June 2021 - RoboCup-worldwide - lists.robocup.org

[HRI][meetings][CFP] DEADLINE EXTENSION - GenR 2021 Workshop "GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics" @RO-MAN2021
by Giulia Perugia 30 Jun '21

30 Jun '21

Dear Colleagues, We are glad to inform you that the *deadline* for submissions of the *GenR 2021* *workshop* "Gendering Robots: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics" has been extended until *JULY 7th*! The workshop will be held on *August 12th* from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM CEST within the RO-MAN 2021 conference. Below, you can find the call for papers with all the information you need regarding the workshop's topics of interest, paper format, panelists, and keynote speakers. Please, feel free to contact us in case you have any questions and help us circulate the call within your network. Kindest regards, Giulia Perugia ================================ *CALL FOR PAPERS - IEEE RO-MAN 2021 GenR WORKSHOP * *GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics* *IMPORTANT DATES & INFO* Deadline for Paper Submission: July 7th, 2021 Paper Acceptance Notification: July 21st, 2021 Camera Ready Paper: July 28th, 2021 Main Conference Date: August 8th-12th, 2021 Workshop Date: August 12th, 2021 (3:00 PM - 7:00 PM) Workshop Website: https://sites.google.com/view/ro-man21-genr-workshop/home Twitter: @GenR_ROMAN <https://twitter.com/GenrRoman> Submission page: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=genr2021 Full call for papers: https://easychair.org/cfp/GenR2021 STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES Within the GenR workshop, we aim to provide researchers investigating gender in robotics with a platform to share their work and invite interested scholars to reflect with us on inclusive and ethical practices in robot gendering. We hope to explore motivations for robot gendering, and understand how robot gendering might impact human-robot interaction in the face of its risks with regards to stereotype propagation. Furthermore, we would like to inspire discussions about the mindful use of robots in society and promote the possibility to use robots to oppose/challenge harmful social practices (gender stereotypes, gender inequality, etc.). To this end, we invite those working in related domains (e.g., Social Robotics, and Gender Studies) to discuss with us best practices to re-configure gender in robotics and shed light on issues of gender from a multidisciplinary perspective. Our goal is to bridge the communication gap we observed between disciplines addressing the topic of gender in robotics and the lack of spaces to converse with and learn from one another. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Gendering practices in Social Robotics - Experimental studies on gendered robots - Feminist robotics - Robot’s gender design - Norm-critical design - Queer design in HRI - Sex Robots - Ethics of Gendered Robots - Normative deviance in relation to robot gender - Societal implications and applications of gendered robots - Performative arts encompassing a reflection on gender in robotics - Non-binary perspectives on robot gender SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Since our workshop aims at bringing researchers from different fields together and starting a conversation on the process of gendering robots, we are open to two formats of submissions: abstracts (1 page) and short papers (2-4 pages). We particularly encourage multidisciplinary submissions presenting works in progress, as accepted authors will be invited to identify discussion points and questions they would like to put to our panelists and other attendees. In line with the intent of the workshop, we accept different types of submissions: empirical papers, experimental design protocols, philosophical essays, studies with preliminary results and more conclusive papers. Authors should submit their papers formatted according to the IEEE two-column format <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/support.php>, the same as the main conference (LaTeX <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/tex.php> or MS-Word <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/word.php> templates). Authors should submit a PDF of their paper through EasyChair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=genr2021>. Submissions will be evaluated according to their fit to the workshop theme, their thought-provoking content, and their adherence to the scientific standards of the discipline of origin. The reviews will consist of constructive feedback mindful of the authors’ multidisciplinary background. We will prefer qualitative evaluations to score-based numerical ones. The workshop proceedings will be published on ArXiv and the authors will be invited to submit their work in a SPECIAL ISSUE <https://www.springer.com/journal/12369/updates/19292566?IFA> on the International Journal of Social Robotics. INVITED SPEAKERS Prof. Robert SPARROW, Monash University, Australia Prof. Friederike EYSSEL, University of Bielefeld, Germany PANEL DISCUSSION Prof. Ericka JOHNSON - Linköping University (Sweden) Dr. Katherine HARRISON- Linköping University (Sweden) Prof. Verena RIESER- Heriot Watt University (UK) Dr. Megan STRAIT - University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (USA) Prof. James E. *YOUNG* - University of Manitoba (Canada) COMMITTEE Dr. Giulia PERUGIA (main organiser), Uppsala University, Sweden, giulia.perugia(a)it.uu.se Dr. Katie WINKLE, KTH, Sweden, winkle(a)kth.se Ryan Blake JACKSON, Colorado School of Mines, USA, rbjackso(a)mymail.mines.edu Dominika LISY, Linköping University, Sweden, dominika.lisy(a)liu.se

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RoboCup 2021 Farewell + Survey
by Peter Stone 30 Jun '21

