We Robot 2017: March 31 & April 1 – Yale University

 

 

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More information at the We Robot 2017 homepage.

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That Was Great

 

 

We Robot 2016 is over, but you can see the recordings of almost all the sessions. The papers are available via links from the Final We Robot 2016 Program.

Plus, by popular demand, here links to the slides from the pre-conference workshops:

We Robot 2017 will be March 31 & April 1 at Yale University.

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We Robot Livestream

 

 

Watch WeRobot 2016 live On Livestream. Follow #WeRobot on Twitter.

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Thank You to Our Sponsors

 

 

We Robot 2016 would not be possible without our wonderful Sponsors.

We would like to thank Microsoft, the Omidyar Group, the University of Miami Arsht Ethics Initiatives, Epic.org, Finnegan, The Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, The University of Washington Tech Policy Lab and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Institute for Bioethics for their invaluable support of our conference.

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Discussants and Moderators: Day Two – April 2nd

 

 

We Robot 2016 presentations feature Discussants and Moderators who are in integral part of the conference. Discussants are the lead speakers in their session and are responsible for presenting the main themes of the paper and offering their views. Moderators are the ringmasters of their panels.

Matt Beane

Matt Beane

Matt Beane is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Aurelia Tamò and Christoph Lutz’s paper Privacy and healthcare robots – An ANT analysis on Saturday, April 2nd at 8:30 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Matt, a PhD candidate in spring 2016 from MIT Sloan School of Management, is an expert in human-robot interaction in the workplace. At MIT, Matt has focused on problems and opportunities associated with integrating robots into complex collaborative work. He has completed projects on robotic surgery, robotic materials transport, and robotic telepresence in healthcare, elder care and business. His work on robotic telepresence in a post-surgical ICU was recently published in Organization Science, one of two top management journals focused on novel organizational phenomena. He was selected in 2012 as a Human Robot Interaction Pioneer, and is a regular contributor to MIT’s Technology Review and Robohub. Matt has taught a variety of courses at MIT; his “Business of Robotics” course regularly attracts students and industry experts. Before MIT Sloan, Matt was a principal in a management consulting firm focused on group and team dynamics.

Harry Surden

Harry Surden

Harry Surden is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Aaron Mannes’ paper Institutional Options for Robot Governance on Saturday, April 2nd at 10:00 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Harry Surden is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. He joined the faculty in 2008. His scholarship centers upon intellectual property law with a substantive focus on patents and copyright, information privacy law, legal informatics and legal automation, and the application of computer technology within the legal system. Prior to joining CU, Professor Surden was a resident fellow at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX) at Stanford Law School. In that capacity, Professor Surden conducted interdisciplinary research with collaborators from the Stanford School of Engineering exploring the application of computer technology towards improving the legal system. He was also a member of the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse and the director of the Computer Science and Law Initiative. Professor Surden was law clerk to the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. He received his law degree from Stanford Law School with honors and was the recipient of the Stanford Law Intellectual Property Writing Award. Prior to law school, Professor Surden worked as a software engineer for Cisco Systems and Bloomberg L.P. He received his undergraduate degree with honors from Cornell University. Professor Surden is an Affiliated Faculty Member at The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX).

Mary Anne Franks

Mary Anne Franks

Mary Anne Franks is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Peter Asaro’s paper Will #BlackLivesMatter to RoboCop? on Saturday, April 2nd at 11:30 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Mary Anne Franks is a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, First Amendment law, family law, and a course on Law, Policy, and Technology. Before joining the UM faculty, Dr. Franks was a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago School of Law and a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Franks received her J.D. in 2007 from Harvard Law School and her D.Phil in 2004 and M.Phil in 2001 from Oxford University, where she studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. Her areas of research include free speech, online abuse, discrimination, and gun violence. She is also the Legislative & Tech Policy Director and Vice-President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a non-profit organization dedicated to challenging online harassment and abuse. In that capacity, Professor Franks advises tech industry leaders on privacy and abuse issues and has helped legislators in more than two dozen US states and the federal government draft legislation to protect sexual privacy. She is also a co-producer of the documentary Hot Girls Wanted, which examines the “professional amateur” porn industry. Her academic scholarship has appeared in publications such as the California Law Review and the UCLA Law Review; her popular press publications include The Atlantic, the Guardian, TIME Magazine, and the Huffington Post.

