From Data Analysis to Direct Outreach: Heinz College Students Expand EITC Access
A team of students at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy initially set out to assist teh National League of Cities (NLC) by leveraging artificial intelligence to pinpoint areas with low Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) utilization. However, the project evolved into a broader initiative focused on connecting citizens with vital resources.
“It started as a focused effort with a specific partner, but the project became a larger, more aspiring effort that will hopefully connect citizens with the services thay need. That’s really exciting,” explained a team member.
The team, anticipating potential challenges, prepared to adapt their approach as the project unfolded – a necessity that quickly materialized. Their original plan to use AI to analyze public IRS data and identify underserved neighborhoods encountered a important hurdle. The available IRS data only indicated the number of EITC recipients, not the total number of eligible individuals. This lack of comprehensive data prevented an accurate assessment of who was missing out on the benefit.
“In order to use AI,you need a pretty complete dataset,which is not what we had,” stated a student involved in the project.initially, convincing the NLC to shift direction proved difficult. The students sought guidance from Professor Ray Goranson, and after refining their presentation to clearly articulate the data limitations, they successfully pivoted to developing a marketing campaign and a tool to help citizens locate Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites.
Despite abandoning the initial AI focus, the team didn’t discard the idea entirely. They provided the NLC with guidelines outlining how to acquire the necessary data for future AI-driven analysis.
Professor Goranson emphasized that such pivots are a common and valuable learning experience within the Policy Innovation Lab course. “In this case, what the students ultimately identified was a number of different ways to help reach potential participants, which would lead to bigger impact, but ultimately wouldn’t have been as obvious had the students not been so proactively learning about the problem by speaking to as many peopel as they could,” he said.
The shift in direction was stressful, particularly given the tight deadline for delivering a product to the NLC. However, Goranson noted that even an unsuccessful project would have yielded significant learning opportunities.”A lot of times,the real work can be messy. There’s no clear set of instructions. Its not always clear what you’re going to do, or who it’s really for, and you have to do a lot of work to figure it out. At Heinz, there are a number of opportunities for students to put their skills to the test, figure out what works and learn a lot along the way,” he added.
The project’s impact extends beyond the immediate deliverables for the NLC.One student,currently interning at the Tax Policy Center – a think tank affiliated with the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution – is evaluating best practices for a statewide EITC uptake campaign in Maryland,funded by $300,000 from Governor Wes Moore. She directly attributes securing this internship to her work on the EITC project at Heinz College.
“I feel like it gives value to our education and the work that we’re doing,knowing that what we’re doing is actually going to help people,” she said,highlighting the college’s emphasis on applying technical skills to public service.another student emphasized the value of the team’s diverse backgrounds – encompassing technical expertise, research skills, and varying academic levels – reflecting Heinz College’s interdisciplinary approach. “It speaks to Heinz’s interdisciplinary curriculum, which is really about bringing people with different backgrounds together and working together,” she explained.
