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Last CFP: New Foundations for Human-Centered AI (extended deadline)
by Alessandro Saffiotti 21 Feb '20

21 Feb '20

====================================================================== = NeHuAI-2020 = 1st International Workshop on New Foundations for Human-Centered AI = June 9, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (Part of ECAI-2020) ====================================================================== * Submission deadline extended to March 10 (strict) * SYNOPSIS -------- In June 2018, the European Commission has appointed a "AI High Level Expert Group" (AI-HLEG) to support the implementation of the European Strategy on Artificial Intelligence. One of the first results of the AI-HLEG has been to deliver ethics guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation/guidelines). These guidelines put forward a human-centered approach to AI, and list seven key requirements that human-centered, trustworthy AI systems should meet, summarized by the following headers: 1. Human agency and oversight 2. Technical robustness and safety 3. Privacy and data governance 4. Transparency 5. Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness 6. Societal and environmental wellbeing 7. Accountability Many of today's most popular AI methods, however, fail to meet these guidelines: making them compliant is a scientific endeavor that is as crucial as it is challenging and stimulating. Systems based on deep learning are a case in point: while these systems often provide impressive results, their ability to _explain_ these results to the user is very limited, challenging requirements 4 and 7; in most cases we lack ways to formally _verify_ their correctness and assess their boundary conditions, challenging requirement 2; and we don't yet have methods to allow humans to _collaboratively_ influence or question their decisions, challenging requirement 1. Similar criticalities are present in many other popular AI methods. This full day workshop will collectively address the fundamental questions of what are the scientific and technological gaps that we have to fill in order to make AI systems _human-centered_ in terms of the above guidelines. PAPER SUBMISSION ---------------- Contributions are seeked on new foundations for building Human-Centered AI systems, able to comply with AI-HLEG recommendations. Contributions are seeked in the form of full papers (max 7 pages plus references) presenting mature results, or position papers and reports of relevant ongoing work (max 4 pages including references). More specific topics include, but are not limited to: - Explainable AI - Verifiable AI - Technical robustness and safety of AI systems - Collaboration between humans and AI systems - Integrating model-based and data-driven AI - Integrating symbolic- and sub-symbolic AI - Mixed initiative AI-Human systems - Proactive AI systems in human environments - Understanding and naturally interacting with humans - Understanding and interaction in complex social settings - Reflexivity and expectation managament - Integrating Learning, Reasoning and Acting in AI systems - Integrating human and robot cognition Papers should be formatted according to the ECAI2020 formatting style, available at the ECAI2020 website (ecai2020.eu). Submissions are not anonymous. Accepted papers will be made available on the workshop site, and must be presented at the workshop. There will be no official proceedings, but we will consider editing a special issue including extended versions of the presented papers. Submit your paper by March 10 (extended deadline, strict) via Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nehuai2020 ORGANIZERS ---------- Alessandro Saffiotti (Orebro University, Sweden) Luciano Serafini (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy) Paul Lukowicz (DFKI, Kaiserslautern, Germany) SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS ------------------------ This worskhop is jointly organized by AI4EU (ai4eu.eu), the EU landmark project to develop a European AI on-demand platform and ecosystem; and by Humane-AI (humane-ai.eu), the EU FET preparatory action devoted to designing a European research agenda for Human Centered AI. MORE INFORMATION ---------------- http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ ======================================================================

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[ICDL-2020] Call for Tutorials
by Miguel Solís 14 Feb '20

