Show Notes & Links

Connecticut General Assembly

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Connecticut AI Academy

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• The CASE for Expertise: Connecticut’s Technical Boards
• QuantumCT
• Artificial Intelligence: What We Should Know, and the Policies and Regulations States are Considering

Episode Transcript

Tanimu Deleon: On behalf of the Academy members, welcome to Learning and Living STEMM in Connecticut, the podcast of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. My name is Tanimu Deleon. I’m an elected member of the Academy and serve as an officer on a council. I invite you to learn more about the Academy by visiting our website at ctcase.org.

Today, we’ll discuss the CASE Science and Technology Policy Fellowship program. The Science and Technology Policy Fellowship program, with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provides opportunities for scientists and engineers to engage with and support policymakers as they navigate increasingly complex policy issues in their public service to the state and its residents.

Additionally, the program supports scientists and engineers during their fellowship. To improve their ability to effectively communicate with policymakers and the public.

I’m joined by Stephen Nichols, CASE Science and Technology Policy Fellow. Mr. Nichols Fellowship at the Connecticut General Assembly focuses on artificial intelligence policy, as well as, data privacy and other emerging technology topics. Welcome Stephen, and thank you for being part of our podcast today. Before we start, will you share a bit about your background, please?

Stephen Nicols: Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity to join the podcast, and certainly thank you to CASE and to Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for the support for the fellowship itself. So, currently I’m working at the General Assembly as a fellow. But my background is actually in industry, so I trained as an engineer; my degrees are in mechanical engineering, but I spent most of my career as a systems engineer working in R&D and product development, primarily in the elevator industry. So I had the opportunity to work on some of the traditional elevator technologies like motors, doors, and the entire system.

But also I had the opportunity to do some kind of odd and different things within elevators. Helping lead and work on teams that were designing APIs for robots to call elevators or how do you connect the old technology of an elevator to the smartphone? Technology for a smartphone to call an elevator through the internet.

So after 20 years in R&D and global product development, I was looking for an opportunity to do something a little bit different and apply some of what I had learned about how industry gets things done and how we work on complex systems in a different domain. So I had personally decided to take a step back.

And that’s when I learned through my network, the opportunity that CASE was offering to work with the general assembly. I grew up in Connecticut. I’m a product of STEM programs in the state. One of the reasons I went to Otis Elevator out of school is that I had experience on the Otis elevator first robotics team as a high school student.

So, in some ways, being able to continue to give back and work within the Connecticut innovation ecosystem was a unique opportunity to connect systems, the public good, and help translate things for the general assembly in this fellowship.

Tanimu Deleon: Thank you so much, Stephen. That’s fantastic. It’s nice to see a product of Connecticut get to the successful heights that you have achieved thus far, and plenty more to come, clearly based on your current work with the general assembly. So if you could just give our listeners, like, what is the Science and Technology Policy Fellowship?

Stephen Nicols: Great question. So CASE has sponsored fellowships in the past, which placed technical experts in state agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection on specific technical topics. My fellowship is a little bit different. In the sense that the state of Connecticut has recognized that the legislature, our state senators and state representatives, as well as the staff that works at the Capitol, would benefit from having a direct link to scientific and technical expertise.

So there’s an increasing number of topics. AI, data privacy, and cybersecurity are three for sure, but many others like energy policy, transportation, public health, the list goes on. That benefit by having some of that, I’ll call it English to English translation, between what the public policy folks are thinking about, and legislators are asking questions about, and the broader technical community.

The fellowship gives folks a one-year opportunity to come work and be a nonpartisan technical resource in that community. So, it, it’s an opportunity to interact within the government ecosystem and make connections back to folks like CASE technical experts. The technical boards and even between industry, academia, and government.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah, that’s definitely a nice link. Especially being nonpartisan. I think that is a very important piece of this whole thing because it allows you to be very broad. And to reach out to a lot more people than, say, a lobbyist would be able to potentially.

But thank you for that explanation. Are there other fellowship programs within Connecticut or other states, and why is this program needed in our state?

