Matthew O’Shaughnessy has received a Science ATL Communication Fellowship, which is sponsored by Emory University and is designed to help close the communication gap between scientists and the public.

This professional development experience is open to Atlanta-area graduate students and post-docs from any institute of higher education. Topics covered during the fellowship meetings include using narrative techniques in science communication, directing language for different audiences, and developing demonstrations and public programs related to the fellow’s field of study.

O’Shaughnessy is a Ph.D. student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia Tech, where he is co-advised by Professors Christopher J. Rozell and Mark Davenport. O’Shaughnessy is among 12 people named to the 2021 group of Science ATL Communication fellows. Four additional students from Georgia Tech have also been chosen to participate in this program.

O’Shaughnessy’s research develops tools that leverage hidden structure in data to discover causal relationships in computational, physical, and social systems. His work helps scientists separate correlation from causation in time series governed by dynamical systems, understand the operation of black-box machine learning classifiers, and efficiently collect data from systems that evolve over time. Interested in science policy and the societal impacts of emerging technologies, O’Shaughnessy also works on applications involving public opinion about artificial intelligence adoption and governance.