ALUMNI SPEAKER SERIES “Don’t Look Up! Understanding Difficult Technological Truths"

Thursday, October 20, 2022 1:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

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ALUMNI SPEAKER SERIES
Don’t Look Up! Understanding Difficult Technological Truths

Artificial intelligence will take your job! Genetic engineering will accelerate the loss of biodiversity! The modern smart-city is a privacy disaster! Killer robots and technological progress are out of control! Is the techno-apocalypse upon us? Should we run for the exit? Or are there more nuanced ways to understand the complex interaction between technology and society and values?

The Centre for Society, Technology and Values (CSTV) is a unique University of Waterloo interdisciplinary centre that explores how we can answer these questions and more, in a series of Society, Technology and Values (STV) courses. As a core part of the Faculty of Engineering, STV courses are helping our engineering students come to grips with many of the major questions we face in a sophisticated technological society. You may have taken one of the STV courses when you were an engineering student but technological change is fast-paced and ever-evolving.

Attend this virtual session with a panel of STV professors Scott Campbell and Cameron Shelley, with the Director of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement, Paul Heidebrecht. In this session of the Alumni Speaker Series, these experts will discuss current social and political issues associated with technological change and what issues engineers may be faced with in the future.

This session was recorded - watch it here:

Remote video URL

Panel of Speakers:

Scott Campbell
Scott Campbell
BMath 1999, Computer Science
Instructor and Director
Centre for Society, Technology and Values (CSTV)
University of Waterloo

Biography:
Scott M. Campbell is the director of the Centre for Society, Technology and Values, in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He began teaching Society, Technolgy and Values (STV) courses in 2007, shortly after completing his PhD dissertation about the history of computer science at the University of Toronto (2006). He holds a BMath degree in computer science from the University of Waterloo (1999), and as an undergraduate did take all three of the available STV courses in the late 1990s.

Connect with Scott Campbell.
 

Paul Heidebrecht (BASc 1994)
Paul Heidebrecht
BASc 1994, Mechanical Engineering
Director
Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement

Conrad Grebel University College
University of Waterloo

Biography:
Paul Heidebrecht is the inaugural director of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement, and teaches courses in peace and conflict studies at Conrad Grebel University College and the University of Waterloo. Prior to his current role, he spent five years in Ottawa leading the efforts of Mennonite Central Committee to shape Canadian government policies on behalf of program partners in the areas of relief, development, and peacebuilding. He has also served overseas with the same organization as a peacebuilder in Nigeria and an appropriate technology engineer in Bangladesh, and has seven years of experience as a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario. In addition to a BASc in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo (class of 1994), he holds an MA in theology and ethics from AMBS and a PhD in religious studies from Marquette University.

Connect with Paul Heidebrecht on LinkedIn
 

Photo of Cameron Shelley
Cameron Shelley
MMath 1992, Computer Science; MA 1995, Philosphy; PhD 1999, Philosopy
Instructor
Centre for Society, Technology and Values (CSTV)
University of Waterloo

Biography:
Cameron Shelley is a lecturer with the Centre for Society, Technology and Values at the University of Waterloo. There, he teaches courses on design and society, artificial intelligence and society, biotechnology and society, as well as technology, society and the modern city.  His research interests include the nature and conduct of fairness in technological design. He holds an MA and PhD in philosophy as well as an MMath degree in computer science, both from the University of Waterloo.

Connect with Cameron Shelley on LinkedIn.
 


Please note: This session will be recorded with permission of the speakers and moderator. The recording will be posted to view on the Alumni Speaker Playlist on the Waterloo Engineering YouTube Channel after the live session. Viewers do not have permission to record the session.