WOR Supporting and Showcasing PIT: Building Community through Signature Projects

The program supports seven PIT projects, with the goal of creating a WPI PIT community and a PIT coalition with local partners. The project also hosts two major public-facing events. We advanced the creation of a ‘culture’ of public interest technology and promoted the visibility and legitimacy of research, pedagogy, and PIT-related careers for WPI faculty, staff, and students in three ways. First, we created a concentrated PIT community by supporting 7 ‘signature projects’ (9 faculty and staff in total). These projects were intentionally interdisciplinary and diverse to showcase the range of themes that could be considered ‘PIT’, and to help spark the imaginations of our community. The signature projects helped us respond to the question we were often asked by our students and colleagues, ‘what is PIT?’, with concrete examples from our own backyard. Secondly, we built a solid WPI-based network of PIT-engaged scholars through coordinating and leading a series of ‘cohort meetings’ where the leads, co-leads, and participants of the signature projects came together monthly to discuss the projects and further develop a shared understanding of what PIT means at WPI, as well as some of the pertinent issues involved in conceptualizing PIT.
Adobe PDF Final Report with links to projects (192 KB)

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Date:
2021-04
Primary Material Type:
Report
Other Material Types:
Lab Curriculum
Institution:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Funding Source:
Network Challenge Grant 2
Subjects:
public interest technology, PIT, Data, Data Driven Stories, justice social, Artificial Intelligence, policy - PIT, Curriculum, Equity, policy - Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Industry / Occupation

Industry Sector:
Public Interest Technology -- Justice -- Social
Occupation:
Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations (19-0000)

Education / Instructional Information

Instructional Program:
Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services (11)
Credit Type:
  • Credit
Credential Type:
  • Bachelors Degree
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:
  • None

Copyright / Licensing

Primary License:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
 

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