30 Jun '21

TL;DR - Please send photos/videos and complete survey: https://forms.gle/Es1DfR4H8ubyt54c7 Dear RoboCuppers, Back in November, when the board of trustees and I made the difficult decision to hold RoboCup 2021 remotely, we had no idea if it would work. In many of the leagues, there were neither rules nor infrastructure to support remote competitions. We knew that it was risky, but we also suspected that the RoboCup community would rise to the challenge. Now that the event has concluded, I am pleased to report that RoboCup 2021 was an unmitigated success! Every single league held a successful competition of some sort, and we had more than 2,000 registered participants - a similar number to our usual in-person attendance. I feel like I've said this so many times to so many people over the past few days. But I also don't think it can be said enough. So once more, Thank you! We couldn't have done it without you: the members of the event organizing committee, the executive committee, the technical committees, the organizing committees, and indeed all of the participants! No matter where your team finished in the league rankings, RoboCup couldn't have without your participation. I hope and trust that you've also gained something from the experience, both intellectually and personally. In case you were too busy programming to catch the symposium, I encourage you now to go back to the underline site and find recordings of the events on June 23rd, 25th, and 28th: https://underline.io/events/108/schedule I'd also like to ask all participants to fill out this short survey, which will help with our future planning: https://forms.gle/Es1DfR4H8ubyt54c7 And finally, to help us commemorate RoboCup 2021 in the future, please consider sharing with us any photos or videos that we can put into the RoboCup archive. There is one link for each league below. We request that: - they are free to use by RoboCup Federation and also partners of RoboCup on websites, press releases, etc. - you could/should send also information of the source, for giving credits (you can upload a text file with the author's names per picture, or list of pictures). Here are the links: Soccer Humanoid: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/ktyQcBFxGt8s3wc Soccer Standard Platform: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/B42aKfDi3adr7ce Soccer Middle Size: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/XAsJaqqwiadjp3X Soccer Small Size: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/ktHR4PRtgqCeRd5 Soccer Simulation: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/6qDd9HqwdWwnrPP Rescue Robot: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/3tgQjymcwNWNx5x Rescue Simulation: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/9xQ8zNcsG8WeKfy @Home: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/5yNefc5j8nRggMq Industrial @Work: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/dXfLz68BDGMBJnD Industrial Logistics: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/yHwpAwpYdXf3ydL Junior Soccer: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/iDiTpYCxAGEgNZn Junior OnStage: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/k969FLXDbMBiHbM Junior Rescue: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/YBbg9L5WzzGkd7F I look forward to seeing all of you in person in Thailand next year! Best Regards, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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Neural Computing and Applications (NCAA) Special Issue on Interpretation of Deep Learning
by Pub Conference 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

*Neural Computing and Applications (NCAA) Special Issue **on Interpretation of Deep Learning: Prediction, Representation, Modeling and Utilization* https://www.springer.com/journal/521/updates/19187658 Aims, Scope and Objective While Big Data offers the great potential for revolutionizing all aspects of our society, harvesting of valuable knowledge from Big Data is an extremely challenging task. The large scale and rapidly growing information hidden in the unprecedented volumes of non-traditional data requires the development of decision-making algorithms. Recent successes in machine learning, particularly deep learning, has led to breakthroughs in real-world applications such as autonomous driving, healthcare, cybersecurity, speech and image recognition, personalized news feeds, and financial markets. While these models may provide the state-of-the-art and impressive prediction accuracies, they usually offer little insight into the inner workings of the model and how a decision is made. The decision-makers cannot obtain human-intelligible explanations for the decisions of models, which impede the applications in mission-critical areas. This situation is even severely worse in complex data analytics. It is, therefore, imperative to develop explainable computation intelligent learning models with excellent predictive accuracy to provide safe, reliable, and scientific basis for determination. Numerous recent works have presented various endeavors on this issue but left many important questions unresolved. The first challenging problem is how to construct self-explanatory models or how to improve the explicit understanding and explainability of a model without the loss of accuracy. In addition, high dimensional or ultra-high dimensional data are common in large and complex data analytics. In these cases, the construction of interpretable model becomes quite difficult and complex. Further, how to evaluate and quantify the explainability of a model is lack of consistent and clear description. Moreover, auditable, repeatable, and reliable process of the computational models is crucial to decision-makers. For example, decision-makers need explicit explanation and analysis of the intermediate features produced in a model, thus the interpretation of intermediate processes is requisite. Subsequently, the problem of efficient optimization exists in explainable computational intelligent models. These raise many essential issues on how to develop explainable data analytics in computational intelligence. This Topical Collection aims to bring together original research articles and review articles that will present the latest theoretical and technical advancements of machine and deep learning models. We hope that this Topical Collection will: 1) improve the understanding and explainability of machine learning and deep neural networks; 2) enhance the mathematical foundation of deep neural networks; and 3) increase the computational efficiency and stability of the machine and deep learning training process with new algorithms that will scale. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: - Interpretability of deep learning models - Quantifying or visualizing the interpretability of deep neural networks - Neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary based interpretable control systems - Supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning - Extracting understanding from large-scale and heterogeneous data - Dimensionality reduction of large scale and complex data and sparse modeling - Stability improvement of deep neural network optimization - Optimization methods for deep learning - Privacy preserving machine learning (e.g., federated machine learning, learning over encrypted data) - Novel deep learning approaches in the applications of image/signal processing, business intelligence, games, healthcare, bioinformatics, and security Guest Editors Nian Zhang (Lead Guest Editor), University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, USA, nzhang(a)udc.edu Jian Wang, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China, wangjiannl(a)upc.edu.cn Leszek Rutkowski, Czestochowa University of Technology, Poland, leszek.rutkowski(a)pcz.pl Important Dates Deadline for Submissions: March 31, 2022 First Review Decision: May 31, 2022 Revisions Due: June 30, 2022 Deadline for 2nd Review: July 31, 2022 Final Decisions: August 31, 2022 Final Manuscript: September 30, 2022 Peer Review Process All the papers will go through peer review, and will be reviewed by at least three reviewers. A thorough check will be completed, and the guest editors will check any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any published paper or submitted manuscripts of which they are aware. In such case, the article will be directly rejected without proceeding further. Guest editors will make all reasonable effort to receive the reviewer’s comments and recommendation on time. The submitted papers must provide original research that has not been published nor currently under review by other venues. Previously published conference papers should be clearly identified by the authors at the submission stage and an explanation should be provided about how such papers have been extended to be considered for this special issue (with at least 30% difference from the original works). Submission Guidelines Paper submissions for the special issue should strictly follow the submission format and guidelines ( https://www.springer.com/journal/521/submission-guidelines). Each manuscript should not exceed 16 pages in length (inclusive of figures and tables). Manuscripts must be submitted to the journal online system at https://www.editorialmanager.com/ncaa/default.aspx. Authors should select “TC: Interpretation of Deep Learning” during the submission step ‘Additional Information’.

