Citation[]
The Disrupter Series: Advanced Robotics, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, 114th Cong., Second Sess. (Sept. 14, 2016) (full-text).
Overview[]
From the opening statement of Michael C. Burgess:
"Well, maybe today we are going to learn if we are not perhaps a little bit closer. But we are living in a world where you can actually use your iPhone to ask Siri, Alexa, or Cortana any question and get a real-time, accurate, and perhaps whimsical response. Already advanced robotics are integrated into our economy with increasingly complex application, from manufacturing floors to surgical suites to fashion shows, as we learned from the lead on Drudge this morning. Smart prosthetics are changing the lives of amputees and the elderly. Even some technologies that we have explored in previous Disrupter Series hearings leverage advanced robotic technology including the Internet of things and drones. I look forward to hearing from our panel of witnesses about the real-world advanced robotics applications that students, academics, and industry professionals are all working toward. Each of our witnesses today can give us a different view on the emerging trends and challenges presented by advanced robotics and technology. The future workforce trends are particularly interesting. If it is true that more jobs will include some automation component in the coming decades, understanding how our students and professionals of all ages are able to acquire the skills necessary to adapt to this changing landscape is important to us as policy makers.