Nov. 26 – The World Technology Award is an international award dedicated to individuals who demonstrated their ability to innovate and leave a mark; the “World Technology Award” is considered the “Academy Award” of technology: it includes 30 sections that bring together international finalists, shortlisted by highly qualified jurors. This year’s awards ceremony was recently held in New York, at the Time Conference Center, and the only Italian university winner was Erica Palmerini, Professor of Private Law at the Dirpolis Institute (Law, Politics and Development) of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa. Palmerini, in the “Law” category, outperformed as Coordinator of “RoboLaw” the 14 other candidates and 6 finalists. RoboLaw is the European project that combines robotics, jurisprudential tradition and innovation to set ambitious targets, such as a better understanding of the impact of new technologies (in particular robotics) on people’s lives and defining the first specific “laws” regulating the matter. The worldwide recognition was announced a few days ago during a ceremony in promoted by the “World Technology Network,” together with partners such as CNN, Fortune, Science, and Time magazine. The appointment of a jurist in a technology award is of great importance, as it underlines how science can bring legal scholars and political philosophers closer to engineers, in the wake of a tradition of an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach that always characterized the activities of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. The jury took into account all projects that constitute the sum and essence of the 21st century, and alongside Erica Palmerini it handed out awards to: Julian Paul Assange, founder of Wikileaks; Luis von Ahn, inventor of “Captcha,” the system that allows to check if the person who is filling out a form online is really a person. After learning of the success, Erica Palmerini wanted to emphasize that it is “a recognition of the work of the entire RoboLaw consortium and all those who carry out the project. I hope – she said – that everyone can be proud and feel even more motivated. I want to share this success with all of them, and I do not wish consider it only as my personal affirmation.”
