Meet Our Team of Experts and Honorees
The CMU-K&L Gates Initiative blends expertise from the humanities and computer science with the goal of understanding technical systems within a larger social and human context.
Initiative Leads
Alex John London
Alex John London is the K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies and director of the Center for Ethics and Policy at CMU’s Department of Philosophy. He also is chief ethicist at CMU’s Block Center for Technology and Society. An elected Fellow of the Hastings Center, London’s work focuses on ethical and policy issues surrounding the development and deployment of novel technologies in medicine, biotechnology and AI, on methodological issues in theoretical and practical ethics, and on cross-national issues of justice and fairness.
Hoda Heidari
Hoda Heidari is the K&L Gates Career Development Assistant Professor in Ethics and Computational Technologies at CMU, with joint appointments in the Machine Learning and Software and Societal Systems departments. She is also affiliated with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Her research is broadly concerned with the social, ethical and economic implications of AI, and in particular, issues of fairness and accountability through the use of ML in socially consequential domains.
K&L Gates Presidential Fellows
The K&L Gates Presidential Fellowship supports doctoral students whose studies relate to the field of ethics and computational science and technology; their work often asks how humans interact with technology, how we foresee and respond to the unintended consequences of our work, and how we ensure that technology is used to benefit humanity, individually and as a society.
Lingwei Cheng
2023-2024 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Public Policy and Management, Heinz College
Carnegie Mellon University
Anna Kawakami
2023-2024 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Human Computer Interaction, School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Sara Mahdizadeh Shahri
2023-2024 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Zeyu Tang
2023-2024 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Logic, Computation and Methodology, Dietrich College
Carnegie Mellon University
Chan Young Park
2024-2025 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Language Technologies Institute, School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Mateo Dulce Rubio
2024-2025 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Statistics and Public Policy, Dietrich College and Heinz College
Carnegie Mellon University
Lindsay Graff
2024-2025 Fellow
Doctoral Student
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
K&L Gates Prize
K&L Gates Prize awards $5,000 at commencement to a graduating undergraduate student who has inspired their fellow students to love learning through a combination of intellect, high scholarly achievement, engagement with others and character.
2023 Winner
claire chiang
Major: Biological Sciences
Minor: Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Mellon College of Science
Carnegie Mellon University