Monthly Archives: January 2016

Celebrating Groundhog Day in Miami?

Due to an aside I delivered in class, my Administrative Law students have expressed an interest in celebrating Groundhog Day, which is Feb. 2. My initial reaction was a bit negative: How, living in Florida, can this be anything but an ironic, even potentially offensive, celebration? Indeed, can we in Miami plan to celebrate whether winter will continue without giving the impression of rampant schadenfreude? Not to mention that our interests are probably the reverse of most the country’s: winter is good for us! It’s usually nice out (although this December was unseasonably hot).

But despite all this, I’m warming to the idea. Why not?

But this just leads me to another problem: How, in the absence of an actual groundhog (please no one bring one to class!) do we celebrate Groundhog Day. We are not going to watch the movie starring Bill Murray much as I do like it; it’s long and we have work to do. Other than that, or projects aimed at first graders, the web has been surprisingly little help…..

Suggestions anyone?

Posted in U.Miami | 2 Comments

Slides from Toronto Big Data Talk

This morning I presented a short talk on the tensions between Big Data and privacy at the University of Toronto’s conference on The Future Frontiers of Online Privacy.

Here, in case you care–and for the record–are my slides from the talk entitled Big Data / Privacy: Pick One?

P.S. My phone said it was 17° (-8°C) this morning when I walked over. I believe it.

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Off to Toronto (Brrrr)

Giant East-coast storm notwithstanding, I’m off to Toronto to participate in a conference on The Future Frontiers of Online Privacy at the University of Toronto on Saturday. Tickets are available online.

I’m going to speak about the great challenges that Big Data, and the love of Big Data, pose for privacy and for privacy regulation.

In theory I ought to just fly over or around the storm, which is not expected to hit Toronto. In theory, air transport might not be so disrupted as to block my return on Sunday. In theory…

Did I mention it is predicted to be a high of 23°F on Saturday, low of 14°F? That’s about 45°F less than here. Brrrr indeed.

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Semantic Drift

Announcement from UM:

After the spring semester, the U.S. Postal Service contract station on campus will have a new home with enhanced hours and days of service. By this summer, all mail services offered at the post office behind the University of Miami Bookstore will be available at a kiosk inside the store Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Currently, the stand-alone post office operates from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and does not open on Saturdays.

“The University has long prided itself on offering students and the rest of the UM community convenient, dependable, courteous, and timely mail services and, with this transition, mail services will be even more convenient and dependable,” said Humberto Speziani, assistant vice president for business services. “The new post office will offer an additional hour of service every day and an extra day of service every week.”

The post office will be moving into a bigger, better bookstore, too. At the end of the spring semester, the bookstore is slated to undergo a major renovation and expansion. Enhancements include the addition of a second entrance, a new UM adidas store, and an expanded technology section with a wider selection of Apple, Dell, and other technology products.

Apparently that word–“bookstore”–no longer means what I think it does.

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Campaigning Is Poetry

Visual poetry in this case.

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Terrific We Robot 2016 Program Announced

We Robot 2016 Small sizeWe’ve got an absolutely spectacular program lined up for We Robot 2016. It’s a little crowded, but that’s because we got so many great submissions, many of which we still had to turn away. Register now for this action-packed event: April 1 & 2 for the main program, plus special workshops on March 31.

Thursday, March 31

Workshops

9:00am Check-in & breakfast

9:15am Welcome

9:30am Juris Machina: Legal Aspects of Robotics

Organizer: Woody Hartzog, Cumberland School of Law at Samford University

11:00am Break

11:15am Electronic Love, Trust, & Abuse: Social Aspects of Robotics

Organizer: Kate Darling, Research Specialist at MIT Media Lab. Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Affiliate at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

12:45pm Lunch

2:00pm “The Robot Revolution has been Rescheduled (until we can debug the sensors)”: Technical Aspects of Robotics

Organizer: William D. Smart, Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University

3:30pm Break

3:45pm Funding the Future: Financial Aspects of Robotics

Organizer: Dan Siciliano, Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School

5:15pm Wrap up


Friday, April 1st

8:00am

Check-in and Breakfast

8:30am

Introductions

Welcome Remarks: Patricia White, University of Miami School of Law
Introductory Remarks and Introduction of Sponsors: A. Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law, Program Chair

8:45am

Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human Robot Interaction
Madeleine Elish, The Intelligence & Autonomy Initiative, Data & Society
Discussant: Rebecca Crootof, The Information Society Project, Yale Law School

10:00am Break

10:15am

Privacy-Sensitive Robotics: Initial Survey and Future Directions
Matthew Rueben, Personal Robotics, Oregon State University
Discussant: Ashkan Soltani, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

11:30am Break

11:45am

How to Engage the Public on the Ethics and Governance of Lethal Autonomous Weapons
Jason Millar, Philosophy, Queen’s University
Discussant: Peter Asaro, School of Media Studies, The New School for Public Engagement, Stanford Law School, International Committee for Robot Arms Control

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm

Demonstration: Legal and Ethical Implications for Robots in our Life
Olivier Guihelm, Aldebaran, SoftBank Robotics

3:45pm Break

3:00pm

Hot Topic: Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous Vehicles, Predictability, and Law
Harry Surden, University of Colorado Law School
Connect Cars – Recent Legal developments
Françoise Gilbert, The IT Law Group
Discussant: Dan Siciliano, Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School

4:30pm

Robots Again: Thoughts On the Origins and Direction of Robotics Law
Ryan Calo, University of Washington School of Law
Discussant: Chris Yoo, Communication, and Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania Law School

5:45pm

Poster Session & Reception

7:00pm Birds of a Feather Sessions@ Local restaurants


Saturday, April 2nd

8:00am

Registration and Breakfast

8:30am

Privacy and Healthcare Robots – An ANT analysis
Aurelia Tamo, The Chair for Information and Communication Law and Visiting Researcher, The Institute for Pervasive Computing, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Christoph Lutz, Institute for Media and Communications Management, University of St. Gallen
Discussant: Matt Beane, MIT Sloan School of Management

9:45am Break

10:00am

Institutional Options for Robot Governance
Dr. Aaron Mannes, Apex Data Analytics Engine, HSARPA Department of Homeland Security
Discussant: Harry Surden, University of Colorado Law School

11:15am Break

11:30am

Will #BlackLivesMatter to RoboCop?
Peter Asaro, School of Media Studies, The New School for Public Engagement, Stanford Law School, International Committee for Robot Arms Control
Discussant: Mary Anne Franks, University of Miami School of Law

12:15pm

Special Event: Policy, Law, and Robotics in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Raj Madhavan, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Institute for Systems Research & Maryland Robotics Center at the University of Maryland

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm

Demonstration: Openrov And Openrov Trident: Democratizing Exploration, Conservation, And Marine Science Through Low-Cost Open-Source Underwater Robots
Andrew Thaler, OpenROV
David Land, OpenROV

3:00pm Break

3:15pm

Siriously? Free Speech Rights for Artificial Intelligence
Helen Norton, University of Colorado School of Law
Toni Massaro, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
Discussant: Margot E. Kaminski, Ohio State University

4:15pm Break

4:30pm

What do We Really Know About Robots and the Law?
William D. Smart, Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University
Discussant: Ian Kerr, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine, and Department of Philosophy.

5:15pm

Final Remarks: A. Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law

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