| Forum | Day | Time | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education Forum | Friday 25 May 2018 | 9:00am – 5:30pm – Plaza Auditorium | https://www.icraeducationforum.com/ |
| Government Forum | Wednesday 23 May 2018 | 10:30am-12:30pm – P6 | https://icra2018.org/government-forum/ |
| Industry Forum | Tuesday 22 May 2018 | 10:00am – 5:00pm – P11 | https://icra2018industryforum.org/ |
| PhD Student Forum | Wednesday 23 May 2018 | 10:30am – 1:30pm – P7 | https://icra2018.acfr.usyd.edu.au/ |
| Robot Art Forum | Thursday 24 May 2018 | 9:00am-5:30pm – P6 | https://roboticart.org/icra2018/ |
| Social Robotics Forum | Tuesday 22 May 2018 | 9:30am-3:45pm – P6 | https://www.roboticvision.org/events/workshops/icra2018-forum-social-robotics/ |
| Sustainable Humanitarian Technologies Forum | Thursday 24 May 2018 | 10:00am – 5:00pm – P7 | https://website.aub.edu.lb/fea/me/research_labs/SHTF/Pages/default.aspx |
| Ethics Forum | Tuesday 22 May 2018 | 10:00am – 1:00pm – P7 | https://icra2018.org/ethics-forum/ |
Sustainable Humanitarian Technologies Forum
Humanitarian robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence technologies will play an ever-increasing role in global development, particularly in developing economies, in the coming years sooner than one might think or be willing to admit. Adoption of emerging technologies tends to be slow in developing countries due to reasons that are usually beyond GDP rates and standard of living indices. Whilst the potential of these technologies is for the most part undeniable, the challenge lies in making them reliable, cost-effective and easily accessible for the masses by taking into account socio-economic, cultural, environmental, and sustainability factors. The Forum will bring together experts and thinkers from both technology and public policy domains. The format will consist of keynote addresses and regular presentations with a mini panel discussion after each thematic session covering the gamut of issues stemming not only from research, development, and deployment standpoints but also those from public perception of robotics, automation, and AI.
Social Robotics Forum
Social robotics is a rapidly growing emerging field poised to disrupt industry. As new generations of robots are developed that participate in our lives and exist in public spaces, we need to consider the impact of these technologies and how we can harness their benefits. Social robots must collaborate with people and prove themselves as capable partners. They must make good teammates, learn from us or teach us, as well as communicate with and understand us. The goal of this workshop is to explore where social robotics is heading and how we can best navigate the transdisciplinary challenges such robots will present.
Robot Art Forum
The arts provide a rich and versatile platform for experimentation in robotics. The arts also inform aesthetic principles and interaction design for socially situated robots. Following a series of successful Robot Art workshops over the years, ICRA2018 will host a forum on robotic art, including practical workshops on soft-robotics, featured artists talks and a public art installation.
Government Forum
The Goal of the Governmental Forum is two-fold. To distribute information about national/regional policies and roadmaps and to discuss about the trends and political opportunities and threats in order to learn from each other, be informed and better serve the international robotics and automation community. This will be done by having a number of presentations from different countries and regions in which the speakers will be asked to address specifically for their country/region: the general state of R&A; the identified Roadmap and focus for the coming years; the identified opportunities and threats; the general public discussions around jobs and automation. At the end, a panel will take place in which the presented issues will be discussed and especially try to identify an objective view on jobs and automation and a policy and strategy which can be used to coordinate it and communicate it.
Education Forum
The 2018 ICRA Conference will include a forum devoted to Robotics in Education (Primary/Secondary). Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) is widely recognised as vital skills that all job seekers will need in the near future, and Robotics as part of the curriculum is well suited to cover all these disciplines in a thorough and engaging manner.
Ethics Forum
Robotics and Artificial Intelligence have reached an unprecedented widespread dissemination in many industry and service sectors. AI software and systems, interactive devices and physical robots are now present in daily human activities. The impact on human societies is however not always perceived as beneficial and this has triggered off multiple reflections and discussions about their economical, social, philosophical and ethical consequences. Several countries and international organizations consider the issues at stake of enough importance to organize debates to assess their transformative effect on both individuals and societies, and to develop specific policies to address them. However, academics, researchers, and engineers who are behind the development of these technologies are too often absent from this debate, or even unaware about their responsibility. The ICRA 2018 Ethics Forum, co-organised with the IEEE RAS “Robotics and Automation Research and Practice Ethics Committee” (RARPEC) provides a venue for engaging reflections and discussions on these issues, informed by presentations by distinguished speakers.
Industry Forum
This full day industry forum is a showcase of successful robotics and AI based businesses from across the globe, provides a crash course in business model presentation for the aspiring robotics and AI entrepreneur attending ICRA, and delights all the conference attendees with startup pitch presentations (developed during the startup workshop), with the winner being voted for on the conference app, as well as judged by a VC panel.
PhD Student Forum
ICRA is the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s flagship conference and is a premier international forum for robotics researchers to present their work. The 2018 conference will be held May 21-25, 2018 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Center in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Following on the very successful PhD Forum held at ICRA 2015 in Seattle, we invite Ph.D. students at any level to apply for the ICRA Ph.D. Forum. The Ph.D. Forum will provide an opportunity for a group of Ph.D. students to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established researchers in robotics.