14 Feb '20

Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this call due to cross-posting, please help to distribute among possible interested contributors. CALL FOR TUTORIALS: 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) 7th-10th September 2020, Valparaiso, Chile Web page: https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ An IEEE Computational Society-sponsored conference ==== Important Dates ==== Tutorial Proposals Open: 15th February 2020 Tutorial Proposals Deadline: 30h April 2020 Tutorial Proposals Notification: 15th May 2020 ==== Overview ==== We invite experts in different areas to organize a tutorial. The goal of tutorials is to provide insights into specific topics through hands-on training and interactive experiences or in-depth state of the art review. Tutorial organizers have several responsibilities, including activities scheduling, publicizing and providing the content on time. ICDL will support the organization with rooms, audio-visual equipment and coffee breaks. ==== Scope and Topics ==== The main list of topics of interest includes, but not limited to: - principles and theories of development and learning; - development of skills in biological systems and robots; - nature vs nurture, developmental stages; - models on the contributions of interaction to learning; - verbal, non-verbal and multi-modal interaction; - models on active learning; - architectures for lifelong learning; - emergence of body and affordance perception; - analysis and modelling of human motion and state; - models for prediction, planning and problem solving; - models of human-human and human-robot interaction; - emergence of verbal and non-verbal communication; - epistemological foundations and philosophical issues; - robot prototyping of human and animal skills; - ethics and trust in computational intelligence and robotics; - social learning in humans, animals, and robots. ==== Submission format ==== Proposals should be maximum of two pages long following the standard IEEE conference style. Proposals should be submitted in PDF format by email to icdl2020(a)ac3e.cl with subject “[Tutorials]”. Proposals should specify the following: Title Organizers Duration (half-day or full-day) A brief description of the topics to be covered Tentative program Target audience and interested groups Website Any logistic requirements such as poster stands, computers, projector, etc. For more information about the conference, travel grants, social events, etc. visit the conference webpage under https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Organizing committee ==== General Chairs: Giulio Sandini, and Javier Ruiz-del-Solar Program and Finance Chairs: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero, and María-José Escobar Bridge Chairs: Minoru Asada, Frédéric Alexandre, and Linda Smith Publicity Chairs: Carmelo Bastos, Maya Cakmak, Angelo Cangelosi, Yukie Nagai, and Emre Ugur Publication Chairs: Pablo Barros, and Haian Wu Tutorials and Workshops Chair: Miguel Solis Travel and Registration Awards Chair: Francisco Cruz Local chairs: Mauricio Araya Webpage Chairs: Cristóbal Nettle, and Patricio Castillo Graphics: Camila Angel Alfaro Best regards from the organizing committee,

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2nd CFP: New Foundations for Human-Centered AI (an ECAI workshop)
by Alessandro Saffiotti 12 Feb '20

12 Feb '20

====================================================================== = NeHuAI-2020 = 1st International Workshop on New Foundations for Human-Centered AI = June 9, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (Part of ECAI-2020) = http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ ====================================================================== SYNOPSIS -------- In June 2018, the European Commission has appointed a "AI High Level Expert Group" (AI-HLEG) to support the implementation of the European Strategy on Artificial Intelligence. One of the first results of the AI-HLEG has been to deliver ethics guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation/guidelines). These guidelines put forward a human-centered approach to AI, and list seven key requirements that human-centered, trustworthy AI systems should meet, summarized by the following headers: 1. Human agency and oversight 2. Technical robustness and safety 3. Privacy and data governance 4. Transparency 5. Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness 6. Societal and environmental wellbeing 7. Accountability Many of today's most popular AI methods, however, fail to meet these guidelines: making them compliant is a scientific endeavor that is as crucial as it is challenging and stimulating. Systems based on deep learning are a case in point: while these systems often provide impressive results, their ability to _explain_ these results to the user is very limited, challenging requirements 4 and 7; in most cases we lack ways to formally _verify_ their correctness and assess their boundary conditions, challenging requirement 2; and we don't yet have methods to allow humans to _collaboratively_ influence or question their decisions, challenging requirement 1. Similar criticalities are present in many other popular AI methods. This full day workshop will collectively address the fundamental questions of what are the scientific and technological gaps that we have to fill in order to make AI systems _human-centered_ in terms of the above guidelines. PAPER SUBMISSION ---------------- Contributions are seeked on new foundations for building Human-Centered AI systems, able to comply with AI-HLEG recommendations. Contributions are seeked in the form of full papers (max 7 pages plus references) presenting mature results, or position papers and reports of relevant ongoing work (max 4 pages including references). More specific topics include, but are not limited to: - Explainable AI - Verifiable AI - Technical robustness and safety of AI systems - Collaboration between humans and AI systems - Integrating model-based and data-driven AI - Integrating symbolic- and sub-symbolic AI - Mixed initiative AI-Human systems - Proactive AI systems in human environments - Understanding and naturally interacting with humans - Understanding and interaction in complex social settings - Reflexivity and expectation managament - Integrating Learning, Reasoning and Acting in AI systems Papers should be formatted according to the ECAI2020 formatting style, available at the ECAI2020 website (ecai2020.eu). Submissions are not anonymous. Submit your paper by February 25 via Easychair here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nehuai2020 ORGANIZERS ---------- - Alessandro Saffiotti (Orebro University, Sweden) - Luciano Serafini (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy) - Paul Lukowicz (DFKI, Kaiserslautern, Germany) This worskhop is jointly organized by AI4EU (ai4eu.eu), the EU landmark project to develop a European AI on-demand platform and ecosystem; and by Humane-AI (humane-ai.eu), the EU FET preparatory action devoted to designing a European research agenda for Human Centered AI. MORE INFORMATION ---------------- http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ ======================================================================

