Miami, Nov. 4, 2022 – Miami Dade College (MDC) has been awarded $100,000 as one of 18 Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) colleges and universities that will receive grants totaling $2.3 million by New America, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that brings promising new voices to public discourse, to fund critical research, field building and the development of an inclusive career pipeline for public interest technologists.
MDC has been awarded more than $500,000 in total since joining PIT-UN, a network of 48 academic institutions working to strengthen public interest technology, bringing together students and educators from multiple disciplines to solve the toughest challenges the country and world face. Over the past three years, PIT-UN has funded 123 projects totaling more than $14 million.
“This year’s winning projects share a common attribute,” said PIT-UN Director Andreen Soley. “They center on the needs of communities. Our equity and Inclusive focus is the engine that drives all projects. It means modeling the development of technologies through co-designing with the communities and individuals that are meant to be recipients of the tools being deployed. It also means thoughtfully engaging the work that minority-serving institutions contribute to the growing PIT field.”
The PIT-UN grants will be used to bolster efforts to embed diversity, equity and inclusion in technology development. The grants will fund interdisciplinary teaching, career pipeline development, experiential learning and network building to advance social and racial justice, climate action, cybersecurity, data equity, human rights and more.
The Public Interest Technology University Network is a partnership of 48 colleges and universities convened by New America, the Ford Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. The network and challenge grants are funded through the support of the Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Mastercard Impact Fund, with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, The Raikes Foundation, Schmidt Futures and The Siegel Family Endowment. PIT-UN is dedicated to building the field of public interest technology through curriculum development, faculty research opportunities, and experiential learning programs, in order to inspire a new generation of civic-minded technologists and policy leaders.