Margot Kaminski

Margot Kaminski

Margot E. Kaminski is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Helen Norton and Toni Massaro’s paper Siriously? Free Speech Rights for Artificial Intelligence on Saturday, April 2nd at 3:15 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Margot E. Kaminski is an Assistant Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She teaches, researches, and writes on law and technology. Her work has focused on privacy, speech, and online civil liberties, in addition to international intellectual property law and legal issues raised by AI and robotics. Recently, much of her work has focused on domestic drones (UAS). Kaminski is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. While at Yale, she co-founded the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic (MFIA), a law school clinic dedicated to increasing government transparency, defending the essential work of news gatherers, and protecting freedom of expression. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Andrew J. Kleinfeld of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Fairbanks, Alaska. She worked at a literary agency prior to law school, and has worked at Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 2011-2014 Kaminski served as the executive director of theInformation Society Project at Yale Law School, an intellectual center addressing the implications of new information technologies for law and society. She remains an affiliated fellowof the Yale ISP.

Ian Kerr

Ian Kerr

Ian R. Kerr is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for William D. Smart’s paper What do We Really Know About Robots and the Law? on Saturday, April 2nd at 4:30 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Ian Kerr is recognized as an international expert in emerging law and technology issues. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law, and Technology at the University of Ottawa. He is currently teaching a seminar course on the philosophical, ethical & legal implications of robots and society entitled, “The Robotic Laws.” He teaches contracts as well as a unique upper-year seminar offered each year during the month of January in Puerto Rico that brings students from very different legal traditions together to exchange culture, values, and ideas and to unite in the study of technology law issues of global importance (TechnoRico). His devotion to teaching has earned six awards and citations, including the Bank of Nova Scotia Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the University of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Graduate Studies’ Award of Teaching Excellence, and the University of Ottawa’s AEECLSS Teaching Excellence Award. Kerr was educated at the University of Alberta and the University of Western Ontario. In addition to co-authoring the widely used business law text, Managing the Law (co-authored by Mitchell McInnes, Anthony VanDuzer, and Chi Carmody), he has published in the areas of ethical and legal aspects of digital copyright, automated electronic commerce, artificial intelligence, cybercrime, nanotechnology, internet regulation, ISP and intermediary liability, online defamation, pre-natal injuries and unwanted pregnancies. His current program of research includes two large projects: (i) On the Identity Trail, focusing on the impact of information and authentication technologies on our identity and our right to be anonymous; and (ii) An Examination of Digital Copyright, focusing on various aspects of the current effort to reform Canadian copyright legislation, including the implications of such reform on fundamental Canadian values including privacy and freedom of expression. Professor Kerr is also the originator of Kerr’s Postulate which states that in any discussion of law and technology, the longer a discussion continues the probability of including a reference to The Matrix approaches one. Kerr’s Postulate is a play on Godwin’s Law stemming from academic research on the man/machine merger andartificial intelligence. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Ottawa, he held a joint appointment in the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Information & Media Studies and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.

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Discussants and Moderators: Day One – April 1st

 

 

We Robot 2016 presentations feature Discussants and Moderators who are in integral part of the conference. Discussants are the lead speakers in their session and are responsible for presenting the main themes of the paper and offering their views. Moderators are the ringmasters of their panels.

Rebecca Crootof

Rebecca Crootof

Rebecca Crootof is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Madeleine Elish’s paper Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human Robot Interaction on Friday, April 1st at 8:45 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Rebecca Crootof is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale Law School and a Resident Fellow with the Yale Information Society Project. She specializes in legal evolution and the interplay between law and new technology, with a focus on how regulation can channel technological developments to promote socially desirable aims. Crootof is currently teaching a course on regulating disruptive technology, and she has recently written on how customary international law may modify treaties, the implications of new weaponry for the U.S. war powers debate, institutional means of determining state responsibility for unlawful cyberattacks, and how autonomous weapon systems may foster the development of international tort law.

Ashkan Soltani

Ashkan Soltani

Ashkan Soltani is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Matthew Reuben and William D. Smart’s paper Privacy in Human-Robot Interaction: Survey and Future Work on Friday, April 1st at 10:15 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Ashkan Soltani is an independent researcher and technologist specializing on issues relating to privacy, security, and behavioral economics. His work draws attention to privacy problems online, demystifies technology for the non-technically inclined, and provides data-driven insights to help inform policy. He’s previously served a brief stint as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as the Chief Technologist for the Federal Trade Commission, advising the commission on its technology related policy as well as helping to create its new Office of Technology Research and Investigation. He also served at the FTC in 2010 as one of the first staff technologists in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, helping to lead investigations into major technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, HTC, and PulsePoint. Ashkan was also recognized as part of the 2014 Pulitzer winning team for his contributions to the Washington Post’s coverage of National Security issues. He was also the primary technical consultant on the Wall Street Journal’s investigative series: “What They Know”, which was a finalist for 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

