Luke Farrell
Degree
Computer Science and Neuroscience T'19
Project Team
Current Position
Project Manager, GoogleCurrently, I am a Product Manager at Google working on strategic crisis response for the Office of the CEO. In 2019 and 2020, I led Google Discover’s global elections integrity effort; fighting political misinformation for hundreds of millions of users, combating elections interference and helping millions of Americans get essential information about how to vote. My experience in Bass Connections helped orient me toward and prepare me for this deeply challenging and fulfilling work at the intersection of technology and democracy.
As a member of the Gerrymandering and the Extent of Democracy in America team I learned not only how to do complex mathematics research and academic writing, but also how to translate the relevant methodologies and results for a general audience. Further, our team went deep on the legal complexities and recent histories that shaped the dynamics of the unjust racial and partisan gerrymandering that we worked to quantify.
For the culmination of our work, our team had the opportunity to go to the Supreme Court for the Rucho v. Common Cause oral arguments and see the justices cite the research that our team had dealt with for months. That moment highlighted for me just how critical data and computer science can be in the broader struggle to combat voter disenfranchisement.
Today, I continue to be inspired by the work of our Bass Connections team and am focused on how I can best use the powerful tools of computer science to advance the cause of genuine democracy in the United States.
September 2021