Stephen Nicols: Yeah, no, it’s a great question, and the short answer is there are other fellowship programs, but they’re growing. They’re a little bit different. And, to what you were saying earlier, there are different flavors. So, for example, within Connecticut, there’s a governor’s fellowship program, which places people across all disciplines for short-term assignments within the state agencies and the executive branch.

And that is a good feeder program to help place folks who have unique talents to help specific programs. It’s broad. It’s not just science and engineering or public policy. It’s cross-disciplinary. More broadly nationally, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, has been placing science and technology experts and fellows within the federal government for more than 50 years. So, there’s a mechanism where anyone in the three branches of government can raise their hand and say, “We need an expert in this topic.” And AAAS will help. Often, they get university professors on sabbatical to serve as fellows.

What many organizations like CASE have identified is that there’s an increasing number for that type of expertise at the state level. So, more and more states have been trying to model that type of program at the state level. Some states, like California, Missouri, and Idaho, are further ahead.

Other states, like Connecticut, are just starting their program. So, I’m very lucky and humbled to be the inaugural fellow placed in the legislature. But I’ve also been able to network, and I talk regularly with the inaugural fellow in the Pennsylvania state legislature, and every legislature is a little bit different and how to adapt and connect and offer that science and technology. Evidence-based information is different in each place. There’s commonality, but there’s also differences. So a lot of the legislators are generalists. A lot of the staff are maybe expert researchers, but they don’t have some of the depth.

In a specific technology topic, or they’re not used to potentially collaborating across industry disciplines or across universities and companies, the way some of us who’ve worked as engineers or scientists may be. So, it, it’s been an exciting opportunity and a little bit, I call it.

I did systems engineering within an industrial setting. This is systems engineering within a different system, if you will.

Tanimu Deleon: Oh yeah, that, that’s a good I like that analogy, because every, everything at the end of the day is a system, it’s just a matter of how your perspective and how you approach it for the most part. You did speak about the government and the general assembly; can you just give us a recap on what Connecticut’s general Assembly is, since you said there were like nuances around the country? I think some people, most people are familiar, but I’m sure there are many people who are not so familiar.

Stephen Nicols: No it’s great. And as somebody who grew up in Connecticut and spent my time in Connecticut Public schools, I remember my civics and American history. There are things that I’ve learned working in the Capitol that I didn’t realize. Many of us know the basics. There are three equal branches of government. At the state level, the executive branch is the governor’s office and the state agencies. There’s the judicial branch with the courts, and then there’s the legislature, which is the elected representatives, the House of Representatives and the state senators, and then there’s the staff that works for them.

There’s also a nonpartisan staff that works with the legislature. There’s the legislative commission’s office that drafts the bills and helps and works with legislators to put the concepts and ideas into legislative language. There’s an Office of fiscal analysis which help, which helps with the budget and the impact on the economy.

There’s an Office of Legislative Research and many other pieces to help the legislature move through throughout its day and throughout the year. One of the things that’s unique about Connecticut is that it has a part-time legislature. And while that’s not unique among the states – many of the state legislatures are part-time – Connecticut has a long session in the odd years and a short session in the even years. A lot of that has to do with the budget. So Connecticut passes a biennial budget every two years in the long session – odd years –  and then they make smaller adjustments in the short session – even years.

For example, in 2026, the legislature will be called into session on February 4th for a short session. And it’s really only 13 weeks to make small adjustments. That part-time nature of the legislature means that our state representatives are, in fact, part-time legislators.

They have jobs outside of the legislature, which gives them a unique perspective on different things, and they’re juggling lots of different work-life balance challenges, just like all of us. The other thing that is, I think, relevant to the fellowship and important is that, unlike what we hear about at the federal level, the committees within the Connecticut General Assembly are joint between the House and the Senate.

So, for example, I’m working a lot on AI policy, which in Connecticut stems from data privacy, legislative regulations, and data privacy comes from consumer protection. So, consumer protection, data privacy, and AI all fall within the cognizance of the general law committee. General law has representatives and senators from both parties and staff working together on all of those issues. So there, there’s lots of public hearings and public discourse on that, but there’s also a lot of behind closed doors and research and different collaborations between a variety of different people on any topic.

