Event Program and Schedule

12:00-12:10 PM: Opening Remarks IEEE and People Centered
Mei Lin Fung, Chair | IEEE i50 Virtual Event; Chair | SSIT Sustainability Technical Committee; Co-chair & Co-founder | People Centered Internet
Thomas Coughlin, President, IEEE

The 50th anniversary provides a time for reflecting on the role of technologists in contributing to a People-Centered Digital Future. We begin our celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Internet by highlighting the critical role of the IEEE in advancing technology for humanity over the next 50 years. IEEE uniquely spans business, government, academia, and all spheres of society–all of which are being transformed by digital connectivity. 

12:10 - 12:35 PM: TCP and the Internet - Origins and Subsequent Impact
Vint Cerf, Vice President, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
Bob Kahn, Chair and CEO, Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Judy Estrin, CEO, JLabs

What led to TCP’s invention? What role did each panelist play in the Internet and TCP/IP story? What motivated TCP’s invention? What challenges do we face now and in the future as this technology evolves and becomes more ubiquitous? Are there any stories from that time that you wish to share about your own experience or journey?

12:35 - 12:45 PM: Internet and Beyond – Internet Society & Internet Engineering Task Force
Sally Wentworth, Managing Director, The Internet Society

12:50 - 1:20 PM: The People-Centered Digital Future Countries are Building
David Kirkpatrick, Senior Fellow, People Centered Internet
Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i, ICT Division/Cabinet Division/UNDP Bangladesh
Sanjay Jain, Director, Digital Public Infrastructure, Gates Foundation
Pramod Varma, Architect of India Digital Public Infrastructure, Aadhar, UPI, ONDC

In this session, we meet today’s Internet’s visionary architects. Following the breakthroughs in countries including Estonia and India, many others are now actually building digital public infrastructure that will facilitate national digital transformation. What opportunities and challenges do global policy, technical, and investment leaders see next? Where do they need the private sector to engage?

1:20 - 1:45 PM: Digital Transformation and Ancestral Intelligence in the Era of AI
The Honorable Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister, Greece
Konstantinos Karachalios, former Managing Director, IEEE Standards Association

Benefits of digitization of public/governmental infrastructure and of services to citizens; experiences from the ongoing transformative processes in Greece.

The profound impact of the Internet and of emerging technologies and systems incorporating AI, which permeate almost every aspect of our individual and social spheres.
 - How to ground this evolution, which takes place at a breathtaking pace, on the accumulated human experience and collective wisdoms; 
 - How to shape the ongoing profound transformations of our societies such that their inner cohesion (the very existence of a "dēmos") is not systematically undermined, and the mental health of this and future generations is not irreparably damaged.

1:55 - 2:25 PM: Panel Session – How Can We Ensure AI Serves Everyone, Everywhere?
Kate Wilson, Senior Fellow, People Centered Internet
Keith Strier, VP, Worldwide AI, NVIDIA; US National AI Advisory Council
Sophie Muirhead| IEEE Executive Director & COO

Artificial intelligence holds the potential to save and enhance lives unlike almost any preceding technology. How are governments, the private sector and academia working together to successfully shape a future increasingly dominated by AI? How can we deepen this cooperation to fulfill the Internet’s early vision and correct our mistakes, including all perspectives?

2:25 - 2:45 PM: Working Together Towards a Positive Digital Future

The Internet spread around the world, driven by a sense of common cause and belief that it could be a platform for information sharing that would connect people and cultures. Over the past 50 years, it has realized this ambition but also unleashed new threats we did not imagine. As we look towards a new era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, how can we realize a positive digital future that is shaped by the collaborative efforts of governments, the technology community and civil society? How can the U.S. government lead these efforts?

2:45 - 3:00 PM: Closing Reflections
Mei Lin Fung, Chair | IEEE i50 Virtual Event; Chair | SSIT Sustainability Technical Committee; Co-chair & Co-founder | People Centered Internet
Bob Metcalfe, Co-designer of Ethernet at Xerox PARC; the "Father" of Ethernet