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Call for Participation, #ACDL2020, 3rd Advanced Course on Data Science & Machine Learning - Early Registration: February 20
by Ludovico Montalcini 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

ACDL 2020, 3rd Advanced Course on Data Science & Machine Learning An Interdisciplinary Course: Big Data, Deep Learning & Artificial Intelligence without Borders ACDL 2020 – A Unique Experience: Data Science, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence with the World’s Leaders in the fascinating atmosphere of the ancient Certosa di Pontignano Certosa di Pontignano, Siena - Tuscany, Italy July 13-17, 2020 https://acdl2020.icas.xyz acdl(a)icas.xyz The past 2 editions have attracted more than 150 students per year and world-renowned experts in ML, AI, DP and DS including Yoshua Bengio, Leslie Kaelbling, Peter Norvig, Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, Marc'Aurelio Ranzato, Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Josh Tenenbaum, Naftali Tishby and Oriol Vinyals. More info about our current and past editions can be found here: https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/past-editions/ ACDL 2018 & ACDL 2019 Sold-out! Probably also ACDL 2020 ;-) Early registration deadline: February 20, 2020 https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/registration/ CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, POSTER & ORAL PRESENTATIONS: During the Registration Process we accept abstract submissions for posters and oral presentations to be presented during the poster sessions and the talk sessions. https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/registration/ Early registration deadline: February 20, 2020 Deadlines: Oral/Poster Presentation Submission: February 20, 2020. Notification of Decision for Oral/Poster Presentation: by March 12, 2020. Early Registration: Until February 20, 2020. Late Registration: After February 20, 2020. LECTURERS: Each Lecturer will hold three/four lessons on a specific topic. * Igor Babuschkin, DeepMind - Google, London, UK * Pierre Baldi, University of California Irvine, USA * Michael Bronstein, Twitter & Imperial College London, UK * Marco Gori, University of Siena, Italy * Victor Lempitsky, Samsung AI Center, Moscow Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Russia * Diederik P. Kingma, Google Brain, San Francisco, CA, USA * Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA * Daniela Rus, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, USA * Mihaela van der Schaar, University of Cambridge, UK More speakers coming soon! Tutorial Speakers * Chip Huyen, Stanford University, USA 4-hour tutorial on "TensorFlow 2.0 for Deep Learning Research" * Adam Paszke, University of Warsaw, Poland 4-hour tutorial on "PyTorch: A Modern Library for Machine Learning" More tutorial speakers coming soon! SCOPE: The Advanced Course is not a summer school suited only for younger scholars. Rather, a significant proportion of seasoned investigators are regularly present among the attendees, often senior faculty at their own institutions. The balanced audience that we strive to maintain in each Advanced Course greatly contributes to the development of intense cross-disciplinary debates among faculty and participants that typically address the most advanced and emerging areas of each topic. Each faculty member presents lectures and discusses with the participants for one entire day. Such long interaction together with the small, exclusive Course size provides the uncommon opportunity to fully explore the expertise of each faculty, often through one-to-one mentoring. This is unparalleled and priceless. The Certosa di Pontignano provides the perfect setting to a relaxed yet intense learning atmosphere, with the stunning backdrop of the Tuscan landscapes. World-class wines and traditional foods will make the Advanced Course on Data Science and Machine Learning the experience of a lifetime. 8 ECTS POINTS: Participants will be delivered a certificate of attendance indicating the number of hours of lectures (36-40 hours of lectures). In according to the academic system all PhD and master students attending to the summer school will may get 8 ECTS points. A formal certificate of successful participation in the event will be delivered indicating the number of hours of lectures. VENUE & ACCOMMODATION: The venue of ACDL 2020 will be The Certosa di Pontignano — Siena Dr. Lorenzo Pasquinuzzi The Certosa di Pontignano Località Pontignano, 5 – 53019, Castelnuovo Berardenga (Siena) – Tuscany – Italy phone: +39-0577-1521104 fax: +39-0577-1521098 info(a)lacertosadipontignano.com https://www.lacertosadipontignano.com/en/index.php A few Kilometres from Siena, on a hill dominating the town stands the ancient Certosa di Pontignano, a unique place where nature, history and hospitality blend together in memorable harmony. Built in the 1300, its medieval structure remains intact with additions of the following centuries. The Certosa is centred on its historic cloisters and gardens. https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/venue/ ACCOMMODATION: https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/accommodation/ REGISTRATION: https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/registration/ We remind you that ACDL 2018 and ACDL 2019 sold out a long time before the registration deadline! Anyone interested in participating in ACDL 2020 should register as soon as possible! Similarly for accommodation at the Certosa di Pontignano (the School Venue), book your full board accommodation at the Certosa as soon as possible! All course participants should/must stay at the Certosa di Pontignano. See you in Tuscany next July! ACDL 2020 Organizing Committee. acdl(a)icas.xyz https://acdl2020.icas.xyz https://www.facebook.com/groups/204310640474650/ https://twitter.com/TaoSciences * Apologies for multiple copies. Please forward to anybody who might be interested *