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RoboCup Symposium day, including awards ceremonies
by Peter Stone 27 Jun '21

27 Jun '21

Dear RoboCuppers, Congratulations to everyone on what by all appearances was a very successful set of competitions! While the competitions have completed, Monday brings the RoboCup Symposium, our community's main scientific event. Please tune in on the Underline mainstage starting at 9am UTC for a fun and interesting program. Each paper will be presented with a short 5-minute video. There will be time to talk with the authors and ask questions afterwards at the interactive sessions in Gather Town. You can browse the posters and videos in Gather Town at your convenience any time. At 11am UTC, there will be a panel on building a research career in RoboCup with representatives from different stages of their careers. Between noon and 2pm UTC, there will be the RoboCup Junior awards ceremony (noon), the Handover ceremony for everyone with a preview of RoboCup 2022 (12:45), and the RoboCup Major awards ceremony (1:15). All participants are strongly encouraged to attend - whether or not you won an award! Immediately following, we will have our final keynote speech, by Stefanie Tellex: "Towards Complex Language in Partially Observed Environments." At the end of the day, there will be a panel reflecting back on 25 years of RoboCup. I look forward to seeing you all there! Best, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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PhD studentship in Machine Learning for Human-Robot Interaction (PI: Frank Foerster, University of Hertfordshire)
by Daniel Polani 27 Jun '21

27 Jun '21

Dear all, on behalf of Frank Förster, I'd like to bring to your notice this PhD opportunity (deadline for applications 30. June 2021): PhD studentship MACHINE LEARNING FOR HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION Adaptive Systems Research Group Centre for Computer Science and Informatics Research School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science University of Hertfordshire, UK Contact: Frank Foerster (f.foerster(a)herts.ac.uk) ============ Short-listings will start on 30 June 2021* Bursary £15,285 p.a. * application before this date is strongly encouraged We invite applications for a PhD studentship at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, under the supervision of Dr. Frank Foerster in the area of robotic language acquisition or symbol grounding as well as approaches to implement repair mechanisms in human-robot interaction more generally. We are particularly interested in pursuing research that connects to the following two topics, but alternative ideas will be considered too. Research Topics Topic 1: Socially driven Machine Learning in Robotic Language Acquisition Topic 2: Repair Mechanisms in Interaction More information including relevant papers are provided in the following PDF: https://www.herts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/331737/ML_HRI.pdf Independent of the particular topic, we have recently become member of the HomeBank corpora, and would strongly encourage interaction and collaboration with developmental psychologists and psycholinguists. Person Profile You will have an excellent first degree and a very keen interest and motivation in human-machine interaction in general or in language acquisition in particular. Optimally you should have an excellent background in Computer Science, Computational/Cognitive Robotics, (computational) linguistics, Artificial intelligence, or similar disciplines with a considerable quantitative/computational component. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the topic we will also consider applicants with a background in (developmental) psychology, philosophy, or pragmatics as long as you have some experience in programming, machine learning, or dialogue systems. Prior experience with topics such as reinforcement learning, or statistical learning more generally is highly desirable, but not essential if the quantitative background is otherwise very strong. The knowledge of later Wittgenstein is a big plus. If you have questions, have alternative suggestions for a related, but distinct topic, and/or are generally interested in applying, please contact Dr. Frank Foerster f.foerster(a)herts.ac.uk ============ Research in Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire has been recognised as excellent by the latest Research Assessment Exercise, with 50% of the research submitted being rated as internationally excellent or world leading. The University of Hertfordshire provides a very stimulating environment, offering a large number of specialised and interdisciplinary seminars as well as general training and researcher development opportunities. The University is situated in Hatfield, in the green belt just north of London. Hatfield is close to Central London (less than 25 minutes by direct train to Kings Cross), with convenient access to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow airports, and, via the nearby historic town of St. Albans, also to Gatwick airport. Application forms and submission instructions are available under https://www.herts.ac.uk/study/schools-of-study/physics-engineering-and-comp… Eligibility ----------- Applicants must submit or obtain: - a completed application form, which can be obtained from website linked above - a research statement stating past experience/research background and interest and motivation/research ambition for current project - two academic references - copies of qualification certificates and transcripts - a copy of your passport Applications from outside the UK or EU are eligible for this studentship. The application form should be returned to: doctoralcollegeadmissions(a)herts.ac.uk

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Finals day!
by Peter Stone 26 Jun '21

26 Jun '21

Dear RoboCuppers, Sunday brings our last day of competitions in RoboCup 2021. Traditionally, we schedule the games sequentially so that we can all watch the finals in all the leagues and then at the end of the day we have the awards ceremony. Due to people being in different time zones, we don't have such a scripted finals day this year. But I still encourage you to watch the top teams in as many leagues as possible. We may be able to update the schedule on the website. But in case not, I'm attaching a document with the timings and links of Sunday's games in many of the leagues. Meanwhile, we will hold the award ceremony in the middle of the symposium on Monday. Please plan on being there. Good luck to everyone on Sunday! Best, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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Friday at RoboCup: 2nd keynote talk
by Peter Stone 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