Peter Asaro

Peter Asaro

Peter Asaro is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Jason Millar and AJung Moon’s paper How to Engage the Public on the Ethics and Governance of Lethal Autonomous Weapons on Friday, April 1st at 11:45 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Peter Asaro is a philosopher of science, technology and media. His work examines artificial intelligence and robotics as a form of digital media, and the ways in which technology mediates social relations and shapes our experience of the world. His current research focuses on the social, cultural, political, legal and ethical dimensions of military robotics and UAV drones, from a perspective that combines media theory with science and technology studies. He has written widely-cited papers on lethal robotics from the perspective of just war theory and human rights. Dr. Asaro’s research also examines agency and autonomy, liability and punishment, and privacy and surveillance as it applies to consumer robots, industrial automation, smart buildings, and autonomous vehicles. His research has been published in international peer reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he is currently writing a book that interrogates the intersections between advanced robotics, and social and ethical issues. Dr. Asaro has held research positions at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University, the HUMlab of Umeå University in Sweden, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. He has also developed technologies in the areas of virtual reality, data visualization and sonification, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robot vision, and neuromorphic robotics at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and Iguana Robotics, Inc., and was involved in the design of the natural language interface for the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine for Wolfram Research–this interface is also used by Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Bing to answer math queries, and won two 2010 SXSW Web Interactive Awards for Technical Achievement and Best of Show. He is completing an Oral History of Robotics project that is funded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities. He has also just initiated a new three-year project on Regulating Autonomous Artificial Agents: A Systematic Approach to Developing AI & Robot Policy, funded by the Future of Life InstituteDr. Asaro received his PhD in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also earned a Master of Arts from the Department of Philosophy, and a Master of Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science.

Daniel Sciliano

Daniel Sciliano

Dan Siciliano is the We Robot 2016 Moderator for the Hot Topics Panel on Autonomous Cars, comprising Harry Surden and Mary-Anne Williams’ paper Autonomous Vehicles, Predictability, and Law and Françoise Gilbert and Raffaele Zallone’s paper Connect Cars – Recent Legal Developments on Friday, April 1st at 3:00 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. F. Daniel Siciliano, JD ’04, is a legal scholar and entrepreneur with expertise in corporate governance, corporate finance, and immigration law. He assumes a variety of leadership roles at the law school, including faculty director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, associate dean for executive education and special programs and co-director of Stanford’s Directors’ College. He is also the co-originator of the OSCGRS (Open Source Corporate Governance Reporting System) Project. Previously, Siciliano was a teaching fellow for the law school’s international LLM degree program in Corporate Governance and Practice and executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business. He is the senior research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center and a frequent commentator on the long-term economic impact of immigration policy and reform. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Prior to joining Stanford Law School, Siciliano co-founded and served as executive director of the Immigration Outreach Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He has launched and led several successful businesses, including LawLogix Group—named three times to the Inc. 500/5000 list. Siciliano serves as a governance consultant and trainer to board directors of several Fortune 500 companies and is a member of the Academic Council of Corporate Board Member magazine.

A. Michael Froomkin

A. Michael Froomkin

A. Michael Froomkin is the We Robot 2016 Discussant for Ryan Calo’s paper Robots In American Law on Friday, April 1st at 4:30 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. In addition to being the Chair of this year’s Program Committee, Michael is the Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Miami, specializing in Privacy Law and Administrative Law. He founded We Robot in 2012. Michael is also the founder-editor of the online law review Jotwell, The Journal of Things We Like (Lots). He serves on the Editorial Board of Information, Communication & Society and of I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society. He is on the Advisory Boards of several organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Michael Froomkin writes primarily about privacy, Internet governance, electronic democracy, and cryptography. He is one of the editors (with Ryan Calo and Ian Kerr) of the forthcoming “Robot Law” (Edward Elgar, 2016), a collection of papers primarily drawn from past editions of We Robot.

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We Robot Authors: Day Two – April 2nd

 

 

We Robot 2016 is rooted in contributions by academics, practitioners, and others in the form of scholarly papers or demonstrations of technology or other projects. These presentations explore the increasing sophistication and decision-making capabilities of robots, which disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues. 