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[Call for Participation] First Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics
by Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

https://www.lacoro.org We are excited to announce our first Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO), which aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible to everyone, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, particularly Cognitive Inspired Aspects of AI. - to make cutting-edge scientific topics accessible to everyone. - to overcome the complexity of a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary learning context. **Applications period is now open** Format: We will organize the Summer School in Latin America biennially. LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics but also aspects of Human Cognition. Moreover, we will host a hackathon where attendees can acquire hands-on experience on some of the topics of the Summer School. Date and Location: September 3rd to September 5th, 2020 at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile. Applications: Please visit our website, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, lodging, along with an application form. Pre-registration is required because there will be a limited number of participants. If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee, -- Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero Assistant Professor Department of Engineering, and School of Culture and Society Aarhus University, Denmark E-mail: nng(a)eng.au.dk https://nicolas-navarro-guerrero.github.io/ Aarhus University Finlandsgade 22, building 5125 8200 Aarhus N Denmark Tel.: +45 8715 0000 eng(a)au.dk www.eng.au.dk/en/

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[jobs] Knowledge Technology for Intelligent Neural Systems
by Wermter, Stefan 05 Feb '20

05 Feb '20

The Department of Informatics, Knowledge Technology Institute invites applications for a RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Knowledge Technology for Intelligent Systems - SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L - As a University of Excellence, the University of Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts to partners within and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally. The position in accordance with Section 28 subsection 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) commences on 1 March 2020 or as soon as possible. This is a fixed term contract in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The position calls for 100% of standard work hours per week. Responsibilities: Research associates will be expected primarily to teach and conduct research. The research associate will also have the opportunity to pursue further academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the research associate´s own academic work. Specific Duties: The successful candidate will contribute to teaching related to the Knowledge Technology Institute (4hrs/teaching week), in particular to Data-driven Intelligent Systems, but also to Research Methods or Bio-inspired Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, the candidate is expected to conduct research in the area of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems, in particular Neural Networks and Human-Robot Interaction. PhD candidates have the opportunity to advance their academic education through the completion of a doctoral dissertation. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant field. Academic degree in computer science qualifying the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned duties. In particular, an MSc or equivalent in the area of Intelligent Systems is desired. Your demonstrated research interests should be in the areas of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Intelligent Robotics, Natural Language Processing, Vision, or Hybrid Knowledge Representation etc). Publication experience is desirable. We are looking for very good communication skills and evidence for teamwork. A very good command of both German and English is a requirement for teaching and research. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg promotes equal opportunity. As women are currently underrepresented in this job category at Universit„t Hamburg according to the evaluation conducted under the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HambGleiG), we encourage women to apply for this position. Equally qualified and suitable female applicants will receive preference. Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter (wermter(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) or consult our website at https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/. Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, language certificates German and English, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 15 February 2020 or before the position gets filled to: Ms Katja Koesters (katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) in a single pdf document . Please do not submit original documents as we are not able to return them. Any documents sub-mitted will be destroyed after the application process has concluded. *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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[@Home2020] Second Call for Participation (Extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 21 Jan '20

21 Jan '20

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2020-cfp2-all/ Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) ====================================== June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2020, second term. Important dates: Dec. 20, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Jan. 26, 2020 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. EXTENDED (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 02, 2020 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2020 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2020-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. IMPORTANT: Teams that didn't obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. **** Deadline: Sunday, January 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ***** Step 2) Participation confirmation Teams qualified during the Second Call for Participation do not require to confirm attendance. Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): No new teams will be elegible for standard robot acquisition in the Second Call for Participation. Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. Remarks: - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" - Standard Platforms Only: Teams must use the standard robot in their Team Video. Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group's research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups - Please specify when you are using software from other teams - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations) - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions - Annex should be appended after the References - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged - TDP length is ****8 pages + annex**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note:All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Robotica 2020 - 20th Portuguese Robotics Open - 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
by Manuel Silva 16 Dec '19

