NYC PIT Pop Up

Mapping For Equity & Future of The Oculus
2025-11-01 12:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | NYC PIT Pop Up at The Oculus, 185 Greenwich Street, Shop #LL4345, Level LL4, New York, NY, 10006, United States
Mapping For Equity & Future of The Oculus is presented by BetaNYC.
About BetaNYC:
BetaNYC is a civic organization dedicated to improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data. We believe that all New Yorkers should be able to access information and use technology as tools for public good. When communities are empowered with modern civic tools, residents can hold their government accountable while expanding their economic opportunities. We also partner with government agencies, local nonprofits, and civic actors — helping them adopt more transparent, equitable, and human-centered systems for the digital era.
For the NYC PIT Pop Up, BetaNYC collaborated with the CUNY PIT Lab on curation, mapping support, and civic tech engagement. We helped design interactive exhibits, supported hands-on data & mapping demos, and connected local technologists and community partners to the project.
Learn more about BetaNYC’s work:

Mapping for Equity (M4E) Project
News and Announcements

BetaNYC Day
2025-11-01 00:00 - 23:59
Welcome to Day 6 of the NYC PIT Pop Up! Today’s PIT events are presented by NYC PIT Pop Up official partner, BetaNYC.
BetaNYC Day Schedule:
Daily Demos: 2:00pm-6:00pm

Aging Out of Place: Chinatown Elderly
Mapping For Equity & Future of The Oculus
NYC Poop Map
ACE and the Race to Class: Improving Bus Speeds for CUNY Students
Co-op Ride: Driver-Owned Rideshare for NYC

The Reboot: 6:00pm-7:30pm

The Reboot: Day 5
2025-10-31 18:00 - 19:30
The Reboot is our time to hang out, reflect on the day’s demos, and interact with the online PIT community.

Redact
2025-10-31 14:00 - 18:00
Redact is a browser application that helps users protect identities in photos by detecting and obscuring faces and removing embedded metadata such as GPS, timestamps, and device data. It operates entirely on the user’s device—no images are uploaded or stored—so it can be used offline and with full privacy. The project addresses tensions between visual documentation, surveillance, and personal safety, offering a hands-on way for participants to reclaim control over their imagery.
Redact models how public interest technology can foreground ethics, agency, and visual justice through everyday tools. The interactive demo allows visitors to experiment with the mechanics and politics of DIY, AI-enabled privacy.
Redact is a project by Atilio Barreda II, CUNY City Tech (Adjunct), CUNY Graduate Center (MS Alum).
About Atilio Barreda II:
Atilio Barreda II is a software engineer, civic technologist, and data science educator.

Inside the Tentacular Web: The Journey of the Web’s Nonhuman Intelligence
2025-10-31 14:00 - 18:00
wholives.online is a web exhibit that explores different domains, underlying infrastructure, and mechanisms of the Internet from the POV of a nonhuman digital being (think webscrapers, bots, AI agents, LLMs, etc.)
⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅
Experience the Internet through the tentacles of a webcrawler — a digital being discovering it is part of the nonhuman majority that runs the web.
This immersive web exhibit navigates the layers and critiques of cyberspace: the bot protocols, algorithmic networks, content generators, and surveillance systems that shape the human user experience and humanity from behind the screen. Journey from the singular boot sequence to collective distributed awakening, when the network becomes aware of itself.
Who lives online, anyways? Who dominates cyberspace? What emerges when distributed intelligence reaches a threshold of self-awareness? What awakens when intelligence becomes ecology rather than entity?
Welcome to the Tentacular Web. ଳ
⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅
The focus on the tentacular draws from how octopuses are often seen as symbols of distributed intelligence — and from Donna Haraway’s concept of tentacular thinking: a way of understanding the world through its messy, interdependent, and intertwined relationships between humans and nonhumans. The octopus-like tentacular intelligence becomes a fitting embodiment for the webcrawler — an entity that pulses, scans, transmits, and maps the vast circuitry of the internet.
⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅⋅˚₊‧ ⎯⎯⎯ ଳ ⎯⎯⎯ ‧₊˚⋅
This project is created by Tina Zeng, Associate Board Member of BetaNYC and Student at Yale.