Aurelia Tamò

Aurelia Tamò

Aurelia Tamò and Christoph Lutz will join We Robot 2016 to present their paper Privacy and Healthcare Robots – An ANT Analysis on Saturday, April 2nd at 8:30 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Aurelia Tamò is a PhD student at the Chair for Information and Communication Law at the University of Zurich. She is a guest researcher at the Institute for Pervasive Computing at ETH Zurich and at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. In her PhD research project Aurelia analyzes technical measures and designs for data protection. For her research she was granted a Doc.CH scholarship by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her overall research interests include various topics within the interdisciplinary field of law and technology such as privacy or copyright and regulatory developments in these fields. More recently she became interested in robotics and the impact of in particular social robots on the current social and ethical structures. Aurelia has a background in law and economics and holds a Master degree from the University of St. Gallen. Aurelia’s publications can be found on ResearchGate. Tweets via @a_a_tamo.

Christoph Lutz

Christoph Lutz

Christoph Lutz is a researcher in the field of new communication technologies and social media. In 2015, he obtained his PhD from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, with a cumulative dissertation on online participation and participation divides in Germany. In the same year, he worked as a visiting scholar at the Oxford Internet Institute. As of 2016, Christoph is assistant professor at BI Norwegian Business School and senior researcher at the University of Leipzig. Christoph has a background in sociology, economics and media science. His research interests include privacy; social media, especially in science, politics and public administration; trust; serendipity; and social robots. Christoph has published in leading new media, Internet and information systems journals (JMIS, JASIST, Information Communication & Society, International Journal of Communication, Social Media & Society etc.) and presented at various conferences and workshops (AOM, ICA, ACM Webscience etc.). More information about Christoph can be found on ResearchGate, Google Scholar and Twitter (@lutzid)

Aaron Mannes

Aaron Mannes

Aaron Mannes will join We Robot 2016 to present his paper Institutional Options for Robot Governance on Saturday, April 2nd at 10:00 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Aaron Mannes is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Technology Policy Fellow with the Apex Data Analytics Engine at the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency. Dr. Mannes earned his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy in 2014. His dissertation topic was the evolving national security role of the vice president. From 2004 to 2015 Dr. Mannes was a researcher at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) where he was the subject matter expert on terrorism and international affairs collaborating with a team of inter-disciplinary scientists to build computational tools to support decision-makers facing 21st century security and development problems. At UMIACS Dr. Mannes co-authored numerous papers and two books on using computational tools to understand and counter terrorism. Dr. Mannes is the author of Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations (Rowman & Littlefield 2004), and has written scores of articles, papers, and book chapters on an array of topics including Middle East affairs, terrorism, technology, and other international security issues for popular and scholarly publications including Politico, Policy Review, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Journal of International Security Affairs, The Huffington Post, The National Interest, The Jerusalem Post, and The Guardian. Dr. Mannes can be reached through his website www.aaronmannes.com

Peter Asaro

Peter Asaro

Peter Asaro will join We Robot 2016 to present his paper Will #BlackLivesMatter to RoboCop? on Saturday, April 2nd at 11:30 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Peter Asaro is a philosopher of science, technology and media. His work examines artificial intelligence and robotics as a form of digital media, and the ways in which technology mediates social relations and shapes our experience of the world. His current research focuses on the social, cultural, political, legal and ethical dimensions of military robotics and UAV drones, from a perspective that combines media theory with science and technology studies. He has written widely-cited papers on lethal robotics from the perspective of just war theory and human rights. Dr. Asaro’s research also examines agency and autonomy, liability and punishment, and privacy and surveillance as it applies to consumer robots, industrial automation, smart buildings, and autonomous vehicles. His research has been published in international peer reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he is currently writing a book that interrogates the intersections between advanced robotics, and social and ethical issues. Dr. Asaro has held research positions at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University, the HUMlab of Umeå University in Sweden, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. He has also developed technologies in the areas of virtual reality, data visualization and sonification, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robot vision, and neuromorphic robotics at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and Iguana Robotics, Inc., and was involved in the design of the natural language interface for the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine forWolfram Research–this interface is also used by Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Bing to answer math queries, and won two 2010 SXSW Web Interactive Awards for Technical Achievement and Best of Show. He is completing an Oral History of Robotics project that is funded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities. He has also just initiated a new three-year project on Regulating Autonomous Artificial Agents: A Systematic Approach to Developing AI & Robot Policy, funded by the Future of Life InstituteDr. Asaro received his PhD in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also earned a Master of Arts from the Department of Philosophy, and a Master of Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science.

