About Me

Hello! I am a fourth year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon Univerity, advised by Zico Kolter .

My Research area focuses on machine learning and its social impact. Primarily, I am interested in understanding the long-term social ramifications of data-driven decision systems, especially as they relate to the criminal justice system.

Additionally, I am interested in finding new ways to engage stakeholders and use their expertise in determining the effectiveness of ML algorithms. I am currently funded through the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship.

Before CMU, I was a Post-Baccalaureatte Research Fellow with the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine, where I worked on automated analyses of in-vivo multi-photon microscopy images. Even earlier, I was an undergraduate at Hampton University in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science.

Publications, Preprints, and Workshop Papers

( * Equal Contribution )

  • A Bayesian Model of Cash Bail Decisions
    Joshua Williams, J. Zico Kolter
    2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FAcct 2021)
    [paper] [data]  

  • A Call for Universities to Develop Requirements for Community Engagement in AI Research
    Emily Black*, Joshua Williams*, Michael Madaio, Priya L Donti
    Fair & Responsible AI Workshop @ Chi2020
    [paper]  

  • Dynamic Modeling and Equilibria in Fair Decision Making
    Joshua Williams, J. Zico Kolter
    NeurIPS 2019 Workshop on Robust AI in Financial Services: Data, Fairness, Explainability, Trustworthiness, and Privacy
    [paper]  

  • Visualization of Breast Cancer Metabolism Using Multimodal Nonlinear Optical Microscopy of Cellular Lipids and Redox State
    Jue Hou, Joshua Williams, Elliot L Botvinick, Eric O Potma, Bruce J Tromberg
    Journal of Cancer research, 2018; Vol 78
    [paper]  

  • Characterisation of impaired wound healing in a preclinical model of induced diabetes using wide-field imaging and conventional immunohistochemistry assays
    Mayer Saidian, Jonathan R.T. Lakey, Adrien Ponticorvo, Rebecca Rowland, Melissa Baldado, Joshua Williams, Maaikee Pronda, Michael Alexander, Antonio Flores, Li Shiri, Stellar Zhang, Bernard Choi, Roni Kohen, Bruce J. Tromberg, Anthony J. Durkin
    International Wound Journal, 2018; Vol 16
    [paper]  

  • Feature characterization of scarring and non-scarring types of alopecia by multiphoton microscopy
    Jessica Lin BSc, Inga Saknite PhD, Manuel Valdebran MD, Mihaela Balu PhD, Griffin Lentsch MSc, Joshua N. Williams BSc, Karsten Koenig PhD, Bruce J. Tromberg PhD, Natasha Atanaskova Mesinkovska MD, PhD
    Laserts in Surgery and Medicine, 2018; Vol 51
    [paper]  

  • In vivo multiphoton microscopy imaging of pigmentary skin disorders Mihaela Balu, Griffin Lentsch, Joshua N Williams, Inga Saknite, Karsten Koenig, Anand Ganesan, Bruce J. Tromberg
    Optics in Life Sciences Congress, 2017
    [paper]