Global Pandemic App Watch (GPAW)
Our Team
Dr. Jason Millar
Canada Research Chair in the Ethical Engineering of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Jason Millar is the Canada Research Chair in the Ethical Engineering of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, and Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Engineering. He researches the ethical engineering of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on developing tools and methodologies engineers and policymakers can use to integrate ethical thinking into their daily engineering and policy development workflows. Dr. Millar’s work concerns applications including automated and connected mobility systems, artificial intelligence, smart cities, healthcare robotics, social and military robotics. He has a degree in engineering physics, and worked for several years as an engineer before turning his full-time attention to issues in philosophy and applied ethics.
Dr. Millar is a member of the Connected and Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility Panel at the Canadian Council of Academies (CCA). He is also a Faculty Member at uOttawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society (CLTS), Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, and Institute for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) where he leads the AI and Robotics Research and Engagement Cluster.
Dr. Millar’s approach to research is interdisciplinary to the core. He approaches his work with the assumption that ethical considerations, technology development, and related technology policy must be co-developed in order to align robotics and AI with key human values like diversity and trustworthiness.
Dr. Millar is Director of the Canadian Robotics and AI Ethical Design Lab (CRAiEDL), which he founded in 2018 after joining uOttawa. CRAiEDL is home to a growing interdisciplinary team of researchers and students, with expertise in fields spanning the humanities, social sciences, and science and engineering.
Dr. Millar has authored book chapters, policy reports, and articles on the ethics and governance of robotics and AI. Jason recently co-authored a discussion paper on Accountability and Trust in AI, as one of Canada’s contributions to the 2018 G7 meeting on AI in Montreal. He has provided expert testimony at the UN CCW and the Senate of Canada on the ethics of military robotics, and consults internationally on robotics and AI policy, and ethical engineering issues in emerging automation technologies. His work is regularly featured in the media, including articles in publications such as WIRED and The Guardian, and interviews with the BBC, CBC and NPR. He recently authored a chapter on ethics settings for autonomous vehicles in Robot Ethics 2.0 (OUP), and co-authored a chapter on metaphors in technology governance for the Oxford Handbook on the Law and Regulation of Technology (OUP).
Dr. Teresa Scassa
Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy
Dr. Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is a member of the Canadian Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence and a senior fellow with CIGI’s International Law Research Program. She is the author of Canadian Trademark Law, and co-author of Digital Commerce in Canada, and Canadian Intellectual Property Law. She is a co-editor of the books Law and the Sharing Economy and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intellectual Property Law. Her research interests include: privacy law, data governance, intellectual property law, law and technology, law and artificial intelligence, and smart cities.
Dr. Kelly Bronson
Canada Research Chair in Science and Society
Kelly Bronson is a Canada Research Chair in Science and Society at University of Ottawa. She is a social scientist studying science-society tensions that erupt around controversial technologies (GMOs, fracking, big data & AI) and their governance. Her research aims to bring community values into conversation with technical knowledge in the production of evidence-based decision-making. She has published her work in regional (Journal of New Brunswick Studies), national (Canadian Journal of Communication) and international journals (Science Communication, Journal of Responsible Innovation, Big Data and Society). She has several competitive grant-funded projects looking at emergent technologies used in agriculture and in environmental impact assessment.
Before joining the University of Ottawa, Dr. Bronson was the Director of a Science and Technology Studies program at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada. She holds a PhD in Communication and Cultural Studies from York University, Toronto, as well as a Master’s degree in Sociology of Technology from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Before her training in the social sciences, Dr. Bronson earned two degrees in biology and worked as a lab bench scientist practicing genetics/plant biology (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada).
Dr. Bronson holds several advisory positions on large research grants operating out of the U.S. and Europe, regularly sits on expert committees (e.g. Council of Canadian Academies) and is frequently asked to communicate her knowledge to academic and public audiences. She welcomes enquiries from students interested in undertaking research and pursuing graduate studies in her areas of expertise. She is authorised to supervise students at all levels, including PhD.
Ryan Mosoff | Law Student
Ryan is in his second year of the English Common Law JD program. In his first year he focused his studies on tech issues relating to access to justice, social justice, and privacy law. He volunteered on projects with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (via Pro Bono Students Canada) relating to machine readable standard form contracts. In addition, through the 1L Technoship program he researched the practice of data scraping for facial recognition technology used by police investigations. He is most interested in exploring the ethical, social, cultural, and legal dimensions of innovation in technology.
Before he started his JD, Ryan completed a Master’s degree in Philosophy, where he focused his research on legal philosophy and applied bioethics. After finishing his MA, Ryan worked as a Research Officer at the Institute on Ethics and Policy for Innovation. There, he examined the ethics of clinical trial data governance for Global Health.
Ryan currently works on the GPAW project.
Tommy Friedlich | Law Student
Tommy is a second-year law student in the English Common Law program at the University of Ottawa. Prior to pursuing a career in law, Tommy completed his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University with a focus in Biomedical Engineering.
In his first year of law school, Tommy joined the Canadian Robotics and AI Ethical Design Lab (CRAiEDL) through the 1L Technoship program, assisting on projects relating to the ethical design of autonomous vehicles. Tommy currently serves as the Co-President of the Law and Technology Student Society, which aims to foster a community around the interest of the law of technology, and also the technology of law.
Tommy’s research interests include bioethics as it pertains to genetic engineering, autonomous vehicle law and policy, and robotics and AI in healthcare.
Tommy currently works on the GPAW project.
This project is partially funded by the Scotiabank Fund for AI and Society at the University of Ottawa