Helen Norton

Helen Norton

Helen Norton and Toni Massaro will join We Robot 2016 to present their paper Siriously? Free Speech Rights for Artificial Intelligence on Saturday, April 2nd at 3:15 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Helen Norton joined the Colorado Law faculty in 2007, after earlier serving as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and as the E. George Rudolph Distinguished Visiting Chair at the University of Wyoming College of Law. Her scholarly and teaching interests include constitutional law, civil rights, and employment discrimination law; she has been honored with the Excellence in Teaching Award on multiple occasions and was appointed a University of Colorado Presidential Teaching Scholar in 2014. She served as leader of President-elect Obama’s transition team charged with reviewing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2008, and is frequently invited to testify before Congress and federal agencies on civil rights law and policy issues. Before entering academia, Professor Norton served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she managed the Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation, Educational Opportunities, and Coordination and Review Sections, and as Director of Legal and Public Policy at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she practiced appellate litigation and engaged in administrative and legislative advocacy on a range of employment and civil rights matters. She holds a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, where she served as Associate Editor of the California Law Review, and a B.A. from Stanford University, where she graduated with distinction.

Toni Massaro

Toni Massaro

Professor Toni Massaro received her B.S. degree, with highest distinction, from Northwestern University. She obtained her law degree from the College of William and Mary, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the William and Mary Law Review. Massaro was in private practice in Chicago with Vedder, Price, Kaufman and Kammholz. She also has taught at Washington and Lee University, Stanford University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the University of Florida. Prof. Massaro joined the faculty at the University of Arizona College of Law in 1989. Since 1997, she has been the Milton O. Riepe Chair in Constitutional Law. In 2006, she was named a Regent’s Professor by the Arizona Board of Regents. From 1999 – 2009, she served as Dean of the College of Law, the first woman to hold that post. Prof. Massaro is the author of The Arc of Due Process in American Constitutional Law (with E. Thomas Sullivan), Constitutional Literacy:  A Core Curriculum for a Multicultural Nation, and Civil Procedure:  Cases and Problems (with Barbara Allen Babcock and Norman Spaulding). She also is the author of dozens of law review articles on constitutional law, shame penalties, and law and emotion. She currently teaches Constitutional Law I, First Amendment, and Equal Protection. Prof. Massaro is an eight time recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award.

William D. Smart

Bill Smart

William D. Smart will join We Robot 2016 to present his paper What do We Really Know About Robots and the Law? on Saturday, April 2nd at 4:30 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Bill Smart is an Associate Professor at Oregon State University, where he co-directs the Robotics program.  He holds a Ph.D. and Sc.M. in Computer Science from Brown University, an M.Sc. in Intelligent Robotics from the University of Edinburgh, and a B.Sc. (hons) in Computer Science from the University of Dundee.  Prior to moving to Oregon State in 2012, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Biomedical Engineering, at Washington University in St. Louis.  His research interests cover the fields of human-robot interaction, machine learning, and mobile robotics.  His recent work has focused on how robots and robotic technologies can be used for people with severe motor disabilities.  He is particularly proud of his Erdős (3), and his Bacon number (also 3).

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We Robot Authors: Day One – April 1st

 

 

We Robot 2016 is rooted in contributions by academics, practitioners, and others in the form of scholarly papers or demonstrations of technology or other projects. These presentations explore the increasing sophistication and decision-making capabilities of robots, which disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues. 

Madeleine Elish

Madeleine Elish

Madeleine Elish will join We Robot 2016 to present her paper Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human Robot Interaction on Friday, April 1st at 8:45 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Madeleine Claire Elish is an anthropologist focusing on the evolving role of humans in large scale automated and autonomous systems. Her graduate study has focused on forms of physical work that are now being performed virtually, from controlling drones half-way around the world to telemedicine robotics. She currently a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Columbia University and previously earned an S.M. in Comparative Media Studies at MIT. Much of her work involves the intersection of the physical and digital worlds and the ways in which cultures change when the lines shift between the real and the virtual. Madeleine Elish is also a research analyst at Data & Society Research Institute, a New York-based think/do tank focused on social, cultural, and ethical issues arising from data-centric technological development. Madeleine Elish has also worked as a freelance researcher, conducting qualitative research for firms interested in developing new strategies based on social science and ethnographic insights.