Tanimu Deleon: Okay. That yeah, that’s a very good synopsis of CT. You in your, when you’re in your description, you mentioned non-partisan staff. So you know you are considered non-partisan, but you’re part of a fellowship. So what makes them [00:13:00] non-partisan? Just so people don’t conflate what you’re doing and how you got into the government as opposed to how they are appointed there.

Stephen Nicols: Yeah, that’s a great question, and there are various different constituencies. To use the system analogy, it helps to look at the whole system. The elected officials are often associated with one of the two major parties, and they have partisan staff associated with them.

So if you go into the legislative office building in Hartford, it’s actually divided with the majority caucuses on one side of the building and the minority caucuses on the other. So the house majority, house minority senate, majority senate minority. And then on the fifth floor, there’s the nonpartisan support staff, the office of legislative management, the researchers, and the fiscal analysis.

So whenever a legislator proposes a bill, that bill is published online. So if you go to the Connecticut General Assembly website, you can see all of the legislative text. And the best example of some of the nonpartisan work is you see a fiscal note, which is a nonpartisan analysis of the fiscal impact.

And the budget numbers. You also see a bill analysis, which is a plain language summary, as well as the context for what that legislation is, the impact of that legislation for Connecticut and beyond, and both of those documents. The bill analysis is prepared by the Office of Legislative Research, and the fiscal analysis is prepared by the Office of Fiscal Affairs.

Those are examples of the kind of work that the nonpartisan staff does, but there are also many other things that the nonpartisan staff does that would be similar to any other organization. So there are amazing IT workers who are doing all of the IT and all of the operations piece. Like most organizations.

The general assembly is resource-limited, and everyone is doing lots of different things. You can imagine that during a session, when there are dozens, if not hundreds, of bills being introduced. Proposed the bill analysis and fiscal notes take time to do and to do well. And there are lots of different questions that are being asked by the staff, by the legislators, by the public, trying to get information. The fellowship in my role is really one more person to help. My goal and kind of the ethos of what I’ve been trying to do is I’m there to learn, and I’m there to help. But going back to the point about being nonpartisan and being an engineer and a technical person. I am able to sit with somebody or answer questions and promise them that I’m nonpartisan.

I’m providing technical evidence-based information, and I’ll be the first person to say, I don’t know, and let me help you get more information. For example, a researcher that is helping with a bill analysis on general law. They may be researching many different topics within the cognizance of general law.

General law covers AI and data privacy, but it also covers gaming. It covers cannabis, it covers ticketing. So the number of topics that anybody, including the nonpartisan researchers and the legislators themselves have to cover is very long. So having somebody. That is a scientist or engineer that can say, here’s the technical expertise, or here’s a journal article, or Here’s research.

To help answer your specific question can be very helpful at different times.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah, no, that’s, I think, that’s a benefit to them. It also, as you said, they’re resource-limited, so this helps them save time instead of waiting. A lot of time doing a bunch of research that leads them down may, maybe, rabbit holes that lead to nowhere. So you mentioned you’re working with AI, right? Artificial intelligence, right? How, so how are you interacting with the legislature from that perspective? And how are you moving that policy item along here?

Stephen Nicols: So it’s a great question, and there are different layers. Ai, like a lot of topics, everybody in the general assembly has a different understanding, just like in the general pop public. So in some CASEs. I’m just providing a simple explanation of what is ai, and what the difference is between artificial intelligence and machine learning.

What’s the difference between gen AI and the type of AI that may be used in a robot. So being able to provide good answers and good technical resources to meet people where they are. That’s one thing I’m doing. The other part is that being able to help answer questions of how, based on my experience, how might industry consider this?

Or how might an engineer who’s building a product understand this regulation, that’s one place where I can help. Also. How do we think about this topic? Or where do we find more research? Being able to connect folks back to the CASE technical boards or to university researchers who are doing this.

