New Certificates & Degree Programs from PIT-UN Members

New Certificates & Degrees from PIT-UN Members

Institutionalizing PIT

March 2023

Case Western Reserve University: Graduate Certificate in DSSI

Case Western Reserve University offers a Graduate Certificate in Data Science for Social Impact (DSSI), which equips students with the skills to use data science to improve social welfare. The certificate program is overseen by the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and the Case School of Engineering, and as such aims to operate at the intersection of data science and social science. Students take four courses to earn this certificate.

Cleveland State University Ohio: Society 5.0

Cleveland State University Ohio offers an interdisciplinary graduate certificate, Society 5.0, which is focused on the impacts of emerging technologies on the future of human life. Students take four courses across three colleges to earn this certificate.

Miami Dade College: College Credit Certificate in GIS Technology

Miami Dade College offers a College Credit Certificate in GIS Technology, accompanied by a dual enrollment opportunity for high school students. The certificate acts as a stackable component of the college’s Associate in Sciences degree in Computer Information Technology (CIT); students who wish to do so can continue on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in CIT. The goal of this program is to forge a career pathway for students in Miami Dade County to pursue GIS (geographic information systems), with a particular focus on environmental hazards awareness and community engagement (issues that are particularly relevant in the greater Miami area).

Arizona State University: Master’s of Science in Public Interest Technology

Arizona State University’s Master’s of Science in Public Interest Technology equips students to become leaders in the PIT field. Though the degree includes technical courses, the Master’s program emphasizes social responsibility over technical competency.

Institutionalizing PIT

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IEEE Journal fosters Transdisciplinary Dialogue for Public Interest Technology

Robot city science fiction. Image by ParallelVision from Pixabay.

Transdisciplinary Dialogue for Public Interest Technology

Institutionalizing PIT

March, 2023

Although Public Interest Technology (PIT) is a nascent field, it builds on longstanding scholarly traditions of investigating the interplay between technology and society. Roba Abbas of the University of Wollongong and Katina Michael of Arizona State University have led a groundbreaking effort to cultivate scholarship that encourages transdisciplinary dialogue and advocates for the development of PIT. 

The journal IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, was the first academic outlet to publish a special issue dedicated to PIT, providing a wealth of scholarship building on the outcomes of the IEEE SSIT’s International Symposium on Technology and Society 2020 (ISTAS20). Each edition includes at least one free, downloadable PDF, including:

A Conceptual Model and Metaplatform for Public Interest Technology Design: “[D]esigning public interest technologies (PIT) needs to prioritize qualitative values of people and communities as suprafunctional requirements.” (Jeremy Pitt and Stephen Cranefield, Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2021)

Bringing Care and Concern to Engineering Students Through STS Knowledge: “In this article, I discuss how the matters of concern and the matters of care can be utilized within engineering education to shift students’ attitudes regarding the social impact of their work.” (Anne Y. Patrick, Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2021)

Insider Threats and Individual Differences: Intention and Unintentional Motivations: This study extends “research on the development of a brief cybersecurity questionnaire … to identify individual differences that are associated with cybersecurity vulnerabilities and cyber hygiene behavior.” (Jordan Richard Schoenherr, Vol. 3, Issue 3, September 2022)

What Happens to COVID-19 Data After the Pandemic? Socio-Technical Lessons: “In this paper, we examine the Australian COVID-19 technological response…was the data effectively used or integrated into the proposed processes?” (Katina Michael and Roba Abbas, Vol. 3, Issue 4, December 2022)

Several of the journal’s PIT articles were first presented at ISTAS20, which featured 210 abstracts and represented over 400 authors from 27 countries. The Full Conference proceedings are available, as are the special issues on socio-technical design, co-designing the future, and purpose-driven socio-technical innovation for PIT.

You can subscribe to the quarterly publication here, and submit articles here.

Roba Abbas

Author: Roba Abbas, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, University of Wollongong. Visiting Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University (2022)

Author: Katina Michael, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University. Honorary Professor School of Business, University of Wollongong (2022- )

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The Watchword in State/Local Government Tech in 2023: People

The Watchword in State/Local Government Tech in 2023: People

Theme: Public and Critical Infrastructure

Author: Pete Peterson, Dean, Braun Family Dean’s Chair Senior Fellow, Davenport Institute for Public Engagement School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University

While much of the focus of discussions about the future of technology is on the ones and zeros of various software platforms, tech leaders in the public sector, especially at the state and municipal levels, are coming to a common conclusion: It’s really about people. A new iron triangle of trend lines — a retiring senior workforce (often dubbed “the silver tsunami”); the increasingly sophisticated needs of governments that are implementing a variety of new technology tools; and increasingly impatient citizens who expect more technologically proficient governments — is creating a historic human resource need in American public service for tech-savvy employees.