16 Dec '19

======================================================================= (Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement) ======================================================================= ======================================================================= *** 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *** *** Registrations are already open! *** ======================================================================= Robotica 2020 - 20th Portuguese Robotics Open http://robotica2020.uac.pt/ April 15-19, 2016 Ponta Delgada, Portugal The Portuguese Robotics Open is a RoboCup Event that aims at promoting Science and Technology among students from the 1st grade to university studies, as well among the general public, through robotic competitions. We would like to invite you to participate in the 20th Portuguese Robotics Open which will take place during April 15-19, 2020, at Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel - Azores, Portugal. If you are interested in participating, please pre-register your team and follow the procedure as outlined below. == Competitions == The following competitions are offered for the 20th Portuguese Robotics Open: Major Competitions -- RoboCup Middle Size League -- RoboCup 2D Simulation League -- RoboCup 3D Simulation League -- Autonomous Driving Competition -- RoboCup@Factory -- Robot@Factory Lite -- FreeBots & Ocean Freebots Competition Junior Competitions -- RoboCup Junior OnStage -- RoboCup Junior Soccer -- RoboCup Junior Rescue (Line, Maze, Simulation) -- Robot@Factory Lite -- First Challenger -- FreeBots & Ocean Freebots Junior Competition The rules of RoboCup competitions will be based on the RoboCup 2019 rules for each League. All competition rules are available selecting competitions from the menu at http://robotica2020.uac.pt. == Schedule == Early Registration deadline: March 10th, 2020 Late registration deadline: March 17th, 2020 Portuguese Robotics Open: April 15-19th, 2020 All deadlines are 23:59 GMT. == Registration == Registration is performed through the online form, available at: http://robotica2020.uac.pt/?page_id=50&lang=en (click at 'Access to register form' at the top of the page) Registration Fees: - Major Leagues fee per team: -- Until March 10th (early) - 5 team members - 260 Euros‚ -- After March 10th - 5 team members - 300 Euros‚ -- Additional team member: 50 Euros (no limit of extra members) - Junior Leagues fee per team: -- Until March 10th (early) - 1 tutor + 4 members - 120 Euros‚ -- After March 10th - 1 tutor + 4 members - 130 Euros‚ -- Additional team member: 40 Euros‚ (limited to 2 extra members) Scientific meeting - SPR / IEEE members -- Until March 16th - 300 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 350 Euros‚ - Non-Member -- Until March 16th - 350 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 400 Euros‚ - Student -- Until March 16th - 250 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 300 Euros‚ == Description and History == The Portuguese Robotics Open (also known as Festival Nacional de Robótica) had its 1st edition in 2001. The event has had enormous growth since the 1st edition, both in the number of teams, participants and visitors and also includes an international IEEE conference where national an international researchers present their latest work in the field of Robotics (http://icarsc2020.uac.pt/). The 20th edition of the Portuguese Robotics Open will be held in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel - Azores, Portugal, on April 15-19, 2020. Ponta Delgada is situated on the beautiful island of S. Miguel, Azores. It is the largest municipality and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. The Azores is an archipelago of nine islands on the northeast, at the Atlantic Ocean. The main touristic attractions are the whale watching and the different lakes in the large volcanic craters of Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas. The airport of Ponta Delgada is very close to the city (10 minutes by car). Daily regular flights from Lisbon are from TAP - Air Portugal, SATA - Air Azores and Ryanair. There are also direct connections to some other cities of Europe (more or less, once a week). == Hoping to see you visiting Azores == The Portuguese Robotics Open is currently an initiative of Portuguese Society of Robotics. Hoping to see you at the Portuguese Robotics Open! Kind Regards, The Portuguese Robotics Open Organizing Committee Manuel Silva Professor Adjunto Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica [http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/EMAIL_ISEP.png]<http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/> ISEP | Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431 4249-015 Porto - PORTUGAL tel. +351 228 340 500 | fax +351 228 321 159 mail(a)isep.ipp.pt | www.isep.ipp.pt<http://www.isep.ipp.pt>

