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RoboCup Brazil Open 2021 - 2nd Call for Participation
by April Foster 25 Aug '21

25 Aug '21

======================================= Registrations are open for RoboCup Brazil Open 2021 The event will be virtual, with most of the categories of RoboCup Federation RoboCup Brazil launches the RoboCup Brazil Open, a virtual event with most of the categories of the Robocup WorldWide. Registrations are now open for teams from all over the world. All the categories have been adapted and will happen in a fully remote format, using simulators, challenges, and submission of articles written by the teams. Our goal is to disseminate the studies and technologies developed by universities in the field of robotics and AI. The event will happen on *October 11th-15th* and will be broadcast through lives on the RoboCup Brazil Youtube channel. In 2020, more than 700 students from Latin America attended the event. ============= Categories: ============= RoboCup Soccer Simulation 3D League RoboCup Soccer Simulation 2D League RoboCup Small Size Soccer League RoboCup Soccer Humanoid League RoboCup Soccer Standard Plataform League (SPL) RoboCup @Home RoboCup Open Flying Robot Trial League RoboCupJunior Soccer Open RoboCupJunior Rescue Maze Primary RoboCupJunior Rescue Maze RoboCupJunior Rescue Simulation Primary RoboCupJunior Rescue Simulation Open IEEE Humanoid Robot Racing (HRR) IEEE Open IEEE Standard Educational Kit (SEK) IEEE Very Small Size Soccer ================= Registration ================= To participate, you and your team must register *by August 30th*, on the website: www.cbrobotica.org . The registration fee is US$ 50 per team. *RoboCup Brasil is a non-profit civil association, organized by volunteer professors and researchers. The association holds the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad, the Brazilian Robotics Competition, and the National Robotics Show.* -- RoboCup Brazil http://www.robocup.org.br/

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[HRI][meetings][CFP] Special Issue on IJSR "GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics"
by Giulia Perugia 17 Aug '21

17 Aug '21

Dear colleagues, After the success of the GenR 2021 workshop at RO-MAN 2021 last week, I am pleased to announce that the homonym Special Issue “GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics” is now open for submissions on the International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR)! The Special Issue opened on August 12th and will stay open until January 31st, 2022. All submitted papers will be reviewed as soon as they are received and the accepted papers will be published online first until the complete Special Issue is published. Please note that we welcome submissions from all disciplines addressing the topic of gender in robots and are open to submissions from Ethics, Social Sciences, Psychology, and Humanities, as well as more technical and traditional Social Robotics and HRI papers. You can find more information on the Special Issue below and on our website <https://sites.google.com/view/ro-man21-genr-workshop/special-issue?authuser…>. Please feel free to reach out for questions and details to our email addresses (see below). Kindest regards, Giulia Perugia ============================================================= *SPECIAL ISSUE GENDERING ROBOTS: ONGOING (RE)CONFIGURATIONS OF GENDER IN ROBOTICS* International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR) - Impact Factor 5.126 (2020) [link to journal <https://www.springer.com/journal/12369/>][link to special issue <https://www.springer.com/journal/12369/updates/19292566>] The field of HRI is increasingly employing humanoid robots and anthropomorphic designs to aid social interactions between humans and robots. However, designing robots with human-like characteristics can have far-reaching implications. For instance, integrating identity markers such as gender into robotic systems can involuntarily transfer implicit biases into the human-robot interaction (HRI) and perpetuate harmful structural patterns and societal stereotypes. This Special Issue aims to *deepen the social, ethical, and psychological understanding of the attribution of gender to robots, addressing how the design and use of gendered robots might impact HRI and affect society at large*. We welcome original papers investigating the attribution of gender to social robots, the influence of robot’s gender on the perception of and interaction with robots (e.g., acceptance, trust), the design of gendered robots, and its ethical and societal implications. Through this special issue, we would like to inspire discussions about the mindful use of robots in society and promote the possibility of using robots to challenge harmful social practices (e.g., gender stereotypes, gender inequality). Our ultimate goal is to bridge the communication gap we observed between the different disciplines addressing the topic of gender in robotics and the lack of spaces to converse with and learn from one another. The Special Issue is based on the GenR workshop “GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics” which took place on August 12th, 2021 at the 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2021). The Special issue opened on August 12th, 2021 and will stay open until *January 31st, 2022*. All submitted papers will be reviewed as soon as they are received. Accepted papers are published Online First until the complete Special Issue is published. *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 *Instructions to submit your paper to the Special Issue:* When submitting your paper to the International Journal of Social Robotics via the Editorial Manager, you will be asked if your paper belongs to a special issue, please select YES as an answer. At this point, a *pull down menu* will appear and you will be able to select the title of the special issue, select "GENDERING ROBOTS (GenR): Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics". Besides selecting the Special Issue upon submission, you should also specify in your *cover letter* that you wish to submit your manuscript to the special issue "GENDERING ROBOTS (GenR): Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics". Please, feel free to contact us should you need further information about the special issue. The Guest Editors: - Dr. Giulia Perugia (Lead guest editor): giulia.perugia(a)it.uu.se - Dr. Katie Winkle: winkle(a)kth.se - Dominika Lisy: dominika.lisy(a)liu.se - Ryan Blake Jackson: rbjackso(a)mymail.mines.edu

