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[news] Announcing MuSoHu: Multi-Modal Social Human Navigation Dataset
by Xuesu Xiao 28 Mar '23

28 Mar '23

Dear Roboticists, we are pleased to announce the publication of the Multi-Modal Social Human Navigation Dataset (MuSoHu), which contains ~50 km, 10 hours, 150 trials, 7 humans of data in the wild and allows future robots to learn socially compliant navigation from humans, natural-born experts at such a task! Website: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/MuSoHu/ Paper: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/papers/musohu.pdf Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgsKAy_yR7w Dataset: https://dataverse.orc.gmu.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.13021/orc20… Thanks Xuesu ----------------------- Xuesu Xiao, Ph.D. -- Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science George Mason University xiao(a)gmu.edu https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/

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Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Education Workshop & Challenge 2023
by Jeffrey Tan 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Dear RoboCup Community, RoboCup@Home Education Challenge is an educational competition platform to cultivate beginner teams for RoboCup@Home challenges. The unique Workshop+Competition format effectively boosts novice participants for challenging service robot development and AI learning within an event time. This year, we are organizing the on-site event at the RoboCup 2023 Bordeaux in July 2023. The event comprises a series of robot building short courses for beginners via online classroom, hands-on workshop and face-to-face on-site competition in Bordeaux. The event details are as follows in the Call for Participation announcement. We are organizing a Kick-Off Webinar on 29/30 March 2023 to give an overview of the event. << Kick-Off Webinar 2023 >> Join either Session A or Session B = Session A = - 29 March 2023 (Wed) 14:00-15:30 (CET France/Italy) - 29 March 2023 (Wed) 21:00-22:30 (GMT+8 China/Malaysia) - 29 March 2023 (Wed) 09:00-10:30 (EDT New York) = Session B = - 30 March 2023 (Thu) 19:00-20:30 (CET France/Italy) - 30 March 2023 (Thu) 14:00-15:30 (EDT New York) - 30 March 2023 (Thu) 11:00-12:30 (PDT California) Join online: https://forms.office.com/r/r15VNvdkUQ ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** === Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Education Workshop & Challenge 2023 === [ Venue ] RoboCup 2023 Bordeaux [ Date ] 4 – 10 July 2023 [ Web ] https://www.robocupathomeedu.org/challenges/robocup-2023-bordeaux << Supported by >> - RoboCup Federation - RoboCup 2023 LOC << Sponsors and Technical Partners >> - SoftBank Robotics - Jupiter Robot << Schedule and Rules >> - Kick-Off Webinar: 29 March 2023 - Fast Track Entry: 30 April 2023 (Last Submission) - Online Classroom: 1 April – 30 May 2023 (By Appointment) - Guided Track Entry: 31 May 2023 (Last Submission) - On-site Workshop & Challenge: 4 – 10 July 2023 (RoboCup) For the competition rules, please visit https://www.robocupathomeedu.org/rules << Categories >> Open Platform (OP) Custom Build Robots - Open category - Junior category (under 19) Standard Platform (SP) Pepper Robot - Open category - Junior category (under 19) << How to Participate >> Step 1 - Intend To Participate Step 1 - Kick-Off Webinar Step 2a - Fast Track Entry (without Online Classroom) Step 2b - Guided Track Entry (with Online Classroom) Step 3 - Workshop & Challenge For more details, please visit https://www.robocupathomeedu.org/challenges/robocup-2023-bordeaux You can contact us via oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org Best regards, RoboCup@Home Education Workshop & Challenge 2023 Organizing Committee

