Ryan Steed

I am a data scientist, researcher, and project manager. I study Computational Economics at The George Washington University. I graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in 2017. I am also a Technology Fellow and project manager at the Innovation Center, George Washington's student startup incubator and innovation accelerator.

Research

My research interests span fairness and interpretability in AI, computational economics, and philosophy of mind. I apply computing technology to social problems.

My undergraduate work has been advised by Aylin Caliskan, Rahul Simha, and Ben Williams.

Recent

Machines Learn Appearance Bias in Face Recognition ⋅ 2020
Under review.
With Aylin Caliskan.
Heuristic Moral Decision-Making with Weak Supervision ⋅ 2019
Working thesis.
The Grand Narrative: A Course on the History of Economics in Data ⋅ 2019
The Effects of Patent Filing Acceleration on the Evolution of Technological Innovation ⋅ 2019
Working paper.

Data Science

Evolution of Innovation in Patent Citation Networks ⋅ 2019
2^nd Prize, GW Research Days. Top 5% of submissions.
Effect of Religious Diversity on Growth ⋅ 2018
ML Document Classification ⋅ 2018
Tech talk presented at GWU ACM.
The Practice and Promise of Open Source Intelligence and Computational Security Studies ⋅ 2017
Presented at International Studies Association South Annual Conference, Orlando.
With W. A. Rivera and Abbey Rogers.
A Deep Learning Approach for CAMEO Coding ⋅ 2017
Presented at ISA South Conference, Orlando.
With Max Erdemandi, Rachel Augustine and Lin Zhao.
The Derivative Relational Attribute Graph Model for Link Prediction ⋅ 2017
With W. A. Rivera.

Philosophy

A Pragmatic Argument for Experimental Welfare Policy ⋅ 2019
The Utility of Pragmatism: William James’ Humanism as Individualized Utilitarianism ⋅ 2019
AI is Heideggerian Enough, But Can It Be Authentic? ⋅ 2019
Working paper.
Sufficient Reason and Infinite Regress: Causal Consistency in Descartes and Spinoza ⋅ 2018
From Plato to Popper: Platonic Forms in Modern Science and Quantum Theory ⋅ 2017

News

AIES-2020

2/6/20

I'll be hanging out at AIES-2020! Say hi if you're around - I'm excited to learn about new work in the field.

Featured Project:
Virtual Jane

The Virtual Jane project tells the story of Jane Goodall (primatologist, conservationist, and childhood hero) in a virtual reality mobile application. The GW Innovation Center is currently developing new curriculum programs to teach students at GWU to leverage tech for social good.

Featured Project:
Evolution of Innovation

Innovation is important to growth and welfare, and nations sponsor research and craft legislation to encourage it. But how can we measure the impact of these investments? This research measures the spread of innovation with patent citation network analysis and explores the effect of recent legislation on knowledge flows between inventions.

Magic Number

Magic Number identifies trends that emerge from USPTO patent data, using machine learning modeling techniques to cluster, categorize and forecast patent trends in a number of business sectors.

IWP5

Interactive Web Physics Version 5 is an HTML5/JavaScript/D3 physics simulation applet built for classroom use. Build and visualize physics simulations using parametric and Euler's calculations.

Star Skirmish

Star Wars meets Galaga in this arcade-style 2D space shooter, built with Java Swing GUI. Fly your X-Wing across a beautiful starscape, blasting the Death Star's TIE fighters. Turn on your sound to hear the original NAMCO Galaga soundtrack and sound effects.

Thisfits

To communalize the fashion process, the Thisfits team is building a streamlined social media app for real-time fashion feedback and documentation. Thisfits features social feeds where friends and strangers can collaborate on outfits and pieces.