PIT Residential Academic Program (RAP)

DEADLINE TO APPLY IS MAY 9, 2025

Join the Public Interest Technology RAP at UMass Amherst to live and learn among peers who care deeply about realizing socially responsible solutions to the challenges of our technology-driven world. Tailored for first-year students, this transformative experience is open to students from all majors. Become a part of the growing community of public interest technologists on campus and form lasting connections with friends and faculty who will ease your transition to college life and set you up for mentorship and success both within and beyond the classroom.

Throughout the semester, we will consider:

• What strategies we can use to promote socially responsible use of technology
• What we can do as citizens to make the tech-driven world a better and safer place
• How we can use technology to solve complicated problems facing our communities

PIT serves as a critical foundation for 21st century education, for people who create technologies, and for those who work with them, which is all of us. This RAP will not focus on coding but will focus instead on thinking analytically, broadly, and strategically about technology as a tool to solve complex societal problems.

Learn more about RAPs at UMass Amherst, here.  Learn more about Public Interest Technology at UMass, here.

Program Coordinator: Donna Baron (pit@umass.edu)
Faculty: Emily Nutwell (pit@umass.edu)
Required course: CICS 127:  Introduction to Public Interest Technology
Course Type:  GenEd (SI)
Eligible students:  First-year students, all majors
Program Location:  Leach Hall in Northeast Residential Area