Public Interest Technology University Network

Last updated

The Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) is a consortium of universities and foundations that collaborate to develop the field of public interest technology. It was formed in March 2019. [1]

Contents

The group currently has 59 member universities from across the U.S. and four international institutions.: [2]

PIT-UN seeks to address challenges between industry and society. [3] Member institutions are committed to bringing together students and educators from multiple disciplines together to solve the toughest challenges the U.S. and the world face, by building the nascent field of public interest technology and growing a new generation of civic-minded technologists. Through the development of curricula, research agendas, and experiential learning programs in the public interest technology space, the member institutions are using innovative tactics with the aim to develop graduates with multiple fluencies at the intersection of technology and policy. [2]

In October 2019 the organization awarded US$3 million in grants to 21 institutions. [4] The organization has since awarded two more rounds of funding through the PIT University Network Challenge. In 2020 28 institutions were awarded grants totaling $4.4 million, and in November 2021 $3.61 million was awarded to 24 institutions. In October 2022, $2.3 million was awarded to 18 institutions. [5] [6] Grants are exclusively available via application to members of PIT-UN. [6]

Members

The full list of current PIT-UN members as of December 2022 is: [2]

Educational institutions interested in joining PIT UN can review the process on Pitcases [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span> Private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology</span> Private university in Terre Haute, Indiana, US

Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) is a private university in Terre Haute, Indiana. Founded in 1874 in Terre Haute, Rose-Hulman is one of the United States' few undergraduate-focused engineering and technology universities. Though it started with only 3 bachelor's degree programs, Rose-Hulman has since grown to 12 academic departments with over 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, and engineering management, leading to bachelor's and master's degrees. Rose-Hulman's curriculum focuses on both career preparation and undergraduate-driven research in STEM-fields. It is classified among "Special Focus Four-Year: Engineering and Other Technology-Related Schools".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League of American Bicyclists</span> Non-profit organization in the US

The League of American Bicyclists (LAB), officially the League of American Wheelmen, is a membership organization that promotes cycling for fun, fitness and transportation through advocacy and education. A Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the League is one of the largest membership organizations of cyclists in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Tech University</span> University in Ontario, Canada

Ontario Tech University (OTU), also known as Ontario Tech, is a public research university located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is located on approximately 160 hectares of land in northern Oshawa, while its secondary satellite campus is situated in downtown Oshawa. The university is a co-educational institution that operates seven academic faculties.

The space-grant colleges are educational institutions in the United States that comprise a network of fifty-two consortia formed for the purpose of outer space-related research. Each consortium is based in one of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, and each consists of multiple independent space-grant institutions, with one of the institutions acting as lead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Sea Grant College Program</span> Organization

The National Sea Grant College Program is a program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is a national network of 34 university-based Sea Grant programs involved in scientific research, education, training, and extension projects geared toward the conservation and practical use of the coasts, Great Lakes, and other marine areas. The program is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with the national office located in Silver Spring, Maryland. There are Sea Grant programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state as well as in Puerto Rico and Guam.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a US nonprofit consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities providing research and training in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and provides additional services to strengthen and support research and education through its community programs. Its headquarters, in Boulder, Colorado, include NCAR's Mesa Laboratory, designed by I.M. Pei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of Research Libraries</span>

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 127 research libraries at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace, spending more than $1.8 billion every year on information resources and actively engaging in the development of new models of scholarly communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consumer Federation of America</span> Consumer group

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 to advance consumer interests through research, education and advocacy.

A university system is a set of multiple affiliated universities and colleges that are usually geographically distributed. Typically, all member universities in a university system share a common component among all of their various names. Usually, all member universities of a university system are governed by a system-wide governing body, such as a board of trustees or a board of regents. In the United States, many states have one or two state university systems under which many of their publicly funded universities are aligned, both in name and in governance. Additionally, for-profit universities, such as DeVry University, often have multiple campuses which share the same name; these may be, but are not always, described as a university system.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) is a consortium of American universities headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with offices in Arlington, Virginia, Arvada, Colorado, Belcamp, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio and staff at other locations across the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scheller College of Business</span>

The Scheller College of Business is the business school at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was established in 1912, and is consistently ranked in the top 30 business programs in the nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of American Universities</span> International organization of leading research universities

The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 63 universities in the United States and two universities in Canada. AAU membership is by invitation only and requires an affirmative vote of three-quarters of current members.

