The American court system is burdened by a persistent problem in its pretrial scheduling process. One in five defendants fails to appear in court, leading to immense costs for the judiciary and detrimental consequences for defendants. Those facing economic insecurity, caregiving responsibilities or transportation limitations are particularly at risk.
William Yeoh, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and collaborators at Syracuse University in New York received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to reform pretrial scheduling to be fairer and more equitable with the help of artificial intelligence.
Through integrating machine learning and optimization techniques, the team aims to enhance fairness and provide meaningful explanations for scheduling decisions, thereby mitigating the current system's negative impacts.