During its annual conference in October, the National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released a nationwide study of public sector technology officials, fittingly titled “The People Imperative.” As the report states, “A major topic that permeated survey responses was the challenge of maintaining and growing a diverse and sustainable workforce.” This is one of the central reasons that only 7% of public sector officials surveyed by EY said that they had “achieved their digital transformation objectives” for their governments. Taking a global perspective on the issue, the EY report notes that the major challenge facing governments is that “they lack digitally aware leaders who can reimagine the citizen experience and create an inspiring vision for change.”

The People Imperative

The challenges to hiring tech talent in the public sector go straight to the heart of broader modernization efforts across all government services, from procurement to public safety. As one state CIO offered in the NASCIO report, “Government has not yet reconciled itself to the job-hopping culture of today. Our hiring and retention practices are not based on rapid change. … This will take a complete rethinking of the recruiting, training and retention processes or we will simply be underperforming through constant churn.”

The pressure on governments to find tech-savvy professionals is forcing senior administrators to come up with different ways to attract this younger workforce, which can earn/command higher salaries in the private sector. In the NASCIO survey, 71% of CIOs said they are “building talent pipelines (e.g., partnering with local colleges/universities/technical schools)” — a rate that is more than double what many of these same respondents said in 2017 (29%) and much higher than in 2019 (44%).

This strategy of governments partnering with local universities is particularly important for the mission of PIT-UN. Academic programs in smart cities and government technology are one way to think about building talent pipelines. Another way is for municipal leaders to work directly with universities to solve localized technology challenges, and here again, PIT-UN members are playing pivotal roles. In this recent, encouraging profile in StateTech magazine, city governments from Pittsburgh to Santa Monica worked with PIT-UN members Carnegie Mellon University and Arizona State University to respond to local challenges ranging from removing graffiti to reducing double-parking.

As we’ve seen in the private sector, the use of technology to make government more effective and responsive is no longer solely the purview of IT department staff. From public transportation services using data analytics to better determine routes and schedules, to election administrators who have to consider cybersecurity threats, the public sector workforce of the near future will need to possess some level of tech expertise across almost every leadership position.

As for how we in PIT-UN can encourage more of our students to consider careers in public service, I’m reminded of a day trip organized by a friend of mine, a former NASA administrator, for a small group of us to tour NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena a few years ago. Toward the end of the visit, a member of our group asked the tour leader, “How do you retain your tech-savvy staff when competitors like Google and Facebook are vying for your talent?” Without hesitation, the JPL staffer responded, “If one of our team is considering a more lucrative offer from the private sector, I simply ask, ‘But are they working on sending a mission to explore Saturn?’ That usually keeps them.”

Of course, only a few public sector positions proffer this kind of opportunity. But in their own ways, every job in government, particularly at the local level, provides the opportunity for service to the community, and more and more, these positions will require the skills and perspectives we offer across the PIT University Network.

Public and Critical Infrastructure

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Sewanee DataLab 2022: Purifying Wastewater for Rural Communities

Sewanee DataLab 2022: Purifying Wastewater for Rural Communities

Theme: Public and Critical Infrastructure

The Sewanee DataLab makes the power of data analytics accessible for the greater good by training and supporting
a new generation of data scientists who work exclusively on social impact projects.

Source: Sewanee DataLab

The Dashboard

In 2022, a team of three student fellows, a professor (Deborah McGrath), researcher, and a mentor from Sewanee: The University of the South collaborated with the Sewanee Wetlands Project to create an interactive dashboard, using data collected by the Sewanee Utility District, to educate the public about the wetlands and climate change. 

The dashboard displays water quality comparisons between two wastewater treatment methods: the conventional lagoon treatment and the experimental wetland treatment. In addition, the dashboard shows yearly, monthly, daily, and hourly trends for both water quality parameters and weather conditions, such as air temperature and precipitation. 

See the Dashboard

The Data 

The data comes from the Sewanee Utility District and shows measurements of water quality parameters. 

  • SONDE: Dataset shows the measurements of different water quality variables from around 2017 to December 2021.
  • SUD: Dataset shows weather data, such as wind speed and air temperature from around October 2020 to December 2021.
  • OESS: Dataset shows temperature and rainfall measurements collected from the Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability (OESS) from January 2021 to January 2022.

Results

The original goal was to determine if the wetlands could improve wastewater treatment more efficiently than lagoon C. Our research and Dr. McGrath’s findings revealed how the wetland’s water quality variables changed over time and helped the team work toward seeing how the wetlands should be fixed to meet water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

See more

Student Q&A

Lauren Hutchison, Class of ’22

I found Sewanee’s DataLab through a recommendation from a friend who participated in its inaugural year. I had previously had some experience with coding, at the time a love-hate relationship, from using RStudio for a capstone project. I was by no means a great coder and had no idea at the time how much you could do with coding. DataLab is a program that begins with a bootcamp for coding that transitions into working on individual community projects. To my surprise, my knowledge of coding did not extend beyond the first day’s instruction. For the next two weeks, I learned more than I ever thought I would know about using RStudio. The boot camp instructors really went above and beyond during this time. I felt as though I not only learned how to write these codes but also was taught why and when to use them. My understanding of sorting data and creating visuals efficiently and effectively became much deeper. 

After the boot camp ended, we were sorted into project groups based on our interests. I was in the Sewanee Wetlands group, which worked with Dr. Deborah McGrath on her wetland experiment at the Sewanee Utility District. This was actually my first choice, as I am an environment and sustainability major who has always had an interest in water usage. The Sewanee Wetlands Project looks at the effectiveness of an artificial wetland in Sewanee that intends to help treat our wastewater in a sustainable way. Dr. McGrath was excellent to work with and provided a great foundation for us to work on. Her main task for our group was to create a dashboard that would provide visuals of her data that can be used now and in the future. She gave us some freedom to customize the dashboard and set it up as we thought it should go. It was at this point that you could really tell that the boot camp instruction was of high quality, as each group was able to go off on their own and begin working on their respective projects. 

Mentors and instructors were available to help when we became stuck, but I found myself really enjoying the problem-solving aspect associated with writing code. While the project did hit a few bumps along the way, I am really quite proud of the outcome. My group members and I, having limited to no coding experience, were able to produce a dashboard product that will allow Dr. McGrath to use it now and going forward, providing visuals that might one day be used to help make our wastewater cleaning process sustainable.

My first word of advice for those interested in this field would be don’t be afraid to get started. As someone who found a love for coding and computer science late in my college education, it is very possible to get into this field without a strong background in computer science. Completing any project really only requires a passion for it. I would also recommend that you utilize all the resources available to you. My project really could not have been completed without the help of my mentors and community partners, who could not have been more supportive and helpful. Lastly, have fun with it. Get creative and produce something that you are proud of. Just because you want something to be professional does not mean it has to be boring.

Public and Critical Infrastructure

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Coding it Forward: Civic Digital Fellowship and Civic Innovation Corps

Civic Digital Fellowship and Civic Innovation Corps

Founded in 2017, Coding it Forward is a nonprofit for early-career technologists creating new pathways into public interest technology. Through its paid, summer fellowship programs, the Civic Digital Fellowship and Civic Innovation Corps, Coding it Forward empowers early-career technologists to innovate at the intersections of technology and public service in federal, state, and local government. 

Fellows spend the summer working in software engineering, data, design, or product management to deliver policy, improve systems, and strengthen products on behalf of the American people.

  • The Civic Digital Fellowship places Fellows in federal government agencies.
  • The Civic Innovation Corps places Fellows in state, local, and county government offices.
  • Both programs are 10 weeks long, starting in mid-June.

Hear firsthand from former Fellows how they benefited from the work

Christina Andrade | Civic Innovation Corps,
Arapahoe County - Department of Information Technology (Digital Services Team)

San José State University, Master of Science in Human Factors and Ergonomics, Class ’23

As a user research fellow, I supported the digital services team of Arapahoe County in Colorado. My role was twofold: to enable and advance the department’s future user research initiatives and to examine current customer engagement with the county’s Motor Vehicles department. As part of my future-looking work, I helped to develop a reusable user research framework and laid the groundwork for a volunteer recruitment database to ease recruitment challenges. To examine customer engagement and experiences with the Motor Vehicles department, we conducted user interviews and on-site observations. We combined those findings with insights from survey responses and Google Analytics to answer our core research questions and develop a set of user personas to guide future research and design. 

