A work by the researchers from the Intelligent Service Robotics group- Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa has been accepted at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2019. IROS is a premier internal conference in the field of Robotics and it is in first 20 sources of Special category for Robotics in Google Scholar Metrics with h5 index of 58 . This year the conference will be held on November 4 - 8, in the Venetian Macao, Macau, China. 

The research is titled “Situation-awareness for Proactive Robots in HRI” and is authored by Chapa Sirithunge (PhD student), Ravindu Tharaka Bandara (Masters student), Dr. Buddhika Jayasekara and Dr. Chandima Pathirana. The article was about decision-making criteria developed for social robots to perceive the behavior of humans before initiating an interaction with them. This will be a chance for local researchers to share their experience with the experts through out the globe. It is worthy to note that this is the forth consecutive time a member from Intelligent Service Robotics Group presenting at IROS since 2016. 
 

Sachi Natasha Edirisinghe, a research scholar at Intelligent Service Robotics Group of the Department of Electrical Engineering attended the 1st Machine Learning Research School (MLRS) 2019. The event was held from 4-11 August at Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), Bangkok, Thailand.  The aim of this event was to provide a basic understanding of machine learning to participants. The program included tutorials, practical sessions, poster presentations and social events.  The tutorials were conducted by world-renowned machine learning experts. The MLRS was organized by DEPA and Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Thailand. 

Chapa Sirithunge, a doctoral student from the Intelligent Service Robotics group- Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa attended The Advanced Course on AI (ACAI) 2019 and the 3rd Summer School on Cognitive Robotics, summer schools this year. ACAI was organized by the Technical University of Crete and funded by the European Association for Artificial Intelligence EurAI. The summer school was held in the Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece from 1-5 July 2019. The school covered state-of-the-art technologies and trending research areas in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Researchers from leading AI companies and universities including Microsoft, Google DeepMind, Delft University of Technology, and California State University & UC Berkeley shared their experience by tutoring at the event.

3rd Summer School on Cognitive Robotics was held from 17-21 July 2019 in the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. The school covered recent technologies which resulted in breakthroughs in the field of AI, especially, Deep Reinforcement Learning, Multiagent Systems, Adaptive Learning, Socially Assistive Robotics, and AI in Space. The event was organized by Dr. Sara Bernadini, the chair, with Asst. Prof. Heather Culbertson, the local co-chair. Researchers from reputed institutes in the USA tutored the event, including, JPL, MIT, USC, Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech. From the experience of the participant, summer schools are an efficient way of gathering state-of-the-art technologies used in a certain discipline within a very short period of time. Hence, an excellent opportunity for the research students especially in the beginning or the first year of their research.