Assistant Professor Amanda Coston has been awarded a significant research grant by the Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications. 

“I am very grateful to the Okawa Foundation for their support of my research,” said Coston. “This generous research grant will support my group's work to advance trustworthy AI by developing rigorous methods for evaluating machine learning in high-stakes domains.”  

Coston’s research focuses on real-world data challenges that affect the validity, reliability, and fairness of algorithmic decision-support systems and data-driven policy making. Her work integrates methods from causal inference, machine learning, and nonparametric statistics. She earned her Ph.D. in Machine Learning and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and later completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Machine Learning and Statistics team at Microsoft Research. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a focus on Computer Science from Princeton University, along with a certificate from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

“Congratulations to Amanda on this notable honor,” said Chair Ryan Tibshirani. “Only seven such grants were awarded in the U.S. annually, and Amanda has distinguished herself as a leading scholar on AI and its applications."

The Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications is a public interest corporation founded mainly by the late Isao Okawa, one of the pioneers of the IT industry in Japan, who established CSK Corporation. The Foundation's mission is to promote and develop ICT through awards, research grants, and efforts to nurture researchers, engineers, and providers. It also seeks to promote diversity and the ubiquity of human communication, thereby contributing to the peace and prosperity of humankind. The Foundation was established in 1986.

-Alex Coughlin