Michael D. Ekstrand, Ph.D
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Science at Drexel University, where I lead the INERTIA Laboratory to study AI-powered information access systems (recommender systems, search engines, etc.). My particular goal is to make sure these systems promote an equitable, inclusive, and well-informed society. Previously, I co-led the People and Information Research Team (PIReT) at Boise State University and earned my Ph.D at the University of Minnesota.
Links
News
Jul 15 — RecSys Summer School 2025
I am lecturing on fairness and social impact of recommender systems at the Summer School on Recommender Systems.
Apr 28 — Paper at FairUMAP 2025
Our paper, “User and Recommender Behavior Over Time” (led by Samira Vaez Barenji) has been accepted to FairUMAP 2025.
Feb 6 — Tutorial at ECIR 2025
I will be giving a tutorial on fairness at ECIR 2025.
Jan 30 — Paper in WebSci '25
Our paper on news reporting of online child safety concerns, led by Drexel students Matt Namvarpour and Elham Aghakhani with Afsaneh Razi and Shadi Rezapour, has been accepted to WebSci 2025.
Nov 7 — Recommendation at TREC
I am co-organizing the 2025 Product Search and Recommendation track for TREC, which will include a related-product recommendation task focused on identifying substitute and complementary goods.