Connectionists: SMILES workshop, Nov 2/3: Sensorimotor Interaction, Language and Embodiment of Symbols

[Xavier Hinaut]

* WHAT
The SMILES workshop is about Sensorimotor Interaction, Language and Embodiment of Symbols.
It is a satellite event from the ICDL 2020 (International Conference on Developmental Learning).

* WHEN
Monday 2nd & Tuesday 3rd November 2020 afternoons
from 1pm to 6pm CET (UTC+1)

* WHERE
Online event on Zoom. (Link sent to registered people the day before, see * LINKS section)

* WHO
- 6 Invited speakers:
  - Luc Steels
  - Jun Tani
  - Rahma Chaabouni
  - Leila Wehbe
  - Emre Ugur
  - Jean-Rémi King

- 6 Selected talks:
  - Alex Pitti, Cergy-Pontoise, France
  - Xueyang Yao, Waterloo, Canada
  - Valentin Villecroze, Bordeaux, France
  - Wei Hong Chin, Tokyo, Japan
  - Martin Takac, Bratislava, Slovakia
  - Alistair Knott, Dunedin, New Zealand

* LINKS
- ** Website **: https://sites.google.com/view/smiles-workshop/home
- ** Registration **: https://forms.gle/4cdHvvm79NcWwnD36
- Contact: smiles.conf at gmail.com
- ICDL conference website: https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/

* WHAT+
(Short Description)
On the one hand, models of sensorimotor interaction are embodied in the environment and in the interaction with other agents. On the other hand, recent Deep Learning development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) models allow to capture increasing language complexity (e.g. compositional representations, word embedding, long term dependencies). However, those NLP models are disembodied in the sense that they are learned from static datasets of text or speech. How can we bridge the gap from low-level sensorimotor interaction to high-level compositional symbolic communication? The SMILES workshop will address this issue through an interdisciplinary approach involving researchers from (but not limited to):
- Sensori-motor learning,
- Emergent communication in multi-agent systems,
- Chunking of perceptuo-motor gestures (gestures in a general sense: motor, vocal, ...),
- Sensori-motor learning,
- Symbol grounding and symbol emergence,
- Compositional representations for communication and action sequence,
- Hierarchical representations of temporal information,
- Language processing and acquisition in brains and machines,
- Models of animal communication,
- Understanding composition and temporal processing in neural network models, and
- Enaction, active perception, perception-action loop.


Xavier Hinaut, on behalf of the SMILES workshop organisers
   - Xavier Hinaut, Inria, Bordeaux, France
   - Clément Moulin-Frier, Inria and Ensta ParisTech, Bordeaux, France
   - Silvia Pagliarini, Inria, Bordeaux, France
   - Chukiong Loo, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
   - Michael Spranger, Sony AI and Sony CSL, Tokyo, Japan
   - Tadahiro Taniguchi, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
   - Junpei Zhong, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Xavier Hinaut
Inria Researcher (CR)
Mnemosyne team, Inria
LaBRI, Université de Bordeaux
Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives
www.xavierhinaut.com