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Opportunities
Explore PIT-UN member-only benefits, such as quarterly calls and field-building workshops, and general opportunities, such as job openings, fellowships, internships, and RFPs. Subscribe to our newsletter or visit this section to access up-to-date information.
Member-Only Opportunities
Closed Request for Proposal
Tech for Change Hackathon
TFC Hackathons are civic-focused, community-driven, and deployed by students to address local injustices in healthcare, elections, education or other public interest areas.
Winning proposals will include participation of students from across technical and nontechnical disciplines. Winners will be announced soon.
Closed Request for Proposal
The Network Challenge
The Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) Challenge is a unique program that drives equitable innovation in technology across academia, government, industry and civil society.
All PIT-UN Members are eligible, and the application submission window is now closed.
Closed Request for Proposal
PIT Career Fair Exploration
New America’s PIT-UN is seeking proposals from PIT-UN member institution’s Career Placement or Career Counseling Service staff whose work touches students’ interest in public interest technology to provide a multi-institution or regional career fair(s) to connect students and employers who are interested in the work of improving people’s lives through technology.
(photo credit: Kisha Bari)
Request for Proposals
By becoming a member of the PIT-UN, members can apply for member-only funding throughout the year. The Network Challenge will launch its 5th year in spring 2023. In addition, we have had subject-matter-specific offerings, such as the 2019 election security request for proposal (RFP); the 2022 Technology Code of Ethics, in partnership with New America’s Digital Governance program; and the soon to launch 2023 Career Fair Exploration made possible by Schmidt Futures.
Quarterly Calls
Member-Only
Every three months, PIT-UN hosts a mandatory Network meeting for designees and their teams to share updates from Network members, New America, and our funders.
Field-building Workshops
Throughout the year, PIT-UN will offer designees and members workshops designed to build skills and techniques. Designed for and sometimes by members, the workshops will focus on the expressed needs of the Network.
How to Engage the Network as a Member
Our Network Grant Challenge
The Network Challenge is a grant program designed to seed and support initiatives that grow public interest technology at the university level. It supports the development of new Public Interest Technology initiatives and institutions in academia, and it invites proposals for projects that will produce deliverables and outcomes within one year. Network members are encouraged to apply for the challenge and also join other members in team applications.
The network and challenge grants are funded through the support of the Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Mastercard Impact Fund with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, The Raikes Foundation, Schmidt Futures and The Siegel Family Endowment.
The grant application is distributed to the individual designees in April, and the offices responsible for submitting grant applications at each of the PIT-UN member colleges and universities.
Network Challenge Priority Areas
The Network Challenge follows four priority areas:
- Educational Offerings.
- Faculty and Institution Building.
- Career Pipeline and Placement.
- Strengthening the PIT-UN.
You can learn more about the Network Challenge here.
Working Groups
PIT-UN Working Groups explore key issues in building public interest technology as an academic discipline and offer recommendations, activities, tools or strategies, policy, and research papers for PIT-UN members to adopt or review.
Our Communication Channels
PIT-UN Email
The formal means of communication between members, designees, grantees, and the PIT-UN team will be email via the dedicated PIT-UN(at)newamerica.org as well as PIT-UN-grantees(at)newamerica.org. These communications as all official information for their work within the Network focus on actionable material and tasks. We urge our members, designees, and grantees to be responsive, as all official information for their work within the Network is communicated through here.
PIT UNiverse Newsletter
Every month the PIT-UN team sends a newsletter with relevant information on the latest advancements in the field. We feature PIT stories from our members and spotlights on grantees and designees. The newsletter also contains information on the latest webinars and events happening in the Network. All members, designees, and grantees are encouraged to share the newsletter through their institutions. If you haven’t already signed up for the newsletter here.
- Our LinkedIn page is another source of information where we share our latest events. Our PIT-UN group is a perfect place for meeting fellow PIT professionals, academics, and practitioners. We encourage every institution to share the site with their teams, faculty, and students to promote the Network’s events and results.
PIT-UN Membership
As a public interest technologist, you can help train and inspire the next generation of talented, committed civic-minded technologists coming out of colleges and universities. Institutions across the U.S. are dedicated to providing students with clear career pathways toward technology-related jobs within the public and private sectors.