RoboCuppers, I know I've said this already, but it really is thrilling to see the videos and livestreams of the competitions from all around the world. Kudos to all of you for keeping the RoboCup spirit alive this year! On Friday, please tune in to the Underline main stage at 13:30 UTC for the 2nd keynote talk of the symposium by Jean-Paul Laumond: "Robotics: The Science of Motion." Immediately after the talk, I will be in the gather.town space to meet with some of my RoboCup friends. I hope you'll join us there as well! Best, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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Recordings of opening ceremony and invited talk available
by Peter Stone 23 Jun '21

23 Jun '21

Dear RoboCuppers, I hope your competitions are all proceeding nicely. In case you missed them, there are now recordings of the opening ceremony and the first keynote talk available on the Underline page. Click on the schedule for June 23rd to find them. By the way, I've heard reports that the website works better in Firefox and Chrome than in Safari. If you're having any trouble with it, you may want to try switching browsers. Good luck with your games on Thursday! Best, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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Main stage access
by Peter Stone 23 Jun '21

23 Jun '21

RoboCup participants, In case it isn't clear, to access the main stage, click on the star in the left navigation window of the Underline page. The direct link is: https://www.underline.io/events/108/mainstage Best, Peter

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RoboCup 2021 opening ceremony and first keynote
by Peter Stone 22 Jun '21

22 Jun '21

Dear RoboCuppers, It's exciting to see some of the live streams from the leagues running. Congratulations to everyone on getting to this point! The opening ceremony will begin in just a few hours - at 13:30 UTC on Wednesday. Please plan to tune in to the Underline mainstage at that time, followed by the first symposium keynote by Dieter Fox "Toward Robust Manipulation in Complex Environments" at 14:00. Immediately after that (around 15:00), I encourage you to log in to gather.town. Dieter intends to be there to answer questions, and you will have an opportunity to also mingle with each other. Remember that all the symposium posters and presentations are now accessible in the symposium room. And next to the symposium room, there is now a set of meeting rooms that you can use as needed (in addition to the league rooms). I've already enjoyed catching up with some of you in gather.town, and I look forward to seeing more of you there over the coming days. See you soon! Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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RoboCup 2021!
by Peter Stone 20 Jun '21

20 Jun '21

RoboCup community, I'm very excited about RoboCup getting started. Some of the leagues are already underway, and the rest will be starting in the next couple of days. While fine-tuning your code and preparing for the competition, I hope you'll all take the time to also interact with each other - learn about the approaches other teams are taking, share your own advances, catch up with friends from past years, and make new friends - both within your leagues and across leagues. As usual, each league is expected to have league meetings to go over the rules, brainstorm changes for next year, and elect technical committees for next year. To help that happen, we've prepared gather.town environments for you to join, with separate rooms for each league and booths for our sponsors - please visit them! Registered participants can log in on the underline site and then navigate to "RoboCup Lounge" in the left panel to get there. These can be used for informal meetings, league meetings, or however you wish - you should be able to join any time (some leagues are using other platforms for such meetings, which is also fine - please follow the instructions of your own organizing committees). I'm mainly writing now to ask everyone to mark your calendar for the opening ceremony and first symposium invited talk on Wednesday: June 23rd ========= UTC 13:30 - opening ceremony - Underline mainstage UTC 14:00 - invited talk by Dieter Fox - Underline mainstage UTC 15:00 - community gathering - Gather.town Before then, please make sure that if you've registered, you are able to access Underline and successfully join our Gather.town. I look forward to seeing you all soon. And good luck to all your teams! Best, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation

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CFP - KBS Special Issue on Deep Learning
by Pub Conference 17 Jun '21