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[meetings] [news] Submission Deadline(s) Update: 2nd Benchmark for Autonomous Robot Navigation (BARN) Challenge -- ICRA 2023 Competition
by Xuesu Xiao 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Based on multiple participants’ requests, we have updated The BARN Challenge 2023 submission deadline(s) to allow more time to make travel arrangement to London. April 20 2023: Soft Submission Deadline (to guarantee an invitation to the final physical competition given good navigation performance in simulation) May 1 2023: 1st Round Physical Competition Invitations (for participants to make travel plans) May 20 2023: Hard Submission Deadline (to participate in the simulation competition. However, final physical competition eligibility will depend on the available capacity and travel arrangement made beforehand) May 22 2023: 2nd Round Physical Competition Invitations All participants are encouraged to submit their current navigation system for evaluation as soon as possible and resubmit before the deadline(s) if needed. Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYKxIZ2HYSDMLx3BxlYkxugmpy1OrrewY… Competition Website: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/BARN_Challenge/BARN_Challenge23.html Participation Instructions: https://github.com/Daffan/nav-competition-icra2022 Lessons Learned from The BARN Challenge 2022 Last Year: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/papers/barn22_report.pdf Dear roboticists, are you interested in agile robot navigation in highly constrained spaces with a lot of obstacles around, e.g., cluttered households or after-disaster scenarios? Do you think mobile robot navigation is mostly a solved problem? Are you looking for a hands-on project for your robotics class, but may not have (sufficient) robot platforms for your students? If your answer is yes to any of the above questions, we sincerely invite you to participate in our (2nd) ICRA 2023 BARN Challenge (https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/BARN_Challenge/BARN_Challenge23.html)! The BARN Challenge aims at evaluating state-of-the-art autonomous navigation systems to move robots through highly constrained environments in a safe and efficient manner. The task is to navigate a standardized Clearpath Jackal robot from a predefined start to a goal location as quickly as possible without any collision. The challenge will take place both in the simulated BARN dataset and in physical obstacle courses at ICRA2023. 1. The competition task is designing ground navigation systems to navigate through all 300 BARN environments (https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/BARN/BARN.html) and physical obstacle courses constructed at ICRA2023 as fast as possible without collision. 2. The 300 BARN environments can be the training set for learning-based methods, or to design classical approaches in. During the simulation competition, we will generate another 50 unseen environments unavailable to the participants before the competition. 3. We will standardize a Jackal robot in the Gazebo simulation, including a Hokuyo 2D LiDAR, motor controller of 2m/s max speed, etc. 4. Participants can use any approaches to tackle the navigation problem, such as using classical sampling-based or optimization-based planners, end-to-end learning, or hybrid approaches. We will provide baselines for reference. 5. A standardized scoring system is provided on the website. 6. We will invite the top teams in simulation to compete in the real world. The team who achieves the fastest collision-free navigation in the physical obstacle courses wins. If you are interested in participating, please submit your navigation system at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYKxIZ2HYSDMLx3BxlYkxugmpy1OrrewY… Co-Organizers: Xuesu Xiao (George Mason University / Everyday Robots) Zifan Xu (UT Austin) Garrett Warnell (US Army Research Lab / UT Austin) Peter Stone (UT Austin / Sony AI) Sponsor: Clearpath Robotics, https://clearpathrobotics.com/ Thanks Xuesu ----------------------- Xuesu Xiao, Ph.D. -- Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science George Mason University xiao(a)gmu.edu<mailto:xiao@gmu.edu> https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/

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Fall 2023 fully-funded Ph.D. positions in human-robot interaction (HRI) at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, FL, USA
by Zhao Han 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

