Arizona State University

PIT is deeply sympathetic with Arizona State University’s aspirational vision as a National Service University and its official charter, which asks that we take fundamental responsibility for the communities we serve. We have catalogued nearly 100 PIT-related projects, activities and programs at ASU, including the nation’s first Master of Science in PIT. Our PIT Challenge-funded “PIT Community Innovation Fellowship” has built a replicable, scalable and competitive training program at five regional sites for public engagement professionals in science centers to work collaboratively with local government, community or university partners to convene dialogues on PIT. Our Challenge-funded “Toward the Comprehensive PIT Institution” is not just cataloguing PIT activities at ASU, Howard U., and Estrella Mountain Community College, but is generating ideas for making PIT a comprehensive, strategic aspect of university design that I hope will be integrated with ASU’s approach to funding large-scale science and engineering endeavors. We have also created a Task Force on Designing for Impact and Outcomes, to help make sure that our Global Futures Laboratory can avoid being hindered by common academic challenges in performing interdisciplinary research and evaluating faculty who seek and achieve real-world impact.

President Michael M. Crow

Career Pipeline & Placement

Public Interest Technology (PIT) for Homeless Shelters

This project builds exposure to public interest technology (PIT) careers through applied undergraduate research and professional training in a homeless shelter setting. Although recent evidence suggests high cellphone ownership by people experiencing homelessness (Rhodes et al., 2017), there is a significant gap in internet access and concerns related to data trust (Heaslip et al.,2021). Given the ubiquity of online access to social services including job placement, housing, and healthcare, gaps in internet affordances for the acutely vulnerable homeless population poses a pressing challenge for PIT professionals. This project will advance
PIT knowledge and engagement through applied research and training for the following objectives. Educate underrepresented undergraduate scholars in PIT with hands-on research,
implementation, and training experience. Train homelessness service professionals in PIT approaches. Explore technology implications for people experiencing homelessness.

Principal Investigator

Heather Ross, Assistant Professor, Edson College – Doctor of Nursing Practice

Primrose Dzenga, Grad Research Associate,
School for Future of Innovation in Society

Educational Offerings

Bloomn

Bloomn, an online social impact innovation competition, community, and accelerator platform, is designed to sustainably support and inspire the next generation of public interest technologists. 

Principal Investigator

Derrick Anderson, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs (SPA)

Jeremy Liu, Senior Intelligence Analyst – Office of the President, Arizona State University

Data and Community Science: Getting minoritized undergraduates into the field of Data Science for Public Interest

A big obstacle for drawing minoritized students into data science is unawareness of what various data science careers entail. This project aims to increase awareness of what data science is, how it can improve communities, and what various careers with data science skills are available now and emerging in the future; provide professional skills training to minoritized (in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability) undergraduate students pursuing a career in community-focused data science; connect local community organizations with minoritized undergraduate students for data science internships; and shed light on how community-university collaborations can increase diversity in the field of data science.

Career Pipeline/Placement

PIT-UN Challenge: Toward the Comprehensive PIT Institution
Aiming to create a field of Public Interest Technology (PIT), the PIT University Network has focused on project/program-level change at member institutions. This proposal develops the idea that such institutions might build PIT in more comprehensive, mission-driven and strategic ways. We study ASU, Howard University (an HBCU), and Estrella Mountain Community College (an HSI) to identify what they do and could do across their functions and mission to become comprehensive PIT institutions, helping to morph PIT-UN from a network of institutions with PIT activities into a network of institutions strategically committed to PIT. Ultimately, this work may lead to external assessment of institutions for PIT akin to assessment for sustainability.

Principal Investigator

David H. Guston, Foundation Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society

Career Pipeline/Placement

ECAST-ASTC Community Innovation (CI) Fellowship Program

Build a replicable, scalable and competitive training program and capacities at PIT-UN Network cities for public engagement professionals in science centers who can work collaboratively with local government, community or university partners to convene dialogues on Public Interest Technology issues.

Principal Investigator

Mahmud Farooque, Associate Director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO)