Public Interest Tech Case Studies

How can STEM be taught in ways that increase the visibility of African-American heritage and its role in science and technology? This project focuses on curriculum development efforts that go beyond ‘performative’ diversity in science education, to more meaningful inclusion

Field Research in Communication-Virtual Ethnography is a communications course aimed at instructing students on how to complete online ethnography methodology. This case study profiles how to develop curriculums, ethical plans, and sample projects for students to learn how to use online technology tools to do better ethnographic research.

This case study features a data-analysis project conducted to provide policymakers with recommendations for reducing municipal spending on police court overtime in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It grew out of a class at Boston University’s BU Spark! Lab, in which students work on small scale data science projects.

This class at Georgetown Law Center has students partner with public interest organizations to build apps to increase access to the civil justice system.

Use the CMU Policy Innovation Lab Playbook to guide student teams through a public interest tech project-based class, to scope and manage a project through to impact.

This syllabus is for a 1-credit class for a public interest technology speaker series, in which guests from government agencies, technology companies, foundations, academia, and beyond teach the students about their work, methodologies, and career paths.

This student project emerged out of a Carnegie Mellon University policy innovation lab, to work on smart city challenges. It is a data-collection project implemented using remote-sensing technology in order to advise policymakers on how to reduce landslide risk in the township of North Huntingdon, PA.

Project: Berkeley Experiences, which aimed to combat social isolation on college campuses Team: Nseke Ngilbus, Anubhav Shankar, Lindsey Guan, Anh Tu-Lu Class: The Fung Fellowship for Wellness and Technology Innovation Context: Application-based undergraduate course at UC Berkeley geared towards rising juniors with a passion for health, wellness, social impact, and design Executive Summary The Social…

This case study profiles how the Stanford Legal Design Lab scaled its ‘Justice By Design’ course to three other universities and created shared network infrastructure.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College offers a 7-week class Policy Innovation Lab, that pairs student teams with state-level policymakers to tackle local challenges. Distinguished Service Professor Christopher Goranson leads the class and developed a course resource portfolio that may help guide other university instructors who are planning out a similar Policy Lab course. This full…

Explore online articles, videos, and reports that can be integrated into public interest tech coursework.

T2T is a translation technology project that facilitates communication between legal aid lawyers and their clients, across language barriers. This case study profiles its development, from a class project to an implemented pilot.