(This posting is also available at https://zhaohanphd.com/phd-positions/.) Joining the University of South Florida<https://www.usf.edu/> (USF) in August, Dr. Zhao Han<https://zhaohanphd.com/> invites applications for up to two fully funded Ph.D. positions (Research Assistants) starting as early as Fall 2023 in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering Ph.D. program<https://www.usf.edu/engineering/cse/graduate/phd-program.aspx> (catalog<https://catalog.usf.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=18&poid=7770>) at USF in Tampa, Florida, USA. The deadline for Fall 2023 admission is April 15. Strong candidates are highly motivated, comfortable with programming, eager to learn, hard-working, and demonstrate an interest in the emerging and interdisciplinary field of human-robot interaction (HRI), including robot explanation/transparency, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), collaborative mobile manipulation/robotics, robot platform and interaction design, AI, cognitive science/psychology, or an area related to Dr. Han’s expertise<https://zhaohanphd.com/expertise/>. Successful candidates will be mentored and trained as prolific and independent researchers, publishing at top-tier international conferences and journals. Dr. Han has a strong publication record<https://zhaohanphd.com/publications/> and extensive mentoring experience<https://zhaohanphd.com/cv/#mentoring> with an inclusive excellence and supportive approach. You will work on real robot platforms using popular robotics frameworks. Students from underrepresented and underserved groups that are traditionally disadvantaged are strongly encouraged to apply. This position includes tuition waivers and stipends. ________________________________ Dr. Zhao Han is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of South Florida, joining the faculty in August 2023. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Colorado School of Mines. His research lies broadly in human-robot interaction (HRI), robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR). He focuses on designing, developing, and evaluating novel robotic systems and interactions, for embodied robots to be more capable and understandable while interacting and collaborating with humans. He received the best long-paper award at INLG 2022 and the best late-breaking report third prize at HRI 2022. Previously, he had led teams to win multiple international and national robot competitions, including first place in the Panasonic Prototype 3D LiDAR Challenge and second place in the FetchIt Mobile Manipulation Challenge at ICRA 2019. In addition to research, he received a university-wide Mines Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (DI&A) Award in 2022. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMass Lowell, advised by AAAI Fellow Dr. Holly Yanco. He received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba in Canada. The University of South Florida (USF)<https://www.usf.edu/> is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success and has an annual budget of 2.34 billion (2022-2023). Ranked top 100 in U.S. News & World Report’s national university rankings, no other public university in the US has risen faster than USF in the past decade. USF is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”, and according to the National Science Foundation, USF spent $568 million on research and development in 2019, ranking it 43rd in the US and 25th among public universities. Serving over 49,000 students, USF is designated as one of three Preeminent State Research Universities<https://admissions.usf.edu/blog/what-is-preeminence-and-why-it-matters-to-y…> by the Florida Board of Governors, receiving additional financial support from the state of Florida for student success and research. Learn more on USF’s about page<https://www.usf.edu/about-usf/index.aspx>. USF is located in the City of Tampa on the west coast of the Sunshine State of Florida. Full of opportunities and possibilities, the Tampa Bay area has around 3 million people and is one of the top places to live. Learn more about Florida Gulf Coast Living<https://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshmen/why-usf/our-campuses/gulf-coast-liv…> for why over 49,000 students have chosen USF as well as the US<https://www.visittheusa.com/destination/tampa-bay>, state<https://www.visitflorida.com/places-to-go/central-west/tampa/>, and local<https://www.visittampabay.com/> resources. ________________________________ A complete application package includes: * Unofficial Transcripts (including the grade sheet and diploma, if applicable) * If admitted, official transcripts and test scores will need to be submitted to Graduate Admissions but unofficial transcripts/scores can be used in reviewing the application. * PDF of GRE Scores * CV/Resume * Statement of Purpose * 3 Letters of Recommendation (Must be on official letterhead with recommender’s title and contact) * PDF of English Proficiency Scores, if applicable For consideration, please mention Dr. Zhao Han in your application materials and apply through the USF graduate student admission process<https://www.usf.edu/admissions/graduate/admission-information/>. The current admission cycle is Spring 2024. To be admitted to Fall 2023, you must also 1. Email your application package without the recommendation letters to zhaohan(a)mines.edu 2. Ask each of your three recommendation letter writers to email their letter to zhaohan(a)mines.edu By applying in the USF’s admissions portal, any other interested faculty member can also review your application. All applications and recommendation letters must be submitted to the USF admissions portal and emailed to Dr. Zhao Han by April 15. Applications will be considered starting immediately. International students should apply soon because visa applications require additional time. Once an admission offer is accepted, Research Assistantship offer decisions will be made once Dr. Zhao Han arrives at USF in August. --- Zhao Han, Ph.D.<https://zhaohanphd.com/> (he/him<https://pronouns.org/>) Post-Doctoral Fellow, Computer Science, Brown Hall, 280M Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA zhaohanphd.com<https://zhaohanphd.com/> | @hanzhao<https://twitter.com/hanzhao> <https://twitter.com/hanzhao>

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Last call: AI100 Essay Contest - due March 31st
by Peter Stone 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

AI100 Prize: Early Career Essay Competition The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) is a longitudinal study of progress in AI and its impacts on society. A key feature of the 2021 AI100 report was its commentary on what had changed since the first report published in 2016. As a way of laying the groundwork for the next report, planned for 2026, the AI100 Standing Committee invites original essay submissions that react directly to one or both of the AI100 reports. Essay application is now open and will close on March 31, 2023. Apply here: https://ai100.stanford.edu/prize-competition ___ Professor Peter Stone Truchard Foundation Chair in Computer Science University Distinguished Teaching Professor Director, Texas Robotics Associate Chair, Department of Computer Science office: 512-471-9796 The University of Texas at Austin mobile: 512-810-3373 2317 Speedway, Stop D9500 pstone(a)cs.utexas.edu Austin, Texas 78712-1757 USA http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pstone

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ERRATUM: RoboCup Newsletter
by Ornella-Roxane Owoundi Bilounga 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

dear robocuper, After receiving the first edition of the newsletter it was revealed that there was an error in the registration and set up dates of the junior teams, I would like to apologize for this error which has been corrected in this new version. Indeed for the juniors the information is as follows: [Junior Registration Schedule] Registration March 24 - June 6 Late registration June 7 - June 30 [Junior League Schedule] Setup: July 05 (Wed.), 2023 Competition: July 06 (Thu.) -July 09 (Sun.), 2023 Symposium: July 10 (Mon.), 2023 We remain at your disposal for any further information. Best regards, the organizing committee [ https://www.u-bordeaux.fr/ ] Ornella OWOUNDI Cheffe de projet RoboCup 2023 RoboCup 2023 project manager Direction de la planification stratégique (DiPSi) Pôle Pilotage et aide à la stratégie (PAS) T. 05 40 00 61 36 P. 07 77 25 41 82 [ https://www.u-bordeaux.fr/ | https://www.u-bordeaux.fr ]

