It was a great honour for a delegation from our faculty to meet German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his spouse Elke Büdenbender who visited the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Learning Centre (LLC) during their two-day state visit on 10-11 July 2023.
During their tour of the university, the presidential couple had an in-depth discussion with some researchers. Dr. Mark Cole, Professor in Media and Telecommunication Law at our faculty, and his team had a chance to present to President Steinmeier some of their current research on AI regulation as well as the activity of the German Broadcasting Commission’s “Future Council” (or “Zukunftsrat”), to which Prof. Cole had been nominated earlier this year.
President Steinmeier, who previously held a position in which he was responsible for media regulation matters in one of the federal states of Germany, was particularly interested to learn more about the current debate on how to shape the regulation of the media landscape in the digital environment and specifically the role of public service media. First Lady Elke Büdenbender, who is a lawyer and administrative judge by profession, enquired about the research project of PhD student Angelica Fernandez concerning algorithmic enforcement of legal norms on social media platforms and the use of AI tools in the legal domain, a topic investigated by Dr. Sandra Schmitz as a part of an Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) funded research project.
This exchange was a remarkable opportunity for the representatives of our faculty to showcase some of their research and emphasize its importance. We thank President Steinmeier and the First Lady for the keen interest shown towards our projects.
