{"id":4257,"date":"2024-07-17T20:58:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T20:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2024-07-17T21:02:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T21:02:16","slug":"eight-umass-students-participate-in-pit-ne-impact-technology-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/2024\/07\/17\/eight-umass-students-participate-in-pit-ne-impact-technology-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight UMass Students Participate in PIT-NE Impact Technology Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"4257\" class=\"elementor elementor-4257\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-37d9f86 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"37d9f86\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-f063aa1\" data-id=\"f063aa1\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-efcb745 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"efcb745\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/pitne.org\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/2024-UMass-Cohort-768x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-image-4259\" alt=\"Photo of UMass Impact Technology Cohort 2024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/2024-UMass-Cohort-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/2024-UMass-Cohort-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/2024-UMass-Cohort.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\">From top left: Shivansh Soni, Ashnoor Chadha, Arnav Sodhani, Sowrathi Somasundaram, Ishita Kakkar, Jacob Epstein, Nikhila Peravali, and Rachel Gupta<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-230d236 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"230d236\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>It was a busy start to the summer for eight UMass Amherst undergraduates who participated in Public Interest Technology New England&#8217;s (PIT-NE) innovative <a href=\"https:\/\/pitne.org\/impact-tech-fellowship\/\">Impact Technology Fellowship<\/a>.\u00a0 The full-time, six-week fellowship combined experiential learning, public interest technology skill building, mentoring, and professional development to empower a new generation of public interest technologists.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/spark\/\">Boston University\u2019s Spark!<\/a> facilitated technical work and <a href=\"https:\/\/pitne.org\/\">PIT-NE<\/a> organized programming including professional development workshops to grow communication and networking skills, tech talks to learn about data visualizations, Git, and more, and PIT seminars where local leaders shared their work and tools for designing, developing, and deploying technology in responsible ways.<\/p><p>A total of 21 fellows worked in teams on six different software engineering, machine learning, and data science projects in collaboration with community partners from a variety of sectors.\u00a0 In addition to the students from UMass, teams included undergraduates from Boston University, Olin College, and Tufts University.\u00a0 Each day, the teams came together at Boston University\u2019s Center for Computing and Data Sciences to work on messy, real-world problems under the guidance of their mentors and advisors from Boston University\u2019s Spark! community.\u00a0<\/p><p>To conclude the program, each team presented at the PIT-NE Summer Institute\u2019s Community Showcase, highlighting their projects\u2019 technical and social impact achievements.\u00a0 Following the presentations, community members had a chance to demo projects and talk more in-depth with each team about their work.<\/p><p><span style=\"color: #881c1c;font-size: 14pt\"><strong>Data Science Projects<\/strong><\/span><\/p><ul><li>Landmass Use in Longmeadow, MA\u00a0<em>(MassMutual and Longmeadow Historical Society<\/em>): Leveraging technology to identify and create data visualizations of historic racist deed restrictions in Longmeadow, MA.<\/li><li>Racial Bias in News Coverage (<em>NAACP of Massachusetts<\/em>): Analyzing coverage of Boston\u2019s Black community in the Boston Globe over a decade to assess changes in coverage, sentiment, and demographic representation.<\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"color: #881c1c;font-size: 14pt\"><strong>Machine Learning Projects<\/strong><\/span><\/p><ul><li>SeasonWatch (<em>SeasonWatch, India<\/em>): A citizen science project to monitor tree phenology in India to understand climate change impacts on seasonal patterns by comparing citizen submitted tree data against the reference database.<\/li><li>AImpower (<em>AImpower<\/em>): Benchmarking speech recordings of people who stutter against popular speech recognition models provided by OpenAI, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Otter.AI to analyze the role of technology in marginalizing people who stutter.<\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"color: #881c1c;font-size: 14pt\"><strong>Software Engineering Projects<\/strong><\/span><\/p><ul><li>District 4 App (<em>Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell<\/em>): Developing a platform for civic engagement and resource access for Boston\u2019s District 4.<\/li><li>Boston Voter App (<em>Yawu Miller, journalist former senior editor of Bay State Banner<\/em>): Creating a web application to address the lack of accessible information about voting logistics and candidates in municipal elections in Boston. This is part of Miller\u2019s new venture to establish a non-profit news agency to expand reporting on Massachusetts\u2019s Black and Latino communities.<\/li><\/ul><p><em><strong>Watch presentations from the 2024 Community Showcase <a href=\"https:\/\/pitne.org\/impact-tech-fellowship-2024\/\">here<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\"><strong><span style=\"color: #881c1c\">QUOTES FROM 2024 FELLOWS<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><p><em>The fellowship provided me with opportunities to work on a high-impact project, which helped me enhance my technical skills and apply them to real-world problems. I connected with industry leaders, mentors, and peers, which broadened my professional network and opened doors for future collaborations and career opportunities\u2026Ultimately, the Impact Technology Fellowship has been a pivotal step in my career, aligning perfectly with my aspirations to drive positive change through technology and innovation.<\/em> \u2013 Rachel, UMass Amherst<\/p><p><em>This program offered more than what a standard internship could offer. It offered me a purpose, especially with what I want to do with my career. I made some really good friends who are in the same field as me and are equally passionate about PIT.<\/em> \u2013 Nikhila, UMass Amherst<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a busy start to the summer for eight UMass Amherst undergraduates who participated in Public Interest Technology New England&#8217;s (PIT-NE) innovative Impact Technology Fellowship.  The full-time, six-week fellowship combined experiential learning, public interest technology skill building, mentoring, and professional development to empower a new generation of public interest technologists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4263,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/pit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}