Technology Applications and Implications

Creating technology-focused solutions to policy problems

TNL director Todd Richmond describes the lab to the Pardee RAND Board of Governors in 2018, photo by Diane Baldwin/RAND Corporation

Photo by Diane Baldwin/RAND

The Technology Applications and Implications (Tech) Stream is designed to blend a traditional policy analysis training with hands-on technology experimentation. This stream seeks to train, and in fact redefine, next-generation policy analysis and action, driven by big data and an increasingly digital world. The Tech Stream combines the same core course requirements as the other two streams while adding new elements and changing the nature of the dissertation. The Tech Stream also embraces the cross-cutting themes of ethics, communication, social justice and racial equity, and encourages students to address or include aspects of one or more themes in their work.

Tech Stream students focus on engaging with complex problems, understanding current and emerging technology, and working in a culture of curiosity and experimentation. This stream complements and interacts with the other streams in a variety of ways and mechanisms including workshops, competitions, hackathons, research projects, courses, and on-the-job training (OJT).

As part of RAND, we have access to colleagues and mentors with a unique combination of deep policy expertise and capabilities across myriad disciplines. Tech Stream students benefit from RAND's strong focus on emerging technologies through a policy lens and the flexibility of Pardee RAND's program. Graduates leave the program with a combination of depth and breadth that positions them for success in a wide variety of fields and situations.

Tech Stream Requirements

In addition to the 8 units of core program requirements, Tech stream students have the following requirements:

Year-Long TNL Residency (3 units)

The Tech + Narrative Lab (TNL) residency is a hybrid laboratory, seminar, and project-based course designed to give students the space and time to explore work at the intersection of emerging technology and policy. Through a combination of individual and joint experiments, students will create artifacts that will satisfy the portfolio requirement for Tech Stream students, as well as work towards thesis-related topics and efforts.

The residency includes a documentation aspect in which both the results from the projects, as well as the processes — acquisition of skills/capabilities, problem framing, experimental methods, and preliminary results — are collected, collated, published, and shared with broader RAND (and possibly public) audiences. The focus will be on documentation such as video narratives, animation, and modeling such that students become conversant in a variety of mediums beyond the traditional academic paper or report.

Residency periods do not need to be continuous and can be adapted based on project needs and other factors.

Elective Courses (9 units)

Students fulfill the remaining 9 units toward their 18-unit coursework requirement by choosing among a variety of electives. These may include traditional courses, studios, or independent study. Elective offerings vary from year to year depending on student interest and instructor availability.

The Portfolio

The portfolio is designed to serve as both a vehicle for learning as well as an assessment instrument. Because the Tech stream has emerging technology at the heart of the program, it is essential that students be able to acquire and demonstrate mastery with apps, visualizations, simulations, and other artifacts that are increasingly common in the field.

The Tech Stream portfolio introduces and reinforces the practice of breaking/making artifacts as part of problem exploration and solving. To facilitate skill acquisition, the portfolio requirement is scaffolded by a mix of traditional classroom engagements, workshops, hackathons, and other engagements, often facilitated by the TNL.

The portfolio will include at least ten artifacts, with at least one example from each of the different technology areas. In addition, up to three artifacts can be closely related as part of an overarching effort. The Tech Stream's current technology areas are the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality, and Digital Gaming.

Dissertation

Each student will collaborate with Pardee RAND faculty to develop a dissertation that builds on their portfolio and enables the student to make novel contributions in their area of interest. The expectations will be defined and refined as the student works through the Propositions Exam and Portfolio reviews.

The dissertation for the Tech Stream is intended to satisfy and build upon the standard requirements of a dissertation. Some key goals for the standard dissertation include demonstration of mastery in the domain of policy analysis along with the capacity for independent and rigorous research. The dissertation for the Tech Stream also requires:

  • generating tech-related original research and artifacts to advance policy analysis through the development of novel solutions
  • creating and demonstrating new tech affordances for addressing policy problems, and
  • exploring the implications of emerging technology through rapid prototyping.

The Tech Stream dissertation works in concert with the portfolio to show depth and breadth of understanding and action in both policy and technology. The dissertation and portfolio elements together will contribute to the cross-cutting themes for the Pardee RAND program: ethics, communications, social justice, and racial equity.

Our People

What We Look for in Our Applicants

The Tech stream is looking for individuals with strong tech skills who are interested in pursuing topics related to emerging technologies and their applications to policy (broadly defined). Ideal candidates will likely have computer science, engineering, and/or hard science backgrounds, but they could also be tech-minded individuals with social science or humanities backgrounds. Tech stream students have generally worked in the tech sector or related industries and have acquired a set of technical skills and capabilities. They are highly passionate about technology, whether it be the future of innovation, or artificial intelligence, or the need to think carefully about technology and its role in policy and society. They are also deeply curious and have a desire to experiment with technology with a goal of making the world a better place.

Above all else, the main requirement for the Tech stream is curiosity and a desire to learn, play, experiment, fail, and try again.

Future Career Paths

Tech stream graduates may go in a variety of directions:

  • Advisors for government agencies or NGOs focused on leveraging technology
  • Analysts for think tanks or consulting companies
  • Cyber security analysts in the public or private sector
  • Entrepreneurs in the startup space
  • Policymakers in larger tech firms, especially as they branch into societal issues
  • Privacy analysts in the public or private sector
  • Project or program leads in academic labs

The portfolio that Tech stream students develop while at Pardee RAND will provide future employers concrete examples of both rigorous thought and vigorous execution and showcase the ability to frame questions and rapidly prototype solutions to both better understand the problems and scratch at the solutions. These skills will be valuable to a wide variety of organizations and will prepare students to lead in their field, cross disciplinary boundaries and barriers, think entrepreneurially, pose important questions, and create solutions.

See the initial job placements of our recent graduates for more information.