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
# Robotics Group Administration (0 - 15 mins)
 
  +
# 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 '''ALWAYS''' take place on
 
   
  +
The bi-monthly meetings take place on
<center> '''Wednesdays at 14.30''' </center>
 
   
  +
<center> '''Fridays at 14.00.''' </center>
Unless:
 
* A given Wednesday 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.
==Previous Meetings==
 
  +
(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=
See [[Previous MEETROBOT meetings | Minutes and agendas from previous meetings]].
 
 
 
 
 
==Wednesday 25th January - Anders ==
 
 
This meeting is going to be a bit technical.
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
# '''Presentation / Discussion'''
 
#* Simulation
 
#* TwoDee: Philosophy, limitations and implementation
 
#* Discussion on simulation
 
# '''Robotics Group Admin'''
 
#*
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
No reading is required, but I would recommend that people interested in or working with simulation to read Jacobi's [http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://www.mip.sdu.dk/~wizard/AM04/_I_Articles/11_csrp457.ps.Z "Evolutionary Robotics and the Radical Envelope-of-Noise Hypothesis" (.ps.Z)], (1997), Journal of Adaptive Behavior vol. 6, No. 2, 325-368.
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
Rehan
 
 
'''''Results'''''
 
 
[[Media:Alc_robots_and_simulation.pdf |Download presentation (.pdf)]]
 
   
  +
<br>
  +
<center>
  +
'''The schedule of the forthcoming robotics meetings can also be found in the'''
  +
[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/Calendars/month.php IRIDIA calendar]
  +
</center>
 
<br><br>
 
<br><br>
   
  +
=Past Meetings=
==Wednesday 1st Febuary - Elio ==
 
   
  +
* February 14th, 2014: "Environmentally-driven collective construction with unconventional materials" - Presentation about Anthony's work
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
# '''Presentation / Discussion'''
 
*
 
This week I am going to give a "VERY INFORMAL" (please note the "informal") presentation on some work I'm currently doing on the evolution of signaling using Evolutionary Robotics methods. Note that, the meeting will be strictly focused on the description of my experiments (which, unfortunately for me, they are not very successful at the moment). So, if you are not interested in listening my sorrowful talk, you can certainly miss it.
 
 
# '''Robotics Group Admin'''
 
*
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
'''''Results'''''
 
 
 
<br><br>
 
 
==Wednesday 8th February - Christos ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
# '''Presentation / Discussion'''
 
#* '''Christos:''' Given that I do not have something completely new to present, I will discuss 2-3 intresting points that came out of the work presented at the previous talk. I will also complement Elio's talk discussing a possible interesting scenario. Some ideas for my future work will also be given.
 
# '''Robotics Group Admin'''
 
#* '''Anders:''' Fixed-point: How to handle precision arithmetic on the s-bot without the use of floats/doubles.
 
#* '''Rodi and Anders:''' Cooperative transport of an object on a pallet, status and ideas.
 
#* '''Alex:''' proudly announces that it is possible to detect reliably a direction pointed by a robot using visual communication (LED-camera)
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
Elio
 
 
 
 
'''''Results'''''
 
 
 
<br><br>
 
 
==Wednesday 15th February - Marco ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
# '''Presentation / Discussion'''
 
*'''Marco''': I will briefly present the Swarmanoid project: goals, structure and allocated resources (15 minutes max, everybody invited, also optimization people, so that everybody is aware of Swarmanoid).
 
 
# '''Robotics Group Admin'''
 
*
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
'''''Results'''''
 
 
 
<br><br>
 
 
==Wednesday 22nd February - Roderich ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
# '''Presentation / Discussion'''
 
* Roderich would like to (prepare and) rehearse his talk "Self-assembly of Mobile Robots - From Swarm-bot to Super-mechano Colony" to be held on March 7, 2006 at the 9th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, IAS-9, Tokyo.
 
 
The talk will be quick and can be followed without reading the paper (see link).
 
 
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~rgross/reading_material.pdf
 
 
# '''Robotics Group Admin'''
 
*
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
Marco D, Thomas
 
 
'''''Results'''''
 
 
 
<br><br>
 
 
==Wednesday 1st March - Shervin ==
 
 
'''''Agenda'''''
 
 
# '''Presentation / Discussion'''
 
* Shervin would like to rehearse the talk he will give next week at the IAS-9 conference. The talk is very similar to the one given in October, so for those who already followed it by then it might be quite boring to hear the same stuff again....
 
 
# '''Robotics Group Admin'''
 
*
 
 
'''''Reading material'''''
 
 
 
'''''People who will be absent'''''
 
 
Marco D, Thomas
 
 
 
 
'''''Results'''''
 
 
 
<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