17 Jun '21

Robust, Explainable, and Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning https://www.journals.elsevier.com/knowledge-based-systems/call-for-papers/r… <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.journals.elsevier.com/knowledge-bas…> *Aim and Scope* The exponentially growing availability of data such as images, videos and speech from myriad sources, including social media and the Internet of Things, is driving the demand for high-performance data analysis algorithms. Deep learning is currently an extremely active research area in machine learning and pattern recognition. It provides computational models of multiple nonlinear processing neural network layers to learn and represent data with increasing levels of abstraction. Deep neural networks are able to implicitly capture intricate structures of large-scale data and deploy in cloud computing and high-performance computing platforms. The deep learning approach has demonstrated remarkable performances across a range of applications, including computer vision, image classification, face/speech recognition, natural language processing, and medical communications. However, deep neural networks yield ‘black-box’ input-output mappings that can be challenging to explain to users. Especially in the healthcare, cybersecurity, and legal fields, black-box machine learning techniques are unacceptable, since decisions may have a profound impact on peoples’ lives due to the lack of interpretability. In addition, many other open problems and challenges still exist, such as computational and time costs, repeatability of the results, convergence, and the ability to learn from a very small amount of data and to evolve dynamically. Further, despite their enormous societal benefits, deep learning can pose real threats to personal privacy. For example, deep neural networks and other machine learning models are built based on patients' personal and highly sensitive data such as clinical records or tracked health data in the domain of healthcare. Moreover, they can be vulnerable to attackers trying to infer the sensitive data that was used to build the model. This raises important research questions about how to develop deep learning models that protect private data against inference attacks while still being accurate and useful predictive models. This Special Issue will present robust, explainable, and efficient next-generation deep learning algorithms with data privacy and theoretical guarantees for solving challenging artificial intelligence problems. This Special Issue aims to: 1) improve the understanding and explainability of deep neural networks; 2) improve the accuracy of deep learning leveraging new stochastic optimization and neural architecture search; 3) enhance the mathematical foundation of deep neural networks; 4) design new data privacy mechanisms to optimally tradeoff between utility and privacy; and 5) increase the computational efficiency and stability of the deep learning training process with new algorithms that will scale. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: · Novel theoretical insights on the deep neural networks · Exploration of post-hoc interpretation methods which can shed light on how deep learning models produce a specific prediction and generate a representation · Investigation of interpretable models which aim to construct self-explanatory models and incorporate interpretability directly into the structure of a deep learning model · Quantifying or visualizing the interpretability of deep neural networks · Stability improvement of deep neural network optimization · Optimization methods for deep learning · Privacy preserving machine learning (e.g., federated machine learning, learning over encrypted data) · Novel deep learning approaches in the applications of image/signal processing, business intelligence, games, healthcare, bioinformatics, and security *Important Dates* · Submission Deadline: August 31, 2021 · First Review Decision: September 30, 2021 · Revisions Due: October 31, 2021 · Final Decision: November 30, 2021 · Final Manuscript: December 31, 2021 *Dissemination, Composition and Review Procedures* · A Call for Papers (CFP) will be circulated to invite submissions. · World leading researchers will be invited as authors. · To further attracting contributors from around the world, the CFP will be advertised across numerous society newsletters, different websites, mailing lists, conferences, associations, and social media groups, etc. This special issue will run as per the timeline given from submission to publication, while maintaining the rigorous peer review and high standards of the journal. All manuscripts submitted must be original, not under consideration elsewhere, and not previously published. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts are available on the Guide for Authors’ page. Authors can expect their manuscripts to be reviewed fairly, and in a skilled, conscientious manner. To enhance objectivity, and to guarantee high scientific quality and relevance to the subject, three peer reviewers will be selected to evaluate a manuscript. The peer review process shall be designed to avoid bias and conflict of interest on the part of reviewers and shall be composed of experts in the relevant field of research. A key criterion in publication decisions will be the manuscript’s fit for the special issue and the readership of KBS. Papers will be published online as soon as accepted in continuous flow. *Submission Instructions* The submission system will be open around one week before the first paper comes in. When submitting your manuscript please select the article type “*VSI: Deep Learning*”. Please submit your manuscript before the submission deadline. All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production, and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into the online Special Issue. Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles. Please see an example here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/science-of-the-total-environment/spec… <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/science-o…> Please ensure you read the Guide for Authors before writing your manuscript. The Guide for Authors and the link to submit your manuscript is available on the Journal’s homepage.

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Fwd: [CFP][meeting][news] CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS @ ICSR2021 - the 13th International Conference on Social Robotics
by Mariacarla Staffa 15 Jun '21

15 Jun '21

[CFP][meeting][news] CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS @ ICSR2021 - the 13th International Conference on Social Robotics CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS The 13th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2021) November 10-13, 2021, Singapore http://www.colips.org/conferences/icsr2021/wp/ ========================================================== The 13th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2021) brings together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and intelligent robots and on the integration of robots into the fabric of our society. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Robotics in our everyday lives’, emphasizing on the increasing importance of robotics in human daily living. ICSR 2021 will take place in Singapore as a hybrid conference on 10-13 November 2021 with half-day and full-day workshops being hosted to provide a stage to discuss emerging research questions and challenges in Social Robotics. We particularly welcome creative, interactive workshop formats that aim to achieve one or more of the following: (i) increase the number of actively involved participants (ii) generate significant discussion and exchange of ideas between participants (iii) generate interactions between established experts and early-career researchers (iv) make connections to fields outside of robotics and/or connect academia to industry == Important Dates == · Workshop proposal submission deadline: 19 June 2021 · Notification of acceptance: 2 July 2021 · Half page abstract and website URL Due: 31 July 2021 · Workshop Date: 10 or 13 November 2021 · Conference: 10-13 November 2021 == Submission == Submissions should be PDF documents of no more than 3/4 pages (following the Springer LNCS/LNAI style for the layout. Detailed instructions for paper submission are available on the conference web site. LNCS style templates are available on the Springer LNCS website) and should include: 1. Title 2. Workshop duration: half-day or full-day 3. Workshop form: online, hybrid, or on-side 4. Organizers: name and the affiliation of the members of your organizing committee (Name, Affiliation, Email address). 5. Workshop description and objectives: concise description of the content and objectives of the workshop. 6. Intended audience and plans to solicit participation: describe the intended workshop audience, how you plan to solicit participation: (i) ahead of the workshop to generate submission and (ii)within the workshop in encouraging discussions and exchanges between participants. 7. List of topics: a bulleted list of the topics of interest that will be covered by the workshop. 8. List of invited speakers: list any invited speakers (if applicable) 9. Additional information: Any relevant information that could not be captured by the previous sections (e.g. regarding previous workshop organisation) Proposals on workshops will be considered by the organizing committee. Interested participants shall contact icsr2021.info(a)gmail.com for proposal submission. We look forward to hosting your workshop at ICSR 2021! _______________________________________________ == Workshop Chairs of ICSR 2021 == Keng Peng Tee, A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore Maartje de Graaf, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands Mariacarla Staffa, University of Naples Federico II, Italy Mariacarla Staffa, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Physics, University of Naples "Federico II", Italy

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GECON 2021 - 3rd CfP - Extended Submission Deadline 21.June.2021 - 18h Intl. Conf. on Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems and Services
by Jörn ALTMANN 10 Jun '21

