Shion Guha

Shion Guha is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and cross-appointed to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His research interests include human-computer interaction, data science, and public policy. He’s been involved in developing the field of Human-Centred Data Science. This intersectional research area combines technical methodologies with interpretive inquiry to address biases and structural inequalities in socio-technical systems. He is the author of Human-Centered Data Science: An Introduction, an Amazon Best Selling textbook published by MIT Press in 2022. Shion wants to understand how algorithmic decision-making processes are designed, implemented and evaluated in public services. In doing so, he often works with marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as child welfare, homelessness, healthcare systems and with public agencies at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. His work has been supported by grants from Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, National Science and Engineering Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, National Science Foundation etc. He has been featured in the media (Newsweek, Associated Press, ACLU, ABC, NBC, Gizmodo etc.) Shion has been awarded a Way-Klingler Early Career Award in 2019, a Connaught New Researcher Award in 2021 and a Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society Faculty Fellowship in 2023. Previously, he received an MS from the Indian Statistical Institute in 2010 and a PhD from Cornell University in 2016.