Rediet Abebe

Rediet Abebe
Born	Template:Birth year and age Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Occupation(s)	Computer scientist, assistant professor
Known for	Algorithms, artificial intelligence, Mechanism Design for Social Good, Black in AI

Rediet Abebe (in Amharic: ረድኤት አበበ; born 1991) is an Ethiopian computer scientist whose expertise lies in algorithms and artificial intelligence. She currently holds the position of assistant professor in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley and was previously a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Abebe’s scholarly work focuses on creating mathematical and computational models aimed at tackling issues related to inequality and distributive justice. She is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary projects Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) and Black in AI.

Early life and education

Raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Abebe attended Nazareth School following the Ethiopian National Curriculum. Later, she secured a merit-based scholarship to attend the International Community School of Addis Ababa for her secondary education.

She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics along with a Master of Science in applied mathematics from Harvard University, where she also contributed to research publications spanning mathematics, physics, and public health. During her time at Harvard, she wrote for The Harvard Crimson, focusing on issues within the Cambridge public school system.

Abebe pursued Part III of the Mathematics Tripos at the University of Cambridge, studying as the Governor William Shirley Scholar. There, she earned a Master of Advanced Studies in pure mathematics under the mentorship of Imre Leader.

Her doctoral studies in computer science were completed at Cornell University, supervised by Jon Kleinberg. Her dissertation, which garnered the 2020 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award and an honorable mention for the ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award, made notable contributions across several areas within computer science. She is recognized as the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell.

Research and career

Abebe’s research centers on advancing methodologies within AI and algorithms, particularly addressing inequality and fair resource distribution. Her projects develop algorithmic approaches designed to assist marginalized communities.

Her motivation to integrate social inequality concerns with computer science stems from her upbringing in Ethiopia and observations of Cambridge public schools, underscoring the dangers posed by biased algorithmic systems.

In 2019, she participated in the National Institutes of Health AI Working Group alongside leading figures such as Kate Crawford and Daphne Koller. This group produced a detailed report that received unanimous endorsement from NIH leadership.

That same year, Abebe was inducted into the prestigious Harvard Society of Fellows, becoming its first Black female computer scientist and only the second Junior Fellow with a Ph.D. in computer science.

She joined the electrical engineering and computer sciences faculty at the University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor specializing in AI, data science, networks, and theoretical foundations. She is notable as both the first Black female faculty member in this department and the second within Berkeley’s college of engineering.

Abebe is affiliated with several research centers including Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), CITRIS - The Banatao Institute, and the Center for the Theoretical Foundations of Learning, Inference, Information, Intelligence, Mathematics, and Microeconomics (CLIMB). Additionally, she leads the Berkeley Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization research group (BEAAMO).

Mechanism Design for Social Good

In 2016, Abebe co-established Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) alongside Kira Goldner and a collaborative team of 12 members from various institutions. This group leverages algorithms and mechanism design principles to tackle issues related to inequality. Currently, Abebe co-manages MD4SG with Irene Lo and Ana-Andrea Stoica. The organization conducts yearly workshops dedicated to presenting research that aims to enhance social welfare. Additionally, in 2021, she played a key role in launching the ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO), where she served as the first Program Co-Chair.

Acknowledged as a trailblazer by the 2019 MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list, Abebe’s doctoral thesis was honored with the 2020 ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award and received an honorable mention from ACM SIGecom for laying foundational contributions within this developing discipline.

Black in AI

Together with Timnit Gebru, Abebe co-founded Black in AI in 2016, a network that now includes around 1,500 researchers specializing in artificial intelligence. The organization facilitates annual workshops at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference and promotes community building and collaboration among its members. Through her leadership of the Academic Program within Black in AI, Abebe was recognized as an emerging diversity leader in AI on the 2019 Bloomberg 50 list.

Awards and honors

• 2018: Bloomberg 50, One to Watch.
• 2018: Harvard-Cambridge Fellowship at Harvard University.
• 2019: Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows.
• 2019: MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35.
• 2020: Recipient of the ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award.
• 2020: Honorable Mention for ACM SIGecom Dissertation Award.
• 2020: Rising Star Award from Innovation for Equity.
• 2020: Named among the 100 Most Influential Young Africans by African Youth Awards.
• 2022: Inducted into the Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows.

External links

• She uses algorithms and AI to fight socioeconomic inequality featured in MIT Technology Review’s 'Pioneers: Breaking with tradition to create better AI, antibiotics, and architecture.'