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“Grinnell College in Iowa has a program for undergraduates in global development studies where you're required to do an internship in a developing country. That was the litmus test for me on whether I really wanted to enter public service. I worked for an NGO in Ghana for three months on fish policy; the government was subsidizing fuel prices for fishermen so they could stay out longer and catch enough fish for a sustainable income, but they weren't actually receiving those subsidized prices. This NGO conducted surveys and wrote reports for the European Union about why this wasn't happening and where the disconnect was. They had me design all the…

Wei Peng, an assistant professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, was named to the 2026-2028 cohort of the Early-Career Research Fellows in the Community Resilience track by the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.Fellows receive a financial award along with “mentoring support to provide them with independence, flexibility, and a built-in support network as they take risks on untested research ideas, pursue unique…

For all the attention they are currently receiving, data centers are not new. Over the last few decades, processing capacity, applications management, storage of digital information, and the like have moved to the cloud, but physical infrastructure is still required. Instead of living on-site, an organization’s countless routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, and servers are housed now in massive facilities offsite, where they are combined with those of numerous other organizations. What is new is the sharp increase in public awareness of data centers, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence and its accompanying need for more computing…

Anyone who has ever tried to renew a driver’s license online or navigate the federal government’s tax websites can attest to the vital role that technology plays in public service. It is often the “last mile” of delivery that determines how easy it is for citizens to access the services they need. With artificial intelligence unlocking a new level of potential efficiency for government, as well as unprecedented risks around safety and privacy, the stakes for future policy leaders to understand and manage technology are higher than ever.So, what does a policy school graduate need to know about AI today? That question took central focus during this year…