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KBS Special Issue on Deep Learning (IF: 8.038) Deadline: August 31, 2021
by Pub Conference 11 Aug '21

11 Aug '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 *Review Procedures* 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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[HRI][meetings] Program / registration GenR 2021 Workshop "GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics" @RO-MAN 2021
by Giulia Perugia 08 Aug '21

08 Aug '21

Dear colleagues, It is with great pleasure that we announce that the schedule <https://sites.google.com/view/ro-man21-genr-workshop/schedule?authuser=0> of the GenR 2021 workshop "GENDERING ROBOTS: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics'' is online and the registration <https://sites.google.com/view/ro-man21-genr-workshop/registration?authuser=0> to the workshop is open! The GenR 2021 workshop will take place on August 12th from 15:00 to 19:00 (CEST time) as part of the 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2021). Please, find below the schedule of the workshop. Kindest regards, Giulia Perugia =============================== *IEEE RO-MAN 2021 GenR WORKSHOP * Workshop Date: August 12th, 2021 (15:00 - 19:00 CEST) Attendees wishing to attend the workshop should register for the workshop via our website ( https://sites.google.com/view/ro-man21-genr-workshop/registration?authuser=0). We will then email the joining link to all registered participants ahead of the event. Alternatively, the link to the workshop will be available to all registered attendees of RO-MAN 2021. *WORKSHOP PROGRAM* *15:00 - 15:10 - INTRODUCTION* *15:10 - 15:55 - KEYNOTE TALK #1 - PROF. ROBERT SPARROW - Title: TBA* *15:55 - 16:30 - PAPER PRESENTATIONS #1 * - Tatsuya Nomura - *Relationships between Gender Conception, Generations, and Negative Attitudes toward Robots in Japan* - Laetitia Tanqueray, Ginevra Castellano, and Stefan Larsson - *A Preliminary Case Study on Gender Norms in Robot-Assisted Diagnosis of Perinatal Depression: A Socio-Legal HRI Perspective* - Hanna Pelikan, Sofia Thunberg, and Erika Johnson - *Gender Studies and Robotics – A Dialogue * - Katie Winkle, Gaspar Melsion, Iolanda Leite, Madeline Balaam, Donald McMillan, Maria Arnelid, Katherine Harrison, and Ericka Johnson - *Feminism x Social Robotics* - Juana Valeria Hurtado and Valentina Mejia - *Feminist Perspective on Robot Learning Processes* *16:30 - 17:05 - PANEL DISCUSSION #1 * Themes: Diversity in Research Participation, Cross cultural differences, ‘Effectiveness vs ethics’ when it comes to (stereotypically) gendered robots Panelists: Prof. Ericka Johnson, Dr. Katherine Harrison, Prof. Verena Reiser, Dr. Megan Strait, Prof. James E. Young *17:05 - 17:15 - COFFEE BREAK * *17:15 - 17:45 - PAPER PRESENTATIONS #2* - *Astrid Weiss and Katta Spiel - Should robots have a gender -- Should they be gendered?* - *Niklas Ellerich-Groppe, Merle Weßel, Frauke Koppelin and Mark Schweda - An Ethical Perspective on Gender Stereotyping and Queering in Care Robotics* - *Piercosma Bisconti Lucidi and Giulia Perugia - How Do We Gender Robots? Inquiring the Relationship Between Perceptual Cues and Context of Use * - *Ryan Blake Jackson and Tom Williams - Eugenicists Should Not Design Robots: On the Principle of Procreative Beneficence and Robot Gendering* *17:45 - 18:15 - PANEL DISCUSSION #2* Themes: Queering Robots and Genderless Robots, Gender Issues: from HRI to HHI to HRI Panelists: Prof. Ericka Johnson, Dr. Katherine Harrison, Prof. Verena Reiser, Dr. Megan Strait, Prof. James E. Young *18:15 - 19:00 - KEYNOTE TALK #2 - PROF. FRIEDERIKE EYSSEL - Title: Gender. Diversity and Social Robots: A Social Psychological Perspective* *19:00 - 19:05 - CONCLUDING REMARKS*