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[jobs] Neural Network models for language and interactive robots
by Wermter, Stefan 10 Dec '19

10 Dec '19

The Department of Informatics, Institute of Knowledge Technology, invites applications for multiple positions as RESEARCH ASSOCIATES (Postdocs and PhD Students) in the context of the project CROSSMODAL LEARNING: Neural network models for language and interactive robots. Positions commence from January 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter and are in accordance with Section 28 subsection 3 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) on SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L. These are fixed-term contracts in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The term is fixed for up to 4 years until 31st of December 2023. The full-time positions call for 39 hours per week. Responsibilities: Duties include academic services in the project named above. Research associates may also pursue independent research and further academic qualifications. Specific Duties: Duties in the project include the design, development and evaluation of neurocognitive models of crossmodal language learning as well as neurorobotic models for crossmodal joint attention and social interaction. The overall project aims to deepen interdisciplinary research between computer science, neuroscience, and psychology in order to set up collaborative research with a focus on human-robot-collaboration, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and psychology while focusing on the topic of cross-modal learning. The long-term challenge is to understand the neural, cognitive and computational evidence of cross-modal learning and to use this understanding for (1) better analyzing human performance with cross-modal correspondence and (2) building effective cross-modal computational and robot systems. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant subject. For doctoral positions, academic degree of MSc in computer science, computer engineering or similar. For post-doctoral positions, a doctorate, or equivalently the experience of more than three years of doctoral studies plus publications in the area of Intelligent Systems are required. The degree must qualify the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned duties. Programming skills in some of Python, C, ROS, Tensorflow or PyTorch are required. Your demonstrated research interests should be in some of the areas of Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Robotics, Machine Learning, Speech, Vision, or Affective Processing). International publication experience is expected. Very good communication skills in English are expected. The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages qualified women to apply. Equally qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. As a University of Excellence, Universität Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts to partners within and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter or consult our website at: https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/ Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, pdf of best publications, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 15.01.2020 or until the post gets filled to Ms Katja Koesters (katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) in a single pdf document. *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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[jobs] Web Software Engineers: shape the future of personal robotics with Semio!
by Ross Mead 08 Dec '19

