Social Impact Fellowship: Machine Learning, AI Agents, Computer Vision, Cybersecurity, and Cloud Engineering (Remote)

Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative (ChiEAC)

ChiEAC is a community-rooted nonprofit devoted to building educational equity and justice for racialized and minoritized students and families. Through data, organizing, and advocacy, we uplift community voices that are too often silenced in Chicago’s educational systems.

ChiEAC Data Science Alliance

ChiEAC’s Data Science Alliance connects emerging professionals with hands-on, impact-driven projects. This is your opportunity to develop your technical skill set, build your professional portfolio, and create real change-all while being mentored by equity-driven educators, researchers, and technologists.

Key Areas of Opportunity

Machine Learning & Predictive Analytics

Focus Area: Community Intelligence & Decision Support

What Fellows Would Build

• Student dropout risk prediction systems
• Workforce placement forecasting tools
• Housing insecurity prediction models
• Mental health risk indicator dashboards
• Community resource demand forecasting

Example Projects

• Edu-Risk AI
• Student Success Predictor
• Community Needs Forecasting Platform
• Workforce Readiness Analytics Dashboard

Skills Developed

• Python
• Pandas
• Scikit-Learn
• Feature Engineering
• Model Evaluation
• Data Visualization

Target Roles

• Data Analyst
• Data Scientist
• Machine Learning Engineer
• Business Intelligence Analyst

AI Agents & Generative AI

Focus Area: Digital Advocacy & Community Assistance

What Fellows Would Build

• AI-powered legal information assistants
• Community resource navigators
• Scholarship search agents
• Resume and interview coaching systems
• Immigration support assistants

Example Projects

• Know Your Rights AI
• Community Resource Navigator
• Career Coach AI
• Scholarship Discovery Agent
• Small Business Advisor AI

Skills Developed

• LLM Development
• RAG Pipelines
• Prompt Engineering
• Vector Databases
• LangChain
• Agentic Workflows

Target Roles

• AI Engineer
• Generative AI Developer
• AI Solutions Consultant
• Prompt Engineer
• Product Manager (AI)

Computer Vision

Focus Area: Community Safety & Accessibility

What Fellows Would Build

• ADA accessibility assessment tools
• Food pantry inventory recognition systems
• Urban infrastructure monitoring
• Environmental hazard detection
• Document digitization and OCR systems

Example Projects

• Accessibility Scanner
• Community Infrastructure Monitor
• Food Distribution Tracking System
• Environmental Compliance Assistant

Skills Developed

• OpenCV
• YOLO
• TensorFlow
• PyTorch
• OCR Systems
• Image Classification

Target Roles

• Computer Vision Engineer
• AI Engineer
• Robotics Engineer
• Machine Learning Engineer

Cybersecurity

Focus Area: Community Cyber Defense

What Fellows Would Build

• Nonprofit security assessment platforms
• Security awareness training systems
• Vulnerability management dashboards
• Incident response simulators
• Phishing detection systems

Example Projects

• CyberShield for Nonprofits
• Security Readiness Dashboard
• Threat Detection Lab
• Incident Response Simulator

Skills Developed

• SIEM
• Threat Hunting
• Log Analysis
• Detection Engineering
• Cloud Security
• Incident Response

Target Roles

• Security Analyst
• SOC Analyst
• Threat Hunter
• Detection Engineer
• Security Engineer

Cloud Engineering

Focus Area: Social Impact Infrastructure

What Fellows Would Build

• Scalable community resource platforms
• Multi-tenant nonprofit management systems
• Disaster recovery solutions
• Data integration pipelines
• Public-facing AI applications

Example Projects

• Community Services Platform
• Volunteer Management System
• ResourceBridge
• Social Impact Data Lake
• Nonprofit Operations Hub

Skills Developed

• AWS
• Azure
• Google Cloud
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• CI/CD
• Infrastructure as Code

Target Roles

• Cloud Engineer
• DevOps Engineer
• Platform Engineer
• Site Reliability Engineer
• Solutions Architect

AI for Social Good Research & Innovation

Focus Area: Emerging Technologies Lab

This would be the most advanced fellowship track.

What Fellows Would Build

• Multimodal AI systems
• Digital twin simulations
• Community sentiment analysis
• Predictive public health models
• Agentic social service platforms

Example Projects

• Community Digital Twin
• Public Health Early Warning System
• Civic Intelligence Platform
• Crisis Response AI Network

Skills Developed

• Advanced AI Architectures
• Research Methods
• Distributed Systems
• MLOps
• AI Governance

Target Roles

• Applied AI Scientist
• AI Research Engineer
• Technical Product Manager
• Innovation Strategist

Why This Role Matters

• Co-lead a mission-aligned, portfolio-ready project with deep community impact.
• Access mentorship and professional development tailored to students and early-career professionals of color.
• Join a network of Black and Latina/o scholars, activists, and data scientists working for justice.
• Gain references, recommendations, and career-launching experiences in the public interest tech space.

Ideal Candidate

We’re looking for motivated, values-driven volunteers with any of the following:

• Background or interest in data science, education equity, or community advocacy
• Coursework or experience in statistics, programming, machine learning, or cybersecurity
• Proficiency (or eagerness to learn) tools like Python, R, SPSS, Tableau, SQL, React, or Figma
• Ability to communicate across differences and work with integrity in community spaces
• Commitment to using data to tell stories that move people to action

Time Commitment

• 20-25 hours/week
• Flexible scheduling; hybrid/remote work available
• OPT option

How to Apply

Interested in volunteering?

Click here to schedule a time to talk with our Executive Director, Dr. Benjamin Drury here

https://calendly.com/chieac/chieac-social-impact-fellowship

We welcome emerging leaders who want to build, create, analyze, and inspire alongside us.

Build Tools for Justice

Whether you're coding an app, visualizing trends, analyzing text, or building predictive models-you’re helping create pathways for students and families to thrive.

Learn more from Fellows on our IG: https://www.instagram.com/wearechieac