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[meetings] [On-site Training] Get ROS2 Industrial Ready: ROS2 Basics + ROS2 Nav2 + Manipulation with Movelt2
by Yuhong Lin 06 Aug '21

06 Aug '21

Get ROS2 Industrial Ready: ROS2 Basics + ROS2 Nav2 + Manipulation with Movelt2 - Where: Barcelona, Spain - When: September 20, 2021 → September 24, 2021 - Registration website: https://www.theconstructsim.com/ros2-onsite-training/ - Limited to 20 Spots Dear Roboticists, Understanding how ROS2 works is becoming a MUST. ROS2 is expected to fully replace ROS1 by 2023. The Galactic distribution released in May 2021 shows ROS2 is very mature and ready for real-world applications. In this five-day ROS2 training, learn how to program robots with ROS 2 Galactic, including navigation and grasping. Participants will practice with robot simulations and then with real robots to test their programs live. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN - Creation of ROS2 packages - Management of the new Colcon universal building system - Topic publishers and subscribers in ROS2 Python - Nodes management: life cycle, executors and callback groups - Services and actions - Hybrid application with ROS1 and ROS2 - Use of debugging tools in ROS2 - ROS2 Mapping - ROS2 Localization - ROS2 Path Planning - ROS2 + DDS - Create and configure a MoveIt2 package for a robotic arm - Perform ROS2 Motion Planning & Grasping AT A GLANCE Prerequisites - Knowledge of Python Programming language - Basic understanding of Linux Ubuntu Operating System - Knowledge of ROS1 (recommended but not required) Language: English Programming Language: Python REAL ROBOTS USED - RB-1 BASE mobile robot (provided by Robotnik <https://robotnik.eu/>) - UR3e robot arm WHO IS THIS WORKSHOP FOR? - ROS developers that want to transition to ROS2 - Researchers focusing their research on ROS2 - Engineers or CTOs who want to build scalable robotics products, faster. TRAINING DETAILSDay 1 - ROS2 Fundamentals Topic 1 Understanding Basic ROS2 Concepts - Structure and launch ROS2 programs (packages and launch files) - Create basic ROS2 programs (Python-based) - Understand basic ROS2 concepts: Nodes, Client Libraries, etc. Topic 2 ROS2 Topics - Topic Subscribers - Topic Publishers - Interfaces - Management of nodes Topic 3 ROS2 Debugging Tools - Use logs in ROS2 - RViz2 debugging tool - ROS2 doctor Day 2: ROS2 Advanced Topics - ROS2 DDS - ROS2 Services - ROS2 Actions - ROS1_Bridge Day 3: ROS2 Nav2 - ROS2 Mapping - ROS2 Localization - ROS2 Path Planning and Obstacle Avoidance Day 4: ROS2 Nav2 Advanced Features & Manipulation Topic 1 ROS2 Nav2 Galactic Functionality - Waypoint Task Executors - Speed Limited Zones - Keep out zones Topic 2 Arm Navigation with MoveIt2 - Configure a Moveit2 package for a robotic arm - Programatically perform motion planning Day 5: Grasping - Use perception to detect object location - Grasp object This course created by The Construct (http://theconstructsim.com/), in cooperation with Robotnik (https://www.robotnik.eu/). *Yuhong Lin* VP of Marketing at The Construct ylin(a)theconstructsim.com www.theconstructsim.com [image: https://app.theconstructsim.com/#/Profile/ylin2] <https://app.theconstructsim.com/#/Profile/ylin2> [image: Facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/theconstructsim> [image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/_TheConstruct_> [image: LinkedIn] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-construct>

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CFP: RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium Aichi, Japan
by Wataru UEMURA 29 Jul '21

