Surya Mattu

Lab Lead

Surya is a data journalist and engineer who has worked at The Markup, ProPublica and Gizmodo’s Special Projects Desk. At The Markup he led teams that built Blacklight, a real-time website privacy inspector, and Citizen Browser, a custom application that collected data from the Facebook newsfeeds of over 3000 volunteers. At Propublica he worked on Machine Bias, a series that highlights how algorithmic systems can be biased and discriminate against people in the housing and criminal justice system. Machine Bias was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Explanatory Journalism

Micha Gorelick

Technology and Reseach Lead

Micha has worked as a machine learning researcher and engineer for The Markup and OCCRP. She was the co-founder of an applied machine learning company, Fast Forward Labs and authored the book “High Performance Python”. She has worked as the lead researcher on a variety of cutting-edge research projects on topics ranging from neural networks for text summarization, probabilistic programming for understanding housing prices and various machine learning approaches for journalism.

Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava

India Research Lead

Kumar Sambhav is a journalist and social entrepreneur. He is the founder of Land Conflict Watch, an interdisciplinary research organisation in India, and was the co-founder of The Reporters’ Collective, a non-profit investigative-journalism collaborative. He was also an inaugural Artificial Intelligence Accountability Fellow at the Pulitzer Center. Kumar has reported for prime global and Indian news outlets, including Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, Business Standard, Hindustan Times, Down To Earth and The Times of India. For his reporting, Kumar has received the prestigious Red Ink Award, the Press Council of India’s National Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Shriram Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism.

Angie Waller

Product Lead and Research Manager

Angie has led teams of researchers, journalists, and engineers at various organizations, including New York University's Center for Social Media and Politics, The Markup, and Data & Society Research Institute. With a background in art, computational linguistics, and user experience design, she brings a unique perspective to studying online environments. Her work with The Markup on Citizen Browser, a custom Facebook data collection application, has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow award for Excellence in Innovation. Angie enjoys sharing her research with broader audiences through art publishing under the imprint Unknown Unknowns. These volumes are available online and at independent bookstores worldwide.

Qazi Firas

Research Associate

Firas is an architect and digital humanities professional, specialising in mapping cultural histories through games, archives, and digital storytelling. Firas employs innovative digital mediums to explore and preserve cultural narratives. His background seamlessly blends design and cultural understanding, providing a unique perspective to his work and fostering a dynamic approach to bridging traditional cultural histories with the digital realm. Firas has led diverse projects, including mapping endangered languages in India and crafting web-based text games portraying citizens’ socio-political interactions.

Pallab Deb

Research Associate

Pallab is a social-science researcher whose research focuses on technology, Indian politics, and urban policy. He has previously worked at Nagrika, a think tank; and the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a political consultancy. At Nagrika, his research delved into decentralised governance and sustainable transportation in Tier-II and Tier-III Indian cities. In his role at I-PAC, he conducted analysis of constituency-level data, drawing insights based on demographic nuances, voting patterns, and local influencers. Pallab was also a fellow at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, where he researched on urban housing and infrastructure.