10 Jun '21

================================================== GECON 2021 Call for Papers - Extended Deadline 18th International Conference on Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems & Services http://2021.gecon-conference.org 21-23. September 2021, Online Springer LNCS Proceedings Fast Tracks for several Journals in Computer Systems and E-Commerce ================================================== Third Call for full papers (12 pages), short papers (8 pages), and new-idea papers (4 pages + poster presentation), which will be included in the proceedings. Announcement of confirmed workshops, special topic sessions, and tutorials (please see below for details): - Energy Efficiency Methodologies in Cloud Computing - Law & Computer Science - Climate Change & Computer Science - Trustworthy Services, Information Exchange and Content Handling in the Context of Blockchain - Regulation Reformation for Balancing Blockchain Innovation GECON 2021 builds upon the very successful tradition of the conference previous editions (http://www.gecon-conference.org) since 2003. GECON solicits contributions that are interdisciplinary, combining business and economic aspects with engineering and computer science related themes. The conference will be held online. ============== / Important Deadlines / ============== The submission deadlines have been extended to give more time to prepare the papers: - Paper abstract submission deadline: June 14th, 2021 - Full Paper and Short Paper submission deadline: June 21st, 2021 - New-Idea Paper Submission deadline: July 12th, 2021 - Notification of acceptance of submissions: July 19th, 2021 - Camera Ready deadline: July 26th, 2021 ============ / Topics of Interest / ============ As a global market for infrastructures, platforms, and software services emerge, the need to understand and deal with its implications and its interdisciplinary challenges is quickly growing. To address this, GECON encourages the submission of papers, which combine at least one economic/legal area and one technologic area. GECON list of areas includes but is not limited to: -Economics- Trustworthiness of services Ecosystem economics Incentive design, strategic behavior & game theory Market mechanisms, auctions models, and bidding languages Economic efficiency Techno-economic analysis and modelling Pricing schemes and revenue models Metering, accounting, and billing Cost-benefit analysis Automated trading and bidding support tools Trust, reputation, security, and risk management Performance monitoring, optimization, and prediction Energy efficiency Sustainability Business models and strategies Decision support Ecosystems -Law and Legal Aspects- Standardization, interoperability, and legal aspects Service level Agreements (SLAs) Negotiation, monitoring, and enforcement Governance of ecosystems Privacy -Clouds, Grids, Systems and Services- IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and Federation of resources Vertical scaling, burstable computing, vertical elasticity Resource management: allocation, sharing, and scheduling Capacity planning Virtualization and containers Service science, management and engineering (SSME) Software engineering Security -Applications and Technologies Transforming the Economy- Smart grids, smart cities, and smart buildings Energy-aware infrastructures and services Fog, edge, osmosis computing Micro-services, serverless computing Internet-of-Things Blockchains Community networks Social networks Social computing Big data Reports on industry test-beds and operational markets Data stream ingestion and complex event processing Open source =============================== / Publication and Submission Guidelines for Papers / =============================== Original full papers and short papers (work-in-progress papers), which are not currently under review at another conference, will be considered. Manuscripts will be reviewed based on technical merit, originality, and relevance. Past acceptance rates have been around 30 per cent in recent years. All submissions shall be submitted using the Springer LNCS format. Submitted full papers should not exceed 12 pages and WIP papers should not exceed 8 pages (including references and appendices). New-idea papers should be exactly 4 pages. For further details, please visit the GECON 2021 web page. Paper submissions are managed through EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=gecon2021. The proceedings will be published by Springer LNCS. Extended versions of up to 10 accepted papers in the Computer Science field will be invited for publication in a special issue in the: - Elsevier Journal of Future Generation Computing Systems. For papers targeting mainly business and economic aspects, special issues in: - Springer Electronic Markets Journal, - Elsevier Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, or - Springer Electronic Commerce Research with up to 15 papers are foreseen. ======================== / New-Idea Paper (Poster) Submissions / ======================== New-idea papers provide a unique opportunity for PhD students and young researchers to present their new ideas, and senior researchers to present their starting activities, current progress, or novel approaches of their works and to receive constructive feedback from their peers as well as experts in the field (including academics and practitioners) at the GECON conference. New-Idea papers will comprise a 4-page paper, which will be Included in the proceedings) and a poster presentation. Authors of accepted full papers and short papers (work-in-progress papers) are also welcome to present their work in poster sessions, giving them a higher visibility than only giving a talk. Posters will be organized and presented throughout the conference using gather.town, allowing for many discussions with participants and a highly interactive conference. ================================== / Accepted Tutorial: “Energy Efficiency Methodologies in Cloud Computing” (Karim Djemame) / ================================== Computer systems have faced