NYU Public Interest Technology Institute

The NYU Public Interest Technology Institute will host a 2-week boot camp for early and mid-career faculty who seek to accelerate their work in PIT; the training's results will be compiled into a whitepaper to be shared with the PIT-UN community. The program brought together and supported 15 early and mid-career scholars. The first week focused on teaching technical skills, including an introduction to Python. The second week featured lectures and workshops with senior scholars on socio-ethical questions related to public interest technology. The Institute supported participants in a holistic manner: by offering the technical training and tools to understand PIT; by teaching a sophisticated critical curriculum; by helping participants build a network of contacts and collaborators for future projects; and by providing project planning support and hosting discussions on the experience of underrepresented scholars in academia. This grant report summarizes our efforts and lessons learned.Ongoing training and mentorship will also be provided. The Public Interest Technology Chat (PITCh) was a webinar series designed to support the Summer 2021 cohort from the NYU Institute for Public Interest Technology (IPIT). Events were held monthly from October 2021 - January 2022, with a special closing event May 2022. The series brought together scholars from across the many disciplines that make up public interest technology. The event was formatted as a one-hour conversation between two PIT scholars with an on-screen audience of early career scholars. This provided extensive opportunities for dialogue and reflections. The conversations ranged from substantive issues to professional development.