[vslist] Worshop on "Modeling Cognitive Development"

Mon Jan 19 13:13:01 GMT 2004

EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     CALL FOR PAPERS
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     Fourth International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics:
EPIROB2004     Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     August 25-27, 2004
EPIROB2004     Location: LIRA-Lab, University of Genoa
EPIROB2004     Genoa, Italy
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     Submission Deadline: March 1st, 2004
EPIROB2004 EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004

This workshop focuses on combining developmental psychology,
neuroscience, 
biology, and robotics with the goal of understanding the functioning of 
biological systems. Epigenetic systems, either natural or artificial,
share 
a prolonged developmental process through which varied and complex 
cognitive and perceptual structures emerge as a result of the
interaction of

an embodied system with a physical and social environment.

Epigenetic robotics includes the two-fold goal of understanding
biological 
systems by the interdisciplinary integration between neural and
engineering 
sciences and, simultaneously, that of enabling robots and artificial
systems

to develop skills for any particular environment instead of programming
them

for specific environments. To this aim, psychological theory and
empirical 
evidence should be used to inform epigenetic robotic models, and these
models 
should be used as theoretical tools to make experimental predictions in 
developmental psychology.

We encourage the submission from different disciplines such as robotics,

artificial intelligence, developmental psychology, biology or
neurophysiology, 
as well as interdisciplinary work bridging the gap between science and 
engineering.

Subject Areas include, but are not limited to:
* The role of motivations, emotions, and value systems in development;
* The development of: concepts, consciousness and self-awareness,
emotion, 
imitation, intentionality, intersubjectivity, joint attention, learning,

motivation, non-verbal and verbal communication, self, sensorimotor
schemata, 
shared meaning and symbolic reference, social learning, social
relationships, 
social understanding (“mind reading”, “theory of mind”), value systems;
* Interaction between innate structure, ongoing developing structure,
and 
experience;
* Related issues in algorithms, robotics, simulated robots, and embodied

systems;
* Strong AI (true intelligence and autonomy) versus weak AI;
* Related issues from human and nonhuman empirical studies.

For summaries of the papers from the latest workshops see: Zlatev and
Balkenius (2001), Prince (2002), and Berthouze and Prince (2003).

Please send any questions to the workshop co-chairs: 
Giorgio Metta (pasa at dist.unige.it) and Luc Berthouze
(Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp).

Sponsors
LIRA-Lab, University of Genoa, Italy
Communications Research Laboratory, Japan

Location
University of Genoa, Italy

Genoa is the "2004 European Capital of Culture" 
see http://www.genova-2004.it/ for an updated list of events and
exibitions

Invited Speakers
        Luciano Fadiga, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, University of
Ferrara, Italy
        Claes von Hofsten, Dept. of Psychology, University of Upssala,
Sweden
        Jürgen Konczak, Human Sensorimotor Control Lab, University of
Minnesota, USA
        Jacqueline Nadel, CNRS, University Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris,
France

Submissions
Papers not exceeding eight (8) pages should be submitted electronically
(PDF or 
Postscript) as attachment files to Luc Berthouze
(Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp). Extended 
abstracts (maximum two pages) can also be submitted, and will be
presented as posters 
(extended abstracts should also be submitted in PDF or Postscript as
attachments to 
Luc Berthouze (Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp). Further instructions to
authors will be 
posted on the workshop web page: http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org

Important Dates
March 1st, 2004:            Deadline for submission of papers and
posters
April 21st, 2004:            Notification of acceptance for papers and
posters
May 21st, 2004:             Deadline for camera ready-papers & posters
August 25-27, 2004:       Workshop

Organizing Committee
Christian Balkenius (Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden) Luc
Berthouze (Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Japan) Hideki Kozima
(Communications Research Laboratory, Japan) Giorgio Metta (LIRA-Lab,
University of Genoa, Italy) Giulio Sandini (LIRA-Lab, University of
Genoa, Italy) Georgi Stojanov (Computer Science Institute, SS Cyril and
Methodius University, Macedonia)