29 Jul '21

Dear colleagues, The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium will be held with RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Aichi, Japan on 29 November 2021. We call for submissions of papers reporting innovative, original research with relevance to areas of robotics and artificial intelligence as listed below. Looking forward to your submission. Best Regards, RCAP 2021 Symposium co-chairs Noriaki Mitsunaga and Wataru Uemura ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers ====================================== RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium Aichi, Japan November 29, 2021 ====================================== https://2021.robocupap.org/eng/symposium.html rcap2021(a)intergroup.co.jp ******************************************************************** OVERVIEW The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium will be held with RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Aichi, Japan on 29 November 2021. We call for submissions of papers reporting innovative, original research with relevance to areas of robotics and artificial intelligence as listed below. Within the described scope of topics, we also encourage submissions of high-quality overview articles, papers describing real-world research, and papers reporting theoretical results. Researchers are invited to submit their work independently of whether they participate in the RoboCup Asia-Pacific competitions or not. GENERAL INFORMATION The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium will be held in a hybrid setting. Then you can participate and present your research at the venue below or online. Since it is held in a hybrid setting, we welcome short oral presentations instead of poster presentations. The registration site for participants will be announced later. SUBMISSION AND PROCEEDINGS All papers will be peer-reviewed and evaluated by members of the program committee. The proceedings of the RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium will be published online one week before the conference. Papers should be formatted following the LNAI author guidelines (https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…). Springer’s proceedings LaTeX and Word templates are also available in Overleaf. Papers must be electronically submitted through the EasyChair electronic submission system (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcap2021sympsium). All submissions (both long and short presentaitons) are limited to 12 pages including references and must be in PDF format. IMPORTANT DATES * Deadline for Submission of papers: August 9, 2021 * Notification to authors: October 15, 2021 * Submission of camera-ready copies: October 25, 2021 * RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021: November 22-29, 2021 * RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Symposium: November 29, 2021 SYMPOSIUM CO-CHAIRS * Noriaki Mitsunaga, Osaka Kyouiku University * Wataru Uemura, Ryukoku University TOPICS Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Multi-Robot Systems * Robot Cognition and Learning * Robot Hardware and Software * Perception and Action * Human-Robot Interaction * Education and Edutainment * Applications and Benchmarking ==================== Wataru UEMURA, Dr. Eng. Ryukoku University http://friede.elec.ryukoku.ac.jp/~wataru ====================

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ML and Optimisation postdoc vacancies
by Uwe Aickelin 26 Jul '21

26 Jul '21

If you are looking for a Machine Learning / Optimisation postdoc, we have two exciting jobs for you. Please check below positions RF 4 (machine learning / optimisation) and RF 5 (uncertainty handling). You will work with a top team on a super high impact application - I can assure you our work could not be more central to current events in Australia!!! Please note, due to the urgency of the work, you must be currently located within Australia and able to commence immediately or as soon as your notice period has been served. These roles are part of a $20m Hub and more vacancies will be advertised soon. https://jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/905792/research-fellows-pharma-and-food-… Please apply online – deadline 22 August 2021. Professor Uwe Aickelin | Head of School of Computing and Information Systems Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Level 3, Melbourne Connect – 700 Swanston Street The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia T: +61 3 8344 3635 E: uwe.aickelin(a)unimelb.edu.au<mailto:uwe.aickelin@unimelb.edu.au> http://aickelin.com/ | http://linkedin.com/in/aickelin [A close up of a sign Description automatically generated] <https://melbconnect.com.au/> [Join R U OK?Day | R U OK?] I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I work, and pay my respects to the Elders, past and present. This email and any attachments may contain personal information or information that is otherwise confidential or the subject of copyright. Any use, disclosure or copying of any part of it is prohibited. The University does not warrant that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or defects. Please check any attachments for viruses and defects before opening them. If this email is received in error, please delete it and notify us by return email. CRICOS: 00116K

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RoboCup Brazil Open
by Comunicação RoboCup 23 Jul '21

23 Jul '21

Hi teams, *Registrations are open for RoboCup Brazil Open* *The event will be virtual, with the same categories of RoboCup Federation* RoboCup Brazil launches the RoboCup Brazil Open, a virtual event with the same categories of the Robocup WorldWide. Registrations are now open for teams from all over the world. All the categories have been adapted and will happen in a fully remote format, using simulators, challenges and submission of articles written by the teams. Our goal is to disseminate the studies and technologies developed by universities in the field of robotics and IA. The event will happen in October 11th-15th, and will be broadcast through lives on the RoboCup Brazil Youtube channel. In 2020, more than 700 students from Latin American attended the event. *Categories:* RoboCup Open Flying Robot Trial League Small Size Soccer Humanoid League Standard Plataform League (SPL) Simulation 2D Simulation 3D RoboCup at@Home IEEE Humanoid Robot Racing (HRR) IEEE Open IEEE Standard Educational Kit (SEK) IEEE Very Small Size Soccer RoboCup Junior Soccer Open RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze Primary RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze RoboCup Junior Rescue Simulation Primary RoboCup Junior Rescue Simulation Open * Registration* To participate, you and your team must register by August 30th, on the website: www.cbrobotica.org . The registration fee is US$ 50 per team. *RoboCup Brasil is a non-profit civil association, organized by volunteer professors and researchers. The association holds the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad, the Brazilian Robotics Competition and the National Robotics Show.* -- Patrícia Vergara Comunicação RoboCup Brasil +55 (11) 9.8686-4993 www.robocup.org.br

