Information technologies are expanding the parameters of media, pervading our environments, our systems, and our daily lives. The direct connection between people and their data is now brokered via algorithms. Machine learning, pattern recognition, and sensor driven applications play out behind the scenes. Understanding the conditions that help to build trust is a worthy challenge for the open, non-linear, multi-faceted, and globally connected world we live in.

Trust, Transparency & Technology is a series of panel discussions that delve into the research, concepts and tools that may help create open collaborations in a world of automated intelligent agents, algorithm-driven interactions, and machines that can learn what humans can't explain.

Topic For This Panel: Trust and Transparency in Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations.

Erin Young is a doctoral student in Education, specialising in digital technologies and interdisciplinary collaboration. Prior to her doctoral studies, Erin was awarded a distinction for the MSc in Education (Learning and Technology) at the University of Oxford. She completed a BA (Hons) in Classics at the University of Cambridge, during which time she was Vice-President of her Junior Common Room and also worked for the Admissions Office in Educational Outreach. She holds a PGC in International Business Administration and Practice, and has earned scholarships to study at the British Schools of Athens and Rome.

Martha Russell is Executive Director of mediaX at Stanford University and Senior Research Scholar with the Human Sciences Technology Advanced Research Institute at Stanford. She leads business alliances and interdisciplinary research for mediaX at Stanford University. Russell’s background spans a range of business development, innovation and technology-transfer initiatives in information sciences, agriculture, communications, and microelectronics - for businesses, universities and regional development organizations. With a focus on the power of shared vision, Russell has developed planning/evaluation systems and consulted regionally and internationally on technology innovation for regional development.

Catherine Nicole Coleman is the Digital Research Architect at Stanford University Libraries, working within the Digital Library Systems and Services group. She co-directs Humanities + Design a research lab based at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), focusing on new modes of thinking in design and computer science to serve data-driven research in the humanities. The Humanities + Design lab brings together humanities scholars, students, designers, engineers, and computer scientists to develop open source tools for research.