Program Committee
Christian Balkenius (Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden) Luc
Berthouze (Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Japan) Aude Billard
(Autonomous Systems Laboratory, EPFL, Switzerland) Daniel Bullock
(Cognitive & Neural Systems Department, Boston University,
USA)
Kerstin Dautenhahn (Adaptive Systems Research Group, University of
Hertfordshire, UK) Yiannis Demiris (Intelligent and Interactive Systems,
Imperial College, UK) Luciano Fadiga (University of Ferrara, Italy)
Peter Gärdenfors (Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden) Philippe
Gaussier (Universite de Cergy-Pointoise & ENSEA, France) Gyorgy Gergely
(Institute for Psychological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Hungary) Frédéric Kaplan (Sony Computer Science Lab Paris, France)
Hideki Kozima (Communications Research Laboratory, Japan) Valerie
Kuhlmeier (Yale University, Department of Psychology, USA) Max
Lungarella (Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Japan) Yuval Marom
(Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK) Giorgio Metta
(LIRA-Lab, Genoa, Italy) Jacqueline Nadel (CNRS, France) Chrystopher
Nehaniv (Adaptive Systems Research Group, University of Hertfordshire,
UK) Rolf Pfeifer (AI Lab, University of Zurich, Switzerland) Christopher
G. Prince (Computer Science, University of Minnesota Duluth,
USA)
Deb Roy (Media Laboratory, MIT, USA)
Giulio Sandini (LIRA-Lab, Genoa, Italy)
Brian Scassellati (Department of Computer Science, Yale University, USA)
Stefan Schaal (Computer Science Department, USC, USA) Matthew
Schlesinger (Psychology Department, Southern Illinois University,
USA)
Sylvain Sirois (Department of Psychology, Manchester University, UK)
Georgi Stojanov (Computer Science Institute, SS Cyril and Methodius
University, Macedonia) Gert Westermann (Department of psychology, Oxford
Brookes University, UK) Tom Ziemke (Department of Computer Science,
University of Skovde, Sweden)

Publication of Papers & Poster Abstracts
Papers and poster abstracts will be published in the proceedings, and
archived at 
CogPrints (http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk).

REFERENCES

Zlatev, J. & Balkenius, C. (2001). Introduction: Why “epigenetic
robotics”? 
Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics: 
Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems (pp. 1-4). Lund
University

Cognitive Studies, Volume 85.
Available at:
http://www.lucs.lu.se/Epigenetic-robotics/Papers/Zlatev.Balkenius.2001.p
df

Prince, C. G. (2002). Introduction: The Second International Workshop on

Epigenetic Robotics. In C. G. Prince, Y. Demiris, Y. Marom, H. Kozima, &

C. Balkenius (Eds.) Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on 
Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems. 
Lund, Sweden: Lund University Cognitive Studies Volume 94. Available at:
http://www.cprince.com/PubRes/EpigeneticRobotics2002/Prince-Intro.pdf

Weng, J., McClelland, J., Pentland, A., Sporns, O., Stockman, I., Sur,
M., 
& Thelen, E. (2001). Autonomous mental development by robots and
animals. 
Science, 291, 599-600. 
Available at: http://www.cse.msu.edu/dl/SciencePaper.pdf

Berthouze, L. and Prince, C. G. (2003). Introduction: The Third
International 
Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics. In C. G. Prince, L. Berthouze, H.
Kozima, 
D. Bullock, G. Stojanov, & C. Balkenius (Eds.) 
Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics:
Modeling 
Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems. Lund, Sweden: Lund University
Cognitive 
Studies Volume 101. 
Available at:
http://www.d.umn.edu/~cprince/epigenetic-robotics/2003/intro.pdf

-- 
Prof. Giulio Sandini
LIRA-Lab, DIST - University of Genova
Viale Causa, 13 - 16145 Genova - Italy
Ph: +39 010 3532779 Fax: +39 010 3532948
http://www.liralab.it 