Impact Fellowship 2022
As the Public Interest Technology Initiative at Cornell Tech enters its third academic year, it continues to bring a public interest lens to graduate studies at Cornell Tech.
PiTech Initiative programs are specialized to the needs of individuals across all stages of the academic career trajectory, from master’s students and PhDs, to Postdocs and Faculty. Our goal is to create meaningful ways for each of those groups to apply technology to serve public needs and engage with social impact organizations throughout their time at Cornell Tech.
A cornerstone of the PiTech Initiative is the PiTech Siegel PhD Impact Fellowship program, which supports PhD students in technical fields to conduct 12-week summer externships with nonprofit and public sector organizations across NYC. Students gain exposure to the technology challenges facing public interest organizations and contribute critical skills and expertise to strategic projects that advance their host organization’s mission.
The PiTech Siegel PhD Impact Fellowship is critical to delivering on the PiTech Initiative’s stated mission of fostering the next generation of innovators, leaders, and thinkers to shape technology toward positive societal outcomes. In 2022, the PiTech Siegel PhD Impact Fellowship doubled the size of its cohort compared to summer of 2021, supporting more Cornell students to contribute their skills toward pressing public challenges.
To broaden and diversify student exposure and strengthen students’ impact, we curated a mix of partner organizations within government, civil society, and the private sector, spanning many critical subject matter domains, from accessibility, housing, healthcare, and childcare, to data rights and biodiversity. You can read about the work of each of our PhD students, the specifics of their projects, and the impact they had in their testimonials linked below.
Anthonia Carter joined Women.nyc's Childcare Innovation Lab to look at how financial instruments like tuition assistance can be applied to childcare. You can read more about their project here.
Maya Mundell joined Blue Ridge Labs at Robin Hood Foundation to advise the cohort of aspiring public interest tech startup founders selected for their 2022 Fellowship Program. You can read more about their project here.
Pegah Moradi joined Consumer Reports Digital Lab in working to scale the Permission Slip app, a service helping consumers exercise their data rights. You can read more about their project here.
Christian Belardi joined New York Botanical Garden to combine geographic information systems (GIS), machine learning (ML), and remote sensing to estimate ecological biodiversity. You can read more about their project here.
Rosamond Thalken also joined New York Botanical Garden to improve its automated recognition of Latin scientific names within vernacular text, which will help with text mining, search indexing, and automated specimen-label processing. You can read more about their project here.
Sara Venkatraman joined the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) to forecast the duration of construction for NYC public buildings and infrastructure, and statistically evaluate the level of uncertainty in project schedules. You can read more about their project here.
Janet Chen studied employee user experiences at the New York City Housing Authority to understand how to improve NYCHA's IT processes with human-centered design methods. You can read more about their project here.
Rojin Zandi joined NYC Health + Hospitals to apply machine learning and predictive modeling to overcome the medical supplements shortage problem.
Hauke Sandhaus joined YAIs Center for Innovation and Engagement to assist Direct Support Professionals in monitoring residents under high risk of seizures. You can read more about their project here.
“By investing in fellowships with public and non-profit sector organizations, Cornell Tech is providing unique opportunities for doctoral students to address public objectives through technical innovation,” says Deborah Estrin, the PiTech Initiative Founder and Associate Dean for Impact at Cornell Tech.
