Rachel Thomas is an American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator. She is the co-founder of fast.ai and the founding Director of the Center for Applied Data Ethics at the University of San Francisco.
Democratizing Deep Learning
Thomas earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Duke University and worked as a software engineer and data scientist in Silicon Valley. She co-founded fast.ai with Jeremy Howard, designing the curriculum and teaching courses. Her lectures focused on practical, hands-on neural network implementation, helping developers without PhDs build world-class AI models.
Applied Data Ethics
Thomas is an influential researcher in data ethics. She founded the Center for Applied Data Ethics (CADE) to study and mitigate algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and the societal impact of automated systems. Her work highlights the ethical responsibilities of machine learning engineers.
