Technology has evolved at breakneck speed the last 150 years \u2013 from telephones, computers and the internet to recent breakthroughs like drones, genetic tools and mRNA vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But laws and regulations aren\u2019t keeping pace. That\u2019s why a technology like CRISPR, the gene-editing tool, has vast potential to cure diseases, but also to drive nefarious activity like weaponizing biotoxins, said Gus Hurwitz, associate professor of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hurwitz is the Menard Director of the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, an interdisciplinary initiative at the Nebraska College of Law exploring how law and technology affect each other and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy vision is to create a cohort of faculty and students from across disciplines who are interested in how we can regulate technology to both develop incredible new things that make us all better off, yet remain cognizant of and able to manage the risks that technology brings,\u201d Hurwitz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The center\u2019s foundation is a partnership between Nebraska\u2019s colleges of law, business and engineering \u2013 what Hurwitz calls the \u201cthree legs of a stool\u201d for technology development and commercialization. Problematically, they often work in isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Engineers often don\u2019t communicate with entrepreneurs, so they fail to incorporate safety controls in their plans. Entrepreneurs don\u2019t consult lawyers about potential legal hurdles. Lawyers enter the picture later, after technology dissemination, to address poor design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll three must converse early in the process,\u201d Hurwitz said. \u201cThe center is in the business of breaking down these silos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The College of Journalism and Mass Communications is another key partner, as journalists are integral to explaining and contextualizing new technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My vision is to create a cohort of faculty and students from across disciplines who are interested in how we can regulate technology to both develop incredible new things that make us all better off, yet remain cognizant of and able to manage the risks that technology brings.<\/p> Gus Hurwitz<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Since its 2020 founding, the center has hosted workshops, lectures and a fellowship program to foster collaboration and focus on technology-based problems like the rural digital divide. It\u2019s also funding relevant Husker research on artificial intelligence, social media, agricultural land and water use, among other topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It launched an interdisciplinary technology governance curriculum for students covering topics like cyberlaw, media and intellectual property. Hurwitz and colleagues produce a weekly podcast, \u201cTech Refactored,\u201d covering timely issues like Zoom school, the Texas power grid failure and spectrum regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gifts from the Menard Family Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation and others help fund the center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Technology has evolved at breakneck speed the last 150 years \u2013 from telephones, computers and the internet to recent breakthroughs like drones, genetic tools and mRNA vaccines. But laws and regulations aren\u2019t keeping pace. That\u2019s why a technology like CRISPR, the gene-editing tool, has vast potential to cure diseases, but also to drive nefarious activity… Continue reading Center Focuses on Technology Governance<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138,107],"tags":[87,50,85,22,82,47,86,84,83,81,88],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grand-challenges","category-science-and-technology-literacy-for-society","tag-charles-koch-foundation","tag-college-of-business","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communications","tag-gus-hurwitz","tag-interdisciplinary-research","tag-menard-family-foundation","tag-nebraska-college-of-law","tag-nebraska-governance-and-technology-center","tag-science-and-technology-literacy-for-society","tag-technology-regulation","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}