PIT Work at UW
Key PIT-UN-related initiatives at the UW:
Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA): A two-decades-long interdisciplinary center focused on the role of digital technologies in creating more open, inclusive, and equitable societies. TASCHA has a far-reaching program dedicated to advancing public libraries as centers of learning, creativity and community development, supported by a $16 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Projects in this area include Community labs in public libraries, Libraries as platforms for civic engagement, and several international efforts. Other relevant TASCHA projects include: Refugee women and technology access in Seattle, digital skills for digital equity, and digital inclusion framework.
Tech Policy Lab: A unique, interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Washington that aims to enhance technology policy through research, education, and thought leadership. A collaboration between the University’s Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, Information School, and School of Law, and leveraging faculty and students from a dozen disciplines across campus, the Lab aims to bridge the gap between technologists and policymakers and to help generate wiser, more inclusive tech policy. The Lab has alumni who have gone on to work for Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and other government bodies, as well as industry, non-profits, and academia. The Diverse Voices project, for example, is a methodology for including diverse perspectives, especially marginalized voices, in the formulation of tech policy.
Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group (EPAR): EPAR is a hub of data analytic work at the School involving faculty, post-doctoral and student researchers. EPAR provides spatial, statistical, and text analysis for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as curation and visualization of global data related to poverty and hunger, to increase their accessibility and broader utility to development policy decision-makers. EPAR uses World Bank agricultural data to regularly construct and maintain a collection of the most common agricultural development indicators, which can be easily downloaded with EPAR’s AgQuery tool (see World Bank web page for description of this work).
Evans School Student Consulting Lab: For more than two decades, the Evans School Student Consulting Lab has been producing program evaluations, strategic plans, data visualizations, and policy analyses to address the real-world needs of client organizations from Seattle Public Utility to the Pullman Police Department to PATH and beyond. Independent student teams apply analytic skills and tools to provide client solutions, with key guidance from faculty advisors over the six-month capstone project period.
Center for an Informed Public (CIP): A center that focuses on misinformation and fostering a healthy democratic discourse. Founded through a grant from the Knight Foundation and other donors, the UW and four other universities are embarking on shaping a new field around technology’s impact on democracy, an effort that is synergistic with the field-building aims of PIT. CIP will feature new courses for master’s and Ph.D. students interested in technology and democracy, along with a major research initiative that brings together expertise from across the UW, as well as practitioners in journalism, public libraries and other institutions.
ICTD Lab: The ICTD Lab focuses on bringing the benefits of computing technology to marginalized, low-income populations throughout the world. Focused primarily on the development of new and novel technology innovations, the lab has produced a number of key artifacts, such as Open Data Kit, Sangeet Swara, Community Networks, and Cold Chain Monitoring through partners such as Facebook, PATH, and the Red Cross. The Lab’s current focus is on community networking, health care, and equitable finance.
Security Lab: The Privacy and Security Lab works on a broad variety of topics in computer security and privacy, ranging from studying and addressing security and privacy risks in existing technologies, to anticipating future risks in emerging technologies, using a range of methodologies including building systems, identifying vulnerabilities, conducting measurements, and studying human end users.
Technology Law and Public Policy Clinic (Tech-Law Clinic): This research group works at the intersection of public policy and technology. Students have the opportunity to write laws, compose policy papers, meet with stakeholders, and provide legislative testimony. Clinicians spend an academic year learning the basics of a technology, interviewing stakeholders, engaging in research, and producing a white paper and/or proposed law. In the last three years, the Tech-Law Clinic has written an Executive Order establishing Washington’s Office of Privacy and Data Security (Washington 16-01); assisted in creating this state’s Autonomous Vehicle Policy Group (HB 2970); and aided Washington State’s Chief Privacy Officer in preparing legislation limiting third party use of biometric information (HB 1493).
UW Data Science for Social Good program: Launched in 2015, the DSSG summer research and education program partners Student Fellows with Data Scientists from the eScience Institute and Project Leads from academia, government, nonprofits and the private sector to find data-intensive solutions to socially imperative issues. Previous projects areas include voting rights, public health, homelessness, disaster response and transportation, among others. Keystones of the DSSG program include project-based discussions and training around data science ethics, human-centered design and stakeholder analysis, and partner collaboration.