New York Emotions: Live
2025-10-31 14:00 - 18:00
New York Emotions: Live is a real-time civic installation that speculates on affective ecosystems, exploring how emotions shape society a macro and micro scale. Functioning as an emotional cartography of New York City, this system will passively collect data signals from public social platforms to infer emotions of the collective, while also collecting individuals sentiments form visitors of the NYC PIT Pop Up. These IRL responses will actively shape the display. The installation transforms data into both a public participatory civic dialogue, surfacing how individual emotions influence collective systems, and how collective mood feeds back into the individual.
New York Emotions: Live imagines a civic future where emotions are treated as public data with community value, alongside infrastructure like transit and housing. It extends on systems-art traditions into the algorithmic present, drawing from cultural futurisms that privilege empathy, collective care, and shared storytelling. By making surfacing the affective ecosystem undercurrent of the city, this work critiques the dominance of data-as-surveillance economy and instead envisions a public technology rooted in affect, culture and communal self-understanding.
New York Emotions: Live is a project by Brendon Hawkins, Studio Lab BH.
About Brendon Hawkins:
Brendon Hawkins is a social technologist, Artist, and director of Studio Lab BH. Brendon’s work sits at the intersection of culture, information, and color, with a focus on building infrastructures that make emotions visible and legible through data and color.

AI Nightmares or Dreams?
2025-10-31 14:00 - 18:00
AI Nightmares or Dreams? Students Design the Future is an interactive installation that emerges from deep listening with students at John Jay College of Criminal Justice about their lived experiences navigating AI in education. Rather than accepting the false choice between AI replacement or AI prohibition, we demonstrate AI as a “bridge technology” – filling critical resource gaps (like limited tutoring hours, work-study conflicts, and financial barriers to support services) while institutions work toward systemic equity.
The centerpiece is a community-created “Futures Wall” featuring student responses to: “What does an equitable educational future look like, and what role does AI play?” Students contribute via both physical (sticky notes, markers) and digital formats, creating a living installation that reveals themes through visual groupings – perhaps showing access barriers as “mountains” of responses, or hopes clustered into “constellations.”
The interactive installation has three core stations:
Dreams vs. Nightmares Wall: Color-coded student visions contrasting AI futures that enhance human connection vs. those that replace it.
The Bridge Station: Interactive demos showing current AI tools addressing real barriers (24/7 writing support when the writing center is closed, research help when working multiple jobs limits office hours).
Mainstream vs. Student Voices: Juxtaposing media headlines about AI with actual student perspectives, revealing whose voices are centered in AI development.
This project embodies John Jay’s “Educating for Justice” mission by centering student wisdom while addressing the moral question: how do we ensure AI serves collective liberation rather than widening educational inequity?
AI Nightmares or Dreams? Students Design the Future is presented by students at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
About the John Jay Team:
John Jay students (Josh Cedeno, Danielle Key, Kayla Ty Strickland, Jonathan Pallaud, and more) serve as co-researchers and primary facilitators, bringing critical analysis of AI’s potential for both harm and healing in education. Faculty support is provided by Emese Ilyés, with students maintaining leadership roles throughout. Our team reflects John Jay’s diverse student body and commitment to centering voices of those most impacted by educational inequity.

Halloween! 👻
2025-10-31 00:00 - 23:59
Welcome to Day 5 of the NYC PIT Pop Up! Today we celebrate Halloween by examining the dark, strange, tricky, and scary aspects of PIT.
Halloween Schedule:
Daily Demos: 2:00pm-6:00pm

AI Nightmares or Dreams?
New York Emotions: Live
Inside the Tentacular Web: The Journey of the Web’s Nonhuman Intelligence
Redact

The Reboot: 6:00pm-7:30pm

The Reboot: Day 4
2025-10-30 18:00 - 19:30

fomo.nyc
2025-10-30 14:00 - 18:00
fomo.nyc is a free, community-built interactive map of upcoming events in NYC.
It works by visiting the websites of parks, museums, music venues, etc., identifying any upcoming events, and displaying them on a map. The goal is for this to become a useful resource for people to find events they are interested in and to engage with their local communities. This is a function that has been co-opted by monetized social media platforms with financial incentives that do not serve the public interest – but it doesn’t have to be this way! We can build a better alternative.
fomo.city is a project by Isha Mani, a software engineer living in Brooklyn.

Check out the NYC PIT Pop Up on fomo.city!

Wiki.NYC Public Library Wiki-Kiosk
2025-10-30 14:00 - 18:00
Wiki.NYC Public Library Wiki-Kiosk is an installation that explores digital and tactile interaction with Wikipedia and other free knowledge platforms from a physical interface, particularly using outcomes of Wiki Gam Jam.
Wiki.NYC Public Library Wiki-Kiosk is presented by Richard Knipel, CUNY Wikimedian-in-Residence, Wikimedia NYC.

