Kosal Participates in Halcyon Dialogue on Robotics and Autonomy

Posted June 30, 2017

Nunn School Associate Professor Margaret E. Kosal recently participated in a closed-door discussion on emerging legal, legislative, and security issues at the intersection of robotics, autonomy, machine learning, and policy. Kosal spoke on the strategic role for robotics and autonomous systems in national and international security, including for deterrence. 

Organized and hosted by the D.C.-based Halcyon House, the dialogues are a series of high-level discussions among global leaders, experts, and innovators. The invitation-only discussion was held at Halcyon’s headquarters in the Georgetown neighborhood of D.C. Halcyon partnered with the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the 2016 - 2017 Halcyon Dialogue program on the topic of robots and their broad implications for global society. The discussions involved policy makers and innovators from industry and academia. 

Prior to 2016, Halcyon Dialogue was known as the Evermay Dialogue, a collaborative research effort of S&R Foundation, the International Institute of Global Resilience, and the Center for a New American Security. A series of high-level closed dialogues on the broad subject of current emergency management strategies and systems in Japan and the United States, each discussion gathered 25 - 40 experts to consider one of four types of contingency: natural disaster, terrorism, cyberattack, and local military escalation.