Marian Andrecki, MSc by Research student at Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, was shortlisted for the finals of the Man AHL Coder competition. The top eight entrants have been invited to the Man AHL office in the City of London on 12th February 2016 for the final ‘Code Off’ to establish the winner of the competition and the £5,000 prize. Marian said,
Last Friday 22nd January 2016, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and Personal Chair in Robotics in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, concluded a contract signing with Honda Research Institute Europe, in the Informatics Forum’s Turing Room. This marks the beginning of a fruitful collaboration in the domain of interactive robotics between the Centre and Honda RI, the home of the world famous ASIMO humanoid. Professor Vijayakumar said:
The team at Edinburgh Centre for Robotics was delighted to welcome Professor Michael Beetz to Edinburgh last week. Professor Beetz is a professor for Computer Science at the Faculty for Mathematics & Informatics of the University Bremen and Head of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IAI). IAI investigates AI-based control methods for robotic agents, with a focus on human-scale everyday manipulation tasks.
Professor David Lane, Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and Professor of Autonomous Systems Engineering in Heriot-Watt’s School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, has been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Engineering in the 2016 New Year's Honours list.
Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Director and Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh, has been awarded the 2015 Tam Dalyell Prize for Excellence in Engaging the Public with Science by the Principal of the University, Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea. The prize recognises an individual or group's work in science outreach including onsite engagement, talks and other public events or through publishing and broadcasting.
Congratulations to Dr Patricia Vargas’s IEEE Ontologies for Robotics and Automation working group. They were awarded the IEEE-SA Emerging Technology Award at a ceremony on Sunday 6th December.
The Edinburgh Centre for Robotics featured strongly in the Heriot-Watt University showcase of Laser-based Manufacturing, Marine Science and Robotics at the Scottish Government reception celebrating ‘Scotland's Science - Past, Present and Future’. The event was held on Tuesday 8th December at Our Dynamic Earth and was hosted by Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, Minister for Science, Learning and Scotland’s Languages; the guests included the Principal, Professor Richard A. Williams.
On 1st December 2015, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Professor of Robotics in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, concluded a contract signing with Hitachi's Central Research Labs (CRL-CER) in Tokyo, with support from UKTI and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This marks the beginning of an exciting collaboration in the domain of intelligent warehousing and autonomous manipulation robots between the School of Informatics and one of the leading manufacturing giants of Japan.
We are delighted to publish our last Newsletter of the year. Some of the highlights in this issue are:
*Inauguration of our ECR student blog
*Exciting updates on Robotarium equipment
*A brief report on our Edinburgh Centre for Robotics first annual Conference
Happy reading!
Earlier today, Prof Sethu Vijayakumar, co-director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, was interviewed by BBC World Service radio about the NASA Valkyrie robot project. He explained why Valkyrie resembles human beings and talked about its use in space exploration, as well as its applications on Earth.
To hear the full interview, please visit: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038f64b