Past Events

HRDAG executive director Megan Price delivers a talk titled, "Using Machine Learning to Determine How Many People Have Been Killed in Syria." From the program: The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) uses methods from statistics and computer science to quantify mass violence. As part of that work, we rely on open source tools, including python and R, for data processing, management, analysis, and visualization. This talk will highlight how we use those methods and tools to estimate how many…

Kristian Lum spoke on a panel about "Working together to reduce racial disparities in the justice system." Photo by Greg Jordan-Detamore ‏@GJordanDetamore 

The same machine-learning methods used to learn about customers, improve speech recognition, and identify cat faces can also be applied to questions about conflict violence. Megan Price demonstrates how machine-learning methods help us determine what we know, and what we don’t, about the ongoing conflict in Syria. Megan then explains why these methods can be crucial to better understand patterns of violence, enabling better policy decisions, resource allocation, and ultimately, accountability and justice. Video footage of the talk: https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/machine-learning-for-human-rights-advocacy

This talk will explore the assumption that nearly every project using data must make: that the data are representative of reality in the world. We will explore how, contrary to the standard assumption, how statistical patterns in raw data tend to be quite different than patterns in the world. Statistical patterns in data reflect how the data was collected rather than changes in the real-world phenomena data purport to represent. Using analysis of killings in Iraq, homicides committed by police…

Megan Price, panelist. Washington, D.C. January 15-16, 2015. Throughout the first day of this meeting, participants deepened their knowledge about emerging human rights opportunities and concerns connected to Big Data, especially the implications for the work of scientists and engineers. Sessions explored how collection, analysis, and access to massive data sets can impact human rights, both positively and negatively, and identifed ways in which human rights principles offer guidance for responsible data use. Throughout the first day of this meeting,…

On November 7, 2014, the Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Wisconsin Law School, hosted a mini-conference with speakers Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Patrick Ball, Chad Hazlett, Volker Radeloff, and Philip Schrodt to speak about “Big Data and Death.” The conference was organized by John Ahlquist and Jon Pevehouse. Big Data and Death Department of Political Science University of Wisconsin–Madison November 7, 2014 Madison, Wisconsin

At the Thoreau Center for Sustainability’s “Lunch and Learn,” Patrick Ball spoke about “Data Mining for Good.” The talk included a discussion of how HRDAG uses random sampling, entity resolution, communications metadata, and statistical modeling to assist prosecutions of human rights violators. With an introduction by John DeCock, Chief Operating and Outreach Officer, Bioneers. The Thoreau Center for Sustainability Lunch and Learn October 23, 2014 San Francisco, California

At the Center for Justice and Accountability’s happy hour, “Drink and Think,” Patrick Ball spoke about “Data Mining for Good.” The talk included a discussion of how HRDAG brings human rights abusers to justice through data analysis, and HRDAG’s work conducting quantitative analysis for truth commissions, NGOs, the UN and other partners. The event was held at Eventbrite. More photos are below.       The Center for Justice and Accountability Young Professionals’ Committee for Human Rights September 16, 2014…

ASA President Nathaniel Schenker (left) and Patrick Ball, August 2014. At the 2014 Joint Statistical Meetings, Patrick Ball discussed his invited paper, "Human Rights Violations: How Do We Begin Counting the Dead?" Also at the JSM, he was honored as a new Fellow of the American Statistical Association and inducted by ASA President Nathaniel Schenker. Joint Statistical Meetings August 7, 2014 Boston, Massachusetts Link to JSM 2014 online program Back to Talks

“Global Impact: Statistical Analyses of Conflict Data in Syria, Guatemala, and Colombia — Invited Papers.” Joint Statistical Meetings. Shira Mitchell, Megan Price, Patrick Ball. Boston, Massachusetts, August 5, 2014. Slides.  

“Record linkage and other statistical models for quantifying conflict casualties in Syria.” International Symposium on Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS)/Conference of the ASA Section on Statistical Learning and Data Mining. Megan Price. Durham, North Carolina. June 10, 2014.  

Counting Casualties: How the Human Rights Data Analysis Group Quantifies Conflict Violence. Megan Price at the World Social Science Forum 2013. October 13, 2013.

Math on Trial. Patrick Ball and Leila Schneps discuss how math can help (or hinder) the pursuit of justice. (Patrick begins at 36:30.) Moderated by Rachelle Saunders. Skeptically Speaking, August 22, 2013.   *** This week, guest host Rachelle Saunders explores the ways that math can help (and hinder) the pursuit of justice. She speaks to mathematician and University of Paris Professor Leila Schneps, co-author of the book Math on Trial: How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom. And…