That’s one aspect of what I’m doing. Connecticut benefits by having some legislators who are absolute experts in this area. I’ve benefited greatly by working with Senator James Maroney, who’s chair of the general law committee, who is working across, not just Connecticut, but many multi-state groups to answer questions about whether we should regulate AI?

How do we regulate AI? How do we change and enhance our education system in the face of AI coming? How do we upskill our workforce? Where do we go next? In the kind of coming or the coming technical technological revolution or the one that we’re already a part of, AI in lots of places, there’s a question of whether it’s a specific thing or a ubiquitous technology that works across everything?

And I think many parts of all communities are looking at this as a ubiquitous technology and finding the right balance is very important.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah, we had Senator Maroney on a previous podcast discussing some of the legislation that you. Are presently helping with. So it’s a nice way to bring this full circle. From that perspective, what are the important concerns or opportunities around AI for Connecticut, right?

Let’s look at it from that vantage point because everyone’s always looking at it from America writ large, or the world writ large. Like, how can CT take advantage of this?

Stephen Nicols: Yeah. And there are some very interesting geopolitical and national questions at a state and a regional level. There are maybe three easy buckets of how to think about this. There’s a question of at what level, and what right balance, should there be guardrails to protect people? And protect folks against potential harms and risks created by AI or created by the application of AI.

But there’s also how do we promote and empower people to use AI to upskill, to understand this. And beyond that, how does that help spur economic activity? How does it create inclusive growth, and how does it help the people of Connecticut? We know from other technological revolutions that often when new technologies like computing and the internet, for example, come on, it may exacerbate some of the haves and have-nots.

We still have a digital divide in the country and in some of our communities in Connecticut. As AI comes along, how do we introduce it and upscale folks in a way that we’re working to potentially close the digital divide? How do we make sure that it is not just large companies that benefit from it, but it’s also small and medium-sized businesses.

How do we make sure that people, no matter where they are in the education system, are getting benefits and have access to learn things. So, one specific example is that there’s now a Connecticut AI Academy that is free and open to everyone. Programs like that come specifically from the public discourse about, about how to empower and promote this in the state.

Tanimu Deleon: Oh, interesting. So, what is it? It’s literally like a boot camp or something for AI or… this is the first time I’m hearing about it.

Stephen Nicols: Yeah, so through Charter Oak State College, if you do a search for Connecticut AI Academy, any resident of Connecticut can sign up. There’s kind of basic information that is really AI for all, AI, and as we talked about, there are lots of different layers of folks that we need. We certainly need an AI-educated workforce that’s gonna help build frontier models and help apply AI systems within the industries that we have in Connecticut and grow new industries.

Also, how anybody is applying AI within their day-to-day life or within their job is an aspect of where that Connecticut AI Academy is focused on. But it’s also a good example of a public-private partnership that came out of public policy and government. So the General Assembly proposed it.

They worked with the Connecticut public college system. And some of that content is basically from Google, and others to provide the best technical information in a format that makes a lot of sense.

Tanimu Deleon: That, that’s fantastic because we certainly need to get ahead of it, as you mentioned, the haves and have-nots, right? Typically, if you don’t have a good understanding of this technology, you could potentially get left behind if the momentum continues, as we’ve seen in recent months.

So that, that, that’s a great thing that the state is doing. One thing that I think people around the state have heard about is quantum. As well. And there are organizations working on quantum, so how does that play into, or does it play into anything that you’re working on with AI?

Stephen Nicols: It’s a great question, and it comes back to how do we spur on economic growth and how do we build innovation ecosystems within Connecticut. So I – to back up to the bigger system for a moment – Connecticut has great industries and ecosystems around healthcare and biosciences, around insurance and financial services, around aerospace and defense, around manufacturing and advanced manufacturing.

The two that are emerging are quantum and AI, and they are complementary to each other. They’re also different quantum, and in some ways, it’s its own branch of science. And the applications of two quantum computing, quantum materials, and quantum sensing that have the ability to create their own new industry and help some of those other industries.

