EuroTech Universities Alliance examines how technology will shape democracy in 2024
EuroTech, a strategic European alliance of six leading science and technology universities, has chosen "Bytes & Ballots", or how technology will shape democracy in 2024, as the theme for its annual conference. It will take place Wednesday, March 6, in Brussels, three months before European and eight months before US presidential polls. The goal is to explore what is technologically possible in 2024 and beyond, and to discuss how we can collectively build and defend a resilient society. While technological advances offer new ways to manipulate public opinion, they can also play a critical role in safeguarding democratic processes and citizens' trust in their institutions and governments.
Among the speakers, Thierry Coulhon, Acting Chairman of the Board of Institut Polytechnique de Paris, one of the six members of EuroTech.
"Institut Polytechnique de Paris is a world-class institution that aims to respond to today's major scientific and technological challenges, such as AI, the digital transition and climate change. The question of protecting the democratic process is therefore one of our concerns, especially as the students we train are destined to occupy high-level positions in business or the public sphere", explains Thierry Coulhon. IP Paris is a world-class science and technology institute that brings together five prestigious French engineering Schools.
The event will showcase cutting-edge technologies such as AI and cybersecurity, and features a series of exchanges on how companies, universities, policymakers, governments, journalists and citizens can be part of the solution. These exchanges are at the intersection of science and policy, engineering and psychology, technology and democracy.
The six EuroTech universities are Institut Polytechnique de Paris, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.