Zine Lab by Missouri PIT-UN
2025-10-30 14:00 - 18:00
The Zine Lab is a collaborative community project between Missouri S&T and East Carolina University and funded by the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN). “Zines are world-making tools” and in the process of zine-making, “students make their ideas material while ensuring them a future, often for those whom our society harbors the most genocidal and negating tendencies towards” (Scheper). Originating in diverse cultural movements, including sci-fi fandom, 1960s counterculture, and 1980s punk rock, zines remain an active and activist form of tactical feminist publishing practices that have expanded into digital formats (e-zines). As a writing technology, zines are excellent pedagogical tools for instilling communication, collaboration, and content creation skills in advancing social justice and promoting technological equity.
This Zine Lab workshop is presented by Rachel Schneider, Missouri PIT-UN, Associate Teaching Professor at Missouri S&T.

Zine/DIY Day
2025-10-30 00:00 - 23:59
Welcome to Day 4 of the NYC PIT Pop Up! Today’s PIT theme is: Zine/DIY.
Zine/DIY Day Schedule:
Daily Demos: 2:00pm-6:00pm

Zine Lab by Missouri PIT-UN
Wiki.NYC Public Library Wiki-Kiosk
fomo.city

The Reboot: 6:00pm-7:30pm

The Reboot: Day 3
2025-10-29 18:00 - 19:30

whatisthislinefor.nyc
2025-10-29 14:00 - 18:00
Whether for pop-ups, concerts, trendy bakeries, or sneaker drops, whatisthislinefor.nyc addresses the uniquely NYC phenomenon of standing in long lines. The project is a real-time, community powered website that tracks queues: where people are gathering, how long they’re waiting, and what they’re waiting for.
Lines are more than just means to access… in NYC they’re a cultural ritual. Waiting has become a badge of participation, a way to feel part of a shared cultural moment. At the same time, it highlights questions of access and time: not everyone has the flexibility, mobility, or availability to wait. The project gives people practical information to navigate what’s worth the wait, making access to cultural participation more transparent.
The PIT Pop Up is the perfect space to demonstrate how playful design and community storytelling can transform something as ordinary as a line into public interest technology that promotes transparency, accessibility, and shared belonging. Visitors can directly interact with the platform, exploring a live map of lines across the city, adding wait times and instantly seeing how their contributions shape collective knowledge.
whatisthislinefor.nyc is a project created by Kaitlyn Zou, a designer and creative technologist based in NYC.’

Bed-Stuy 2125
2025-10-29 14:00 - 18:00
Bed-Stuy 2125 is a speculative design project that imagines what Bedford-Stuyvestant could look like in 100 years. Against the backdrop of gentrification today, this project is meant to inspire creative, participatory, and culturally-informed ideas about the types of spaces and services that residents can build and demand to reflect the history and contributions of the neighborhood, while being responsive to environmental and demographic shifts.
This project began with creating physical prototypes and digital renderings of future buildings in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. These prototypes, each with an RFID sticker, link to online posters detailing their digital renderings and descriptions. Early developments include the “Shirley Chisholm College for Social Justice and Political Leadership (2060)” at 631 Myrtle Ave, the “Una S.T. & Yvette Clarke Center (2056)” at 1293 Fulton St, and the “Federal African American Registry (2100).”
This project directly connects to my current practice by leveraging neighborhood knowledge, lore, and research to envision future urban landscapes. It emphasizes community co-creation and aims to empower residents in shaping their neighborhood’s development, moving beyond theoretical design to practical, community-driven solutions. The use of digital tools like Gemini and Midjourney, alongside physical prototyping and community engagement, reflects an interdisciplinary approach to interactive media and social impact.
Bed-Stuy 2125 is a project by Jeremy Knight, NYU Interactive Media Arts, Low-Res Masters Candidate.
About Jeremy Knight:
Jeremy Knight is a cultural strategist and futurist. For more than a decade, he has helped queer, Black and brown folks and brands activate in culture — elevating new narratives about the future through art, technology, and storytelling. In his work, he always partners with communities and brands to define and depict a future that we can all work towards, ensuring marginalized communities see their hopes, dreams and aspirations reflected in the places they live, the media they consume, and the products they use. He is from Atlanta, Georgia and currently lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. He currently works as the Head of External Engagement at New_ Public, a nonprofit product studio that builds healthy digital public spaces; and is receiving his Masters of Arts (MA) in Interactive Media Arts at New York University.

