Difference between revisions of "Robotics weekly meetings"

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==Purpose==
+
==Purpose of the meetings==
   
  +
The robotics meetings are organized to help all roboticists of the lab to accomplish their work, gain knowledge, share, brainstorm, and encourage creativity in general.
# '''Community'''. Keep everyone updated as to what other work is going on in the lab
 
  +
Apart from technical questions, these meetings are also a good occasion to practice our soft-skills, such as presentation skills, to maintain/increase the quality of our work.
# '''Research'''. Cross germination. Get feedback. Get help on problems. Get ideas.
 
# '''Admin'''. Lab administration.
 
<br>
 
   
 
==Format==
 
==Format==
   
# Presentation & Discussion (30 - 50 mins)
+
# Presentation: Between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on your needs
  +
#* New experiment to come
#* Work you have been doing
 
  +
#* Current work
#* Reading you have been doing in the context of your work
 
  +
#* Presention about a paper in robotics litterature on current-day topics
#* Other reading on something you are passionate about
 
  +
#* PhD presentations rehearsals
  +
# Discussion on the presentation: 20-30 minutes
  +
# Brainstorming time: list of research questions everyone can ask to the audience to get people's opinion, collaborate, etc.
   
  +
'''''About the presentations'''''
   
  +
Pay special attention to the support that you will use during your presentation:
Try and make your session as involving as possible for everyone:
 
  +
* Avoid fancy powerpoints templates: they don't help to get to your point
* Send round material to be read beforehand.
 
  +
* Less is more: ask yourself if everything in your presentation is mandatory for understanding your point of view. If the answer is no: delete it.
* Ask people before the meeting what aspects of your work / reading they would like to know about or discuss.
 
  +
* 1 slide per minute is a good practice, unless really necessary (typically a slide with an equation will last longer: in this case, you can split it in multiple slides, make things appear one at a time, etc, to increase clarity)
* Think about implications of what you are presenting for the research direction of the lab as a whole - methodologies, technologies etc.
 
  +
* Try to keep your speech as clear as possible during your presentation
<br>
 
   
  +
'''''About the contents themselves'''''
==Timing & Attendance==
 
  +
* Think about implications of what you are presenting for the research direction of the lab as a whole - methodologies, technologies etc. It is always nice for everyone to have a preliminary introduction on your work to understand the technical points.
  +
* To keep things coherent, try to organize your slides having in mind a 'scenario' - a series of messages that you want people to recall after your presentation.
   
  +
==Timing==
The weekly meetings take place on
 
   
  +
The bi-monthly meetings take place on
<center> '''Tuesday at 14.00 (temporary time schedule)''' </center>
 
   
  +
<center> '''Fridays at 14.00.''' </center>
Unless:
 
* A given Tuesday is a public holiday, or
 
* Something very important (like a Ph.D. defense) is overlapping.
 
   
  +
beggining on Friday, February 14th 2014.
If either should happen the meeting is postponed to the next day.
 
   
  +
The frequency of the meetings can increase if needed.
'''Please indicate on this wiki page if you are not going to be able to attend a meeting''' (no later than the Friday before).
 
   
  +
==Attendance==
If you forget to note your absence in advance you will be severely punished and will be forced to buy a nice, big cake for the following meeting.
 
  +
<br><br>
 
  +
Everyone that subscribed to the robotics mailing list is invited to the meetings. Send an e-mail to the organizer of the meetings in case you cannot attend the meeting, at least 2 days before the meeting, for the others to know their audience.
  +
(Policy change: you won't be punished anymore in case you don't come, but you can buy the organizer a beer - he loves the Trappe Quadrupel)
   
 
=Forthcoming Meetings=
 
=Forthcoming Meetings=
Line 44: Line 48:
 
[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/Calendars/month.php IRIDIA calendar]
 
[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/Calendars/month.php IRIDIA calendar]
 
</center>
 
</center>
<br><br>
 
 
==Tuesday 21th Jun 2011 - Alessandro ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
* Title: Self-Organized Flocking with a Heterogeneous Mobile Robot Swarm
 
 
'''''Abstract'''''
 
 
In this paper, we study self-organized flocking in a swarm of
 
behaviorally heterogeneous mobile robots: aligning and non-aligning robots. Aligning robots
 
are capable of agreeing on a common heading direction with other neighboring
 
aligning robots. Conversely, non-aligning robots lack this capability. Studying
 
this type of heterogeneity in self-organized flocking is important as it can
 
support the design of a swarm with minimal hardware requirements. Through
 
systematic simulations, we show that a heterogeneous group of aligning and
 
non-aligning robots can achieve good performance in flocking behavior. We
 
further show that the performance is affected not only by the proportion of
 
aligning robots, but also by the way they integrate information about their
 
neighbors as well as the motion control employed by the robots.
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
Ali
 
