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Jack Bandy

Jack Bandy is a clinical (teaching-focused) assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago. He currently teaches "Ethical Issues in Computing", and has previously taught courses in programming, human-computer interaction, and data science.

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A Picture of Jack

Photo of Jack Bandy
Photo by Jim Young, UIC College of Engineering

Research and Scholarly Interests

My research expertise includes algorithm auditing, human-computer interaction, and communication / media studies. If you visit my Google Scholar profile, you will also see AI Transparency, Social Media, and Computer Ethics, all of which seem to overlap quite a bit.

I stay curious about pretty much anything that intersects with technology and society. In 2016 I described my research interests using a venn diagram with an area overlapping three fields: media, ethics, and AI (here is a commemorative 2026 version, if you insist). But what to name this overlapping area?

There are very good terms out there: technosociology, sociotechnical, human-computer interaction. I find insights from these fields and many others, although my three core connections still seem to be media, ethics, and computing. Some day I may settle on a term, but in the meantime, here's a visual:

Contact Jack Bandy

I'm frequently reminded that everything worthwhile is done with other people — "what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?" Here are the best ways to connect with me:

You are also welcome to follow me on BlueSky (preferred), LinkedIn, Medium, GitHub, and/or Twitter (X), and you can reach me directly with this form:

Curriculum Vitae

I am off the job market for the time being; you can see a recent CV here.

Longer Bio

A slightly extended biography for anyone who might need it:

Jack Bandy is a clinical (teaching) assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago. Originally from Kentucky, he completed his Ph.D. in the Technology and Social Behavior program (Computer Science and Communication Studies) at Northwestern University, where he worked in the Computational Journalism Lab.

His dissertation research focused on algorithmic media systems and their role in human communication, combining topics and methods from algorithm auditing, data science, human-computer interaction, ethics, and media studies. His research has been published at venues such as the ACM conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Social Media + Society (SM+S), the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), and the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES). He also writes on topics related to technology and society, with published pieces in The Hill, the Chicago Tribune, and Real Life Magazine (RIP).

Jack holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Wheaton College (IL). He also has work experience at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Transylvania University, Legit Apps, and Twitter.

This Website

Hello there fellow nerd, thanks for your interest. Previously I used Ghost for this website, which was fine. Ghost provides excellent tooling for newsletters, including a slick editing interface, easy changes to pages, and powerful audience management. But I do not write a newsletter, and I do not think the world needs another newsletter in the year of our lord, 2026. The Ghost site also struggled in security and performance, according to Mozilla observatory and Google lighthouse, respectively.

Also, it's fun to just switch things up every now and then.

So, inspired by websites like Joan Donovan's, which express a lot more personality than a standard wordpress / jekyll / ghost template, I decided to go back to managing my own html. *pumps fist*

This was also a good opportunity to experiment with Claude Code to help me draft the website. I have been skeptical, but this was an instance in which (a) I knew what I wanted to make, (b) I knew the language I wanted it to use, and (c) I knew I could meaningfully edit whatever Claude created. It took a dozen prompts or so and lots of manual editing to get what I wanted, but it was definitely more efficient than writing all of the html by myself, and I am happy with the end result. More thoughts here on a luddite approach to using LLMs.

This was one of the first projects where the LLM felt like an effective compiler that basically translated my description into code that was (pretty close to) what I wanted. It did do some really silly things as well, which I may write about at some point.

The iPod mini? It was the first personal technology device I purchased, and maybe the coolest. I still have it, and it still boots up! Thanks to "Wylve" and the other Wikimedia Commons contributors for creating this SVG masterpiece.