In English 2150 at Baruch College, I was tasked to research and write about a topic related to our major. The research options I was given were not interesting so I did my own looking. The strategy I used was going on the Baruch website and observing papers written by the computer information systems professors. Some of these topics were hard to understand or I was not interested in but I eventually found one. It was a paper based on the effect of cognitive bias in software development. One of the authors was Professor Jain who I later interviewed. The article took a while to have a basic understanding of. It had a lot of vocabulary I did not know. We’ll gain a simple understanding of the article in a few days( had other class assignments) and professionally email Professor Jain and get a response in a few days from her that she is ok with the interview. Now this is the hardest part of the assignment. The due date of the essay was coming up and I needed only the interview response to finish ( her response for evidence). How email form communication was taking too long so I had to be more forward in getting to meet her. So through the guidance of my old First-year seminar professor, I found Professor Jain’s office hours. Luckily her office hours are when I had free time and went to her office during office hours. She wasn’t there and I asked a guy that was in the office next to her and he told me to knock on the door. No noise, I was like ‘greatttt’ feeling frustrated and defeated. I was about to leave and I passed without realizing. Luckily I talked to the guy and he said something to her, which allowed me to interview her. The interview was successful and I learned a lot about her and gained a better understanding of her experiment that was mentioned in the paper. 

Writing the argument essay was another story. While researching sources for the argument essay I learn about the problems of the tech we use. Some of the technology we use is designed to not be great for people of color. As a person of color and person interested in tech, I want a world where there are no systemic issues in tech that people of color face. This relates to my interest in designing and problem-solving. So I thought of designing a system of self-reflection to mitigate as much bias as possible. I mainly focus on the healthcare aspects of bias in software development because I realize how important healthcare is and the historical impact it has on people of color. Also, healthcare should be provided equally and with the least amount of underdiagnosed patients.

Look down below for a video that explains more in-depth the bias in also and how to improve the A.I we use. The more diverse people who work on A.I. the better it becomes. Many different perspectives can see problems that one person might not even realize.