Programming and Prejudice

An excellent and short piece illustrative of the social impact of computing, and why it is essential that all people (including our students) understand how computing plays a substantial role in our lives, sometimes to the detriment of some groups compared to others. In particular, this explores the impact of software used to make large-impact decisions such as loan approvals and resume filtering on different groups of people, and how one researcher is examining strategies for how to address this at the algorithmic level.

As mentioned in the article, it's particularly noteworthy given how there may exist the perception that because software is implemented through code (rooted in seemingly rigid mathematics and logic), that it handles all cases evenly, fairly, and (effectively) without regard to race, culture, gender, or other status classifications.  As is explained here, this might not necessarily be the case...

http://unews.utah.edu/programming-and-prejudice/

- Svetty