Summer in Civic Tech

This summer, I had a transformative experience interning as a Full-Stack Sofware Engineering Fellow at the City of Baltimore through Coding Forward. My experience there reaffirmed my passion for technology, law, and ethics while introducing me to the field of public interest technology. My biggest project this summer was to build a unified mapping platform for the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to help visualize spatial data and provide greater situational awareness during emergencies. This project aimed to simplify OEM's data landscape during emergency responses by unifying many disparate dashboards into one location. I found it very exciting to be able to actively participate in the full software development lifecycle for this project, from user research to software development to deployment. Throughout this project, I applied my experience from classes such as CSE 414 (Intro to Databases) and CSE 331 (Software Design and Implementation) to make informed design decisions, solve challenging problems, and optimize software. Surprisingly, I also learned a great deal about city operations and emergency operations through the many meetings I attended throughout this project with departments such as the Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Works, and Baltimore Forestry. At the end of the fellowship, I presented my work to OEM, Coding it Forward, and a citywide data network of employees. It was extremely gratifying to hear all the positive reactions to my work and see the impact that it made for Baltimore residents.

In addition to my work with OEM, I also had two smaller projects for the Office of Equity and Civil Rights (OECR) and the Mayor's Office. Working with OECR, I provided recommendations on their public-facing equity dashboard to improve user experience and better communicate data insights. This project was especially educational for me because it required me to apply user experience design and data science skills, neither of which I had much experience in. For the other project, I supported the Mayor's Office in developing internal AI guidance policies by developing an inventory of AI tools and creating an informational AI one-pager. This project aligned well with many of my experiences in the past year, including my internship with the Tech Policy Lab and courses like HONORS 222 (Philosophy of AI) or CSE 473 (Intro to AI). It also allowed me to utilize non-technical skills from my philosophy coursework, such researching and writing, that were different from my other projects. Although I was not able to see the results of both these projects immediately, they were extremely interesting to work on and I felt that I still contributed significantly to the work of both departments.

Finally, I learned much more about careers in technology policy through events put on by Coding It Forward and other organizations. Throughout the fellowship, I attended panels on topics such as public interest technology, data science at the ACLU, and generative AI in government. This upcoming year, I will continue exploring this path by taking further classes on AI and looking for related research opportunities. This summer has also definitely influenced my career goals by helping me realize that mission-driven work is deeply important to me. I am immensely grateful to both Coding it Forward and the City of Baltimore for the unique opportunity this summer to make meaningful contributions in public service through technology.