The PIT Clinic model

What do we mean by a Public Interest Technology Clinic?

Public interest clinics are typically associated with pro-bono legal advice, or medical assistance in low-income settings. Our public interest technology clinic offers expertise, skills, and infrastructure for advocacy in civil rights that are impinged upon by the use, development, or deployment of technologies. All projects taken on by our clinic offer experiential learning opportunities for university students to apply skills in technology policy and development.

Our clinic defines working in the public as:

• Developing sustainable long-term partnerships with community-based organizations through collaborative research
• Actively partnering with advocates, community-based organizations, and public-sector agencies with limited access to resources necessary for technology and policy research
• Recruiting student fellows with backgrounds underrepresented in public interest technology and adjacent fields