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[jobs] Multiple open positions @PRISCA LAB - University of Naples Federico II
by alessandra.rossi＠unina.it 23 Jul '21

23 Jul '21

Dear Colleagues, PRISCA lab (University of Naples Federico II) is looking for multiple postdoctoral researchers and research assistants in Human-Robot Interaction. Applications are invited from candidates with a master’s degree or PhD in Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, or other relevant disciplines. Candidates are expected to have research expertise in Human-Robot Interaction and Social Robotics. Preferable knowledge and hands-on experience with ROS, C/C++, Python. According to the preferred and most suitable position for the candidate, the research activities will be framed within the following projects: CHIST-ERA on Explainable Machine Learning-based Artificial Intelligence - COHERENT "COllaborative HiErarchical Robotic ExplaNaTions” project, and Italian PON I&C 2014-2020 MISE BRILLO "Bartending Robot for Interactive Long-Lasting Operations” project or ClassMate Robot project for the development of robotics application in educational settings. The selection will be based on CV and a skype interview. For further information and to apply please contact Prof. Silvia Rossi (silrossi(a)unina.it) ----------------------------- About the projects COHERENT will develop a novel framework to combine explanations originated at the different robotic levels into a single explanation. This combination is not unique and may depend on several factors including the step into the action sequence, or the temporal importance of each information source. Robotic tasks are interesting because they entail performing a sequence of actions, and thus the system must be able to deliver these explanations also during the execution of the task, either because the user requested or actively because an unforeseen situation occurs. COHERENT will propose effective evaluation metrics oriented to the special case of explanations in HRI systems. The proposed measures, based on trustworthiness and acceptance, will be defined together with the definition of benchmark tasks that are repeatable and enable the comparison of results across different explainable developments. More information at coherent.csic.es (http://coherent.csic.es/) BRILLO aims to the creation of a robotic platform capable of managing the tasks related to the management of a bar counter in its multiple aspects of interaction, handling and customization of the services offered. To this end, the goal is to study how to manage HRI processes dynamically creating a system that is easy and pleasant to use for the man. Therefore, issues related to the modelling of the interaction between the user and robotic bartender in terms of customization of the interaction for effective and long-lasting use of the services offered will be addressed. The project is in collaboration with the ICAROS centre of the University of Naples Federico II and the industrial partner TOTARO Automazioni S.R.L. More information is available at http://prisca.unina.it/brillo ----------------------------- Prisca lab contains robots and forefront technology available for innovative projects. A home lab, furnished to resemble a private home with IoT sensors for conducting HRI experiments is available. Research facilities include 1 Furhat robot, 1 PEPPER robot, 1 Nao Robot, 1 Sanbot Elf, 1 Sanbot Nano, 2 Turtlebot2, 4 Pioneer 3DX, Various Microsoft Kinect and wearable sensors, 1 ZEUS totem - reconfigurable multitouch table for human-machine interaction studies, Arduino and ODroid platforms, multiple servers and Nas for big data management and deep learning, 1 WASP 3d printer. About Naples Naples is the third-largest city in Italy and is the capital of the Campania region. It is world-known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music, and gastronomy. Naples is a lively, exciting, and bustling city situated on the Southwest coast, on the Bay of Naples. Dating to the 2nd millennium B.C., Naples has centuries of important art and architecture with a predominance of Medieval, Baroque and Renaissance-era churches, castles, and palaces. Several attractive tourist and archaeological sites such as Capri, Ischia, Amalfi Coast, Pompei, Ercolano, Mount Vesuvius, are close to Naples by car and public transportation. Dr. Alessandra Rossi Postdoctoral researcher PRISCA research lab University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy Visiting Researcher Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Adaptive Systems Research Group University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

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DDP 2021- IEEE
by ijwa＠dline.info 20 Jul '21

20 Jul '21

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Call for contributions - AIhub AI for Good focus series - "affordable and clean energy"
by Oskar von Stryk 17 Jul '21