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Robotica2023: Tomar, Portugal - 3D Simulation Competition - Call for Participation
by Nuno Lau 17 Mar '23

17 Mar '23

============================================================= ---------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ----------------- ============================================================= (Our apologies for any cross-posting) ROBOTICA 2023 - 22nd Portuguese Robotics Open https://www.festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/2023/en April 28 to 30, 2023 Tomar, Portugal The Portuguese Robotics Open is a RoboCup Event that aims at promoting Science and Technology among students from the 1st grade to university studies, as well among the general public, through robotic competitions. We would like to invite you to participate in the 22nd Portuguese Robotics Open which will take place from April 28 to 30, 2023, in Tomar, Portugal. If you are interested in participating, please register your team in one of the promoted competitions. 3D Simulation competition allows for the participation of remote teams. == 3D SIMULATION LEAGUE == Robot scientific competitions are a growing trend worldwide and particularly at the European level in the past few years. The 3D SIMULATION LEAGUE provides a great opportunity to experiment with humanoid robots without the need for investing in robot hardware. It facilitates experimenting using different learning and optimization techniques by providing a simulated environment. Since the games are played with teams of 11 players, the league is also a very good environment for experimenting on multi-robot coordination methodologies. --------- The official rules of this League for the 2023 edition, can be found at: https://ssim.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/3D-Rulebook2022.pdf --------- --------- Important resources for the 3D Simulation League, including mailing lists, an installation guide for the server and 3D viewer, team binaries, source-code releases, game replays and other documents can be found at: https://ssim.robocup.org/3d-simulation/3d-tools/ --------- == Schedule == Early Registration deadline (250 euros): April 2, 2023 Late Registration deadline (300 euros): April 16, 2023 Remote Team Late Registration deadline (100 euros): April 16, 2023 Portuguese Robotics Open: April 28-30, 2023 All deadlines are 23:59 GMT. == Registration == Registration is performed through the on-line form at: https://forms.gle/7WnmRiTnLAmHLTxj8 == Description and History == The Portuguese Robotics Open (also known as Festival Nacional de Robótica) had its 1st edition in 2001. The event has had an enormous growth since the 1st edition, both in the number of teams, participants and visitors and also includes an international IEEE conference where national and international researchers present their latest work in the field of Robotics (https://www.festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/icarsc/). The Portuguese Robotics Open is currently an initiative of the Portuguese Robotics Society. Hoping to see you at the Portuguese Robotics Open! Kind Regards, The Portuguese Robotics Open Organizing Committee

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IROBOT'2023 - 12th International Thematic Track on Intelligent Robotics, Azores, Portugal
by Nuno Lau 17 Mar '23

