Upcoming Events

Speakers

Mykel Kochenderfer, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Assistant Professor, by courtesy, of Computer Science at Stanford University

 Mykel is Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Assistant Professor, by courtesy, of Computer Science at Stanford University. He is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), conducting research on advanced algorithms and analytical methods for the design of robust decision making systems. Of particular interest are systems for air traffic control, unmanned aircraft, and automated driving where decisions must be made in uncertain, dynamic environments while maintaining safety and efficiency. Research at SISL focuses on efficient computational methods for deriving optimal decision strategies from high-dimensional, probabilistic problem representations. Prior to joining the faculty in 2013, he was at MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he worked on airspace modeling and aircraft collision avoidance. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 2006 where he studied at the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour in the School of Informatics. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Stanford University in 2003. Prof. Kochenderfer is the director SAIL-Toyota Center for AI Research and a co-director of the Center for AI Safety. He is affiliated with the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), the Human-Centered AI (HAI) Institute, the Symbolic Systems Program, the Bio-X Institute, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, and the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS). In 2017, he was awarded the DARPA Young Faculty Award. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and the Journal of Aerospace Information Systems. He is an author of the textbooks Decision Making under Uncertainty: Theory and Application (MIT Press, 2015) and Algorithms for Optimization (MIT Press, 2019). He is a third-generation pilot.Bryan Casey, Legal Fellow at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University Bryan Casey is a Legal Fellow at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford, a Lecturer at Stanford Law School, and an affiliate scholar at the Stanford Machine Leaning Group, CodeX: The Center for Legal Informatics, and the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum. His research covers a broad range of issues at the intersection of law and emerging artificial intelligence technologies—particularly those involving transportation systems. He was written extensively on the legal implications of machine decision making, algorithmic explanability, and the role of lawyers as gatekeepers overseeing the deployment of AI-embedded products. Bryan’s scholarship has appeared in Northwestern University Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, and Stanford Law Review Online, among other journals. He also regularly comments in media outlets including CNN, Wired Magazine, Futurism,  and The Stanford Lawyer. His recent work focuses on the competing roles of legality, morality, and profit-maximization in commercial AI systems with significant social impacts. And his 2018-2019 course offerings at Stanford Law School include The Future of Algorithms and Lawyering for Innovation: Artificial Intelligence. Clark Barrett, Associate Professor (Research) of Computer Science, Stanford University Clark Barrett joined Stanford University as an Associate Professor (Research) of Computer Science in September 2016. Before that, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. His expertise is in constraint solving and its applications to system verification and security. His PhD dissertation introduced a novel approach to constraint solving now known as Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT). Today, he is recognized as one of the world's experts in the development and application of SMT techniques. He was also an early pioneer in the development of formal hardware verification: at Intel, he collaborated on a novel theorem prover used to verify key microprocessor properties; and at 0-in Design Automation (now part of Mentor Graphics), he helped build one of the first industrially successful assertion-based verification tool-sets for hardware. He is an ACM Distinguished Scientist. Chris Gerdes, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Center for Automotive Research (CARS), and Director of the Revs Program, Stanford University Chris studies how cars move, how humans drive cars and how to design future cars that work cooperatively with the driver or drive themselves. When not teaching on campus, he can often be found at the racetrack with students, instrumenting historic race cars or trying out their latest prototypes for the future. Vehicles in the lab include X1, an entirely student-built test vehicle, and Shelley, an Audi TT-S capable of turning a competitive lap time around the track without a human driver. Professor Gerdes and his team have been recognized with a number of awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Ralph Teetor award from SAE International and the Rudolf Kalman Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

Speakers

Rob Reich, Associate Director, HAI

Rob is professor of political science and, by courtesy, professor of philosophy and at the Graduate School of Education, at Stanford University. He is the director of the Center for Ethics in Society and faculty co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (publisher of the Stanford Social Innovation Review), both at Stanford University. He is also associate director of the Institute on Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

 He is the author or editor of several books on education and a book on the relationship between philanthropy, democracy, and justice: Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better (Princeton University Press 2018) and Philanthropy in Democratic Societies (edited with Chiara Cordelli and Lucy Bernholz). His current work focuses on ethics and technology, and he is editing a new volume called Digital Technology and Democracy (with Lucy Bernholz and Helene Landemore). He is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Phi Beta Kappa Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Walter J. Gores Award, Stanford University. He is currently a University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford. He is a board member of the Spencer Foundation and the magazine Boston Review. Kate Vredenburgh, HAI-EIS Fellow Kate received Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University. She works mainly on questions in the philosophy of social science and political philosophy. The overarching motivation guiding her research is to understand how background commitments influence modeling in the social sciences and computer science, to reflect on how they should, and to build fairer models on that basis. She also works on political and ethical questions inspired by the use of technology and social science by corporations and by governments. For example, Kate is currently working on a project arguing for a right to explanation, inspired by recent discussions surrounding the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and interpretability in computer science. Kate will join the Center for Ethics as an interdisciplinary ethics fellow in partnership with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Todd Karhu, HAI-EIS Fellow Todd received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the London School of Economics. Before LSE, he completed an M.Phil. in political theory at Oxford University. His doctoral dissertation focuses on theoretical and practical issues in the ethics of killing, and a few other normative matters involving death. On the theoretical side, he has worked on the relationship between the wrongness of killing and the badness of death and about how killing and dying relate to the metaphysics of time. On the more practical side, he has worked on the question of the extent of one's right to self-defense in the context of war and the moral duties people incur in virtue of killing others.