significant power consumption challenges over the past 20 years. The dual challenge of both power and performance has in recent years shifted from the devices and circuits level, to their current position as first-order constraints for system architects and software developers. A common theme is the need for low-power computing systems that are fully interconnected, self-aware, context-aware and self-optimising within application boundaries. The tutorial presents a number of energy efficiency methodologies and their use in domains such as cloud computing, which makes up a large proportion of the total ICT energy consumption. Cloud computing providers resort to a variety of techniques to improve energy consumption at each level of the cloud computing stack: application design, programming model, middleware, virtualisation, hardware. Therefore, research on energy efficiency in cloud computing has attracted considerable attention and has focused on many aspects including ICT equipment (servers, networks) as well as software solutions running on top of ICT equipment (cloud management system domain for managing the cloud infrastructure). ==================================== / Accepted Special Topic Session: Law & Computer Science / ==================================== As Law and Computer science develop, they pose each other new challenges. These challenges are expressed in questions such as: Where must computer scientists stretch their abilities to provide law with adequate solutions? What legal developments are required to deal with new computer science achievements? In this panel, hosted by Orna Agmon Ben-Yehuda of the CRI institute at the University of Haifa, we will hear answers from: * Niva Elkin-Koren, of Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. * Supreeth Shastri, of the University of Iowa * Vincent Mueller, of Leeds university ================================= / Accepted Special Topic Session: Climate Change and Computer Science / ================================= The purpose of this special session is to promote the focus of research on climate change challenges related to computer science. As the GECON community comprises multi-disciplinary skills for addressing these challenges, we are optimistic that this special session will bring highly useful ideas and results. Special session topics include but are not limited to technology, cost, benefit, and society aspects of: * Digital support to pandemic control policies * Digital support to climate change prevention * Fintech platforms to facilitate SME credit and supporting small businesses through big data, blockchain finance, supply chain finance * Analytical and simulation capabilities of models and data involved in climate research: resource allocation systems, health diffusion, population dynamics, individual behavior. * Ecosystem of active and reactive involvement of citizens and other actors. * Collaborative tools for data, models, methods, and resources sharing to support decision making. * Recommender systems ====================================== / Accepted Workshop: Trustworthy Services, Information Exchange and Content Handling in the Context of Blockchain / ====================================== Blockchain is by nature a decentralized and trustless platform, i.e., only a minimum level of trust is required regarding executing the transactions properly which is achieved by means of a consensus mechanism and an economic game that incentivizes actors to comply with the rules defined by the protocol. At the same time, there are no guarantees on service quality or seller behavior in a service exchange. For example, the service purchased may be of lower quality than expected, and the trustworthiness or provenance of data employed can be questionable. To this end, this workshop will address challenges, problems, and solutions in this context. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: * Blockchain e-markets * Trustworthy Smart Oracles * Smart Contracts for SLA-compliance * Blockchain business models * Decentralized auctions in the blockchain * Information asymmetry in the blockchain * Decentralized Reputation Models * Decentralized Recommendation Systems * Privacy-preserving, secure decentralized data storage and its economics * DIDs and anonymity * Tokenization paradigms * Token distribution strategies * Data Provenance * Chains of trust in the blockchain * Data access control in the blockchain * Gas fee determination and stabilization ==================================== / Accepted Special Topic Session: Regulation Reformation for Balancing Blockchain Innovation / ==================================== Industries claim that regulations do not accompany the industries’ demand for a comprehensive systematic reformation despite the governments’ extensive investments and regional regulatory sandboxes. Five panelists from academic, industrial, and legal communities address what regulations affect blockchain innovation involving the architecture incompatible with the regulatory framework and discuss reimagining the regulations for blockchain’s societal transformation. ================= / Conference Organization / ================= Orna Agmon Ben-Yehuda (University of Haifa, Israel) Jorn Altmann (Seoul National University, South-Korea) Jose Angel Banares (Zaragoza University, Spain) Karim Djemame (University of Leeds, UK) Maurizio Naldi (Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA), Italy) Vlado Stankovski (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) Bruno Tuffin (Inria Rennes, France) Contact for Questions: gecon2021(a)easychair.org @&@#^%&*%$@*#*&%#%^&$#@^@^&@%$@*^#&@ @%#&#@^*$@@#*%&%#@*$*&^@#$%@#%&$&%@ Prof. Dr. Jörn ALTMANN office 37-305 Technology Management, Economics, and Policy Program Schoolof Engineering Practice Collegeof Engineering Seoul National University 1 Gwanak-Ro, Gwanak-Gu, 08826 Seoul, South-Korea phone: +82 70 7678 6676 phone: +49 4155 129333 phone: +1 510 962 3062 phone: +44 20 32393134 fax: +1 610 956 4404 email: jorn.altmann(a)acm.org www: http://altmann.my-groups.de/

