CMU The Policy Innovation Lab: A starter kit and fellowship program for citizen-centered policy design courses and future Public Interest Technologists
The Policy Innovation Lab is a course at Heinz College that prepares students to become new public interest technologists. We do this by first teaching new masters students how to design and build public interest technology services that are centered on human-centered design, follow an agile methodology, and deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for high-impact results. Select students and promising final projects from the course are then invited to continue their work during the following summer through fellowships. In the first year of this grant, 33 of our masters students had direct and proven experience working in the field of public interest technology across nine different external partners. The funding provided by this grant allowed us to take these ideas and partnerships formed during the course and see those develop into paid fellowship positions. In the summer of 2020, this resulted in the placement of the first five fellows. Fellows worked directly with organizations that participated in a previous course, which is a model we continued in the following academic year.
- Date:
- 2020-12
- Primary Material Type:
- Guide
- Other Material Types:
- Competency Based Education, Lab Curriculum
- Institution:
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Funding Source:
- Network Challenge Grant TAACCCT Round 3
- Subjects:
- PIT, public interest technology, civic technology, technology civic, community technology, technology community, Experiential Learning, fellowship, toolkit
Industry / Occupation
- Industry Sector:
- Public Interest Technology -- Policy -- Internet freedom, net neutrality & more
- Occupation:
- Computer and Mathematical Occupations -- Operations Research Analysts (15-2031)
Education / Instructional Information
- Instructional Program:
- Public Administration and Social Service Professions (44)
- Educational Level of Materials:
-
- 2nd Year Community College or equivalent
- Upper division of Bachelors degree or equivalent
- Time Required:
- academic year
- Language:
- English (United States)
- Quality of Subject Matter was assured by:
-
- Participation as an ongoing member of team developing the instructional materials
- Quality of Online/Hybrid Course Design assured by:
-
- Course Note:
- Policy Innovation Lab
Copyright / Licensing
Except where otherwise noted, the works contained in this website are licensed under a
Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. Accessibility Support Strategy.
Terms of Service.