First and foremost, my fellowship was my first time serving as an expert in my field on real-world challenges. It gave me the opportunity to both grow and apply the skills and knowledge I have learned in my graduate program at San Jose State University. The fellowship’s mentorship program was also instrumental to my own personal growth and in navigating the culture and nuances unique to government spaces. Lastly, having access to a community of like-minded peers and alumni of the fellowship interested in PIT both provided and continues to provide a powerful network of knowledge- and perspective-sharing. At the end of the fellowship, getting to see the variety of different projects that my peers were working on in government agencies around the country was great exposure to the variety of ongoing PIT projects out there and a powerful reminder of the impact that technologists’ skills can have in these spaces. 

The Civic Innovation Corps gave me my first work experience tackling impactful real-life challenges in the PIT space, which is essential. As many students are painfully aware, we are often caught in a “chicken and egg” dilemma of needing to build our experience but also needing experience to access the opportunities to build said experience. Coding it Forward’s fellowship provided me with my first work experience in user research that I can leverage to gain access to future roles in PIT. Through my work this past summer, I also gained an understanding of the different constraints and limitations present in government and PIT problem spaces and was able to practice navigating those challenges through strategic relationships and resourceful planning. 

Beyond my fellowship placement and working in PIT at a county level, being a Fellow gave me exposure to a variety of perspectives and influential voices within the civic tech and PIT spheres. Through speaker events, books, and other professional development resources Coding it Forward provided, I was able to learn more about the grander landscape and trajectory of the PIT movement. 

Most importantly, resources like the network of alumni and the relationship I built with my mentor are enduring and will continue to be sources of support, knowledge-sharing, and inspiration for years to come.

If you are eligible, take advantage of amazing programs like Coding it Forward and the U.S. Digital Corps, which offer an entry point to working in public interest technology in government and provide invaluable support like mentorship, career development resources, and powerful communities/networks. Volunteer projects are also a great way to get experience with and exposure to PIT projects. Organizations like the U.S. Digital Response or Code for America Brigades offer opportunities to contribute your skills and knowledge on impactful projects, sometimes within your own community. 

 

Lastly, know that a career in public interest technology can be chapters of a larger story. I feel that sometimes students who want to make a positive impact in their society and communities may feel it is a bit daunting to choose between public interest technology and private industry, but in reality, we do not have to dedicate our entire working lives to one or the other. There is room for and value in doing both. Though there may be cultural differences between the two, the skills and lessons learned can make for a beneficial and powerful cross-pollination of experience, knowledge, and emerging ideas/techniques.

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Jaxon Silva | Civic Digital Fellowship
Department of Health and Human Services

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Bachelor of Science, Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies, Design Studies Concentration, Class ’22

I had the immense pleasure to work on two projects as a human-centered design fellow with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) InnovationX office, alongside a ton of amazing Fellows from various other fellowships. One of these projects was a dashboard that collated the various opportunity areas, frameworks, and work being done on infection-associated chronic illnesses into a neat framework. The idea was to help federal workers get a sense of what work they can do in this space and inspire them to make progress through a rating scale. I also helped develop a crowdsourcing design challenge aimed at grades K-12 students to give them the opportunity to come up with solutions or ideas to address the needs of fellow students with kidney disease or family members who had kidney disease. I also worked with the HHS Office of the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer to conduct a study of how AI was utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was immensely cool to work on projects that were aimed to directly make the lives of people better. And to be able to do that with some of the most talented and amazing people–both staff and Fellows– I’ve ever met. I could get up every morning and smile, knowing that the work I was doing would lead to someone else out there having a better quality of life. That’s a slam dunk in my eyes.

Cal Poly has a small but mighty army of faculty, staff, and students who are working to bring a technical education that is much more grounded in social impact (leading to things like public interest technology), but it is still a burgeoning movement. However, as someone whose major lies at the intersection of engineering and liberal arts, I have been lucky to be part of various projects that have worked to help people, whether that has been efforts to redesign engineering curriculum to include social impact, conducting special effects for a music performance that was raising money for displaced and homeless people, or investigating the “ethical tech” industry. In any case, I do believe that the spirit of utilizing technology to help others is alive and well at Cal Poly, just very decentralized. Outside of that, my experiences this summer as a Civic Digital Fellow were the first time I interacted with other PIT students from other institutions that are part of the PIT-UN.

