Three HFA Faculty Selected as 2024 Public Interest Technology Faculty Fellows
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Three faculty in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts—Janine Solberg, Roopa Vasudevan, and Yuki Yoshimura—have been selected by the Public Interest Technology at UMass (PIT@UMass) to be PIT Faculty Fellows.
The PIT Faculty Fellowship focuses on building public interest-focused interdisciplinary community to explore PIT questions and integrative solutions. Faculty projects are aimed at addressing and potentially solving complex problems with public interest impacts and reducing social disparities through the responsible and ethical use of technology.
Janine Solberg, senior lecturer and co-director of the professional writing and technical communication program, will focus on “Usability and UX Design Methods"; Roopa Vasudevan, assistant professor, art, will focus on “Ethics of Design and Technology"; and Yuki Yoshimura, senior lecturer and director of Japanese language program, East Asian languages and cultures, will focus on “Technology for Language Learning and Communication.”
The 2024-25 PIT Faculty Fellows will receive up to $6,000 to support the development of capstone courses and experiential learning opportunities eligible for inclusion in the UMass Amherst Undergraduate Public Interest Technology Certificate.
The Undergraduate Public Interest Technology Certificate is available to all undergraduate students, regardless of major. This certificate equips students with essential skills and knowledge in Public Interest Technology, providing the opportunity to develop skills at the intersection of social literacy, pragmatic strategies for promoting the public interest and technological literacy.