Opening Keynote Speakers

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg co-lead Google’s PAIR (People+AI Research) initiative, part of Google Brain. Their work in machine learning focuses on transparency and interpretability, as part of a broad agenda to improve human/AI interaction. They are well known for their contributions to social and collaborative visualization, and the systems they’ve created are used daily by millions of people.

Viégas and Wattenberg are also known for visualization-based artwork, which has been exhibited in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, London Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Their artwork has influenced contemporary design practice: for instance, the techniques in their wind map are now used by many major media companies to display the weather.

Closing Keynote Speaker

Katharine Trendacosta

Katharine is the Manager of Policy and Activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), where she manages national policy strategy. Her activism focuses on intellectual property, net neutrality, fair use, free speech online, and intermediary liability. Before joining EFF, Katharine was a writer and then an editor at the science fiction and science website io9. Her work has also appeared in io9’s sister publications Deadspin, Jezebel, and Gizmodo.

Katharine got a BA in history at Columbia University and a JD at USC Gould School of Law, doing work with the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic.

It was Katharine’s experience in media that led to her going to law school with an eye to learning more about fair use and copyright law.