Applications for membership are currently closed. To learn more and connect with a PIT-UN team member, email [email protected].
Open Opportunities
Webinars
Directed at anyone interested in the PIT or responsible tech sector, PIT-UN webinars include in-depth conversations between Network members and leading PIT practitioners. Have an idea for our next webinar? Contact us to share.
Job Boards
Embarking on a career in PIT means making a difference in the world. More than at any time, there are job opportunities from organizations big and small to allow you to launch or further your PIT career. Whether you are hoping to find a job in climate tech or one working to address cybersecurity threats, a public interest technology career path is a good start.
PIT Internships
Explore public interest technology student internship.
- Mars Journalism Intern, NASA JPL (Pasadena, CA)
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Outreach Intern, Congressional Tech Project (DC, remote)
- JPL internships, NASA (Pasadena, CA, remote)
- Student Internships, The Institute for Future Intelligence, (remote)
- Stanford In Government Tech Policy internships, SIG (various)
- Internships, GlenWorld (remote)
- [DEADLINE – February 2] TechCongress June 2023 Congressional Innovation Fellowship. TechCongress is recruiting for up to twelve early-career fellows — 5-7 to serve in Democratic offices and 5-7 to serve in Republican offices. Fellows will serve from mid-June 2023 – April 2024 and receive an annual-equivalent stipend of $64,505 ($5,375 / mo.) with up to $9,000 in benefits. Since 2016, the organization has sent over 75 technologists to Congress. Fellows have made an incredible impact on both the institution and tech policy.
- [DEADLINE – January 12] Fellowship Opportunity- Daniel Patrick Moynihan Center at The City College of New York (CCNY) invites applications for the inaugural cohort of the Moynihan Public Scholars Fellowship
- Provost’s Fellow to Faculty Tenure-Track Position, Public Policy or Management, John Glenn College of Public Affairs from OSU
- Federation of American Scientists Policy Entrepreneurship Fellowship
Fellowship Opportunities
As technology continues to fundamentally reshape society, these fellowships will place you among the top tech decision-makers in the U.S. government, where you can make a difference.
The PIT List
A roundup of the latest public interest technology happenings from the PIT universe.
What to Attend
June 2023
- [VIRTUAL/IN-PERSON – Tempe, AZ] Digital Data Conference 2023. Arizona State University, iDigBio, and the Natural Science Collections Alliance. Monday, June 5-Wednesday, June 7
- [VIRTUAL] Berkeley/GW Law Roundtable on the recent USPTO Post-Grant Rules Package. Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and GW Law. Tuesday, June 6, 2-4:30 pm EDT
- [IN-PERSON – NYC] Cornell Tech Fest 2023. Cornell Tech. Thursday, June 8, 4-8 pm EDT
- [IN-PERSON – NYC] To Code + Beyond: Why AI (?). Cornell Tech. Friday, June 9, 9 am-4 pm EDT
- [VIRTUAL] Live from BenCon 2023. Georgetown University Beeck Center – Digital Benefits Network. Wednesday, June 14, 9 am-12:30 pm EDT
- [IN-PERSON – Washington, D.C.] Cyber Civil Defense Summit. University of California Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, in partnership with Craig Newmark Philanthropies. Wednesday, June 14, 9 am-4 pm EDT
- [VIRTUAL/IN-PERSON – NYC] XR Access Symposium 2023: Seizing Advancements for Access. Cornell Tech. Thursday, June 15-Friday, June 16
- [IN-PERSON – Pittsburgh, PA] CMU- K&L Gates Conference in Ethics and AI. Carnegie Mellon University, sponsored by the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies. Wednesday, June 21 and Thursday, June 22
July 2023
- [VIRTUAL] Southern Regional Tech to Gov Virtual Forum + Job Fair. Tech to Gov. Thursday, July 13, 12-4 pm EDT **not a PIT-UN member event
September 2023
- [IN-PERSON – NYC] LMSS @ Cornell Tech: Yejin Choi (University of Washington). Cornell Tech. Friday, September 8, 12:30-1:30 pm EDT
October 2023
- [IN-PERSON – NYC] LMSS @ Cornell Tech: Mark Yatskar (Penn). Cornell Tech. Friday, October 27, 12:30-1:30 pm EDT
What to Read
INFRASTRUCTURE
- An open, unfiltered internet could be the key to toppling autocrats (December 8, 2022). PIT-UN member Brian Gran of Case Western Reserve University, along with colleagues Ram Fish and Jamil N. Jaffer, discuss open internet access as a weapon against authoritarianism. Ram Fish, Brian Gran and Jamil N. Jaffer, The Hill.