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Knowledge-Based Systems Special Issue on Robust, Explainable, and Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning
by Pub Conference 08 Jun '21

08 Jun '21

Robust, Explainable, and Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning https://www.journals.elsevier.com/knowledge-based-systems/call-for-papers/r… *Aim and Scope* The exponentially growing availability of data such as images, videos and speech from myriad sources, including social media and the Internet of Things, is driving the demand for high-performance data analysis algorithms. Deep learning is currently an extremely active research area in machine learning and pattern recognition. It provides computational models of multiple nonlinear processing neural network layers to learn and represent data with increasing levels of abstraction. Deep neural networks are able to implicitly capture intricate structures of large-scale data and deploy in cloud computing and high-performance computing platforms. The deep learning approach has demonstrated remarkable performances across a range of applications, including computer vision, image classification, face/speech recognition, natural language processing, and medical communications. However, deep neural networks yield ‘black-box’ input-output mappings that can be challenging to explain to users. Especially in the healthcare, cybersecurity, and legal fields, black-box machine learning techniques are unacceptable, since decisions may have a profound impact on peoples’ lives due to the lack of interpretability. In addition, many other open problems and challenges still exist, such as computational and time costs, repeatability of the results, convergence, and the ability to learn from a very small amount of data and to evolve dynamically. Further, despite their enormous societal benefits, deep learning can pose real threats to personal privacy. For example, deep neural networks and other machine learning models are built based on patients' personal and highly sensitive data such as clinical records or tracked health data in the domain of healthcare. Moreover, they can be vulnerable to attackers trying to infer the sensitive data that was used to build the model. This raises important research questions about how to develop deep learning models that protect private data against inference attacks while still being accurate and useful predictive models. This Special Issue will present robust, explainable, and efficient next-generation deep learning algorithms with data privacy and theoretical guarantees for solving challenging artificial intelligence problems. This Special Issue aims to: 1) improve the understanding and explainability of deep neural networks; 2) improve the accuracy of deep learning leveraging new stochastic optimization and neural architecture search; 3) enhance the mathematical foundation of deep neural networks; 4) design new data privacy mechanisms to optimally tradeoff between utility and privacy; and 5) increase the computational efficiency and stability of the deep learning training process with new algorithms that will scale. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: · Novel theoretical insights on the deep neural networks · Exploration of post-hoc interpretation methods which can shed light on how deep learning models produce a specific prediction and generate a representation · Investigation of interpretable models which aim to construct self-explanatory models and incorporate interpretability directly into the structure of a deep learning model · Quantifying or visualizing the interpretability of deep neural networks · Stability improvement of deep neural network optimization · Optimization methods for deep learning · Privacy preserving machine learning (e.g., federated machine learning, learning over encrypted data) · Novel deep learning approaches in the applications of image/signal processing, business intelligence, games, healthcare, bioinformatics, and security *Important Dates* · Submission Deadline: August 31, 2021 · First Review Decision: September 30, 2021 · Revisions Due: October 31, 2021 · Final Decision: November 30, 2021 · Final Manuscript: December 31, 2021 *Dissemination, Composition and Review Procedures* · A Call for Papers (CFP) will be circulated to invite submissions. · World leading researchers will be invited as authors. · To further attracting contributors from around the world, the CFP will be advertised across numerous society newsletters, different websites, mailing lists, conferences, associations, and social media groups, etc. This special issue will run as per the timeline given from submission to publication, while maintaining the rigorous peer review and high standards of the journal. All manuscripts submitted must be original, not under consideration elsewhere, and not previously published. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts are available on the Guide for Authors’ page. Authors can expect their manuscripts to be reviewed fairly, and in a skilled, conscientious manner. To enhance objectivity, and to guarantee high scientific quality and relevance to the subject, three peer reviewers will be selected to evaluate a manuscript. The peer review process shall be designed to avoid bias and conflict of interest on the part of reviewers and shall be composed of experts in the relevant field of research. A key criterion in publication decisions will be the manuscript’s fit for the special issue and the readership of KBS. Papers will be published online as soon as accepted in continuous flow. *Submission Instructions* The submission system will be open around one week before the first paper comes in. When submitting your manuscript please select the article type “*VSI: Deep Learning*”. Please submit your manuscript before the submission deadline. All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production, and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into the online Special Issue. Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles. Please see an example here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/science-of-the-total-environment/spec… Please ensure you read the Guide for Authors before writing your manuscript. The Guide for Authors and the link to submit your manuscript is available on the Journal’s homepage.

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RoboCup 2021 - starting in 2 weeks!
by Peter Stone 08 Jun '21

08 Jun '21

Dear RoboCup community, I'm writing to share my excitement about RoboCup 2021, which will officially begin in just two weeks! (some leagues may start even sooner) Many of you reading this message have been hard at work helping with the organization, and even more of you have been hard at work preparing your teams. As of now there are more than 300 teams registered, and about 1500 participants! As you know, this year's RoboCup will be very different than in the past. But I'm very encouraged by the way all the leagues have found creative ways to make the best of a difficult situation - by using simulators, live streams, deploying robots in each other's labs, etc. The organizing team and I are doing everything we can to make sure the event will be a great scientific and engineering challenge for all participants, that will advance research as always. And we're also doing everything we can to make it a great community meet-up. To make that possible, we are working with Underline to prepare some plenary "main-stage" events including an opening ceremony, awards ceremonies, and a fantastic line-up of invited speakers (Dieter Fox, Jean-Paul Laumond, and Stefanie Tellex). We will also have a Gather.town space for league meetings, the symposium poster sessions, and other informal interactions. Gather.town will be available to registererd participants at all times. (Instructions on using Gather.town will be provided, but you may want to prepare by installing the app on your computer - that tends to work better than using it in the browser) As always, each league is creating its own competition schedule, and the symposium will have a great lineup of papers and posters. As they become available, we'll keep links to the schedules on the Underline main page (to be released soon) and/or the event webpage: https://2021.robocup.org/home Since this is the first time we're organizing RoboCup online, please bear with us if there are some glitches. We're counting on everyone to come to the event with a good spirit and to do your best to be flexible and help find solutions as needed. Meanwhile, good luck with your continued preparations! We look forward to seeing you all at the opening ceremony in a couple of weeks. Best, Peter Stone General Chair, RoboCup 2021 President, RoboCup Federation On behalf of the whole organizing committee: https://2021.robocup.org/

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RoboCup 2021 Worldwide
by April Foster 03 Jun '21

03 Jun '21

Dear RoboCup Community, This is a reminder that RoboCup 2021 Worldwide <https://2021.robocup.org/home> will begin in a few weeks, with the main activities planned for June 22nd - 28th. Please note that the deadline for Major and Junior Team registrations is Monday, June 7, 2021. Registration will remain open for additional team members and Symposium-only registrants through June 28th. For more information about the registration process, fees, and deadlines, please visit: https://2021.robocup.org/participants/registration-process-and-fees The RoboCup Federation has selected Underline <https://underline.io/> to provide central services for this fully online event. RoboCup 2021 participants are asked to please complete the following release form from the RoboCup Federation and Underline: https://robocup21release.paperform.co/. More information about the online event platform will be sent to registered participants prior to the event. The RoboCup Federation is looking forward to bringing RoboCuppers from around the world together again!

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