, England, where a warm day felt like California in winter. There, I conducted research at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge.
Over the past year, I have greatly enjoyed my time with the Grass Valley and Nevada City Rotary clubs. I cherish the inquisitive questions of members about my research and the tradition of happy/sad bucks! I also appreciate joining dinners with the Cambridge Sawston club and learning about members’ diverse life paths.
For my research at Cambridge, I developed a new audit to assess the ethics and legality of police use of facial recognition in the UK. I applied this audit to three British police deployments and found that they failed to meet the minimum standards for the governance of the technology.
This research aligns with Rotary's work in peacebuilding and conflict prevention by revealing the risks and harms of facial recognition and by informing tech policy in a manner that mitigates discrimination and promotes peace.
With Rotary’s support, I traveled to South Korea for the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, where I presented my research and connected with other scholars.
With my interest in advancing justice in the digital age, I will pursue a master’s in Sociology at Stanford University. This will build upon my understanding of the social aspects of technology and my experiences made possible through Rotary’s generosity!
Evani Radiya-Dixit
Sponsored by Rotary Clubs of Nevada City and Grass Valley
Sponsored by Rotary Clubs of Nevada City and Grass Valley
District 5190