Science and technology do not exist in a vacuum. Policy makers and global leaders must share a common language with scientists and engineers to make the best decisions for both domestic and international interests. This is particularly critical in the face of growing needs for national security (physical and cyber), global economic considerations, and the necessity to address environmental and energy demands.

As synthetic biology and biomedical engineering technologies become more ubiquitous and have impact in our daily lives, it is critical that we develop cohesive and inclusive principals with our international partners that govern access and ethical use of the technology consistent with our values.

Freedom is the oxygen of innovation, and the world needs increasingly more and more innovation to survive and thrive in the future. Tech-diplomacy is the most important tool we have today for addressing globally, the grand challenges of inequality and climate change.

Senior Research Fellow; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University

The energy transition will happen only if new technological innovations in electrified processes will make them better and cheaper than fossil-driven ones. The final cost will be heavily depending on policy decisions, on a global scale. A major breakthrough in diplomacy is needed to guide public funds and legislation to create the nexus point of industrial productivity for our nation, ensure global economic competitiveness, and increase U.S. energy security. Perhaps no other area of tech diplomacy will be more important.

Tech diplomacy will be central to democratically meeting future food and nutrition demands, particularly as the global population expands in the most food insecure regions of the world.

I am passionate about making connections between disparate fields, such as engineering, computer science, and social science broadly understood to understand human collaboration and conflict on a large scale. I am a practical theorist who believes that there is no more practical thing than a good theory or model.

In a time when technology, on a global level, increasingly penetrates our professional and private life, it is obvious that the merger of technology and diplomacy should be high on any societal agenda.

Seventy-five years after the invention of the transistor, semiconductor chips with billions of transistors are everywhere. They transformed the 20th century by enabling satellite communication, the Internet, weather prediction, smart phones, and much more. Still far from a mature technology, a new era of semiconductor technology is just beginning, and its impact on the 21st century will be even greater than its transformative impact on the 20th century.

Manipulated media, including Deep Fakes, may causes changes in our society in how we interact with each other. What do we believe is true may get a lot more complicated. My role is to educate people on the threat and provide tools to detect and migrate manipulated media.

System of systems integration is my research area and my passion; integrating technology and diplomacy for mutual benefit is the grandest manifestation of this approach.