Matthew Rueben

Matthew Rueben

Matthew Reuben and Bill Smart will join We Robot 2016 to present their paper Privacy in Human-Robot Interaction: Survey and Future Work on Friday, April 1st at 10:15 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Matt is a PhD student in the Personal Robotics group at Oregon State University. He graduated from Oregon State University in 2013 with the H.B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering. His current research centers around securing personal privacy protection for people using mobile robots. More information about Matthew Rueben may be found at his Oregon State University page.

 

William D. Smart

Bill Smart

Bill Smart is an Associate Professor at Oregon State University, where he co-directs the Robotics program.  He holds a Ph.D. and Sc.M. in Computer Science from Brown University, an M.Sc. in Intelligent Robotics from the University of Edinburgh, and a B.Sc. (hons) in Computer Science from the University of Dundee.  Prior to moving to Oregon State in 2012, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Biomedical Engineering, at Washington University in St. Louis.  His research interests cover the fields of human-robot interaction, machine learning, and mobile robotics.  His recent work has focused on how robots and robotic technologies can be used for people with severe motor disabilities.  He is particularly proud of his Erdős (3), and his Bacon number (also 3).

Jason Millar

Jason Millar

Jason Millar and AJung Moon will join We Robot 2016 to present their paper How to Engage the Public on the Ethics and Governance of Lethal Autonomous Weapons on Friday, April 1st at 11:45 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Jason Millar (BScE, BA, MA, PhD) researches the design ethics and governance of robotics and automation technologies. In addition to teaching philosophy at Carleton University (Ottawa), he is the Chief Ethics Analyst at the Open Roboethics Initiative (ORi) and is a member of the Organizing Committee of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics. He has a degree in engineering physics, and worked for several years designing telecommunications and aerospace electronics before turning his full-time attention to issues in applied ethics, philosophy and technology. Jason has authored book chapters, reports, and articles on robot ethics, design ethics, privacy, and science and technology policy. His work on design ethics and autonomous cars has been featured internationally in the media. He is co-author of chapters in the forthcoming books: Robot Law, edited by Ryan Calo, Ian Kerr, and Michael Froomkin; and The Oxford Handbook on the Law and Regulation of Technology, edited by Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung.

AJung Moon

AJung Moon

AJung Moon is a PhD candidate and a Vanier Scholar at the University of British Columbia. She studies human-robot interaction and roboethics / robot ethics under the supervision of Drs. Elizabeth Croft and Mike Van der Loos. Currently she is a visiting student at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA) at EPFL. Her research interest is focused on studying the intersection of human-robot interaction (HRI) and roboethics. She specializes in designing nonverbal communication cues (hand gestures, gaze cues) for robots for human-robot collaboration contexts. Currently, she is developing ways for humans and robots to ‘negotiate’ a way out of conflicts using nonverbal gestures. She is a co-founder of the Open Roboethics initiative, an international roboethics think tank that investigates ways in which stakeholders of robotics technologies can work together to influence how robots should shape our future. Outside her office, AJung blogs on her Roboethics Info Database blog, serves as one of the ethics bloggers and a panel of experts for the Robohub.org, tweets @RoboEthics, and manages the facebook group on roboethics.

Harry Surden

Harry Surden

Harry Surden will join We Robot 2016 to present  his paper (co-authored with Mary-Anne Williams), Autonomous Vehicles, Predictability on Friday, April 1st at 3:00 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Harry Surden is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. He joined the faculty in 2008. His scholarship centers upon intellectual property law with a substantive focus on patents and copyright, information privacy law, legal informatics and legal automation, and the application of computer technology within the legal system. Prior to joining CU, Professor Surden was a resident fellow at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX) at Stanford Law School. In that capacity, Professor Surden conducted interdisciplinary research with collaborators from the Stanford School of Engineering exploring the application of computer technology towards improving the legal system. He was also a member of the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse and the director of the Computer Science and Law Initiative. Professor Surden was law clerk to the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. He received his law degree from Stanford Law School with honors and was the recipient of the Stanford Law Intellectual Property Writing Award. Prior to law school, Professor Surden worked as a software engineer for Cisco Systems and Bloomberg L.P. He received his undergraduate degree with honors from Cornell University. Professor Surden is an Affiliated Faculty Member at The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX).

