- Distinguished Alumni Award
Robin Hauser FR'82 has been named the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. Robin, an award-winning director and producer of cause-based documentary films at Finish Line Features, Inc. and Unleashed Productions, Inc., has provided platforms to raise awareness in areas of diversity and inclusion, gender equality and ethical artificial intelligence. As a business woman, longtime professional photographer and social entrepreneur, she brings her leadership skills, creative eye and passion to her documentary film projects. Her artistic vision and experience in the business world afford her a unique perspective on what it takes to motivate an audience.
One of Robin's production, Bias, is a documentary about unconscious bias and how it affects the ways we hire, promote and fund. CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2015 and caught the attention of the international tech industry and of policy makers in Washington, DC and abroad. Previously, Hauser co-directed and produced the documentary feature, Running for Jim, which won 14 awards at 20 film festivals. She has spoken about the importance of increased diversity in computer programming and on behalf of women's rights at Watermark, Conference for Women, Mobile World Congress, SXSW Interactive, AT&T Foundry FutureCast, Dell Women Entrepreneur Network and Women 2.0. As Director of CODE, Robin has been featured in several national publications and has appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNN and NPR. Robin is recipient of the 2016 National Political Women's Caucus President's Award.
Watch her TED talk titled "Can we protect AI from our biases?" and her SYA webinar "De-Biasing the Brain" on YouTube.