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URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.wpi.edu/news/calendar/events/computer-science-phd-
 proposal-defense-hilson-shrestha-fairness-reasoning-practice-designing-and
SUMMARY:Computer Science PhD Proposal Defense , Hilson Shrestha " Fairness 
 Reasoning in Practice: Designing and Evaluating Systems Supporting Human-i
 n-the-Loop Consensus Ranking "
DESCRIPTION:Hilson Shrestha\nPhD Candidate\nWPI – Computer Science Departme
 nt\n\nFriday, July 31, 2026\nTime: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.\nLocation: Full
 er Labs 311\n\nZoom Link: https://wpi.zoom.us/my/hilsonshrestha?omn=937949
 73879\nCommittee members :\nProf. Lane Harrison, Advisor - WPI - Computer 
 Science Department\nProf. Elke Rundensteiner, WPI - Computer Science Depar
 tment\nProf. Erin Solovey, WPI - Computer Science Department\nProf. Alexan
 der Lex, University of Utah, (External Advisor)\nAbstract:\nAlgorithmic ra
 nkings increasingly shape critical decisions from admissions to hiring, ra
 ising concerns about fairness and transparency. While visualization enable
 d human-in-the-loop systems provide more interpretable and trustworthy fai
 r consensus rankings, they only work if human participants genuinely reaso
 n through the decision making process rather than passively deferring to a
 lgorithmic output. Prior work offers limited empirical guidance on whether
  users meaningfully participate or simply "rubber-stamp" algorithm suggest
 ed rankings.\nThis work makes three main contributions. First, it develops
  interactive visualization systems that support the construction and explo
 ration of fair consensus rankings. Second, it conducts a crowdsourced user
  study to investigate whether visual encodings of fairness metrics improve
  users' understanding of fairness trade-offs and lead to fairer consensus 
 outcomes. Third, it proposes an in-depth study combining screen recording 
 and think-aloud protocols to examine how users interpret fairness informat
 ion, interact with visualization interfaces, and make ranking decisions in
  practice. Overall, this work shifts the focus from asking whether human-i
 n-the-loop systems produce fair outcomes to asking whether humans meaningf
 ully participate in producing those outcomes.\n
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