08 Dec '19

Web Software Engineers: shape the future of personal robotics with Semio! Are you proficient with JavaScript, Node.js, React, and other web technologies? Do you want to work on bleeding-edge technologies that push the web to its limits? Do you want to be part of the robotics revolution? Apply today to join us at Semio! https://semio.ai/jobs THE COMPANY Semio is a Los Angeles-based software startup defining the way in which people will live, work, and play with robots in their everyday lives. Our software enables robot developers to rapidly create and deploy robot apps, and allows robot end-users to easily access and use those robot apps via natural communication, including both speech and body language. We’ve been developing and deploying our software for over three years, we’ve received tons of feedback from paying customers, and we’re now onboarding our first full-time employees to join us in our mission of enabling personal robots in every home and workplace. Join us! - We’re building kick-ass technology — from browser-based voice and animation design tools to natural language processing and computer vision infrastructure, we are at the forefront of some of the coolest and most innovative tech in the world - We’re 100% software-focused — we provide the AI software mind for robot hardware bodies - We’re working with large, enterprise customers — our customers are the biggest tech leaders of today developing the personal robots of tomorrow - We’re supported by sales revenue from customers — utilizing Lean startup methods and a strong go-to-market strategy, we bootstrapped the company from the ground up and have secured additional growth funding to expand our team and bring you onboard THE POSITION We’re hiring full stack, front-end, and back-end software engineers in full-time capacities to help expand our browser-based design tools for writing, animating, simulating, and deploying socially interactive apps for personal robots. Our design tools are already in the hands of satisfied customers — with your help, we’ll make their experience even better! - You’ll be one of the first employees — help shape the culture of the company and the industry as a whole - You’ll work on software that already has users — your contributions will immediately influence the direction of robot app development with industry leaders - You’ll work closely with users to identify and implement new features — human-centered design is at our core to deliver the best user experience - You’ll boldly go where no one has gone before — the personal robotics industry is a new and untrod frontier, so we promote a work environment in which to rapidly explore brave new ideas and test experimental hypotheses to pave an evidence-based path to success THE LOCATION Semio is based in sunny Los Angeles, California, USA! We explored other cities to find the best fit for the business, and ultimately arrived at LA based on opportunities and costs. Do you want a Bay Area or NYC work/life experience, but don’t want to pay their prices? Then LA is right for you! - LA is a hub of technology — as part of Silicon Beach, LA is one of the largest tech centers in the world, rivaling both Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley - LA is a hub of diversity — our community is a melting pot of people, culture, and ideas, and this rich immersion helps us build a more equitable and sustainable future for robotics and AI - LA is a hub of fun and sun — from the beautiful beaches of Venice and Santa Monica to the entertainment of Hollywood and Disneyland to the art, fashion, and nightlife of Downtown, there are plenty of ways to unwind… and the weather is perfect year-round! WHY SHOULD YOU APPLY? - Get in early with a company that already has amazing technology and market traction - Influence the culture of the company and the robotics industry as a whole - Live in a cost-effective metropolis with bleeding-edge tech, a diverse community, fun and sun! INTERESTED? APPLY NOW! Visit https://semio.ai/jobs and join the robotics revolution! We look forward to working with you! — Ross & Braden, Founders

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