As artificial intelligence technology continues to enter the mainstream, Princeton SPIA’s Aleksandra Korolova has been behind the scenes researching the societal impacts of machine learning and AI. Her dedication to her craft has resulted in a prestigious designation: Korolova, an assistant professor of computer science and public affairs, has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers — the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early-career scientists and engineers.

“My first reaction was disbelief,” Korolova said about winning the award. “The first people I told were my close family, as they have been my biggest supporters and cheerleaders throughout my academic career.”

Korolova, who was recognized for leadership potential in her field, develops algorithmic and systems advances that can enable data-driven innovations while preserving individual privacy and ensuring fairness. Korolova’s most recent research identified racial discrimination in the delivery of education ads. Her prior work, on discrimination in housing and employment ad delivery, was recognized with an Honorable Mention Award and Recognition of Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion in the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing in 2019 and was a runner-up for the Web Conference’s Best Student Paper Award in 2021. She was invited to brief members of the House Financial Services Committee on the work.

Another recent line of work focuses on ad targeting and delivery of political advertising, including through proxies. Korolova’s research led to a settlement between the Department of Justice and Meta in 2022, requiring Meta to modify its ad delivery system to address algorithmic discrimination and to the inclusion of ad delivery algorithms in proposed regulation of political advertising by the European Commission in 2023.

In addition to identifying how opaque algorithmic decision-making systems may be affecting individuals and society, Korolova works to develop techniques for mitigating their negative consequences. That includes a proposal of a new notion of fairness for algorithmic decision-making systems in contexts where individuals have diverse preferences and a new paradigm for achieving meaningful auditability while protecting individuals’ privacy and companies’ business interests.

“This award provides some extra motivation as it recognizes that the topics that are the focus of my research — such as ensuring privacy and non-discrimination in machine learning and AI — are recognized as valuable to scientific progress,” Korolova said.

Korolova is a recipient of the 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship and a 2020 NSF CAREER award, a co-winner of the 2011 Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) Award for outstanding research in privacy-enhancing technologies for exposing privacy violations of microtargeted advertising, and a runner-up for the 2015 PET Award for RAPPOR, the first commercial deployment of differential privacy — a mathematically rigorous framework for reasoning about privacy risks of data releases.

In addition to her appointments with the School of Public and International Affairs and the Department of Computer Science, Korolova is also associated faculty in the Center for Information Technology Policy.