{"id":108316,"date":"2026-03-10T17:58:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T21:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=108316"},"modified":"2026-03-10T17:58:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T21:58:03","slug":"horizon-scholar-tackles-technology-biases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/03\/horizon-scholar-tackles-technology-biases\/","title":{"rendered":"Horizon Scholar tackles technology biases"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE: This is one in a series of articles on Brock\u2019s 2025-26 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship recipients. Read other stories in the series on\u00a0<\/em>The Brock News<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Victoria Udechukwu was often the only woman in the room while working in Nigeria\u2019s technology sector, where she spent several years as a software engineer in financial and solar technology companies.<\/p>\n

While Udechukwu says a lack of representation and limited access to mentors made it difficult for her to see a path forward at times, those experiences gave her insight into the ways gaps can emerge in both human and technical systems.<\/p>\n

Now a Computer Science master\u2019s student at Brock, Udechukwu is among the exceptional researchers to receive a 2025-26 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship. Her work explores how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can be developed and governed responsibly, particularly when it comes to preventing AI biases.<\/p>\n

Because AI models learn from data, biases in training datasets \u2014 such the underrepresentation of different communities or population groups \u2014 can lead to biased algorithms and inaccurate or even harmful results.<\/p>\n

Udechukwu\u2019s research addresses a particularly complex challenge: identifying bias in AI systems trained on unlabeled data, such as images or text without any contextual information.<\/p>\n

\u201cBias is not always easy to detect in AI systems, especially when data lacks labels such as gender or age,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Working alongside her supervisor, Assistant Professor of Computer Science\u00a0Blessing Ogbuokiri, Udechukwu is exploring mathematical approaches to assess fairness, or bias, in AI models that learn by comparing similar and dissimilar data points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to get some mathematical guarantees that tell us how much unfairness might show up on new data,\u201d she says. \u201cIf it\u2019s not fair, you have to go back and fix the AI system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Udechukwu\u2019s goal is to develop tools that can assess whether AI systems meet acceptable fairness thresholds and signal when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to return to industry,\u201d she says. \u201cMy goal is to meaningfully solve real-word problems that affect underrepresented communities by facilitating access to technology in sectors like clean energy, education and health care across Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond industry-based solutions, Udechukwu points to the importance of government involvement when it comes to developing ethical AI practices.<\/p>\n

While developing regulations and safeguards can be challenging when technology moves faster than policy-makers, Udechukwu says it\u2019s better to have government policies \u201ceven if they are not perfect.\u201d\u00a0Rather than rigid rules, she proposes adaptive frameworks that evolve alongside the technology they aim to regulate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSector-specific standards such as those in health care can complement government oversight and help ensure minimum requirements are met,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Beyond her professional and academic impacts, Udechukwu has amplified diverse voices in technology by helping younger women in Nigeria build their technical skills and confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese spaces gave me strength and reminded me that I wasn\u2019t alone,\u201d she says. \u201cThe challenges taught me grit, adaptability and empathy. I\u2019ve learned to speak up, to ask questions and to extend a hand to those behind me. I now see my identity not as a barrier, but as a source of strength and a reason to keep pushing for greater representation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria Udechukwu was often the only woman in the room while working in Nigeria\u2019s technology sector, where she spent several years as a software engineer in financial and solar technology companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":108321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[188,55,41,1,5],"tags":[348,3335,3330,9928,10037,353,3666],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108322,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316\/revisions\/108322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}