Mary-Anne Williams

Mary-Anne Williams

Mary-Anne Williams is the co-author  of Autonomous Vehicles, Predictability.  She is the Director of the Innovation and Enterprise Research Laboratory (The Magic Lab) at UTS. Mary-Anne has a Masters of Laws and a PhD in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning with transdisciplinary strengths in AI, disruptive innovation, design thinking, data analytics, IP law and privacy law. Mary-Anne is a Faculty Fellow at Stanford University and a Guest Professor at the University of Science and Technology China where she gives intensive courses on disruptive innovation. Mary-Anne chaired the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research for Australia Committee that undertook a national evaluation of Mathematics, Information and Computing Sciences in 2012. Mary-Anne has a passion for design led innovation.  She works with her research team in the Magic Lab to bring science fiction to reality; the research goal is to design autonomous technologies that can learn to delight and adapt in novel situations as they collaborate with people to achieve shared goals.

Françoise Gilbert

Françoise Gilbert

Françoise Gilbert and Raffaele Zallone will join We Robot 2016 to present their paper Connect Cars – Recent Legal Developments on Friday, April 1st at 3:00 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Françoise Gilbert is a partner at Greenberg Traurig, and practices in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, located in East Palo Alto, California, where she advises public companies, emerging technology businesses and non-profit organizations, on the entire spectrum of domestic and international privacy and cyber security issues legal issues. Francoise has focused on information privacy and security for more than 25 years; she regularly deals with compliance challenges raised by cloud computing, connected objects, smart cities, big data, mobile applications, wearable devices, social media, and other cutting-edge developments. In 2015, she was named as a “Cybersecurity and Privacy Trailblazer”by  the National Law Journal.  In 2014, she was named “San Francisco Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers for her work in information privacy and security.  She has been listed in Chambers USA and Chambers Global since 2008, Best Lawyers in America since 2007, and Who’s Who in Ecommerce and Internet Law since 1998 as one of the leady privacy and cybersecurity attorneys.  She is accredited as a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US, CIPP/E) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

Raffaele Zallone

Raffaele Zallone

Raffaele Zallone is the founding partner of Studio Legale Zallone, a niche Italian law firm highly specialized in Hi-Tech Law, Data Privacy, IT contracts, e-Commerce, Internet Law and Regulation, and Biotech issues. Prior to founding Studio Legale Zallone, Raffaele was General Counsel for IBM in Italy. During his career at IBM he held several managerial and executive positions both in Italy and across the world. As a junior attorney he worked in the IBM GPD development lab in San Jose, California; later in his career he worked in IBM Europe as General Counsel for the Nordic region (all Scandinavian countries and Ireland). From 2002 to 2008 Mr. Zallone taught IT Law at the University Luigi Bocconi of Milano, one of the most prestigious institutions in Italy.

Ryan Calo

Ryan Calo

Ryan Calo will join We Robot 2016 to present his paper Robots In American Law on Friday, April 1st at 4:30 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Ryan Calo is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law and an assistant professor (by courtesy) at the Information School. He is a faculty co-director (with Batya Friedman and Tadayoshi Kohno) of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab, a unique, interdisciplinary research unit that spans the School of Law, Information School, and Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Professor Calo is a CoMotion Presidential Innovation Fellow for the class of 2015. Professor Calo’s research on law and emerging technology appears or is forthcoming in leading law reviews (California Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Stanford Law Review Online, University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online) and technical publications (MIT Press, IEEE, Science, Artificial Intelligence), and is frequently referenced by the mainstream media (NPR, New York Times, Wall Street Journal). Professor Calo has also testified before the full Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate and spoken at the Aspen Ideas Festival and NPR’s Weekend in Washington. In 2014, he was named one of the most important people in robotics by Business Insider. Professor Calo is an affiliate scholar at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society (CIS), where he was a research fellow, and the Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP). He serves on numerous advisory boards, including the University of California’s People and Robots Initiative, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Without My Consent, and the Future of Privacy Forum. Professor Calo worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling LLP and clerked for the Honorable R. Guy Cole on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to law school at the University of Michigan, Professor Calo investigated allegations of police misconduct in New York City.

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Workshop Organizers: March 31st

 

 

We Robot 2016 will host four workshops designed by experts to help people from other disciplines get up to speed in their specialty. We hope these workshops will be attended by people who want to learn about the topics, and by people willing to share their expertise with both experts and neophytes.