17 Jul '21

Call for contributions - AIhub AI for Good focus series - "affordable and clean energy" Selected UN SDG for August is: affordable and clean energy AIhub is looking for researchers, users and stakeholders in AI relating to affordable and clean energy who are interested in writing or talking about their work. The UN's aim with this goal is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. In this focus issue we'll be considering any AI work, or opinion and discussion pieces, relating to these topics. You could write (or describe on video) a short blog post about your research, write an opinion piece about an area of current interest, give a tutorial, or take part in an interview. Read more: https://aihub.org/2021/07/09/focus-on-affordable-and-clean-energy-call-for-… This is a great way how to make your work more visible within the AI community and to the wide public as well. If you are interested, please do get in touch at aihuborg(a)gmail.com deadline for contributions is 15 Aug 2021 Focus on affordable and clean energy: call for contributions [1] We are launching the next topic in our focus series on the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). In August we will start publishing posts relating the goal of "affordable and clean energy", which is SDG number 7 on the UN list. Links: ------ [1] https://aihub.org/2021/07/09/focus-on-affordable-and-clean-energy-call-for-…

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Re: [RoboCup-worldwide] [CFP] Call for Participation - RoboCup Brazil Open - @Home Virtual 2021
by Fagner Pimentel 16 Jul '21

16 Jul '21

*Call for Participation* RoboCup Brazil Open - @Home Virtual 2021 *October 11 – October 15, 2021* (Online) http://www.cbrobotica.org/ *Important dates:* - Jul. 30, 2021 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). - Aug. 15, 2021 Qualification announcement - Aug 30, 2021 Robot model reception *Committee members:* - Executive Committee: "Plinio Thomaz Aquino Jr." < plinio.aquino(a)fei.edu.br> - Technical Committee: "Fagner Pimentel <fpimentel(a)fei.edu.br>" - Organizing Committee: "Ana Patricia Magalhaes < anapatriciamagalhaes(a)gmail.com>" - Organizing Committee: "Rodrigo Techi <techicrodrigo(a)gmail.com>" RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions. The 2021 edition of the RoboCup Brazil Open will again be virtual. All categories will have new challenges, adapted so that you and your team can participate from anywhere in the world, broadcast live on our Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/competicaobrasileiraderobotica). The RoboCup Brazil Open @Home Virtual competition 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 virtual home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Navigation and Mapping in virtual environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. *This year we will have 4 slots (with the possibility of more) for teams outside Brazil to participate. * This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup Brazil Open @Home 2021. The qualification procedure consists of two simple steps: *Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)* The team *MUST* send an email to the @home committee (see above) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup Brazil Open @Home 2021 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): 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 (http://www.cbrobotica.org/index.php/papers-tdps/). The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2021-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. ***** *Deadline: Sunday, July 30, 2021 23:59 BRT* ****** *Step 2) Robot Model Submission:* Qualified teams *MUST* send the robot model to be used during the competition via email to the @home committee (see above). Please follow the template below: Team Name: Country: Affiliation: Virtual robot model attached to the email based on the official simulator. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2021-RModel] (YourTeamName) The Technical Committee will inspect the robot models to verify they are compatible with the simulator and that all sensing and actuation is performed at component level and not bypassed by reading the variables of simulator such as position, pixel collision, etcetera. ***** *Deadline: Sunday, August 30, 2021 23:59 BRT* ****** *Instructions for the Qualification Material and Instructions for the Team Video:* In order to proof a running virtual robot model, 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 following abilities robust full-stack navigation (navigation, self localization, online mapping and collision avoidance), object manipulation, and object recognition. *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. *Copyright note:* When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup Brazil Open @Home and the RoboCup Brasil 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 a 6-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 (portability to the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *6 pages* (including figures and citations) - TDP length is *****6 pages***** (submissions over this hard limit will be discarded). *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 Brazil Open @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup Brazil Open @Home and the RoboCup Brasil 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 virtual and/or real robot(s) - Videos of the virtual and/or real 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. *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, portability to the 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. On behalf of RoboCup Brazil Open @Home Virtual Competition 2021 Organizing Committee. -- Fagner de Assis Moura Pimentel Ph.D. candidate at FEI University Center.

