Prof Ana Basiri
Published: 15 March 2022
I work on developing theoretical and applied solutions that consider missing and biased data as part of a larger source, to make inferences about the underlying reasons that caused missingness or biases. In the era of big data, open data, social media, and crowdsourced data when “we are drowning in data”, gaps and unavailability, representativeness, and bias issues associated with them may indicate some hidden problems or reasons allowing us to understand the data, society, and cities better.
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Prof Ana Basiri |
Ana.Basiri@glasgow.ac.uk |
| School of Geographical & Earth Sciences |
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| Fellowships |
UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, 05/2019 – 04/2024 |
| Area of Research |
I work on developing theoretical and applied solutions that consider missing and biased data as part of a larger source, to make inferences about the underlying reasons that caused missingness or biases. In the era of big data, open data, social media, and crowdsourced data when “we are drowning in data”, gaps and unavailability, representativeness, and bias issues associated with them may indicate some hidden problems or reasons allowing us to understand the data, society, and cities better. |
Why did you choose to pursue a fellowship in your research career?
The main purpose was to give me the flexibility, time, and resources to establish myself as a leading researcher in my area. What’s more, they act as a platform to allow you to promote your research and field more widely.
Why work at the University of Glasgow?
I actually started this Fellowship at UCL, but I had the chance to move to UofG and I was provided with even more opportunities to grow over and above what my fellowship allowed me to do. This was really important for me to further advance my career and undertake more responsibilities and opportunities. I was really encouraged that the university strategy aligned with my own area of research, i.e., data science and AI, showing that I was an ideal fit for the University.
How would you describe your research in 20 words or less?
I work with missing data and use missingness as useful information to try to understand why it has happened.
What is your research highlight?
The whole area I work in is a relatively new mindset to have – missingness is something we try to avoid happening usually – and it has been really exciting to look at it as a useful source. My team and I are working with different disciplines to examine our framework, attract students to study this field, and having industry develop an interest in this. There are lots of different links into other disciplines too, with more becoming apparent all the time. One of the papers I’m really proud of is that we create 3D maps of cities using the patterns of blockage of GPS signals, which are freely and globally available – it’s one example of how missingness can help us. Companies like Uber and Ordnance Survey were really interested in what we did too, and the technique can be applied to any city in the world.
What do you look for in a collaboration?
I tend to look for sustainable collaborations – I want to make sure we work together to make sure both sides are happy and get something out of the collaboration. Going forward, I want to work with policy makers more though so I can see the impact of what we do. While we work with the public regularly, it would be good to see this impact policy more widely.
How do you see your research impacting society?
If you work with missing data, then you are dealing with data that has been excluded for some reason. These are often people who are forgotten or marginalised because of the way we designed the technologies – using missing data as a source of input means we are trying to make AI and data science inclusive. There are several societal impacts for each use case. For example, 3D maps that are created from unavailability patterns of GPS are used for energy consumption modelling, emergency services and the navigation of drones amongst many others.
What next?
There are two aspects – my research and myself. In terms of research, I really want to work with more disciplines and a wider variety of research fields including in engineering, arts, psychology, social science, philosophy and many others to show how the idea of missingness can be applied diversely and effectively. For myself as a Fellow, I want to use the opportunity that this award and the university have given me to really establish myself as a world leader in this research field. I’ve been able to contribute to my institution and wider community by mentoring early career researchers, establishing a large team with the opportunity to become the best version of whoever they want to be and keep the chain going. The vision for Britain is to be the world superpower in AI in 10 years-time and this fellowship gives me a chance to contribute to that and play a role as a part of our wider AI ecosystem.
First published: 15 March 2022