Wayne State University’s Center for Peace and Conflict Studies will host a discussion with Paul J. Springer at 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 15, 2012 at the Bernath Auditorium of the Undergraduate Library, 5155 Gullen Mall, in Detroit.

Springer will discuss autonomous weapons and how we have now reached the point where robotic systems can perform some key tasks that previously required direct human involvement.

Springer, assistant professor of comparative military studies at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala., teaches leadership and strategy courses to military officers, and classes on military history and terrorism. He previously taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and Texas A&M University, where he earned his doctorate in 2006. Springer is the author of “America’s Captives: POW Policy from the Revolution to the War on Terror”, and “Military Robots and Drones: A Reference Handbook.”

His current projects include an examination of the West Point class of 1829, an analysis of the development of public higher education in the post-Civil War South, a textbook on American military history and a reference work on cyber warfare.  

The free lecture is open to the public. For more information, call (313) 577-3453, or (313) 577-8270.

Wayne State University is a premier urban research university offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 29,000 students.