The Universities Research Association is a non-profit association of more than 90 research universities, primarily but not exclusively in the United States. It has members also in Japan, Italy, and in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1965 at the behest of the President's Science Advisory Committee and the National Academy of Sciences to build and operate Fermilab, a National Accelerator Laboratory. Today, the mission of URA is "to establish and operate in the national interest unique laboratories and facilities for research, development, and education in the physical and biological sciences to expand the frontiers of knowledge, foster innovation, and promote the education of future generations of scientists."

The Center for Research Libraries is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries, based on a buy-in concept for membership of the consortia. The consortium acquires and preserves traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. It also gathers and analyzes data pertaining to the preservation of physical and digital resources, and fosters the sharing of expertise, in order to assist member libraries in maintaining their collections. The Center for Research Libraries was founded in 1949, as the Midwest Inter-Library Center (MILC). The traditional role of CRL was as an aggregator of tangible collection materials, however this has been updated in the digital age into the CRL's current role as a facilitator of collection development, digitization, and licensing collections by individual libraries and interest groups. This transformation required CRL to adopt new funding models from partnerships with key organizations, and an updated use of current technology to support community outreach and engagement. The funding was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the IMLS.

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) was a Chicago public school reform project from 1995 to 2001 that worked with half of Chicago's public schools and was funded by a $49.2 million, 2-to-1 matching challenge grant over five years from the Annenberg Foundation. The grant was contingent on being matched by $49.2 million in private donations and $49.2 million in public money. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was one of 18 locally designed Annenberg Challenge project sites that received $387 million over five years as part of Walter Annenberg's gift of $500 million over five years to support public school reform. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge helped create a successor organization, the Chicago Public Education Fund (CPEF), committing $2 million in June 1998 as the first donor to Chicago's first community foundation for education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute of technology (United States)</span> Technologically-focused universities

Institutes of technology or polytechnic institutes are technologically focused universities, many dating back to the mid-19th century. A handful of American universities include the phrases Institute of Technology, Polytechnic Institute, Polytechnic University, University of Technology or similar phrasing in their names; these are generally research-intensive universities with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

National Technological University (NTU), Fort Collins, Colorado, was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization offering graduate courses via satellite and leading to a Master of Science (M.S.) degree. It was a collaborative effort among many major engineering and management colleges in the United States to meet the graduate and continuing education needs of "engineers, technical professionals and managers using advanced educational and telecommunications technology." Graduate and non-credit courses were sourced from a number of distinguished universities and were delivered through NTU to working technical professionals and managers at corporate and government sites across the United States and at international locations as well. NTU was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, The Higher Learning Commission

Public Interest Technology (PIT) is an approach to the use of technology to promote "the development and realization of socially responsible solutions to the challenges in a technology-driven world." It has been characterized as "people-centered problem solving." Public interest technology emerged as a field of academic research and action in higher education in 2019 with the establishment of the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) by New America.

References

  1. Singer, Natasha (2019-03-11). "Top Universities Join to Push 'Public Interest Technology'". The New York Times.
  2. 1 2 3 "Members directory". New America. 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2023-03-10.
  3. Hines, Michael (10 March 2020). "What Is Public Interest Technology?". Built In.
  4. "Public Interest Technology University Network Receives $3.1 Million". Philanthropy News Digest (PND).
  5. "Network Challenge". New America. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  6. 1 2 "As Big Tech Faces Scrutiny, 24 Universities Get $3.6M from Major Foundations to Fuel Inclusive Public Interest Technology". New America. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  7. "Apply to be a Member". New America. Retrieved 2021-11-11.