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CFP: First Call for Papers - please circulate this CFP to your colleagues and networks
by Marco Simões 09 Jul '21

09 Jul '21

Sorry for any duplicates ========================== ** First Call for Papers - please circulate this CFP to your colleagues and networks ** -- The 21st International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA’21) –- http://www.mirlabs.org/isda21 http://www.mirlabs.net/isda21 On the World Wide Web December 13-15, 2021 Proceedings of ISDA’20: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-71187-0 Indexed by: DBLP, EI Compendex, INSPEC, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST). Proceedings of ISDA'21 are expected to be published by Springer Verlag in one of the series. Details will be available soon. History of ISDA series: https://www.mirlabs.org/isda21/previous.php **Important Dates** --------------------- Paper submission due: September 30, 2021 Notification of paper acceptance: October 31, 2021 Registration and Final manuscript due: November 15, 2021 Conference: December 13-15, 2021 **About ISDA 2021** ------------------ The International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA) is a major international conference bringing together researchers, engineers, and practitioners who work in the areas of intelligent systems and their applications in industry and the real world. Every year, ISDA attracts authors from over 30 countries. After the success of the 20th conference, which was held online, this year's event will also be held online during December 13-15, 2021. ISDA 2021 is expected to provide an opportunity for researchers to meet and discuss the latest solutions, scientific results, and methods in solving intriguing problems in the fields of artificial intelligence and its real-world applications. The conference programme will include workshops, special sessions, tutorials, prominent keynote speakers, and regular paper presentations in parallel tracks. All submitted papers will be reviewed by experts in the field based on the criteria of originality, significance, quality, and clarity. Conference contents will be submitted for inclusion in Springer and other Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) databases. **Topics (not limited to)** --------------------------- Intelligent Systems Architectures and Applications Intelligent Image and Signal Processing Intelligent Internet Modeling Intelligent Data mining Intelligent Business Systems Intelligent Control and Automation Intelligent Agents Intelligent Knowledge Management Innovative Information Security Innovative Networking and Communication Techniques Web Intelligence Intelligent Software Engineering **Submission Guidelines** ------------------------- Submission of a paper should be made through the submission page from the conference web page. Please refer to the conference website for guidelines to prepare your manuscript. Paper format templates: http://www.springer.com/series/11156 ISDA’21 Submission Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=isda2021 **ISDA 2021 Organization** ------------------------- General Chairs Ajith Abraham, Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR Labs), USA Thomas Hanne, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland Weiping Ding, Nantong University, China Program Chairs Tzung-Pei Hong, National University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan Tatiane Nogueira Rios, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil **Technical Contact** --------------------- Dr. Ajith Abraham Email: ajith.abraham(a)ieee.org Note: We sincerely hope that this conference announcement is interesting for you. If you are not interested or wish to unsubscribe then please reply to this email and we will remove your name from our future emails. Our apologies for any inconvenience. -- Marco Antonio Costa Simões Nucleo de Arquitetura de Computadores e Sistemas Operacionais - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra - Campus I Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEB Mestre em Ciência da Computação - UFPE -- Marco Antonio Costa Simões Nucleo de Arquitetura de Computadores e Sistemas Operacionais - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra - Campus I Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEB Mestre em Ciência da Computação - UFPE

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Call for Applications for the Italian National PhD Program in Artificial Intelligence @ Sapienza Consortium
by Francesco Fuggitti 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

*Call for Applications for the Italian National PhD Program in Artificial Intelligence @ Sapienza Consortium with competences in Security and Cybersecurity - 31 positions - deadline July 23, 2021* The Italian National PhD Program in Artificial Intelligence is made of 5 federated PhD programs that bring together 61 universities and research institutions and start next academic year with a dedicated support of the Italian government to grow a young generation of AI Experts. The 5 PhD courses share a common basis in the foundations and developments of AI, and each one has an additional area of competence in a strategic sector of AI application (details at https://www.phd-ai.it/). The section of the PhD centered at Sapienza, Rome, Italy, shares the common focus on basic research in AI while adding to it competences in Security and Cybersecurity. It offers 31 PhD positions located in 12 Italian top research institutions (https://phd.uniroma1.it/phd-ai/). Applications are welcome from students who are interested in AI foundational topics, as well as students who are interested in the application of AI in Security and Cybersecurity. The deadline for applications is July 23, 2021. Call for application < https://www.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/field_file_allegati/bando_37_ai…> (en) Positions available < https://www.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/field_file_allegati/allegato_a_…> (en) Application form <https://www.uniroma1.it/en/pagina/phd-application-form> (en) Bando < https://www.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/field_file_allegati/bando_37_ai…> (it) Allegato posti banditi < https://www.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/field_file_allegati/allegato_a_…> (it) Modulo domanda < https://www.uniroma1.it/it/pagina/dottorati-presentazione-della-domanda> (it) For special enquiries, please contact the Sapienza Consortium Coordinator, Prof. Daniele Nardi <nardi(a)diag.uniroma1.it>.

