Public Interest Technology (PIT) is receiving significant attention. With its long-needed emphasis on the development of technologies and technical expertise that advance the public good, PIT is expanding across the country with Arizona State University helping to blaze the trail.

Conducting use-inspired research

ASU strongly associates PIT with related concepts such as responsible innovation, humanitarian engineering, and KAITEKI, each of which brings PIT cognates into the global context. While PIT activities are distributed widely across the university, a commitment to social justice, community solutions, leading curriculum, global action, and social and environment well-being unites them. ASU prioritizes the real-world outcomes of PIT, both in terms of influence on policy- and decision-making, but also in terms of the social, ethical, and legal aspects of technologies that help constitute their public interest orientation. We develop community-engaged partnerships across sectors, especially building technical capacity in non-profit organizations whose work aligns with the ASU charter.

Advancing public good

PIT efforts at ASU leverage technology and expertise to advance the public good. We create technology that generates clear public benefit, train technical experts who seek out public service, and systematically study the role of technology in society. This study includes taking a deep look at the unintended, unforeseen, negative and positive implications of technology in civic life. An abiding focus of PIT at ASU is a direct consequence of the university’s design aspirations – which include conducting use-inspired research, being socially embedded and transforming society – and its charter – which commits to “advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.”