AI similarly is the application of learning and machine learning, and different techniques to automate some decision-making that can have a ubiquitous help across other industries and help create different things. How Connecticut builds an innovation ecosystem to enable new startups to flourish, to help small and medium-sized businesses learn about the application, to upscale the workforce to create those research partnerships with the universities.

Those are two important conversations. For AI and for Quantum. So, in many ways, what’s emerging in New Haven and around quantum is great for the state, and there are ongoing discussions about how to build something similar for AI and applied AI to help not just the industries here but the region at large.

Tanimu Deleon: Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Quantum has opportunities that can, as you mentioned, grow new businesses and new sectors for the state. One thing I did want to just pull out a bit or tease out, I would imagine quantum requires the same level of energy usage and cooling, or is that separate?

Because I know we all know AI and data centers, and the electric bills in various parts of the country are going up as a result. Is that something? Is that similar to Quantum, or would that be a different bucket?

Stephen Nicols: So it’s a good question, and this is a great example of the kind of technical question that I’m helping legislators and other folks answer all the time. Quantum and traditional computing are different in several respects. One is their energy usage. Quantum at the moment requires significant amounts of power and significant amounts of cooling, and the amount it scales exponentially. Traditional computing is a little bit more of a linear, or closer to linear growth, which is why for some of these large language models, like what’s used for many of the commercial gen AI tools, we’re seeing larger and larger data centers.

But the interesting thing is that both of these technologies are changing, and what that means is that energy use has the potential to change over time. So, as the AI models get smaller, for example, as we move from large language models to small language models and smaller models in general, that has the potential to be distributed.

So we won’t need as many of the large data centers. Also, many of the quantum experts are predicting that quantum will be a step change. Once quantum computing is more efficient and working better, everything will get a little bit better each year. But a large change.

I find it a little bit ironic, and somewhat gratifying, that my AI fellowship is sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Which is the exact Gordon Moore who founded Intel and founded Moore’s Law. So, Moore’s Law, as many of us know, predicts how the chips will improve over time.

The slope of that line and the exponential curve of the increase, once quantum becomes real, it’s gonna really change the game. At the same time, AI is here now. I think many people will think back to November 2022 when ChatGPT was first released. And that felt a little bit like a step change.

AI and automated decision-making have been used for decades, and AI is not a new term. Maybe new to the general public. But I think since ChatGPT and a lot of these tools have become publicly available, people have really started to understand and start to apply it across different things.

So the AI revolution, in a way, is here now. Quantum is coming. So, how we balance innovation investments at a state and higher level is one question, but also how we prepare the workforce and transform industries. It’s the traditional technological road mapping kind of question that many of us apply to different things.

You have a short, medium, and a long term, and the answer is you have to work on all of it, but find the right balance.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah, well said. Getting back to your fellowship here, how has the fellowship advanced your career and supported your professional development? Because I think the next person coming in after you might find these things that could help benefit them and grow this fellowship, hopefully into something bigger in the future.

Stephen Nicols: So for me personally, it’s been a tremendous learning experience. The ability to help, the ability to learn from different folks. Whether it’s Senator Maroney, who’s spent a tremendous amount of time with me. Whether it’s folks like Betsy Franko, who’s the clerk for the general law committee, who’s been an amazing guide in, in the building and the ecosystem. Whether it’s Tony Camillieri, the lobbyist who works with CASE, CASE members, and legislators. The list goes on of those who have helped me understand the importance of this work. It’s also reinforced to me that interdisciplinary work, science-based communication, and how you get folks to collaborate to solve problems are incredibly important.

I hugely benefited from 20 years of traveling the world, working on elevators, and doing product development. But the ability to define requirements, find the right team. Figure out what the right balance is and actually get something done. Those are skills that are transferable. And finding ways to do that in public, private partnerships and industry, academia, and government has been a lot of very exciting. Yeah.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah. Most people don’t seem to realize that soft skills are just as critical as having technical skills. And especially in government, soft skills might be actually more critical just because you’re dealing with people of different persuasions and different technical merits. That’s great. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Stephen Nicols: Yeah, to that exact point. I was lucky enough to join a brainstorming session among legislators from different states and several companies, discussing the skills we need in an AI economy. And the number one skill, by far, across industries and job postings, was communication skills.

