R2-D2 and C-3PO. BB-8. Battle droids. Star Wars isn’t Star Wars without its lovable droids. We’ll examine the science of robots, the programming of personality and the ethics of sentient mechanicals in society, plus go behind the scenes on designing droids for the movies. Why do droids in Star Wars look the way they do? Why do we all love R2-D2? How close are we to having droid intelligence and personality in our own world? Let’s go inside the gears and processing units to explore all the possibilities. Our team of experts includes Yukie Nagai (Project Professor, International Research Center for Neurointelligence, University of Tokyo), Fon Davis (ILM Model Maker – Star Wars), Chris Kempshall (author, Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire and The History and Politics of Star Wars) and Joel Welch (PhD Law candidate at Western University, Emerging Technology Policies & SciFi). Moderated by James Floyd (Star Wars Insider; Star Warsologies, Star Wars Crossword Puzzles).