The Public Interest Technology (PiTech) Initiative at Cornell Tech is thrilled to welcome its inaugural PiTech Runway Startup Postdoc, Priya Donti, to the Runway Startup cohort this fall. Priya will work on scaling her nonprofit Climate Change AI, which aims to catalyze impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. “Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, requiring the mobilization of many different tools and approaches from across society,” says Priya. “Through our work at Climate Change AI, we aim to foster the use of machine learning in ways that support and strengthen climate change efforts.”

Cornell Tech’s Public Interest Tech initiative (PiTech) is pleased to welcome its second cohort of Visiting Practitioners (ViPs). The goal of the program is to foster collaborations with tech leaders from a range of impact-oriented organizations, and engage in conversations around PiTech at Cornell Tech. ViPs engage with Cornell Tech students and other community members in multiple ways throughout the semester, giving talks, offering office hours, providing feedback on product and business ideas, pursuing their own capstone projects, and informing the direction of PiTech at Cornell Tech.

“My vision for the PiTech Initiative is to inspire and empower the next generation of technologists, leaders, and researchers to harness technology and address real-world challenges at public sector and non-profit organizations, and to advance justice, equity, and social welfare,” says Małgosia. “With everything I do, I will strive to not only further this vision but also to position Cornell Tech as a cutting-edge, world-renowned program shaping the conversation on PiTech.”

Anjana Rajan, a renowned technology executive, social entrepreneur, and applied cryptographer, joins Cornell Tech’s Public Interest Technology initiative (PiTech) as an Entrepreneur in Residence. In this new role, she will work on launching new technology ventures that address important human rights and national security issues.

Mitchell Baker, the CEO of Mozilla Corporation, delivered an inspiring keynote speech to Cornell Tech graduates at the Class of 2022’s Recognition Ceremony. She congratulated the graduating class remarking, “Seeing you, another community of people building something different, is wildly uplifting; a new generation of people attuned to technology and the common good. I am so moved and so buoyed up by the choice you made to come here, and by what you will do as you go forward.” She further recounted how the radical idea of open-source at Mozilla was made possible with “collaboration and a community of people invested in a product” and emphasizing how much good there is to be done by “connecting technology to public benefit and the common good”.

The article delves into how tech companies that prioritize the public interest are essential for a more just future, but they need investments at their earliest stages to thrive.

In 2021 the Public Interest Tech community continued to grow nationally. We brought the public interest lens to our Cornell Tech graduate campus to foster the next generation of innovators, leaders and thinkers who will shape technology toward positive societal outcomes.

PiTech at Cornell Tech consists of three programs (so far!): (1) PiTech Masters studio, (2) Visiting Practitioner's program, and (3) PhD Impact Fellows.

Our first Tech Clinic, launched fall 2019, addresses Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in partnership with the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. By pairing Cornell Tech’s expertise in human-computer interaction and security with engagement on the part of IPV victims and policymakers, Professors Nicki Dell and Tom Ristenpart developed the Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA), a first of its kind computer security clinic that helps IPV survivors navigate technology abuse.

Cornell Tech recently hosted a discussion with Hana Schank and Tara Dawson McGuinness, authors of the newly released book Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology, moderated by Deborah Estrin.