Media Centre Don't miss at fet11
Journalists and science bloggers have free entrance to the conference.
Exhibits
A new kind of robot: ECCEROBOT
Brain-Computer Interaction
Diving into the Internet
Exploring the Quantum world: from Games to Diamond Qubits and Secure Quantum Communication
OCTOPUS - Novel Design Principles and Technologies for a New Generation of High Dexterity Soft-bodied Robots
Swimming bio-inspired artefacts with 3D vision
Acroban the Humanoid: Playful and Compliant Physical Human-Robot Interaction
Pervasive Adaptation: it's here!
Swarmanoid
A new kind of robot: ECCEROBOT
Shake hands with ECCEROBOT, a radically new kind of robot with a spectacular appearance. ECCEROBOT looks like a life-size human with the skin peeled off so that the bones, muscles, and tendons can be seen in motion. The stereotype of the robot is usually either dangerous or fragile, and this mindset must be overcome.
Web links
Contact: Professor Owen Holland
Primary affiliation: University of Sussex
Position: Professor of Cognitive Robotics
Country: United Kingdom
Web Site: http://www.sussex.ac.uk
Stand: 15
Brain-Computer Interaction
How can we extract features from the brain signals that reflect the subject’s intent? Real demonstrations will illustrate the whole range of applications for the emerging field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), translating the subject’s intent into actions such as controlling a robot or writing a letter from a virtual keyboard.
Web links
http://cnbi.epfl.ch
http://cnbi.epfl.ch/webdav/site/cnbi/shared/multimedia/EPFL_Wheelchair_LearningCenter.flv
Contact: Prof. Jose del R. Millan
Primary affiliation: EPFL
Position: Prof.
City: Lausanne
Country: Switzerland
Web Site: http://cnbi.epfl.ch
Stand: 1
Diving into the Internet
Internet has become the main medium for social systems that interactively exchange ideas and opinions, generating and sharing knowledge worldwide.
This exhibit experiments on networks built from real-time data from the Internet, giving participants the feeling they are really “inside” the web, witnessing what is happening now and aiming to achieve the general objective of better understanding the processes of knowledge generation and opinion dynamics. In particular, Visitors will be invited to enter a dark room where they can interact with a network of news extracted from the on-line press.
Web links
Contact: Jorge Louçã
Primary affiliation: ISCTE-IUL Lisbon University Institute
Position: Professor
City: Lisbon
Country: Portugal
Web Site: http://iscte.pt/
Stand: 26
Exploring the Quantum world: from Games to Diamond Qubits and Secure Quantum Communication
Roll up, roll up for a game of "Quantum Roulette". A quantum random number generator will be used to draw winning numbers in a roulette game where visitors can play to win small prizes. The aim of this exhibit is to promote understanding of the quantum phenomena that are being harnessed for ICT. Visitors will be introduced to what the term “quantum” actually means, and its implications for information and communication.
Web links
http://qurope.eu/quie2t
http://www.qubitapplications.com/
Contact: Dr Kamna Pruvost
Primary affiliation: Oxford University
Position: Programme Manager and Research Facilitator
City: Oxford
Country: United Kingdom
Web Site: http://www.ox.ac.uk/
Stand: 19
OCTOPUS - Novel Design Principles and Technologies for a New Generation of High Dexterity Soft-bodied Robots Inspired by the Morphology and Behaviour of the Octopus
Welcome to the aquarium where you can try your hand at operating a robotic octopus, and at the same time gain a greater understanding of the principles of embodied intelligence which when applied to biomimetic soft-robotics technologies make possible the highly dexterous motor capabilities of this robotic octopus.
Web links
http://www.octopus-project.eu
http://www.youtube.com/user/octopusPJ
Contact: Professor Cecilia Laschi
Primary affiliation: Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
Position: Associate Professor of Biorobotics - OCTOPUS IP Coordinator
City: Pisa
Country: Italy
Web Site: http://www.sssup.it
Stand: 5
Swimming bio-inspired artefacts with 3D vision
Watch bio-inspired artefacts swimming in a small pool. Visitors will see artefacts moving in a real adaptive way as a a sort of natural “resonant” system, in which mechanical properties of skeletal apparatus and actuators stabilize the system during locomotion. Experimental sessions will be interleaved with presentations describing project relevance and its impact on technology.