While I had vaguely known about public interest technology work, I think this fellowship gave me the opportunity to operate in a space where I could directly do PIT work with guidance from both Coding it Forward staff and my supervisors at HHS. Also, the Civic Digital Fellowship has made me aware of and brought me into the network of firms and groups that do PIT work to continue doing this work and continue working to help others, something that I am immensely interested in continuing to do.

I will say that I think fellowships like the Civic Digital Fellowship are a great way to test the waters and learn a lot about how you feel about a career in PIT. Beyond that, I think the best career advice I’ve received is to ask myself, “What is the one thing that interests me most right now?” And pursue that interest wherever it may take me. It’s advice that led me to the Civic Digital Fellowship and a pathway that has led me to discover topics like CoDesign and Design Justice.

Shanna Kurbonshoeva | Civic Innovation Corps
Des Moines - City Manager's Office

CUNY – Baruch College, Master of Public Administration, Class ’22

Last summer, as a Civic Innovations Corps Fellow, I worked in the city manager’s office in Des Moines. In my role as a data analyst and product manager, I worked on a performance measurement initiative project. Measures like these are important for institutions to be able to make the best use of their resources. By the end of the fellowship program, together with another Fellow from Coding it Forward, we were able to organize data on performance measurement for 12 city departments, visualize the measures for some departments, and design webpages for city departments’ performance measures.

As a CIF Fellow, you get the opportunity to work for a government agency. For me, this became an exceptionally valuable experience. It can also be for future fellows who wish to pursue a career in public interest technologies. I was able to attend events about civic tech and meet leaders in the industry. The opportunity to apply what I’ve learned and hone my craft in real-time situations has been beneficial to my professional and academic development. Exposure to the industry by working directly with civic institutions is extremely valuable. Overall, being a Fellow is a treasured experience that I would not have been able to find anywhere else.

The fellowship allowed me to gain a deeper sense of where and how technology is currently being used in government agencies. I was also able to experience firsthand what challenges government agencies face while trying to implement tech solutions to civic issues. This was a very valuable experience in preparing me to pursue a career in civic tech.

Constantly developing your tech skills would be a big advantage in your career path to public interest technology. In my own academic experience in pursuing a master of public administration at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs [at Baruch College in the City University of New York], I emphasized selecting courses that would expand my technical skills. For example, I strategically chose classes such as GIS and Python for analytics, big data technologies, and others that would greatly help me to improve my technical skills. In addition to expanding your technical skills, building a strong network of people with the same passion and interest in civic tech is crucial. Another big aspect is to find a social issue that you are passionate about and think about how technology could help you to solve or improve it. I believe finding a social issue you deeply care about could motivate you to continue pursuing a career in public interest technology despite all the challenges you might face.

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Soma Badri | Civic Innovation Corps
State of New Jersey - Office of Innovation

Northeastern University Master’s, Computer Science, Class ’23

As part of the 2022 Civic Innovation Corps, I was a full stack software engineering fellow at the New Jersey Office of Innovation, where I was a member of the Business First Stop team. I worked on the Navigator, a one-stop application that allows entrepreneurs to create and maintain a business in New Jersey. I developed several features for the application while working within a scrum-based team. As a member of the team, I actively participated in scrum meetings such as story writing, design reviews, story grooming, and sprint retro meetings. The most exciting aspect of my time at the office was that my work directly provided value to the citizens of New Jersey.

Being a Fellow helped me gain confidence in my existing skill set and knowledge. It was an excellent opportunity to showcase what I learned within the classroom and in my previous experiences. Additionally, I was able to learn skills that aren’t taught in the classroom and bridge the gap between theory and practice.

My fellowship resulted in the most concrete path that can be provided. I was given the offer to continue full time as a software engineer for the New Jersey Office of Innovation. Additionally, during the summer, I had one-on-ones with several members of the office, where I learned about the various roles within civic tech and the impact their work has on the public. This led to a deeper insight into the world of civic tech and the role it plays in our society.

In my opinion, maintaining an open mind is extremely important while attempting to embark on a PIT career. There is a wide spectrum of jobs available within PIT. I believe it is vital to research the available options and find your own area of interest as you begin your career. Additionally, programs such as Coding it Forward are a great environment in which one can learn whether a career is PIT is for them or not.

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