Keynotes
Human-Machine Systems Keynote:
Human-Machine Systems: Challenges and Opportunities
Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, U. Hertfordshire
Homepage: http://homepages.stca.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/
Abstract:
Human-Robot Interaction is a growing area of research where researchers try to understand how to design
robotic systems that can interact with people. My research focuses on companion robots that can provide
useful assistance to users. Two application areas are of particular interest, namely assistance for elderly
users in a home context, and robot-assisted therapy for children with autism. Since 2004, as part of the
previous EU projects Cogniron and LIREC, as well as the current EU project ACCOMPANY we are developing
social robots as companions, who can provide useful asssistance in a socially acceptable manner. Target
users are e.g. elderly people who might benefit from a robot in their home in order to help them live
independently. The second applicaton area concerns research into robot assisted play for children with autism
- an area that I have been studying since 1998 (see Aurora project). Autism is a life-long developmental
disorder that impacts on communication and social interaction skills. The talk will introduce our research in
this domain and focus on KASPAR, a robot designed and built in our research group, being used since 2005 in
order to target interactions with children with autism that address particular developmental or therapeutic
needs of the individual children. The talk will outline the particular challenges in the domain of companion
robots, and lessons learnt from this research with implications for the field of Human-Robot Interaction in
general and assistive technology in particular.
ACCOMPANY project: http://accompanyproject.eu/ KASPAR project: http://www.kaspar.herts.ac.uk/
Aurora project: http://www.aurora-project.com/
Kerstin Dautenhahn is full Professor in the School of Computer Science at University of Hertfordshire in U.K.
where she coordinates the Adaptive Systems Research Group. She received her Ph.D. degree from the
Biological Cybernetics Department of the University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, in 1993. She has
published more than 300 research articles on social robotics, human-robot interaction, assistive technology
and Artificial Life. Prof. Dautenhahn has edited several books and frequently gives invited keynote lectures at
international meetings. She regularly organizes conferences, for example, she was general Chair of IEEE RO-
MAN 2006 with the theme of “Getting to Know Socially Intelligent Robots” and co- general chair of the
ACM/IEEE conference HRI’08. She is Honorary Chair of IEEE RO-MAN 2014. She has been Principal Investigator
of her research team in several European projects on developmental robotics (Robotcub), robot companions
(Cogniron and LIREC), educational virtual environments (eCircus), and robotics and assistive technology
(IROMEC, RoboSkin, ACCOMPANY). She is also PI of the UH team for the EPSRC project "Trustworthy Robotic
Assistants". Prof. Dautenhahn is Editor in Chief of the journal “Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and
Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems”, as well as Associate Editor of “Adaptive Behavior” (Sage
Publications), the “International Journal of Social Robotics” (Springer) and the “IEEE Transactions on
Autonomous Mental Development”.
Enhancing Devices Keynote:
Collaborative Brain-computer Interfaces:
A step towards super-human cognition, decision making
and action or just more of the same?
Professor Riccardo Poli, University of Essex, UK
ABSTRACT: The keyboard and mouse provide us with reliable, but unnatural forms of input,
being primitive transducer of muscular movement. People who lack muscle control cannot
used them. Wouldn't it be nice some day to be able to replace the mouse and keyboard with
systems capable of directly interpreting the intentions of computer users from their brain activity?
This is the goal of the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI).
Unfortunately, this goal is hampered by a number of problems: brain signals are typically extremely noisy, they
vary in location and temporal dynamics from subject to subject, etc. So, even the best BCIs are very slow and
prone to misinterpret user intentions. In this talk I will briefly review different "traditional" approaches to BCI
with particular attention to non-invasive EEG-based BCIs, including a number of cases from our own research
in the Essex BCI group, highlighting their capabilities and limitations. I will then move into the less chartered
terrain of collaborative BCIs. These are systems where multiple users are connected to a BCI and help each
other in carring out a task. These are very recent but exciting developments where the BCI is typically not
used for communication but for other tasks such as control, detection and decision making. Early results
indicate that such systems have emergent properties whereby the whole may be more than the sum of the
parts. Will collaborative BCIs fullfill the dream of super-human cognition, decision making and action?
Professor Riccardo Poli is a biomedical engineer and an expert in evolutionary computation. He is a Senior
Fellow of the International Society for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (now ACM SIGEVO) and a
recipient of the Evo* award for outstanding contributions to the field of evolutionary computation. He was a
co-founder of the Essex Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) group in 2004. He has over 320 refereed publications
(and two books), of which 60+ in bioengineering,
BCI and related areas. Prof Poli is an advisory board member of Evolutionary Computation and an associate
editor of three journals: Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, Applied Soft Computing and Swarm
Intelligence. He has been chair of numerous international conferences. He received funding of over £2.5M at
Essex (2001-present). According to Google Scholar he has approximately 20,000 citations and an H-index of
49.
Cyborgs Keynote:
Moral enhancement and artificial intelligence: Moral AI?
Dr Hannah Maslen
Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics,
University of Oxford, UK
Abstract
In this talk I explore the possibility of moral artificial intelligence - what it might look like and what it might
achieve. Against the backdrop of the enduring limitations of human moral psychology and the pressing
challenges inherent in a globalised world, I argue that an AI that could monitor, prompt and advise on moral
behaviour could help human agents overcome some of their inherent limitations. Such an AI could monitor
physical and environmental factors that affect moral decision-making, could identify and make agents aware
of their biases, and could advise agents on the right course of action, based on the agent's moral values. A
common objection to the concept of moral enhancement is that, since a single account of right action cannot
be agreed upon, the project of moral enhancement is doomed to failure. I argue that, insofar as this is a
problem, it is a problem for some biomedical interventions; but an agent-tailored moral AI would not only
preserve pluralism of moral values but would also enhance the agent's autonomy by helping him to overcome
his natural psychological limitations. In this way moral AI has one advantage over other forms of biomedical
moral enhancement.
Hannah Maslen is a Research Fellow in Ethics, working on the Oxford Martin Programme on Mind and Machine.
She is also a Junior Research Fellow at New College. Hannah’s academic background is in philosophy,
psychology and law: she received her BA in PPP from Oxford in 2007, her MSc in Criminology and Criminal
Justice from Oxford in 2008, and her DPhil from Oxford in 2011.
Hannah’s current research focuses on the ethical, legal and social implications of various brain intervention
technologies. The Oxford Martin Programme on Mind and Machine is an interdisciplinary project, involving
collaboration between neuroscientists, engineers, computer scientists, and ethicists to work on developing
and applying technology that will allow the observation of and intervention in brain function. In recent papers
she has proposed a model for the regulation of cognitive enhancement devices such as tDCS and
neurofeedback.
Previously, Hannah worked on the NWO-funded project ‘Enhancing Responsibility: the Effects of Cognitive
Enhancement on Moral and Legal Responsibility’. She also continues to write on topics in sentencing and penal
theory and has a book on remorse and retribution in preparation for Hart Publishing.
Keynotes
International Workshop on
Human-Machine Systems,
Cyborgs and Enhancing Devices
HUMASCEND
AT-EQUAL
Prof Riccardo Poli,
U. Essex
On Collaborative Brain Computer
Interfaces
Dr Hannah Maslen
U. Oxford
On Moral Artificial Intelligence
Prof Kerstin Dautenhahn
U. Hertfortshire
On Human-Robot Interaction
Keynote on Enhancing Devices
Keynote on Cyborgs - and more...
Keynote on Human Machine Systems