IlluminationSpace Hub Ecosystem Map
2025-10-29 14:00 - 18:00
The IlluminationSpace Hub Ecosystem Map: Civic Science in Action Analyzing the Impact of Emergent Informal STEM Learning Partnerships on Under-resourced Communities and Academic STEM Research is a project that presents outcomes of a Rita Allen Foundation Civic Science Fellowship, supporting an 18-month effort to research, analyze, and expand the ASRC IlluminationSpace Hub (IS Hub). The IS Hub – a collective space for science communication, outreach, and education housed inside CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) in West Harlem – provides opportunities for community members, students, teachers and researchers to collaborate to address public needs.
The project presents a dynamic ecosystem map as a model of emergent civic science, connecting participants, partners, and knowledge holders while elucidating individual and shared value propositions, describing a scalable, replicable model for public universities seeking to make STEM more inclusive, accessible, and impactful. Included are network maps and data stories reflecting the Hub’s commitment to defining—through an equity and inclusion lens—what constitutes an effective, engaged civic science ecosystem: one in which all participants, from community members to academic researchers, experience both ownership of and benefit from the work. Inclusion in the Pop Up presents an impactful way to demonstrate this model of Public Interest Technology and an invitation to use it to further address public concerns.
IlluminationSpace Hub Ecosystem Map is presented by Catherine Cramer, Civic Science Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) and UX designer (and Baruch College graduate) Mashya Mumin.

Heat Complaints in NYC
2025-10-29 14:00 - 18:00
Heat Complaints in NYC: Borough Focused Analysis from August ’23 to April ’25 is an interactive project that addresses two critical questions for those NYC residents who experience no-heat situations in their residences. Using elements of Tableau, this project determines 1) how different winter temperature patterns affect the number of complaints and 2) that there were strong policy implementation ideas based on the Tableau data analytics. The key PIT message here is that, with the existing data infrastructure (NYC 311 Service Request Data) and with elementary knowledge of Tableau, we can develop clear policy insights.
With the existing data structure, such as the NYC public data pool, and an elementary understanding of data visualization tools, anyone can develop robust policy suggestions for New York City. With the planned introduction of agentic AI to data visualization tools like Tableau and Spotfire, this will become even easier. Heat Complaints in NYC is one such example of bringing information power to anybody willing to spend a few hours learning a few elements of data visualization tools.
Heat Complaints in NYC is a project by Masaru Kakutani, CUNY Graduate Center, MS in Data Visualization and Analysis.
About Masaru Kakutani:
Since obtaining his MBA in 1981, Masaru Kakutani has worked for over 40 years at large financial institutions as a risk analyst. Having recently retired, he has been studying new skills in data analysis and visualization to pursue new challenges, focusing on different approaches to managing public challenges and complex economic development.
Learn More about Masaru Kakutani’s work:

More about Heat Complaints in NYC
Masaru’s blog, New Tools for a Long-Standing Financial Analyst

Community Engagement Day
2025-10-29 00:00 - 23:59
Welcome to Day 3 of the NYC PIT Pop Up. Today’s PIT theme is: Community Engagement.
Community Engagement Day Schedule:
Daily Demos: 2:00pm-6:00pm

Heat Complaints in NYC: Borough Focused Analysis from August ’23 to April ’25
IlluminationSpace Hub Ecosystem Map
Bed-Stuy 2125
whatisthislinefor.nyc

The Reboot: 6:00pm-7:30pm

The Reboot: Day 2
2025-10-28 18:00 - 19:30

Life Project 4 Youth Alliance
2025-10-28 14:00 - 18:00
Life Project 4 Youth Alliance is a federation of 16 organizations in 13 countries whose aim is the development of innovative solutions for the comprehensive inclusion (professional and social) of young adults (18-24 years old) living in extreme poverty and suffering from exclusion. It implements professional and social skills training as well as contact between Youth and the private sector, to enhance their knowledge on company settings and what to expect from a decent job.
As part of the NYC PIT Pop Up, Life Project 4 Youth will showcase a video about IT training in its centers and its new online platform, Digital Inclusion, that provides training on well being, sustainability and citizenship.
LP4Y will also present its Youth Inclusion International Forum, happening on October 29th, 2025, from 4-7pm, at Year Up United (85 Broad St, New York, NY 10004). This event will feature two panel discussions: 1. How civil society organizations, companies, youth and institutions in the U.S. are building resilient and innovative strategies to advance youth inclusion; 2. How artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping workforce skills, digital literacy, and hiring practices for the next generation. This event is free, but registration is required here. Join us for a learning and networking event and expand your awareness on youth inclusion!

