Nazanin Andalibi receives prestigious NSF CAREER award

University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Nazanin Andalibi was awarded a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation to fund research on emotion artificial intelligence, technology developed to infer people’s emotions and mood. 

Andalibi’s research, “Emotion Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Work: A Privacy and Relational Ethics Lens” explores the ethical implications of emotion AI in the workplace and hiring interviews, especially for marginalized workers or job seekers who would be at more risk of harm as a result of being subjected to emotion AI.

“While scholars have critiqued emotion AI for validity, privacy, accuracy and bias concerns, it continues to be patented, developed and used across a range of domains including the workplace and hiring without adequate regulation or public input,” Andalibi says. “This project challenges this status quo, I hope, within and beyond these contexts.” 

Andalibi notes that her research will have policy and practical implications, especially as companies increasingly use the technology to make critical hiring decisions about candidates as her pilot work with PhD student Kat Roemmich shows. 

“I appreciate the recognition by the NSF and reviewers that this is a pressing social issue that I, together with my team including the wonderful PhD students I work with, are well-positioned to address,” she says. “Doing critical work in computing can be challenging, so I’m really thrilled and thankful to have this signal from the broader scholarly community.” 

Through the NSF CAREER Award, Andalibi will receive nearly $650,000 over five years to fund her research. The National Science Foundation CAREER awards are given in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. 

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Learn more about assistant professor Nazanin Andalibi by visiting her UMSI faculty profile or her personal website. 

— Noor Hindi, UMSI public relations specialist