I had a similar experience after Tiananmen where I was the student/veteran arguing with two professors in one of their offices. The robotic-killer narrative is old, venerable & apparently indestructible.

That used to be called a pipeline model of innovation; it wasn't controversial that government scientists or funding would be used for promising (or even speculative) seed efforts that would spawn private sector spin-offs. It all worked pretty well. Sheer madness that it's broken down now.

www.nokings.org has the "master" directory - I can't find any veteran specific events; they're all geo-coded. But I will keep an eye out in veterans' groups and share what I find!