Building Blocks: Big Data Policy

Dr. James Foulds is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Systems at UMBC. His research aims to improve the role of artificial intelligence in society regarding fairness and privacy, and to promote the practice of computational social science. Supporting this work, he earned the NSF CAREER Award (2021), and the NSF CRII Award (2019). He has been a keynote speaker and panelist in conferences and workshops on AI fairness, and has co-edited two IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin special issues on the topic. He has a track record of publishing in the top AI, ML, and data mining conferences. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of California, Irvine, and he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz, followed by the University of California, San Diego.  His master's and bachelor's degrees were earned with first-class honours at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, where he also contributed to the Weka data mining system. He is currently writing the upcoming 5th edition of the popular Witten et al. Data Mining textbook.

Laura K. Mateczun, J.D., is a Ph.D. student in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where she is writing her dissertation on local government cybersecurity. She received an M.P.S. in Cybersecurity from UMBC in 2023, and a graduate certificate in cybersecurity strategy and policy in 2021. She co-authored the book Cybersecurity and Local Government, published by Wiley in 2022. Laura is a 2014 graduate of the University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law and is a member of the Maryland Bar. She received a B.A. in public policy and political science from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2011.

Dr. Udi Sommer is a political science professor at Tel Aviv University and the John Jay Fall Research Fellow. He has held leadership positions at the Israel Young Academy and the Israeli Cyber Forum at Columbia University. Udi has extensive research interests, including Comparative and American Politics, Politics of Sexuality and Gender, Judicial politics, pandemics and politics, and Cyber Security. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed pieces in top outlets and has received several grants and fellowships. Udi co-led a team that won a grant of one Million New Israeli Shekels from the US State Department and the Fulbright Program to establish a new Center for the Study of the United States in Tel Aviv. Before his academic career, Udi founded and directed social programs for underprivileged youth and completed advanced graduate training in clinical psychology.

Elliot Talbert-Goldstein, PMP '11 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Information Systems and the Director of Digital Strategy in the Division of Professional Studies at UMBC. He has over a decade of industry experience including managing technical teams and projects in fields like education and healthcare, and presents regularly at industry conferences. He is studying software engineering and cybersecurity, and has published research on technology and policy. Elliot received his B.A. from UMBC (2011) and completed his master's degree in International Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University in 2014 and continues to study and apply conflict management tools in research and practice.