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CfP: HIS 2021 - "Hybrid Intelligent Computing Towards a Greener Future"
by Marco Simões 06 Jul '21

06 Jul '21

Sorry for any duplicates ========================== ************************************************************************* ** Hybrid Intelligent Systems - HIS 2021 ** Hybrid Intelligent Computing Towards a Greener Future ** December 14 - 16, 2021 ** Online - https://www.mirlabs.net/his21/ ************************************************************************* Hybridization of intelligent systems is a promising research field of modern artificial/computational intelligence concerned with the development of the next generation of intelligent systems. A fundamental stimulus to the investigations of Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS) is the awareness in the academic communities that combined approaches will be necessary if the remaining tough problems in artificial/computational intelligence are to be solved. Recently, Hybrid Intelligent Systems are getting popular due to their capabilities in handling several real-world complexities involving imprecision, uncertainty, and vagueness. HIS'2021 builds on the success of last year's. HIS'2021 is the 20th International conference that brings together researchers, developers, practitioners, and users of soft computing, computational intelligence, agents, logic programming, and several other intelligent computing techniques. The aim of HIS'2021 is to serve as a forum to present current and future work as well as to exchange research ideas in this field. HIS'2021 invites authors to submit their original and unpublished work that demonstrates current research using soft computing, computational intelligence, and other intelligent computing techniques and their applications in science, technology, business, and commerce. ******************************** ** IMPORTANT DATES ******************************** Paper submission due: *September 30, 2021* Notification of paper acceptance: *October 31, 2021* Registration and Final manuscript due: *November 15, 2021* ******************* ** TOPICS ******************* HIS'2021 will focus on the following themes: Hybrid Intelligent Systems: Architectures - Interactions between neural networks and fuzzy inference systems. - Artificial neural network optimization using global optimization techniques. - Fuzzy clustering algorithms and optimization techniques. - Fuzzy inference system optimization using global optimization algorithms. - Hybrid computing using neural networks - fuzzy systems - evolutionary algorithms. - Hybrid optimization techniques (evolutionary algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, GRASP, etc.). - Hybrid of soft computing and statistical learning techniques. - Models using inductive logic programming, logic synthesis, grammatical inference, case-based reasoning, etc. - Autonomic computing. - Hybridization with novel computing paradigms: Quantum computing, DNA computing, membrane computing, etc. Hybrid Intelligent Systems: Applications - Image and Signal Processing - Internet Modeling, Communication and Networking - Data mining - Computational Biology and Bioinformatics - Business Information Systems - Control and Automation - Special topics **************************** ** Author guidelines **************************** Proceedings are expected to be published by Springer Verlag in one of the series. Details will be available soon. Papers maximum length is 10 pages. - Papers must be formatted according to Springer format (Latex/word) available at: http://www.springer.com/series/11156 Templates: -Word <https://www.mirlabs.net/his21/download/splnproc1703.zip> -Latex <https://www.mirlabs.net/his21/download/llncs2e.zip> -- Marco Antonio Costa Simões Nucleo de Arquitetura de Computadores e Sistemas Operacionais - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra - Campus I Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEB Mestre em Ciência da Computação - UFPE <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Livre de vírus. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>. <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Call for Papers - KBS Special Issue on Deep Learning (IF: 8.038)
by Pub Conference 05 Jul '21

05 Jul '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 *Review Procedures* 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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[jobs] PhD position at King's College London on @Home
by Matteo Leonetti 02 Jul '21

02 Jul '21

[apologies for multiple posting, lots of emails, the usual] Hello, a PhD position is available at King's College London under my supervision, in the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) on Safe and Trusted AI. Deadline: 25 July 2021. The currently available project is this one: https://safeandtrustedai.org/project/service-robot-adaptation-to-users-with… but other topics can be discussed, as long as they align with my research in planning and learning for autonomous robots (https://sensiblerobots.leeds.ac.uk/research/) and the focus of the CDT https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-courses/safe-and-trusted-… . Please note that I just moved from Leeds to King's, so you'll still find references to Leeds (for instance in my web page above) here and there. The PhD is at King's. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to lead the migration of the LASR@Home team from Leeds to King's and the development towards RoboCup 2022. Feel free to contact me directly for any (related) inquiry. Best, -- Matteo Leonetti Lecturer (Assistant Prof.) King's College London

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[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 29 Jun '21

29 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 28 Jun '21

28 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 27 Jun '21

27 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 25 Jun '21

25 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 24 Jun '21

24 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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