17 Mar '23

(apologies for cross-posting) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ IROBOT'2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 12th International Thematic Track on Intelligent Robotics To be held at EPIA 2023, September 5-8, 2023 Faial Island, Azores, Portugal https://epia2023.inesctec.pt/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The EPIA Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a well-established European conference in the field of AI. The 22nd edition, EPIA 2023, will take place in Horta, Faial Island (Azores) between September 5th-8th, 2023. As in previous editions, this international conference is hosted with the patronage of the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence (APPIA). The purpose of this conference is to promote research in all areas of AI, covering both theoretical/foundational issues and applications, and the scientific exchange among researchers, engineers, and practitioners in related disciplines. EPIA 2023 will feature a set of thematic tracks, covering a wide spectrum of AI topics. Accepted papers will be published in a Springer's Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence volume. ## Important Dates 16 Apr 2023: Paper Submission Deadline 9 May 2023: Author Notification/Registration Open 15 Jun 2023: Camera-Ready Deadline 5-8 Sep 2023: EPIA'2023 Conference ## IROBOT Description IROBOT'2023 poses itself as a follow-up on the previous nine International Thematic Tracks/Workshops on Intelligent Robotics held at EPIA since 2005. Its main purpose is to bring together researchers, engineers and other professionals interested in the application of AI techniques in real/simulated robotics to discuss current work and future directions. Robotics, from the point of view of AI, has been an important application field, from which AI has also gained. Namely, the dynamic and unforeseen nature of the environment, especially for mobile robots, has fostered research in these aspects of AI. Together with the developments in Robotics Research, the use of Robotics in industry and services has changed a lot in recent years. New paradigms and approaches for industrial robots and service robots have emerged, for example, on mobile robots learning, localization, mapping and navigation in unstructured environments. IROBOT 2023 will discuss will discuss these new developments on industrial and service robotics with focus on robotic assistive platforms/solutions and robotics application related to nature (ocean, florest, agriculture, etc.). ## Topics of Interest The Thematic Track will be structured around the following themes: - Adaptive and flexible industrial robotics - Agriculture robots - AI Planning for robotics - Autonomous vehicles - Cognitive robotics - Computer vision and object recognition - Coordination in robotics - Evolutionary robotics and reactive intelligence - Human-robots interface and interaction - Humanoid robotics - Intelligent buildings and warehouses - Intelligent transportation systems - Mobile robots localization and navigation - Modelling and simulating complex robots - Multi-Robot systems - Field Robots - Real-time reactivity - Robot behaviour engineering - Robot learning and adaptation - Robotic surveillance - Sensor fusion This topics' list is not exhaustive. Papers may address one or more of the topics, and authors should not feel limited by them. Unlisted but related topics are also acceptable, provided they fit in the thematic track main subject. ## Paper Submission Authors are invited to submit original research contributions or experience reports in English. Scientific or technical articles describing state-of-the-art techniques, algorithms, systems, environments, problems or applications relevant to the area of Intelligent Robotics may be submitted. Papers discussing application transfer from simulated to real robots and papers showing socially useful robotic applications generated by participations in robotic competitions are also welcome. Although the main focus is on robot learning, there will be space for reporting research in AI applied to other types of robots. Submissions must follow the guidelines specified in the EPIA'2023 site. The Springer LNCS format must be used (instructions in https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…). Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers. The length of submitted full papers must not exceed 12 pages. Authors must remove their names from the submitted papers, and should take reasonable care not to indirectly disclose their identity. Paper submissions will be made in PDF format, through the submission page: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=epia2023 Three program committee members will be assigned to review each paper. Acceptance will be based on the paper's significance, technical quality, clarity, relevance and originality. Accepted papers, must be presented at the conference by one of the authors. Accepted papers will be scheduled for presentation, which requires that at least one of the authors should register at the Conference. All accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings. ## IROBOT'2023 Organizing Committee Luís Paulo Reis, Universidade do Porto / LIACC, Portugal Nuno Lau, Universidade de Aveiro / IEETA, Portugal João Alberto Fabro, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Brazil

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Call for Interest - ERL – Smart City competition in 2023
by Pedro U. Lima 16 Mar '23

16 Mar '23

=============================================================================== Call for Interest ERL – Smart City competition in 2023 Milton Keynes, UK 18-21 September 2023 https://eu-robotics.net/erl-smart-city-competition-in-2023/ ================================================================================ In line with its aim to boost European Robotics Leagues (ERL) activity, euRobotics is pleased to announce that a SmartCity competition will take place during 18th – 21st September 2023 in Milton Keynes, UK. The ERL Smart City Robotics Competition follows a series of successful competitions which were organised under the SciRoc project, including a competition in Milton Keynes in 2019 and another in Bologna, Italy, in 2021. At the present time, the competition episodes include: Episode 1 – Deliver coffee shop orders Episode 2 – Through the Door Episode 3 – Take the elevator Episode 4 – Shopping pick and pack Episode 5 – Socially Acceptable Item Delivery Full details about the competition can be found on the following website: https://eu-robotics.net/erl-smart-city-competition-in-2023/ If you are interested in participating, please fill the registration form at ERL website by April 17th. Form link: https://forms.gle/XVwTT1o2MaBUbeLj9 ############## Important dates: ############## Call for interest deadline: April 17th 2023 Application deadline: May 31st 2023 ERL Smart City competition: 18th-21st September 2023

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2023 RoboCup Newsletter #1
by Ornella-Roxane Owoundi Bilounga 13 Mar '23

13 Mar '23

Dear RoboCuper, Please find attached the first RoboCup Newsletter. We wish you and your team a successful preparations for RoboCup 2023, and we hope to see you all in Bordeaux. Best regards, The Executive Working Committee [ https://www.u-bordeaux.fr/ ] Ornella OWOUNDI Cheffe de projet RoboCup 2023 RoboCup 2023 project manager Direction de la planification stratégique (DiPSi) Pôle Pilotage et aide à la stratégie (PAS) T. 05 40 00 61 36 P. 07 77 25 41 82 [ https://www.u-bordeaux.fr/ | https://www.u-bordeaux.fr ]

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