PIT-UN

About PIT-UN at UW

The University of Washington is a member of the Public Interest Technology University Network. PIT-UN challenges higher education to imagine a future in which:

  • technologists are inspired to channel their expertise into solving public problems;
  • future leaders understand how to harness new technologies to advance the public good; and
  • all graduates embrace their role in protecting important societal values whether they work with technology in the private, public or nonprofit sector.

Colleges and universities have a fundamental responsibility to educate students to connect their technical education and practice to questions of individual rights, justice, social welfare and the public good reflected in the university’s public purpose. Given Network members’ historical engagement in public and community life, they embrace a special obligation to ensure that future leaders and citizens are prepared to consider, evaluate and shape how new technologies impact our social, political and economic life.

Higher education is uniquely positioned to cultivate a new area of inquiry, education, and practice – what we call public interest technology – that positions the next generation of students to more effectively design, build, and govern new technologies in ways that advance the public interest.

This emerging community is a place where engineering intersects with humanities, social science and key professions including public policy, business, medicine and law. This Network shares an understanding that, at this intersection, people create, apply and use new technologies, and seek to understand the core ethical, political and societal dimensions of technological and social change. Network Members believe that greater integration of these intellectual communities is essential if society is to effectively harness technological advances to support core social values, and minimize the risks posed by anticipated and unforeseen consequences.

As educational institutions, Network members aspire to develop graduates with multiple fluencies: the ability to weave technical skills and knowledge (e.g. expertise drawn from computer science, data science, information science, bioengineering, environmental engineering and other areas); capabilities to identify, characterize and address the societal, ethical, legal and policy implications of their design and use; and the skills of value-centered design, empathy and perspective-taking that enable an understanding of needs and an assessment of impacts.

The goal of this Network is to connect educational institutions that seek to take the lead in establishing and defining the field of public interest technology within academia, to spur the development of a robust pipeline of students seeking to pursue careers in public interest technology broadly defined, and to foster collaborations and connections across the network and to practitioners in that wider ecosystem.