Special RAS Events

We've planned several virtual gatherings for RAS society members and Students. Scroll below for more information.

RAS Town Hall
Meet the Leaders
SAC Robot Trivia
Student Video Challenge
SAC Logo Design Contest
Women in Engineering - Summer Mentoring Event
RAS Technical Committee Showcase

RAS Town Hall

Calling all past, present and future RAS Members: We want to connect with YOU via the first ever virtual RAS Town Hall. This live event will feature a Panel of the Past, Present and Future RAS Presidents, as they talk about the history of the Society, where we are right now, and opportunities and ideas for the future of the organization and the robotics community.

When: LIVE on Tuesday, June 9th at 16:00 CEST (10:00am EDT)
Where: Join the live online event here: https://ieee.webex.com/ieee/onstage/g.php?MTID=ea3fe27d004722d8f24fd720813472600

This session will also be recorded, and available until August 31st.

PANELISTS

WHERE DID WE COME FROM?

Wolfram Burgard

Wolfram Burgard,
President 2018-2019
University of Freiburg, Germany
Toyota Research Institute (TRI)

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Seth Hutchinson

Seth Hutchinson,
President 2020-2021
Georgia Tech, United States

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

fcpark 2020

Frank Park,
President 2022-2023
Seoul National University,
Republic of Korea

In addition to our Panelist presentations an open discussion will be held, and YOUR questions will be answered and discussed. Please submit Questions to spark discussion or get answers! Your question can be general society or program related, or a question directly for one of our Presenters. We invite questions to be submitted in advance using this online form:
https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/0290b860312a4af3b254fcc794824995

Attendees will also have the opportunity to submit questions during the live event via the chat feature.

We look forward to a lively discussion!

RAS Meet the Leaders (formally Lunch with Leaders)

RAS Meet the Leaders is the virtual equivalent of the popular RAS Lunch with Leaders event traditionally held at IEEE RAS’s flagship conferences: ICRA, CASE, and IROS.

Meet the Leaders is planned for multiple dates and time zones to accommodate the international robotics community. Each Leader will begin with an informal 5-minute presentation about their career, followed by a question and answer session.

Participants (students and young professionals) may sign up to participate in a relaxed chat with academic and industry leaders from around the world.

The following Leaders are confirmed for the dates and times listed below (check back often for additional sessions):

Tuesday, June 2nd @ 12:00 PDT / 19:00 UTC
Aleksandra Faust, 2020 RAS Early Industry Career Award in Robotics and Automation
Wednesday, June 3rd @ 10:00 AEST / 00:00 UTC
Peter Corke, 2020 RAS George Saridis Leadership Award, (and colleagues)
Thursday, June 4th @ 20:00 JST / 11:00 UTC
Toshio Fukuda, IEEE President
Thursday, June 4th @ 13:00 EDT / 17:00 UTC
Jaydev Desai, RAS AdCom Class of 2022
Monday, June 8th @ 12:30 JST / 03:30 UTC
Zhidong Wang, RAS VP Electronic Products and Services Board, Yasushi Nakauchi RAS VP Financial Activities Board, Yasuhisa Hirata, RAS AdCom Class of 2022
Monday, June 8th @ 12:00 CDT / 17:00 UTC
Nancy Amato, RAS Vice President - Member Activities Board (MAB), Jing Xiao, RAS MAB Senior Advisor, Lydia Tapia, RAS Women in Engineering (WIE) Chair, Hadas Kress-Gazit, RAS WIE, Aleksandra Faust, RAS Associate Vice President - MAB
Tuesday, June 9th @ 01:00 KST / 16:00:00 UTC (Monday, June 8th)
Frank Park, RAS President Elect
Tuesday, June 9th @ 12:00 CDT / 17:00 /UTC
Lydia Kavraki, 2020 RAS Pioneer Award Winner
Wednesday, June 10th @ 16:00 CEST / 14:00 UTC
Paolo Fiorini, RAS Secretary, and Andrea Calanca, and Alessandro Farinelli
Wednesday, June 10th @ 12:00 EDT/ 16:00 UTC
Seth Hutchinson, RAS President
Thursday, June 11th @ 10:00 PDT / 17:00:00 UTC
Allison Okamura, Editor-in-Chief of RA-L and Marcia O'Malley, IROS 2020 Program Chair
Thursday, June 11th @ 12:00 PDT / 19:00:00 UTC
Dieter Fox, 2020 RAS Pioneer Award Winner, and Maya Cakmak
Friday, June 12th @ 12:00 CEST / 10:00 UTC
Eugenio Guglielmelli, 2020 RAS Distinguished Service Award, and colleagues
Friday, June 12th @ 15:00 CEST / 13:00 UTC
Torsten Kroeger, RAS Vice President of Conference Activities

