Crystal Lee Joins Mozilla as Senior Fellow, Responsible Computer Science

As Mozilla continues its ambitious Responsible Computer Science Challenge into 2022 and beyond, the work will be co-led by Crystal Lee, Senior Fellow in Responsible Computer Science.

Lee is a PhD candidate at MIT and a research affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, where she co-leads the Ethical Tech Working Group. Previously, Lee has worked as a visiting research scientist at the European Commission and graduated with high honors from Stanford University.

At MIT, Lee’s research has a broad scope, exploring issues from the history of disability and human-computer interaction, to how to responsibly curate, clean, and circulate datasets. Lee’s research has been supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and the MIT Programs for Digital Humanities.

The Responsible Computer Science Challenge was launched in 2018 by Omidyar Network, Mozilla, Schmidt Futures, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies. The challenge calls on professors to integrate ethics into undergraduate computer science courses, and has funded more than a dozen curricula across the U.S.

Says Lee: “Since launching the challenge in 2018, so much of everyday life has moved online — making the need for responsible, ethical software even more urgent. It’s essential that the code entwined with our everyday lives values principles like privacy, inclusion, and equity. And, that the people writing this code think critically about the ways it can help — and potentially harm — people.”

Lee continues: “In the months ahead, we’re eager to grow the number of Responsible Computer Science Challenge grantees, especially in university humanities departments; to increase the number of regions around the world where the curricula are available, and to fuel the community of educators who steward this vital work.”