How can artificial intelligence empower robots that are socially intelligent? Can human cognition be an inspiration for technical advances-or vice versa? And how can robots be developed to be beneficial for society? These questions require an interdisciplinary approach, on the boundary between artificial intelligence, cognitive science, linguistics and design.

We are very happy to welcome two international experts in these topics to Ghent. Prof Mohamed Chetouani (Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université) has presented groundbreaking work in social signal processing for human-robot interaction. Modelling emotion and cognition from multimodal data, his insights have helped understand and support neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr. Marta Romeo (Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, Heriot-Watt University) is an expert on affective robotic systems for health, well-being, and companionship. She has deep expertise in building robots that understand and adapt to people’s behaviour, and bridges deep learning and interaction design for socially assistive robots.

Join us in welcoming Prof. Chetouani and Prof. Romeo to Ghent, where they will present their latest work and engage in discussion with the audience present. The seminar will take place on Tuesday March 31st, from 14:30 to 16:30, in lecture room 1.1 (Henri Pirenne) on the first floor of the Ufo building (Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 33, 9000 Gent).

The seminar is followed by the public PhD defence of Ruben Janssens, titled “Visually Grounded Adaptive Social Conversation for Robots”. The defence will take place in the Jozef Plateau building, auditorium P (Jozef Plateau), at 17:30.

Please inform us if you are joining us for the seminar via this registration link, where you will also find all practical information. We look forward to seeing you there.

Organisers: Ruben Janssens, Tony Belpaeme

Sponsored by the Flemish government