Registration Form (Required): https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/3834d7362695475f915f52b1653439c9

RAS SAC Robot Trivia

Think you know about robots? We'll see about that! Join us virtually for a RAS SAC-hosted trivia event where we test your knowledge of robots in popular culture, music, movies, and even from a technical perspective. Individuals should sign up for ONE session. Each trivia session will include several rounds of fun and challenging question.

Dates and Times:

- Wednesday, June 3rd @ 05:00 CEST / 03:00 UTC
- Thursday, June 4th @ 22:00 CEST / 20:00 UTC
- Monday, June 8th @ 18:00 CEST / 16:00 UTC

Format: Live video

Registration Form (Required): https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/d1fc014bb1404fcc89e6942d23780bf6

RAS Student Video Challenge:

Test your creative and video design skills in this digital event where you design and upload a video on ONE of the following topics:

How Robots Can Help During COVID-19
Funny Robot Videos from Your Lab

You may work collaboratively as a team, or individually. Video submissions may be developed by your team during the ICRA conference itself (preferred), but you may also use existing content that belongs to you and your lab. All content should belong exclusively to you and your lab.

Submissions are due by August 31, 2020

Submissions will be judged by the RAS Student Activities Committee (SAC) and may be used in promotional media.

Guidelines:

Video Length: 5 minutes or less
Upload your video to YouTube as an UNLISTED VIDEO (An unlisted YouTube video can be viewed by people who have the video link. It will not appear in public places, such as search results, your channel, or subscriber feeds.)
Provide the Video URL on the submission form below by August 31, 2020

Submission Form: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/e0188d92671f443bb2b2de34fd87f324

RAS SAC Logo Design Contest

Do you have a background in or experience with digital or graphic design? The RAS Student Activities Committee wants you ...to design a new logo!
The current logo can be found here: https://www.ieee-ras.org/students/about-sac. Please submit a vector graphic image to be used in a variety of settings and scales. Submissions will be judged by the SAC and ONE winner will be selected. The winning submission will replace the old one and be featured online.

Final submissions due by August 31, 2020
Submission Form: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/4dfbe6d80d9f4feda502637d11ebdc73

Women in Engineering - Summer Mentoring Event

Please sign up for our Summer Mentoring Event. We will hold three events across three major regions/timezone groupings, depending on the interest of the registered participants. We will announce the date of the event(s) in June, to be held in July 2020. The event(s) will consist of small group mentoring, a chatroom with a prominent researcher who is able to give advice/answer questions about your topic of interest. We expect you will be able to "switch rooms" to visit with multiple researchers during the event.

All are welcome!

Date of the event: July 2020
Organizer: Lydia Tapia
Format of event: Live networking event
Link to registration: https://forms.gle/PfUvXCTP3muVQsps6

RAS Technical Committee Showcase: Virtual Event on 19 June

Please join us for the first event in a series of informal conversations and networking with the Chairs of RAS Technical Committees (TCs). Four TCs will be showcased in this inaugural event to be held on Friday, 19 June at 9:00am EDT (13:00 UTC).

The Event will begin with an Overview of the TC, their current activities, and how YOU might get involved. This will be followed by an opportunity to connect in live conversation with TC Chairs via video conferencing.

Part 1: Technical Committee Overview
9:00-9:30am EDT (13:00-13:30 UTC)

Welcome and introduction from Megan Emmons, Chair of the RAS Young Professionals Committee, and Tony Maciejewski, RAS Vice President of RAS Technical Activities.

Followed by an overview from each of the following RAS Technical Committees:

Please join Part 1 of this Event here:
https://ieee.webex.com/ieee/onstage/g.php?MTID=e869c371556cfd663a84f1356b3724e44

Part 2: Meet the TC Chairs
Informal Networking and Conversation
9:30-10:00am EDT (13:30-14:00 UTC)

You can “visit” with any or ALL of the following TC Chairs, by joining the video conferences using the links provided. Stay for as long as you like...and hop out to join another “room" at any time. Our TC Chairs are eager to meet YOU!

TC on Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Systems: