Code4Policy: Design & Build Digital Public Services with AI

You don’t need years of computer science training to get your hands on the tools that are reshaping government, industry and society. The barrier to building, experimenting, and creating with code has never been lower, and a fundamental understanding of the basics of digital technology has never been more relevant.

In this J-term class, students will learn best practices in digital service delivery. Students will be placed in teams of four and will follow agile principles to build a prototype of working software that delivers a solution to a real policy need. Unlike a traditional policy class involving reading, discussion, analysis and case studies, in this class students will roll up their sleeves and build digital products that serve the public using a modern AI-powered coding stack. Previous coding experience is not required.

In Section A, students will be paired with a city client, and in Section B students will bring their own project ideas. We will cover the basics of a modern software development stack – including the terminal, GitHub, and AI coding assistants – as well as agile project management workflows. We will follow principles of user-centric and iterative design and learn to code in a language-agnostic way (i.e. you will learn new programming languages as needed for your projects).

Along the way, guest speakers will explore important topics like encryption and digital security, basics of procurement (when to buy vs build), and the role of open source in government. Students who plan to work with data and code for a living will come away with hard skills of how to build software and learn new programming tools on their own; students who don’t will come away with a deeper appreciation of nuanced issues that arise when policy and technology problems intersect as well as the vocabulary to manage or interface with software teams.

This is a new iteration of a class formerly called “Programming and Data for Policymakers”.