A new technology-focused public policy institute in California is developing prototypes and pilot programs in an effort to solve real-world problems instead of the more traditional approach of writing reports and white papers, founder and former Sen. Sam Blakeslee said.
The Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy is Blakeslee’s answer to what he described as an apparent need for innovative ideas in California. The Republican spent eight years in the California State Assembly and Senate representing the central coast where he said he witnessed the decline of the Golden State’s status as global leader in energy, higher education, infrastructure and transportation.
“At the Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, we explore the most complex challenges in the arenas of energy, the environment, agriculture and government transparency with the goal of identifying and developing new ways of using emerging technology to influence public policy,” Blakeslee said in an interview with Techwire Magazine.
“Rather than just writing reports or issuing white papers, it is building and deploying prototypes and pilot projects, and crafting model policy," he said. "This practical hands-on approach will connect the best and brightest minds at Cal Poly with the real world politics of Sacramento.”
Blakeslee founded the institute last fall at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. The students and faculty are currently working on three pilot programs: Open Government, 21st-Century Education Initiative and California Energy Independence.
Ultimately, Blakeslee said he hopes the institute will become a model for how a practical approach can be used to solve problems in a university setting. The goal is to achieve a dramatic increase in the number of private-public partnerships in California that help students excel, help governments create better policy and lower the barriers to entry for new and advanced technologies – all of which advocates say would be good for California’s economy and environment.
* Lloyd Levine, a former Democratic state lawmaker, served with Blakeslee in the California State Assembly and interviewed him for a profile about the Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy (IATPP) in the latest issue of Techwire Magazine.
