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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>******************************************************************************************************<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>APOLOGIZE FOR MULTIPLE POSTINGS<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b>Applications to the PhD in Bioengineering and Robotics - Universitā degli Studi di Genova are open!</b><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>The Phd program in Biogengineering and Robotics is<span style='color:#333333;background:white'> rooted in the multiple ongoing collaborations between Universitā degli Studi di Genova/University of Genoa (</span><a href="http://www.unige.it/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#006699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:white'>www.unige.it</span></a><span style='color:#333333;background:white'>), Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia/Italian Institute of Technology Foundation (</span><a href="http://www.iit.it/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#006699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:white'>www.iit.it</span></a><span style='color:#333333;background:white'>) and the University of Cagliari (</span><a href="http://www.unica.it/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#006699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:white'>www.unica.it</span></a><span style='color:#333333;background:white'>) </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='color:#333333'>Deadline for application (strict): 22/08/2014 - 12:00 (noon). </span></u></b><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#333333;background:white'>More information on the PhD program, its curricula</span><span style='color:#1F497D;background:white'>, r</span><span style='color:#333333;background:white'>esearch themes, and application modalities can be found at <a href="http://phd.dibris.unige.it/biorob/">http://phd.dibris.unige.it/biorob/</a></span><span style='color:#1F497D;background:white'> </span><span style='background:white'>and<span style='color:#1F497D'> <a href="http://www.iit.it/en/openings/phd-calls/2015.html">http://www.iit.it/en/openings/phd-calls/2015.html</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Within the program, I would like to draw your attention on the following research theme, highly interdisciplinary, with elements of computer science, cognitive science and robotics, and very ambitious in its scope: <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b>Learning visual cues of interactions for humanoid robots</b><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Theme n. 10 - curriculum on “Cognitive Sciences, Interactive and Rehabilitation Technologies”. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><i><span lang=IT>Tutors: Prof. Francesca Odone (DIBRIS Universitā dei Genova) Prof. Giulio Sandini (RBCS Dept., IIT), Dr. Alessandra Sciutti (RBCS Dept., IIT)</span></i><span lang=IT><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=IT> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b>Description:</b> Since the earliest stage of their development, humans learn how to interact with other people. More specifically, babies begin to decode their own movements by acquiring visual evidence of the result of their motor commands. Then, as soon as they learn to perform a given action they also start to anticipate its outcome even when they see it executed by others. Hence, the knowledge accumulated by acting is exploited to understand and predict someone else’s intention. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>The general goal of this project will be to provide iCub with a similar ability that will guarantee a more natural and proficient interaction with human users. The pipeline of the computational system includes an attentional module able to localize the portion of the scene containing biological motion. Then, iCub exploits this information to focus on the selected area and to describe it more precisely using its stereo system. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> The visual properties of the observed movements will be used by the robot to decode the intentionality of the interacting partner by using machine learning techniques. View-invariance will be one of the crucial aspects of the system, together with the capability of inferring information about the 3D orientation of an agent. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><i>Reference:</i></b><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><ul type=disc><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3'><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:white'>Sciutti A.</span><span style='background:white'>, Noceti N., Rea F., Odone F., Verri A. & Sandini G. 2014,'The informative content of optical flow <span style='color:#1F497D'>f</span>eatures of biological motion', <em><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>37th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP 2014), </span></em>Belgrade, Serbia, August, 24-28, 2014</span><o:p></o:p></li></ul></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:white'>See also:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo5'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='color:black'>Sciutti A., Patanč L., Nori F. & Sandini G., 2014, ‘Understanding object weight from human and humanoid lifting actions’, <em>IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, vol. 6, </em>no. 2, pp. 80-92, <em>doi: </em></span><em><u><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TAMD.2014.2312399" target=blank><span style='color:windowtext'>10.1109/TAMD.2014.2312399</span></a></u></em><u><br><br></u><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b>Requirements: </b>degree in robotics, bioengineering, computer science, computer engineering, or related disciplines, attitude for problem solving, basic skills on c++ programming. A background on computer vision and machine learning is an asset. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Highly motivated students are welcome to apply! <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b>Contacts </b>Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the perspective tutors before they submit their application: <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:francesca.odone@unige.it">francesca.odone@unige.it</a>, <a href="mailto:giulio.sandini@iit.it">giulio.sandini@iit.it</a>, <a href="mailto:alessandra.sciutti@iit.it">alessandra.sciutti@iit.it</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText>-----------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Alessandra Sciutti (PhD)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Robotics Brain and Cognitive Sciences Dept. - Italian Institute of Technology <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>email: <a href="mailto:alessandra.sciutti@iit.it">alessandra.sciutti@iit.it</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>