Luke Richards

Luke is a masters student at the University of Birmingham studying ‘Responsible Data Science’ - an interdisciplinary degree in conjunction between the University’s School of Law and School of Computer Science. His course covers a deep practical understanding of databases, programming, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence from a Computer Science perspective as a grounding to also study the regulation, ethics and governance of emerging technologies and complex socio-technical systems from a legal perspective.

He graduated in Law from the University of Warwick in 2010 and completed a conversion course in Mathematics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Secondary Mathematics Education at the University of Birmingham between 2012 and 2014. From 2010 to 2012 he was an election agent who was an early pioneer of strategies to map microtargeting techniques to UK election campaigns. From 2014 to 2022 he was a secondary school mathematics teacher in Birmingham and Solihull as well as a researcher and author on mathematics education predominantly through his work on the Association of Mathematics’ Science of Education Working Group.

Luke is currently researching gender bias in Google search results for sports-related queries. His MSc dissertation project focus will be finalised in late-spring 2023 and is due for completion in September 2023. He is interested in issues related to the impact of the user consent model on society as a whole and alternative models for data processing, which provide better safeguards for society as a collective. He is also interested in the capacity for large scale data systems, which are held on the basis of individual consent or anonymisation, to be used in ways that impede the agency of both individuals and groups in society through manipulation of decision making processes.