The communication skills were number one, kind of teamwork and critical thinking. And some of those more durable skills are all in the top five. So, one of the things people ask me a lot is, in the face of AI, what do I need to tell my students? What should I be working on?

In this kind of thinking, not just for my career now, but my career in the next two years. My personal belief is that critical thinking and problem solving, and the research backs this up – it’s not just my belief – critical thinking and problem solving, empathy, community building, and communication skills. Those are all, in many ways, uniquely human. And those aren’t going away, no matter how good the AI gets.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah, no, that’s well said. And I totally concur with communication. Critical thinking, because you know a lot of this, maybe this is my opinion here, but a lot of this social distancing with meet with social media has seemed to erode some of the communication and, unfortunately, critical thinking skills here.

But, speaking about that, so we can wrap up, there are potential CASE members, scientists, and engineers who may be interested in this public policy fellowship. You did mention that you came in with experience, right? So, how does that experience that you have from the context of this fellowship, what do you think someone coming in would need beyond some of the soft skills we just mentioned in order to be as successful as you have been?

Stephen Nicols: So, it is gonna sound potentially a little bit naive, but I think the biggest skill and thing that folks need is they need an interest and a willingness to raise their hand. Whether you’re getting involved in a fellowship, paying attention to what’s going on in the general assembly, and wanna write testimony, or having a conversation about a political topic around the water, the ability to engage and add to the civic discourse.

And just try to jump in and help get something done. I think that’s the most important. My professional experience and technical skills have certainly helped. And I think many of the fellowships like this look for PhD preferred or a Master’s degree or a Master’s minimum.

I don’t have a PhD. I, I have a deep respect for everyone who does. But that just hasn’t ever been the right academic answer for me. But I think the mindset of how to listen, how to connect the dots between different things, how to connect to people at the level of where they are, and find ways to.

To break down complex topics and communicate to them those that are important in this fellowship or to any scientist or engineer who is trying to get involved in public policy.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah, that, that is so well said. I like what you said there. Connect with, connect to people where they are, connect at their level of understanding because then they’ll, they will jump on and take the ride with you, as opposed to, saying, I’d rather just stay right here, if you don’t mind.

Stephen Nicols: And again, and to that, to extend that analogy, once they’re on the bus, so to speak, then you can work together to figure out where to go. And that makes the more complex technical or public policy topics a lot easier once people are talking and working together.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah. No, that’s spot on. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that to light. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Just before we wrap up.

Stephen Nicols: Yeah, just one, one more thing and an example of what we were just, and building on what we were just talking about. If you’ve got an idea if you have something to say, reach out. One of the things that is exciting about the state legislature is that there are not as many people calling their state senator and state representative as you think there are.

I think many of us talk here about writing a letter to your representative in Congress, for example, and I can’t speak directly, but I would imagine that folks in Washington are inundated with many issues. Where your state senator or your state representative may only be getting five or fewer emails or phone calls from folks.

So, if it’s a technical topic you’re interested in, reach out. Through the CGA website, you can find information on everyone who’s there and how to do that. And I think learning who to reach out to, when to reach out, and having some of that, that collaborative discussion, that’s part of what living in Connecticut and living in the US is about.

So, thank you to CASE for the opportunity. And thank you to everyone for helping me learn and help in this way.

Tanimu Deleon: Yeah. Thank you as well.

On behalf of CASE, I just want to thank you, Stephen, for taking the time to enlighten us today. It’s been a real pleasure for our listeners, and your insights into the science and technology policy fellowship program have been a breath of fresh air and well-received.

So thank you again so much.

Stephen Nicols: Thank you.

Tanimu Deleon: Listeners, I encourage you to subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or YouTube. Visit the Academy’s website at ctCASE.org to learn more about our guests and access show notes with additional resources. Read the episode transcript and sign up for the CASE bulletin.

Thanks again to our guest. It’s been a pleasure talking with you today, Stephen. Thank you so much.