2012 Robotics Alley Keynote Speaker To Be Announced

A very exciting keynote speaker has committed to Robotics Alley 2012 in the Twin Cities!

Attendees and sponsors will have the opportunity for an exclusive discussion with a global best-selling author (with a book currently being made into a major motion picture), and a PhD in Robotics from a global leader in robotics and automation. Please check back for more information on this year’s keynote speaker and other presenters.

2011 Robotics Alley Keynote Speaker P. W. Singer

Peter Warren Singer is Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He is the youngest scholar named Senior Fellow in Brookings's 90-year history. In 2005, CNN named him to their "New Guard" List of the Next Generation of Newsmakers. He was named by the Smithsonian Institution-National Portrait Gallery as one of the 100 “leading innovators in the nation.” Singer has also been recognized by the Financial Times as "Guru of the Week" for the thinker who most influenced the world that week and by Slate Magazine for "Quote of the Day." In his personal capacity, Singer served as coordinator of the Obama-08 campaign’s defense policy task force. In 2009, Singer was named by Foreign Policy Magazine to the Top 100 Global Thinkers List, of the people whose ideas most influenced the world that year.

Dr. Singer is considered one of the world's leading experts on changes in 21st century warfare. He was named by the President to Joint Forces Command's Transformation Advisory Group . He is a columnist for Armed Forces Journal and has written for the full range of major media and journals, including the Boston Globe, L.A. Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Current History, Survival, International Security, Parameters, Weltpolitik, and the World Policy Journal. He has been quoted in every major U.S. newspaper and news magazine and delivered talks at venues ranging from the U.S. Congress to over 40 universities around the world. He has provided commentary on military affairs for nearly every major TV and radio outlet, including ABC-Nightline, Al Jazeera, BBC, CBS-60 Minutes, CNN, FOX, NPR, and the NBC Today Show. He is also a founder and organizer of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum , a global conference that brings together leaders from across the US and the Muslim world.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Singer was the founding Director of the Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World in the Saban Center at Brookings. He has also worked for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Balkans Task Force in the U.S. Department of Defense, and the International Peace Academy. Singer received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Wired for War

Dr. Singer’s most recent book, Wired for War (Penguin, 2009), looks at the implications of robotics and other new technologies for war, politics, ethics, and law in the 21st century. Described as: “An exhaustively researched book, enlivened by examples from popular culture" by the Associated Press and “awesome” by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, Wired for War made the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list in its first week of release. It was named a non-fiction Book of the Year by The Financial Times. It has already been featured in the video game “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot,” the CBS “Late Late Show,” as well as in over 75 presentations at venues as diverse as all three US military academies, the US Congress, the National Student Leadership Conference, and the royal court of the United Arab Emirates. The book has also been made an official reading with organizations that range from National Defense University, US Air Force, US Navy, to the Royal Australian Navy.

P. W. Singer at TED 2009

2012 Sponsors