This Fellowship is a wonderful recognition of Umang's leading-edge work to ensure that machine learning technologies are developed responsibly. As AI makes ever more decisions in our lives, his research on how these systems can be made transparent and accountable is incredibly important.

Stephen Cave, Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence

Umang studies the foundations of trustworthy machine learning (ML). He focuses on algorithmic transparency and its effects on ML-assisted decision-making. Algorithmic transparency exposes properties of ML models to multiple stakeholders for purposes that include understanding, improving, and contesting model recommendations. Algorithmic transparency modulates stakeholder trust in decision-support systems through tools like explainability and uncertainty estimation. Motivated by societal applications in healthcare and criminal justice, Umang studies how to create models that explain their predictions to stakeholders and leverage stakeholder expertise for better human-machine team performance. In his work, he has explored methods from information theory and probabilistic ML, and connects to models suggested by cognitive science and psychology.

Adrian Weller, Umang’s PhD supervisor and AI Programme Director at the Alan Turing Institute, said: “Umang is an outstanding student, full of positive energy and enthusiasm, and is a delight to work with. He has an unusual, and much needed, ability to see the big picture and engage across technical, psychological, social and policy aspects of trustworthy AI challenges. Umang has worked well with a wide range of collaborators, and I’m sure will accomplish much with this prestigious fellowship.”

The Master of St Edmund’s College, Catherine Arnold OBE, said: “As a member of a college for open-minded people who want to go beyond academic specialism to transform the world, Umang conducts multi-stakeholder research that exemplifies the power and impact of diverse voices. Umang’s engagement with both technical experts and people who will be impacted by AI, but are not experts, highlights the importance of an inclusive approach to technology that has the power to affect us all. I am delighted that Umang has been recognised with this prestigious fellowship.”

Stephen Cave, Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence where Umang is a Student Fellow, said: “This Fellowship is a wonderful recognition of Umang's leading-edge work to ensure that machine learning technologies are developed responsibly. As AI makes ever more decisions in our lives, his research on how these systems can be made transparent and accountable is incredibly important. I've been delighted to see him working with others in my Centre to pioneer new cross-disciplinary collaborations.”

Umang is one of thirteen recipients of the J.P. Morgan AI PhD Fellowship this year, only one of two from the United Kingdom, and the first at Cambridge.

Previously, Umang was a Fellow at the Mozilla Foundation and a Research Fellow at the Partnership on AI. He completed a joint bachelors-masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He has also received an Enrichment Student Award from the Alan Turing Institute. His PhD research is funded in part by generous donations from DeepMind and Leverhulme Trust.