Jahna Otterbacher holds a doctorate in Informatics from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA). She is on the faculty of the Open University of Cyprus, where she leads the H2020 funded project CyCAT: Cyprus Center for Algorithmic Transparency. In addition to her post at OUC, Jahna holds a concurrent appointment as team leader of theTransparency in Algorithms Group at RISE (Research centre on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies), a new center for industrial research and innovation in Nicosia, Cyprus, in collaboration with two international Advanced Partners, UCL (UK) and MPI (Germany).
Jahna’s research focuses on developing our understanding of two issues: first, the ways in which social stereotypes are reproduced in technological artifacts and algorithmic processes, such as search engines, and how this impacts users’ interactions with them; and second, users’ interactions with one another, as well as with computer agents, in technology-mediated environments. Jahna’s work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and Knowledge and Information Systems, as well as in top-tier international conferences such as the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. Jahna has also served as a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, where she writes about the social implications of Big Data practices and analytics. On a personal note, Jahna is a native of Detroit, Michigan USA. She lives in Nicosia with her family.
