Shion Guha

Shion Guha is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, cross-appointed to the Department of Computer Science, and directs the Human-Centred Data Science Lab.

He leads a research program that examines how data, measurement, and organizational practice interact when governments adopt algorithmic systems. His team works with agencies in child welfare, healthcare, and homelessness services to study model development and use, to audit outcomes with mixed methods, and to co-produce evaluation criteria that reflect service goals and community priorities. The program emphasizes practical artifacts that institutions can deploy immediately, including assessment protocols, procurement checklists, and implementation guides that link analytics to clear accountability paths.

Guha is the author of Human-Centered Data Science: An Introduction (MIT Press, 2022). His research has been funded by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. He has been recognized with a Way-Klingler Early Career Award (2019), a Connaught New Researcher Award (2021), and a Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society Faculty Fellowship (2023). He has partnered with Canadian municipal, provincial, and federal bodies on AI initiatives and provided expert input to U.S. state agencies and civil society organizations. His work has been covered by Newsweek, the Associated Press, ABC, NBC, and the Toronto Star. He holds an MS from the Indian Statistical Institute and a PhD from Cornell University.

Shion also publishes The Public Interest Technologist, a practitioner newsletter on AI and socio-technical auditing at https://publictechnologist.substack.com/