Dr Andrew Rens researches AI policy and law, data governance and regulation of the digital economy.Andrew earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Wits University before practising as an attorney. He was awarded a Master of Laws degree, in part for research on internet legal issues in South Africa, while practising as a public interest lawyer at the Wits Law Clinic, which serves some of the most disadvantaged members of South African society. Andrew was then awarded a doctoral degree from Duke University for research on copyright and educational materials.
While at Wits, Andrew pioneered the Masters courses in Information Technology Law. He has also taught postgraduate and undergraduate courses at the Universities of Cape Town and Duke. Dr Rens was a Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School (2002-2009). From 2007-2010, Andrew was the first Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, where he worked to increase access to knowledge, reform intellectual property law and enable open education in South Africa. Thereafter, he was Chief Counsel to the Shuttleworth Foundation from 2010 until its closure in 2022. Dr Rens has also been a fellow at the American University’s Internet Governance Lab in Washington D.C., where he concentrated on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).In addition to his research at Research ICT Africa, Dr Rens is an independent technology regulation consultant and remains a practising attorney.
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