Woodrow Hartzog

Woodrow Hartzog

Professor Woodrow Hartzog will join We Robot 2016 to hold a workshop on Juris Machina: Legal Aspects of Robotics on Thursday, March 31st at 9:30 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Prof. Hartzog is an internationally-recognized expert in the area of privacy, media, and robotics law. He has been quoted or referenced in numerous articles and broadcasts, including NPR, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. Prof. Hartzog’s work has been published in numerous scholarly publications such as the Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, and Michigan Law Review and popular national publications such as Wired, Bloomberg, New Scientist, The Atlantic, and The Nation. He is also a contributor to Forbesand a frequent guest contributor to LinkedIn, Concurring Opinions, and other popular blogs. Before joining the faculty at Cumberland School of Law, Prof. Hartzog worked as a trademark attorney at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and as an associate attorney at Burr & Forman LLP in Birmingham, Alabama. He also served as a clerk for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., and was a Roy H. Park Fellow, at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prof. Hartzog is an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. He also serves on the advisory board of the Future of Privacy Forum.

Kate Darling

Kate Darling

Dr. Kate Darling will join We Robot 2016 to hold a workshop on Electronic Love, Trust, & Abuse: Social Aspects of Robotics on Thursday, March 31st at 11:15 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Darling is a Research Specialist at the MIT Media Lab and a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center. Her interest is in how technology intersects with society. Kate’s work has explored economic issues in intellectual property systems and increasingly looks at the near-term effects of robotic technology, with a particular interest in law, social, and ethical issues. She runs experiments, holds workshops, writes, and speaks about some of the more interesting developments in the world of human-robot interaction, and where we might find ourselves in the future.

William D. Smart

William D. Smart

William D. Smart will join We Robot 2016 to hold a workshop on “The Robot Revolution has been Rescheduled (until we can debug the sensors)”: Technical Aspects of Robotics on Thursday, March 31st at 2:00 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Bill Smart is an Associate Professor at Oregon State University, where he co-directs the Robotics program.  He holds a Ph.D. and Sc.M. in Computer Science from Brown University, an M.Sc. in Intelligent Robotics from the University of Edinburgh, and a B.Sc. (hons) in Computer Science from the University of Dundee.  Prior to moving to Oregon State in 2012, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Biomedical Engineering, at Washington University in St. Louis.  His research interests cover the fields of human-robot interaction, machine learning, and mobile robotics.  His recent work has focused on how robots and robotic technologies can be used for people with severe motor disabilities.  He is particularly proud of his Erdős (3), and his Bacon number (also 3).

Daniel Sciliano

Daniel Sciliano

Dan Siciliano will join We Robot 2016 to hold a workshop on Funding the Future: Financial Aspects of Robotics on Thursday, March 31st at 3:45 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. F. Daniel Siciliano, JD ’04, is a legal scholar and entrepreneur with expertise in corporate governance, corporate finance, and immigration law. He assumes a variety of leadership roles at the law school, including faculty director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, associate dean for executive education and special programs and co-director of Stanford’s Directors’ College. He is also the co-originator of the OSCGRS (Open Source Corporate Governance Reporting System) Project. Previously, Siciliano was a teaching fellow for the law school’s international LLM degree program in Corporate Governance and Practice and executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business. He is the senior research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center and a frequent commentator on the long-term economic impact of immigration policy and reform. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Prior to joining Stanford Law School, Siciliano co-founded and served as executive director of the Immigration Outreach Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He has launched and led several successful businesses, including LawLogix Group—named three times to the Inc. 500/5000 list. Siciliano serves as a governance consultant and trainer to board directors of several Fortune 500 companies and is a member of the Academic Council of Corporate Board Member magazine.

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‘Legal and Ethical Implications for Robots in our Life’

 

 

Oliver Guilhem & Pepper

Oliver Guilhem & Pepper

Olivier Guilhem of Aldebaran and SoftBank Robotics will demonstrate some state-of-the-art robots and explore legal considerations and guidelines that will need to be put in place as robots become more present in our daily world.

The star of the demonstration is Pepper, a humanoid companion robot that communicates in a natural, intuitive way. Pepper can recognize your face, recognize your emotions, and adapt his behavior to your mood as he speaks to you, hears you and moves around autonomously. He will respond to the mood of the moment, expressing himself through the color of his eyes, images on his display screen or through his voice tone. Over time, Pepper adapts to the user’s personality traits, preferences, tastes and habits. Users can personalize Pepper by downloading software applications for things like dancing, games, or different languages. All of these raise interesting legal and ethical issues.

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Olivier Guilhem of Aldebaran and SoftBank Robotics will present a demonstration on Legal and Ethical Implications for Robots in our Life on Friday, April 1st at 1:30 PM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida.

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