 
<br><br>
 
 
==Tuesday 5th Jul 2011 - Nithin ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
* Title:
 
 
'''''Abstract'''''
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
 
<br><br>
 
<br><br>
   
 
=Past Meetings=
 
=Past Meetings=
   
  +
* February 14th, 2014: "Environmentally-driven collective construction with unconventional materials" - Presentation about Anthony's work
<br>
 
 
 
==Tuesday 7th Jun 2011 - Eliseo ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
* Title: Information Transfer for Collective Decision-Making in Partially Informed Swarms of Robots
 
 
'''''Abstract'''''
 
 
This talk will consist of three parts.
 
In the first part, I will sketch an informal, yet quite precise framework for studying collective decision-making in several swarm robotics collective behaviors. Within this framework, I will introduce the information transfer problem, a problem that is quite central in collective decision making and that represents the topic of my PhD. I will also present a taxonomy which classifies the possible mechanisms to achieve information transfer within a swarm robotics setting.
 
In the second part, I will talk about information transfer for heading alignment in self-organized flocking. I will present my contributions that dealt with explicit communication strategies for tackling information transfer in different environmental settings.
 
In the third and final part, I will briefly explain the current work that I have been doing on the information transfer problem, still in the context of self-organized flocking. Before concluding, I will talk about work on information transfer that I plan to do within (an)other collective behavior(s).
 
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
* Flocking in stationary and non-stationary environments: a novel communication strategy for heading alignment [http://www.springerlink.com/index/8561736669085200.pdf PDF]
 
* A self-adaptive communication strategy for self-organized flocking in stationary and non-stationary environment (ask Eliseo for preliminary pdf)
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
* Ali :-(
 
 
<br><br>
 
 
 
 
==Tuesday 17th May 2011 - Manuele ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
* Manuele will rehearse the defense of his DEA thesis.
 
** Title: ''Collective Transport with Obstacle Avoidance through Socially-Mediated Negotiation''
 
 
<br>
 
<br>
 

Latest revision as of 14:20, 17 February 2014

Purpose of the meetings

The robotics meetings are organized to help all roboticists of the lab to accomplish their work, gain knowledge, share, brainstorm, and encourage creativity in general. Apart from technical questions, these meetings are also a good occasion to practice our soft-skills, such as presentation skills, to maintain/increase the quality of our work.

Format

  1. Presentation: Between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on your needs
    • New experiment to come
    • Current work
    • Presention about a paper in robotics litterature on current-day topics
    • PhD presentations rehearsals
  2. Discussion on the presentation: 20-30 minutes
  3. Brainstorming time: list of research questions everyone can ask to the audience to get people's opinion, collaborate, etc.

About the presentations

Pay special attention to the support that you will use during your presentation:

  • Avoid fancy powerpoints templates: they don't help to get to your point
  • Less is more: ask yourself if everything in your presentation is mandatory for understanding your point of view. If the answer is no: delete it.
  • 1 slide per minute is a good practice, unless really necessary (typically a slide with an equation will last longer: in this case, you can split it in multiple slides, make things appear one at a time, etc, to increase clarity)
  • Try to keep your speech as clear as possible during your presentation

About the contents themselves

  • Think about implications of what you are presenting for the research direction of the lab as a whole - methodologies, technologies etc. It is always nice for everyone to have a preliminary introduction on your work to understand the technical points.
  • To keep things coherent, try to organize your slides having in mind a 'scenario' - a series of messages that you want people to recall after your presentation.

Timing

The bi-monthly meetings take place on

Fridays at 14.00.

beggining on Friday, February 14th 2014.

The frequency of the meetings can increase if needed.

Attendance

Everyone that subscribed to the robotics mailing list is invited to the meetings. Send an e-mail to the organizer of the meetings in case you cannot attend the meeting, at least 2 days before the meeting, for the others to know their audience. (Policy change: you won't be punished anymore in case you don't come, but you can buy the organizer a beer - he loves the Trappe Quadrupel)

Forthcoming Meetings


The schedule of the forthcoming robotics meetings can also be found in the IRIDIA calendar



Past Meetings

  • February 14th, 2014: "Environmentally-driven collective construction with unconventional materials" - Presentation about Anthony's work