CFP Epigenetic Robotics 2003

[Georgi Stojanov]

EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     CALL FOR PAPERS
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     Fourth International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics:
EPIROB2004     Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     August 25-27, 2004
EPIROB2004     Location: LIRA-Lab, University of Genoa
EPIROB2004     Genoa, Italy
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004     Submission Deadline: March 1st, 2004
EPIROB2004
EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004--EPIROB2004

This workshop focuses on combining developmental psychology,
neuroscience, biology, and robotics with the goal of understanding the
functioning of biological systems. Epigenetic systems, either natural
or artificial, share a prolonged developmental process through which
varied and complex cognitive and perceptual structures emerge as a
result of the interaction of an embodied system with a physical and
social environment.

Epigenetic robotics includes the two-fold goal of understanding
biological systems by the interdisciplinary integration between neural
and engineering sciences and, simultaneously, that of enabling robots
and artificial systems to develop skills for any particular
environment instead of programming them for specific environments. To
this aim, psychological theory and empirical evidence should be used
to inform epigenetic robotic models, and these models should be used
as theoretical tools to make experimental predictions in developmental
psychology.

We encourage the submission from different disciplines such as
robotics, artificial intelligence, developmental psychology, biology
or neurophysiology, as well as interdisciplinary work bridging the gap
between science and engineering.

Subject Areas include, but are not limited to:
* The role of motivations, emotions, and value systems in development;
* The development of: concepts, consciousness and self-awareness,
  emotion, imitation, intentionality, intersubjectivity, joint attention, 
  learning, motivation, non-verbal and verbal communication, self, 
  sensorimotor schemata, shared meaning and symbolic reference, social learning, 
  social relationships, social understanding ("mind reading", "theory of mind"), 
  value systems;
* Interaction between innate structure, ongoing developing structure,
  and experience;
* Related issues in algorithms, robotics, simulated robots, and embodied
  systems;
* Strong AI (true intelligence and autonomy) versus weak AI;
* Related issues from human and nonhuman empirical studies.


For summaries of the papers from the latest workshops see: Zlatev and
Balkenius (2001), Prince (2002), and Berthouze and Prince (2003).

Please send any questions to the workshop co-chairs: Giorgio Metta
(pasa at dist.unige.it) and Luc Berthouze (Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp).

Sponsors
LIRA-Lab, University of Genoa, Italy
Communications Research Laboratory, Japan

Location
University of Genoa, Italy

Invited Speakers
        Luciano Fadiga, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Italy
        Claes von Hofsten, Dept. of Psychology, University of Upssala, Sweden
        J=FCrgen Konczak, Human Sensorimotor Control Lab, University of Minnesota, USA
        Jacqueline Nadel, CNRS, University Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris, France


Submissions
Papers not exceeding eight (8) pages should be submitted
electronically (PDF or Postscript) as attachment files to Luc
Berthouze (Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp). Extended abstracts (maximum two
pages) can also be submitted, and will be presented as posters
(extended abstracts should also be submitted in PDF or Postscript as
attachments to Luc Berthouze (Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp). Further
instructions to authors will be posted on the workshop web page:
http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org

Important Dates
March 1st, 2004:          Deadline for submission of papers and posters
April 21st, 2004:         Notification of acceptance for papers and posters
May 21st, 2004:           Deadline for camera ready-papers & posters
August 25-27, 2004:       Workshop



Organizing Committee
Christian Balkenius (Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden)
Luc Berthouze (Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Japan)
Hideki Kozima (Communications Research Laboratory, Japan)
Giorgio Metta (LIRA-Lab, University of Genoa, Italy)
Giulio Sandini (LIRA-Lab, University of Genoa, Italy)
Georgi Stojanov (Computer Science Institute, SS Cyril and Methodius
University, Macedonia)


Program Committee
Christian Balkenius (Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden)
Luc Berthouze (Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Japan)
Aude Billard (Autonomous Systems Laboratory, EPFL, Switzerland)
Daniel Bullock (Cognitive & Neural Systems Department, Boston
University, USA)
Kerstin Dautenhahn (Adaptive Systems Research Group, University of
Hertfordshire, UK)
Yiannis Demiris (Intelligent and Interactive Systems, Imperial College, UK)
Luciano Fadiga (University of Ferrara, Italy)
Peter G=E4rdenfors (Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden)
Philippe Gaussier (Universite de Cergy-Pointoise & ENSEA, France)
Gyorgy Gergely (Institute for Psychological Research, Hungarian Academy
of Sciences, Hungary)
Fr=E9d=E9ric Kaplan (Sony Computer Science Lab Paris, France)
Hideki Kozima (Communications Research Laboratory, Japan)
Valerie Kuhlmeier (Yale University, Department of Psychology, USA)
Max Lungarella (Neuroscience Research Institute, AIST, Japan)
Yuval Marom (Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Giorgio Metta (LIRA-Lab, Genoa, Italy)
Jacqueline Nadel (CNRS, France)
Chrystopher Nehaniv (Adaptive Systems Research Group, University of
Hertfordshire, UK)
Rolf Pfeifer (AI Lab, University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Christopher G. Prince (Computer Science, University of Minnesota Duluth, USA)
Deb Roy (Media Laboratory, MIT, USA)
Giulio Sandini (LIRA-Lab, Genoa, Italy)
Brian Scassellati (Department of Computer Science, Yale University, USA)
Stefan Schaal (Computer Science Department, USC, USA)
Matthew Schlesinger (Psychology Department, Southern Illinois
University, USA)
Sylvain Sirois (Department of Psychology, Manchester University, UK)
Georgi Stojanov (Computer Science Institute, SS Cyril and Methodius
University, Macedonia)
Gert Westermann (Department of psychology, Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Tom Ziemke (Department of Computer Science, University of Skovde,
Sweden)

Publication of Papers & Poster Abstracts
Papers and poster abstracts will be published in the proceedings, and
archived at
CogPrints (http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk).



REFERENCES

Zlatev, J. & Balkenius, C. (2001). Introduction: Why "epigenetic
robotics"?  Proceedings of the First International Workshop on
Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems
(pp. 1-4). Lund University Cognitive Studies, Volume 85.
Available at:
http://www.lucs.lu.se/Epigenetic-robotics/Papers/Zlatev.Balkenius.2001.pdf

Prince, C. G. (2002). Introduction: The Second International Workshop on
Epigenetic Robotics. In C. G. Prince, Y. Demiris, Y. Marom, H. Kozima, &
C. Balkenius (Eds.) Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on
Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems.
Lund, Sweden: Lund University Cognitive Studies Volume 94.
Available at:
http://www.cprince.com/PubRes/EpigeneticRobotics2002/Prince-Intro.pdf

Weng, J., McClelland, J., Pentland, A., Sporns, O., Stockman, I., Sur,
M., & Thelen, E. (2001). Autonomous mental development by robots and
animals.  Science, 291, 599-600.
Available at: http://www.cse.msu.edu/dl/SciencePaper.pdf

Berthouze, L. and Prince, C. G. (2003). Introduction: The Third
International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics. In C. G. Prince,
L. Berthouze, H.  Kozima, D. Bullock, G. Stojanov, & C. Balkenius
(Eds.)  Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Epigenetic
Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems. Lund,
Sweden: Lund University Cognitive Studies Volume 101.
Available at:
http://www.d.umn.edu/~cprince/epigenetic-robotics/2003/intro.pdf