UNC Charlotte researcher Cheryl L. Brown delivered a keynote talk at the Duke-UNC China Leadership Summit on April 9, titled “China’s Evolving Role in Cybersecurity and Hyperconnectedness in the Internet of Things.” Other keynote speakers included Joseph Nye of Harvard University and Thomas Christensen of Princeton University.
The Duke-UNC China Leadership Summit is an annual student-run conference organized by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This year’s conference was held April 7-9, with sessions at both university campuses.
“It was an honor to be invited to speak at this conference, which is noted for its focus on developing emerging leaders and bringing together scholars and students to consider critical contemporary issues in U.S. – China relations,” Brown said. “As our relationship with China continues to evolve on a daily basis, gatherings such as these, which are grounded in current research, are important to the broader conversation.”
Conference student organizers invite leading experts to speak on topics of importance to Sino-US relations and to create a platform for students from universities across the United States and worldwide to exchange perspectives on these issues, connect with speakers, and network with one another.
The objectives of the China Leadership Summit are to promote greater understanding of China while fostering a collaborative environment in which delegates can emerge with resources and contacts as future leaders in U.S. – China relations, first as undergraduates and later as academics, government officials and business professionals. The conference is capped at 100 attendees to foster the opportunity for deeper engagement.
Brown is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration and a faculty affiliate of the UNC Charlotte Data Science Initiative. Her current research focuses on privacy, ethics, and trust in big data for precision medicine and health quantification for connected and autonomous vehicles, both projects she presented at National Institutes of Health conferences.
She teaches courses on privacy, ethics, and governance of big data; cybersecurity policy and the Internet of Things; Chinese domestic and foreign policy, and East Asian foreign policy. Brown received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Florida and doctoral and master’s degrees in Political Science, specializing in Chinese studies, from the University of Michigan.
She is a former United Nations Fellow; American Institute in Taiwan Intern; visiting scholar at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii; and participant in the Summer Internet Law Program at the Berkman Center of Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Her writings in the social sciences and engineering include topics on health biometrics and privacy in China and the United States; China’s second-generation identification card and RFID technology; cultural dimensions of e-government and smart cards; and ethics in engineering, data science, robotics, and biomimetics.
Image: Wade Bruton
