Menu
Year 3 2021 Network Challenge Grants closed out this quarter & final reports are in!
Hi everyone, it is so good to be in touch! In keeping with the spirit of this newsletter I would like to highlight how our 2021 grants and their principal investigators embed the public interest in their work. Sometimes threading the needle with PIT can be a challenge, and I hope by highlighting some of our member community partnerships in the 2021 Network Challenge grants, I help showcase how PIT is evidenced in real world experiences inside and outside the classroom.
New Model for Community Consultancy
One great example is the the Community-Engaged Experiential Learning project that came out of the University of California Santa Cruz last year. This project developed a new model for community consultancy where students work with nonprofits to conduct real-world “strategic assessment and design exploration” projects grounded in human-centered design and organizational strategy. In other words, the leads at UCSC were able to create real-life practicum experiences for their students by using our network challenge grant funds. Professor David Lee and his team organized a class of ~150 students around delivering a large ‘strategic assessment and design exploration’ project with four phases all within a 10-week quarter-long period. Participating students were placed in teams and divisions, working on different parts of the project to simulate a real-world workplace. Some of the projects the students completed provided immediate value for the non-profit partners, other parts of our projects (e.g. design prototypes for new app concepts) were first steps towards a multi-year process for translating those concepts into actual deployed apps. At the end of the engagement, students delivered a diverse portfolio of projects and engaged with prospective employers. It was a win, win for all those involved!
Liberal Arts Students Engage and Data Science
Thanks to the 2021 funding cycle, The University of the South was able to expand their DataLab, keeping the public interest as an orienting principle throughout the execution of their project. Professor Matthew Rudd and his team partnered with the Appalachian College Association and three additional institutions, University of Pikesville, Purdue University, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore to bring a diverse set of students to the campus in an intensive 8-week data science program. Not only did the University of the South seek out students from different institutions, they also sought out liberal arts students. This unique approach demonstrated that public interest technology isn’t only for computer science or engineering majors but students grounded in a solid liberal arts program – further contributing to the creation of a unique workforce that centers public interest tech for fields like public health, equitable finance, environmental conservation and more.
Marginalized Communities and Outreach
Lastly, I want to highlight the University of Washington and their amazing contributions to the PIT community as a result of their 2021 work. There are two projects I’d like to spotlight.
First, Professor Kurt Heimerl focused his efforts on marginalized communities who live in tiny-home and transitional housing communities. While the tiny-home and transitional housing communities gained cellular network capacity, Kurt and his team of students then focused their attentions on formerly incarcerated and at-risk young people from Seattle Public Schools, making them Digital Stewards. Often, these communities are underserved by tech outreach. We are grateful to the UW team for working to close the gap. On another track, Professor Nich Weber led a team of University of Washington students to develop a new public interest technology clinic. Through a feedback loop this group was able to address gaps in how students were being taught data science techniques. Once the curriculum gaps were identify, Heimerl and his colleagues improved the curriculum. Students who were taught using the improved curriculum applied the techniques to their clinic work. Additionally, Nich and his team developed a new public interest technology course and created an open-education coursebook that focuses on applied machine learning for public technologists. This fall, the school will launch the new Social Sector Informatics degree specialization, which will be critical to acknowledging and furthering the interdisciplinary nature of this work. We expect that UW graduates with this degree sub-specialty will be eligible for reimbursed tuition if they work for a Washington State agency for at least two years after graduation. This is a great example of increasing the pipeline of public interest students who are choosing to work for non-tech employers.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about some of our 2021 grantee spotlights. A quick administrative note, working groups are progressing and we’d like you to join one!
Please learn about the many PIT Working Groups and sign up here. Once signed up, a co-lead will reach out to you. If you have an idea for a working group, please let us know here.
Brenda Mora Perea