Web links
Contact: Eng. Stefano Orofino
Primary affiliation: Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
Position: PhD Student
City: Pisa
Country: Italy
Web Site: http://www.sssup.it
Stand: 11
Acroban the Humanoid: Playful and Compliant Physical Human-Robot Interaction
Meet Acroban, the first humanoid robot able to play with children while moving and walking and without losing its balance. Visitors will be able to see Acroban in action and interact with him. The robot has a range of behaviours that it can combine and which all react intuitively, naturally and creatively to uncontrolled external human intervention.
Web links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ9xd4sqVx0
http://flowers.inria.fr/
Contact: Dr. Olivier Ly
Primary affiliation: LABRI / INRIA Flowers
Position: Associate Professor
City: Talence
Country: France
Web Site: http://flowers.inria.fr/
Stand: 13
Pervasive Adaptation: it's here!
Fancy yourself as the next Jackson Pollock? Or how about finding out how music - from Mozart to Meatloaf - can affect your mood? These are just two of the interactive games and displays on offer to demonstrate concepts embodied in pervasive adaptation. The stand, featuring the six PerAda research projects, uses a mixture of video and interactive displays to teach visitors about some its key research concepts. Also watch swarm robots demonstrate the idea of collective robot intelligence working in a real environment. Visitors can see a demonstration in which several robot modules dock with each other to form multi-robot organisms which can perform activities that are not possible for the robots as individuals.
Web links
http://www.perada.eu
http://www.funinnumbers.eu/
Contact: Ms Jennifer Willies
Primary affiliation: PerAda Project Manager
City: Edinburgh
Country: United Kingdom
Web Site: http://www.perada.eu
Stand: 28
Swarmanoid
Watch flying robots, climbing robots and wheeled robots from the Swarmoid Project as they carry out tasks and light up in different colours. Visitors will be given the chance to interact with the robots by writing simple programs that control one or several of them. The exhibit aims to show how biologically inspired principles of swarm intelligence can be applied to robotics.
Web links
http://www.swarmanoid.org/
http://www.swarm-bots.org/
Contact: Professor Marco Dorigo
Primary affiliation: Université Libre de Bruxelles
Position: Professor
City: Brussels
Country: Belgium
Web Site: http://iridia.ulb.ac.be
Stand: 18
Launch of the FET Flagships Pilots by Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes, European Digital Agenda Commissioner will officially launch six FET Flagship Pilots.
Don't miss the opportunity to attend Flagship sessions and interview their scientific leaders. BBC New Technology, The New York Times and Nature among others already presented some fresh news about this FET initiative.
FET Flagships are science-driven, large-scale research partnerships pursuing a unifying goal of achieving major scientific and technological breakthroughs. FET Flagships are envisioned to run for at least 10 years, with a budget of up to 100 M€ per year and per initiative.
Press conference on FET Flagship Pilots
| What: | Special FET Flagship Pilots press conference: 6 short presentations + 6 Q&A sessions |
| Where and when: | May 4 from 12:00 to 13:35 - room "Bartók" - Snacks and drinks will be provided |
| Schedule: |
12:00 Welcome address by the European Commission: Mario Campolargo, Director Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures, and Wolfgang Boch, Head of Unit FET Proactive. 12:05 FuturICT |
Launch of the FET House - helping young people choose ICT careers
This initiative will be launch during the FET11 conference as the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) scheme of the European Commission wants to help young people to understand what their options are, and bring across some of the excitement of people who have a passion for science and technology.
To deliver on this objective the FET House has been proposed, consisting of a website and application that showcases topics typically covered by FET projects. The website will be launched in May 2011, and it will be especially useful for classroom discussions, individual exploration by aspiring students, and for those who like reading real stories about real people who had to make similar decisions to what they are facing now.
If you have any questions about the web application please contact infso-fethouse@ec.europa.eu.
Interviews with VIPs
Journalists will have the possibility to interview keynote speakers, policy makers, scientific leaders and high-level politicians. We expect the participation of members of the European Parliament and representatives from the Hungarian government. More information shortly.
Press Contact
For any further enquiries and interview arrangements, please contact secretariat@fet11.eu
Journalists and science bloggers have free entrance to the conference.
Contact our press officers:
Lionel Sola (FR, EN, IT): +32.498.98.31.61
Peter Grosschmid (HU, EN, SP): +36.20.2222889
