Today, Eglash applies his knowledge in a number of areas — including working with under-represented students in Detroit. His work has earned the Joan Durrance Community Engagement Award from U-M as well as a new research grant from the National Science Foundation. 

The tech pros will provide free, one-on-one support to entrepreneurs in their community. Tech pros will work between 30 and 40 hours a week with small businesses. UMSI and JEI are aiming to enroll 140 businesses. 

While in residence, fellows at the Radcliffe Institute present lectures and exhibitions to the public, participate in cross-disciplinary study groups, and work closely with undergraduate Harvard students who serve as research partners. 

Her partnerships with Detroit nonprofits fuel her fire for this work, Tawanna Dillahunt said recently during a conversation entitled, “Women in Tech: Closing the Gap,” showing how four women of color had found their way into technology-centric careers. 

Over the next three years, the team will focus their research on resource-constrained communities in Detroit’s Eastside neighborhood and a refugee resettlement agency that serves a public housing community in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The project builds on Tawanna Dillahunt and Julie Hui’s partnership with the Friends of Parkside to pilot a “community tech worker” program to assist seniors requiring technology-related support. Tech workers will be embedded at Jefferson East to develop a sustainable, useful model that will help bridge the digital divide for small businesses. 

“To maximize our impact, each team is focusing on one specific area of need so we can address that same problem in multiple companies and develop expertise in that area. As a result, we have eight teams: four focusing on marketing problems and four focusing on operations.”
~ Michael Willard

The classes are offered by the Silver Center, a virtual senior center that offers enrichment and educational programs via phone to help adults 60 years old or older stay connected. While the program started before the pandemic, organizers hope it will mitigate some of the negative health and social impacts caused by social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. 

University of Michigan School of Information students helped test tools for the city of Detroit that would connect residents to information about school districts, crime, demographics and property values. This data, if accessible, could inform Detroit residents as they make important decisions about their lives.