PIT UN: Member News (ASU's PIT Degree)

Arizona State University, announced a first-of-its-kind Master of Science in Public Interest Technology degree from the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. The master’s program, starting online this August, is designed to train leaders who will imagine, design, and use technology for social good. This cross-disciplinary program will help students develop knowledge and skills that will allow them to understand the motivations for and challenges of public interest technology, assess new and emerging technologies for social impact, engage with users through a process of co-design, and deploy technologies responsibly. Visit sfis.asu.edu to learn more.

Q&A with Katina Michael, Program Chair

Q: Why do you think this program is needed?

A: There is a great need for public interest technologist graduates in large public and private corporations, and government and non-government organizations. We need professionals who can influence governance practice by embedding values-based principles in the design of new technologies as well as conducting technology assessment and oversight. In deploying tech for good in the public interest, we need to consider human rights and ethics, privacy and security by design, social and environmental justice, first nations, child and disability rights, under-represented minority groups, to ensure diversity and inclusion in the workforce and society at large.

Q: Who is the ideal student for this program?

A: This degree typifies the next generation of technologists who are more than engineering and computer literate. They are multiskilled, transdisciplinary thinkers who shape the future through stakeholder engagement, a process of codesign and participatory practices. We are looking for higher-order thinkers who will imagine, design, build and shape a sustainable future cutting across a number of verticals from health, telecommunications, transportation, energy, government and more.

Q: What work might a student pursue after earning this degree?

A: As this is a new and developing field, there are a lot of possibilities for graduates.  Students will develop an awareness of emerging technologies that are playing an integral role in society today. The graduates will be professionals in a variety of analyst and design roles, including privacy, big data and security managers, data and misuse of data analysts, advocacy coordinators and NGO campaign strategists, integrity trust and safety officers, standards chairs and contributors, technology impact assessors, communication, content and outreach officers, social and environmental justice affairs managers.

Q: What impact will COVID-19 likely have on this program for the fall?

A: The current global health crisis will likely serve as a prime case study for how technology has succeeded or fallen short in meeting the fundamental needs of society during an emergency declaration. From the need to rapidly create more ventilators to keep people alive, to more agile supply chains producing in-demand products for employees in hospitals (e.g. personal protective equipment) and everyday citizens versus the hope that 'tech for good' has been deployed by government to minimize the rate of transmission of COVID-19. The discussion for the faculty and students, providing real, applicable events from across the world, to study and develop new skills will offer a unique experience.  As far as the program of study, the degree is offered completely online, allowing students from all over the world, and remote to Arizona, to pursue their interest in the field.

Q: How is this program connected to ASU's long-term commitment to PIT as a field of study?

A: We need to imagine what we want the future to be, together and strive towards those goals in a sustainable fashion. We don't want digital divides, we want inclusivity and access and equity and transparency and we are obligated to provide services in the future that can help everyone via universal service obligations. These underlying ideas are not just compatible with, but they are really in full harmony with the ideas behind ASU's identity as a New American University, the values embedded in the ASU Charter.