A new student organization is hoping to help students participate in politics by building computer science skills.
Political Computer Science at ASU focuses on the intersection of computer science and politics. According to the organization's website, it seeks to use computer science "to improve our community through policy understanding, civic engagement, technology literacy, and non-partisan campaign assistance."
Alexander Zhao, a sophomore studying political science and economics and the organization's president of political affairs, said members discuss current events and use software and coding skills to make a difference.
"There's a lot of issues that could be better with coding apps," Zhao said. "We decided it'd be a good way to mesh the two, get a lot of people involved and just help out the community."
Zhao said Political Computer Science was originally founded at the University of California, Berkeley, and an affiliated organization was created at ASU in December. It held its first meeting in January.
The club intends to organize outreach to get people to vote, host workshops on basic coding skills and create three projects each semester, Zhao said.
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Lincoln Vondra, a sophomore studying computer science and the organization's president of technological affairs, said political science and computer science are complementary fields. Whereas political science generates ideas, computer science actualizes them and turns them into products.
Vondra also pointed to the benefits for the club's members.
"We create projects to benefit the local community, but we also keep our members in mind," Vondra said. "We're trying to make sure that they can thrive the best they can in their industry, whether that's learning programming skills, political awareness, speech skills, that kind of thing."
Generative artificial intelligence is not used in the club, so members can learn the fundamentals of coding themselves, Vondra said. He also pointed to the environmental impacts of AI technology.
Vondra said the club teaches coding languages including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and R.
One of Political Computer Science's goals is to use technological skills to perform political research, Zhao said. He listed return on investment for public transportation and access to food as potential issues for the organization to investigate.
Zhao also said data analytics, one of the organization's focuses, is particularly useful for helping local governments make decisions.
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The club is "completely beginner-friendly" and welcomes students from all majors, Vondra said.
Zhao said it is open to students of all political affiliations and hopes to create constructive dialogue through biweekly discussion forums.
"Coding is a non-partisan subject," Zhao said. "As long as they're respectful, anyone can help us in our club in any way."
The organization currently has around 50 active members, Zhao and Vondra said.
Timothy Peterson, a professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies and the club's faculty adviser, said in a written statement that he was happy to serve as the organization's adviser because of its mission.
"These two fields can benefit a lot from each other: Political Science can identify problems and provide important theoretical grounding while Computer Science offers powerful tools for data analysis and communication," Peterson said.
He also said the club's members were interested in using both fields to solve problems, particularly at the local level.
"I think the club has great promise to serve the people of Arizona while providing its members with fantastic learning opportunities outside the classroom and facilitating professional development that could lead to future employment," Peterson said.
Edited by Carsten Oyer, Jack McCarthy and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at spkeelin@asu.edu.
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