Siegel PiTech
PhD Impact Fellowship

If selected for the fellowship, Impact Fellows receive a summer Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) funded by the PiTech Initiative at Cornell Tech. As this is a standard GRA, the Fellowship need not count towards CPT. 

Impact Fellows will additionally have access to the many resources offered by Cornell Tech, including a campus base and access to our extensive network of academics and researchers pursuing initiatives at the cutting edge of their scientific disciplines, as well as practitioners working across New York City's government agencies, nonprofits, and industry. 

PiTech Impact Fellows become embedded with an organization for a 12-week term between June and August and typically work 20 hours per week, allowing time in their schedules for independent thesis research. This may fluctuate from week to week based on the specific needs of their projects.

The majority of Impact Fellowship partner organizations are based in New York City. Impact Fellows are not required to relocate to NYC for the duration of the fellowship, however, they are strongly encouraged to do so to fully take advantage of the resources offered at Cornell Tech.

Fellowship work may take place remotely, fully in-person, or a combination of the two. This will depend on the preferences of the student and organization and on the work arrangement students establish with their manager at the organization prior to the start of the fellowship. During the application period, students will learn each organization’s high-level preference for the type of work arrangement. Remote work from an international location is not possible. 

Students will be expected to apply their technical expertise to a project that advances the public interest mission of their fellowship organization. The various projects call for a range of technical skills, including: data analytics, data visualization, machine learning, user-centered design, privacy and security, information architecture, product development, and others. 

Students will be responsible for maintaining a relationship with their direct manager(s) at the organization and are expected to work proactively with the manager(s) for the duration of the fellowship to meet agreed-upon goals and milestones. Additionally, students will have periodic check-ins with the PiTech team for support and to ensure overall smooth progression of the fellowship.

At the end of the fellowship, students will be asked to produce a summary report or blog post to be featured on the PiTech website, and will be invited to stay involved in Cornell Tech’s growing PiTech community.

When applying for the Impact Fellowship, students may express interest in working with as many organizations as are participating in the fellowship. To assess interest, students will be given high-level information about the projects available at each organization, including the project’s subject-matter area, the problem the project is trying to solve, and the skills required of the student to complete the project successfully.

After submitting the application, students will be invited to ‘matching calls.’ The group matching calls are an opportunity for students to ask questions and talk to the organizations they are interested in. 

Upon completion of all relevant matching calls, each student will be asked to rank the organizations they learned about in order of preference. The PiTech team will then match students with an organization based on a number of factors, including student interest and skills and organizations' needs. Prior to accepting the match and committing to a summer with the organization, students will be given the opportunity to speak in a 1:1 call with their future direct manager to make sure the match is a good fit. 

Closer to the fellowship start date, students will work with their matched organization and the PiTech team to establish the specific scope of the summer project, including concrete milestones and deliverables. This ensures the greatest applicability of the project to both student skills and organization needs at the time of the fellowship. Students will work on one project at a time, unless otherwise agreed upon.