Conduct a study on a topic relevant to the course. This will require a proposal and IRB approval (if using human subjects), implementation of the project, writing up the results and presenting/using the data in a way that makes an impact!
Impact Project - Conduct a Study
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I was thinking of doing something with face recognition as a possible project. We already know that the cross-race effect exists, but I'm curious if the effect is even larger when comparing a face to a very small picture (such as a photo ID). Because the image is smaller, it may not be as easy to compare features and could result in more false alarms, especially for other-race faces. This could have implications for TSA screening because a non-White individual may be misidentified more often and could result in people being matched on a terrorist watch list or something like that. Then they would have to go through the extra screening process that is super invasive and most likely miss their flight, delay travel plans, etc. All this just because we're not as good at recognizing other-race faces. It's still in the prelims and I have to think more about the methodology, but if anyone likes this idea or has an idea for another study, post it here!
I was thinking that the project above relates to SP & D because of the racial profiling that goes on in airports. I have a friend of Indian/Italian descent who looks as though he may be from the middle east and has been detained in a private room TWICE asking what his travel plans are, where he's from, etc. even though he was born here. I thought that this study could tease out whether it's due to difficulty in the identification process because of IDs or if it's more due to profiling.