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We are very excited to plan a Member Day that serves the Network. Members should watch for a survey from the host committee to elicit input from our members on the topics that are top of mind for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGenerally, member institutions can look forward to the opportunity to share their successes and challenges with other member institutions. In addition to trading notes, we hope members come away with new ideas and build their networks, which we hope will lead to collaborative PIT programming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAs a host institution, we at BU look forward to showcasing our experience in partnering with other institutions and the city of Boston so that members come away with an idea of how PIT can be implemented in large urban settings through regional partnerships.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Q. Can you share with us your plan for pre-convening programming and how that is connected to building the career pathway for students within the field of PIT?<\/h3><\/p>\n
Going back to the common challenge all sectors face about the lack of talent, we clearly need to work on effective and scalable approaches that introduce public interest tech to our undergraduates in order to create pathways for career trajectories in PIT. The typical data science student has no idea about the challenges cities face and how their work can make a difference in their own community. We can mitigate this challenge by bringing end users such as government and community organizations to the academic space through experiential learning programs that weave problems sourced from the public sector into curricular and co-curricular offerings, internship opportunities, career days, etc.<\/p>\n
At BU we\u2019ve developed a robust infrastructure to facilitate partnerships with the public sector through experiential learning programs such as\u00a0BU Spark!\u00a0a technology incubator for real-world projects sourced from industry and the public sector, software engineering capacity at the\u00a0Hariri Institute for Computing, and the\u00a0Hub for Civic Tech Impact\u00a0at the\u00a0Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences\u00a0(CDS). While we are proud of our achievements, we also know there is always room to improve and PIT-UN gives us the opportunity to learn from our peers.<\/p>\n
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Q. Why is Boston University in a unique position to host the 2023 convening given its current programming in PIT and the future direction in advancing PIT as a field and career?<\/h3><\/p>\n
BU is at a momentous time in our institution\u2019s history. We have made a large-scale investment in bringing data science to the forefront through the creation of the\u00a0Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences\u00a0(CDS), an academic unit that affords us the opportunity to develop societally relevant interdisciplinary research and education programs, starting with a clean slate, and thus not subject to disciplinary strictures.<\/p>\n
Hosting PIT-UN in\u00a0CDS\u2019s iconic new home\u00a0at the heart of the BU campus will allow us to showcase the progress we\u2019ve made, building an academic unit on a solid foundation of partnerships with other academic units and research centers at BU, such as the\u00a0Initiative on Cities, the\u00a0Tech & Policy Initiative\u00a0at the Law School, the\u00a0Emerging Media Studies\u00a0at the College of Communication, the\u00a0Howard Thurman Center\u00a0for Common Ground, and the\u00a0Center for Antiracist Research, among others.<\/p>\n
BU is also at the heart of Boston. If any city can be a catalyst for PIT partnerships, Boston is that city. With an unmatched, diverse set of colleges and universities \u2014 large and small, public and private, focused on undergraduate, graduate, vocational, and professional education \u2014 our region is ripe for partnerships not only between universities, but also with the wealth of local public, private, and nonprofit organizations. We see ourselves as the anchor for PIT in this region and hope to accelerate our partnerships with other institutions to that end.<\/p>\n
While we recognize that every institution\u2019s priorities may be different, we hope the BU experience can offer examples of how to embed public interest in the university structure, e.g., centers, curriculum, etc.<\/p>\n
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Q. As the convening planning gets underway, how do you plan to involve students and the communities in participating in the event?<\/h3><\/p>\n
Student-led efforts have been growing in the PIT space for some time. However, we haven\u2019t done much yet to celebrate those efforts or to bring the student voices to the conversation.\u00a0We plan to address that by adding a student-led session to the convening schedule in recognition of the growing amount of student leadership and student-led groups in the PIT space.<\/p>\n
Thanks to PIT-UN, BU received a joint grant with Howard University to strengthen student-led efforts in PIT and we hope to involve students from our institutions along with others to lead the student session.<\/p>\n
Similarly, we plan to reach out to community organizations and governments we have partnered with over the years to participate as panelists and attendees at the convening.<\/p>\n
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Q. Can you tell us more about how the general public can participate in the convening?<\/h3><\/p>\n
I feel obligated to ensure that the barriers between the\u00a0Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences\u00a0and our local community are porous. One of my personal endeavors is to ensure that the convening gets as much publicity within Boston as possible. We are planning to open some of the sessions to the public by allowing them to engage even if only virtually. We see the convening in 2023 as a catalyst for engagement between the public and CDS.<\/p>\n
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Boston University (BU) will host the annual Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) Convening on October 12-13, 2023 at the newly constructed Center for Computing & Data Sciences. The theme of the conference, Partnership for Impact, will explore university partnerships with entities such\u00a0as government, corporate, media and community organizations with the goal of highlighting tech […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1690,"featured_media":0,"parent":266,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6031"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6693,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6031\/revisions\/6693"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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