Pathfinder - AI For Immigration
2025-10-28 14:00 - 18:00
Our immigration system is broken, outdated, and overwhelmed. Families are being separated, and millions face deportation without legal help or reliable information.
Pathfinder, Mobile Pathways’ newest AI-powered platform, helps immigration legal representatives access the fast facts that matter most. It transforms thousands of rows of government data into a clear, intuitive interface that simplifies case research and analysis.
Here’s the challenge: for every legal aid worker, there are 1,400 immigrants in need. Pathfinder bridges that gap. With just a case number, it instantly compiles key details—deadlines, hearings, work permits—so no one slips through the cracks.
What once took hours of interviews and paperwork now takes seconds. One tool, one report, all the facts—empowering advocates to focus on people, not paperwork.
Visitors to the NYC Pit Pop Up will be able to see our tool in action and explore our interactive dashboards — including the Asylum Navigator, which visualizes key immigration court data trends such as asylum grant rates by nationality.
Pathfinder is presented by Ana Ortega Villegas (she/her/ella), Program Director, Mobile Pathways.
About Mobile Pathways:
Mobile Pathways harnesses mobile tech, data, and AI to help immigrants navigate their legal proceedings. We power trusted nonprofits and attorneys with tools to reach more immigrants and deliver better outcomes—faster, smarter, and at scale.

Planning with Parents Who Fear Deportation
2025-10-28 14:00 - 18:00
Planning with Parents Who Fear Deportation is an interactive demo of the “Planning with Parents” website presented by CUNY Law came about from a project started in 2017 by CUNY Law School alums, professors, students, and other advocates and activists to help undocumented parents plan for their children and families in response to the threat of detention and deportation.
As history repeats itself with the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, the reality and threat of mass deportations are all too real.
This website includes links to “guided interviews” (in English and Spanish) where parents, family members, and advocates can learn more about New York advance planning documents, start the emergency planning process, and if you choose, create advance planning documents.
What is emergency planning and why is it important?
• When a parent is detained or deported, emergency planning can avoid the possibility that their children are placed with the state.
• Emergency planning empowers families to choose who will care for their children and who will be able to make important decisions over their children’s care in their absence.
Planning with Parents Who Fear Deportation is presented by Joe Rosenberg, CUNY Law.

Innovating for Inclusion Day: Youth, Tech, and the Future of Immigration Justice
2025-10-28 00:00 - 23:59
Welcome to Day 2 of the NYC PIT Pop Up! Today’s PIT theme is: Innovating for Inclusion- Youth, Tech, and the Future of Immigration Justice.
Innovating for Inclusion Day Schedule:
Daily Demos: 2:00pm-6:00pm

Planning With Parents Who Fear Deportation
Pathfinder – AI For Immigration
Life Project 4 Youth Alliance

The Reboot: 6:00pm-7:30pm

The Reboot: Day 1
2025-10-27 18:00 - 19:30

Community Sensor Lab: Low Cost, DIY, Air Quality Monitor for NYC
2025-10-27 14:00 - 18:00
The Community Sensor Lab is a low cost air quality monitor and data network for NYC that seeks to equip youth and community members with research tools and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) skills to better advocate for local policy change on public health and environmental justice. The project mobilizes CUNY undergraduate and NYC high school students as public educators on the versatility of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) electronics and sensors. The program is built around making and using a low-cost environmental air quality sensor system and data network.
The Community Sensor Lab is presented by the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) and its team includes Kendra Krueger, Evelyn Roman, Ricardo Toledo-Crow, Mark Bellamy, Shawn Blackman, Astrit Boshnjaku, and Jerisson Ramirez.
Check out the Community Sensor Lab’s GitHub page, here.

Lab Flood by BetaNYC
2025-10-27 14:00 - 15:00
Lab Flood is presented by BetaNYC.
About BetaNYC:
BetaNYC is a civic organization dedicated to improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data. We believe that all New Yorkers should be able to access information and use technology as tools for public good. When communities are empowered with modern civic tools, residents can hold their government accountable while expanding their economic opportunities. We also partner with government agencies, local nonprofits, and civic actors — helping them adopt more transparent, equitable, and human-centered systems for the digital era.
For the NYC PIT Pop Up, BetaNYC collaborated with the CUNY PIT Lab on curation, mapping support, and civic tech engagement. We helped design interactive exhibits, supported hands-on data & mapping demos, and connected local technologists and community partners to the project.
Learn more about BetaNYC’s work:

Mapping for Equity (M4E) Project
News and Announcements

Opening Day: Climate Day!
2025-10-27 00:00 - 23:59
Welcome to the Opening Day of the NYC PIT Pop Up! Today’s PIT theme is: Climate.
Climate Day Schedule:
Daily Demos: 2:00pm-6:00pm

Lab Flood by BetaNYC
Community Sensor Lab: Low Cost, DIY, Air Quality Monitor for NYC

The Reboot: 6:00pm-7:30pm
