Michael D. Ekstrand, Ph.D
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Science at Drexel University, where I lead the INERTIA Laboratory to study AI-powered information access systems (recommender systems, search engines, etc.). My particular goal is to make sure these systems promote an equitable, inclusive, and well-informed society. Previously, I co-led the People and Information Research Team (PIReT) at Boise State University and earned my Ph.D at the University of Minnesota.
Links
News
Sep 26 — Position paper at NeurIPS
Our position paper on rigor and responsibility in AI has been accepted to the Position Paper track at NeurIPS 2025.
Aug 25 — Papers at RecSys Beyond
We have two papers accepted to the BEYOND workshop at RecSys 2025: one on lessons learned building news recommenders and another on challenges holding the field back.
Aug 5 — New paper in TORS
Our paper on participatory design for recommendation is forthcoming in Transactions on Recommender Systems. Preprint now available!
Jul 16 — RecSys Summer School 2025
I am lecturing on fairness and social impact of recommender systems at the Summer School on Recommender Systems.
May 15 — Fair LLMs at ACL
Our paper on the challenges of addressing fairness at the LLM level (led by Jacy Reese Anthis) has been accepted to ACL 2025. Preprint now available.