- Republicans and Democrats, Unite against Big Tech Abuses (January 11, 2023). President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal.
- The New Federal Grants to Help Cities Ditch ‘NIMBY’-backed Zoning (January 4, 2023). Kery Murakami, Route Fifty.
- $500M for New Tech Hubs Program Included in Federal Spending Bill (December 20, 2022). Kery Murakami, Route Fifty.
- Change Data Infrastructure to Meet New Needs, Experts Advise (December 13, 2022). Kirsten Errick, Nextgov.
BOOKS
- Power to the Public (Tara Dawson McGuinness and Hana Schank)
- We the Possibility (Mitchell Weiss)
- A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide (Cyd Harrell)
- Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power (Ari Ezra Waldman)
- AI Ethics (Mark Coeckelbergh)
- System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot (Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, and Jeremy M. Weinstein)
ADDITIONAL READING
- Making the Most of the “Ethical and Societal Considerations” in the CHIPS and Science Act (May 4, 2023). David H. Guston, Associate Vice Provost for Discovery, Engagement and Outcomes at Arizona State’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, makes an argument for how the National Science Foundation (NSF) can effectively center societal considerations in scientific research and technology consideration.
- Unrecoverable Election Screwup in Williamson County TX (February 16, 2023). Andrew Appel, Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, discusses the flawed e-pollbook software that led to several faulty elections in Williamson County, Texas in November 2020.
- Leveling Up Diversity and Inclusion: “Rigs of Color” Works to Expand Representation in Video Game Industry (September 7, 2022). Learn about PIT-UN grantee Farley Chery’s work creating lasting change in the video game and animation industries.
- Latanya Sweeney is exploring the clashes between technology and society (Summer 2022). Learn about PIT-UN grantee Latanya Sweeney’s trailblazing work making “major discoveries in the fields of privacy and algorithmic fairness.
What to Watch
- How Has Computer Code Changed Humanity? (January 31, 2023) PIT-UN designees Charlton McIlwain and Ethan Zuckerman, along with Future Tense editor Torie Bosch and ASU Narrative & Emerging Media Program Founding Dir. Nonny de la Peña, discuss human decision-making’s impact on the digital world–and the ways that code, in turn, has shaped humanity.
- Power to the Public: A Discussion about the Promise of Public Interest Technology, which focuses on how best to use data, design, and technology to solve society’s most pressing and difficult problems. During this event, the authors discuss examples of real change that have been brought by governments and nonprofits using data.
- Justice by the Numbers. Learn how an innovative partnership between lawyers for the ACLU of Massachusetts and public interest technologist Paola Villarreal resulted in the single largest dismissal of wrongful convictions in US history.
- Transformative Justice and Knowledge Production in Tech. Techno-capitalism is renegotiating the social contract but knowledge about technologies is too often sequestered behind the locked doors of industry. Given these obstacles, how can researchers both inside and outside of tech companies do the difficult work of research, critique, and resistance? Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, co-founder of UCLA’s C2I2 and Dr. Timnit Gebru, founder of Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR), join J Khadijah Abdurahman to discuss these questions further.
- On the Evidence: Ensuring Equity as Wastewater Testing Matures in the United States. On this episode of On the Evidence, guests Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, Dr. Otakuye Conroy-Ben, and Aparna Keshaviah discuss the challenges of and opportunities for ensuring an equitable approach to wastewater monitoring, and the importance of representation from historic Black neighborhoods, Indigenous communities, and rural communities.
- Forward Thinking on the social contract in a postpandemic world with Minouche Shafik and Andrew Sheng. In this episode guest interviewer Jonathan Woetzel talks with two leading economists spanning Europe and Asia about the state of the social contract that underpins society.
