[agents] IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2011: Call for Papers, Tutorials, Special Sessions

[Matthew Schlesinger]

Call for Papers – Call for Tutorials and Special Sessions

IEEE CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING, AND EPIGENETIC ROBOTICS
IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2011

Frankfurt am Main, Germany
August 24-27, 2011
www.icdl-epirob.org

== Conference description
The past decade has seen the emergence of a new scientific field that
studies how intelligent biological and artificial systems develop
sensorimotor, cognitive and social abilities, over extended periods of time,
through dynamic interactions of their brain and body with their physical and
social environments. This field lies at the intersection of a number of
scientific and engineering disciplines including Neuroscience, Developmental
Psychology, Developmental Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Computational
Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, and
Philosophy. Various terms have been associated with this new field such
as Autonomous Mental Development, Epigenetic
Robotics, Developmental Robotics, etc., and several scientific meetings have
been established. The two most prominent conferences of this field,
the International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) and
the International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (EpiRob), are now
joining forces and invite submissions for a joint meeting in 2011, to
explore and extend the interdisciplinary boundaries of this field.

== Keynote speakers
Andrew Barto, University of Massachusetts Amherst,
Jean Mandler (overview talk), University of California, San Diego
Erin Schuman, Max Planck Insitute for Brain Research, Framkfurt am Main
Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,
Leipzig

== Call for papers
We invite submissions for this exciting window into the future of
developmental sciences. Submissions which establish novel links between
brain, behavior and computation are particularly encouraged.

== Topics of interest include – but are not limited to:

·       The development and emergence of perceptual, motor, cognitive,
emotional, social, and communicational skills in biological systems and
robots
·       General principles of development and learning
·       Neural and behavioral plasticity
·       Grounding of knowledge and development of representations
·       Biologically inspired architectures for cognitive development and
open-ended development
·       Models of emotionally driven behavior
·       Mechanisms of intrinsic motivation, exploration and play
·       Embodied cognition: Foundations and applications
·       Social development in humans and robots
·       Use of robots in applied settings such as autism therapy
·       Epistemological approaches to Epigenetic / Developmental Robotics

== Submissions will be accepted in two categories:
Full six-page papers: Accepted manuscripts will be included in the
conference proceedings published by IEEE. They will be selected for either
an oral presentation or a featured poster presentation at the conference;
featured posters will have a 1 minute "teaser" presentation as part of
the main conference session. For articles requiring more than six pages, up
to two additional pages may be submitted at an extra charge.

Two-page poster abstracts: The aim of this format is to encourage
dissemination of late-breaking results or work that is not sufficiently
mature for a full paper. These submissions will NOT be included in the
conference proceedings (but the short abstracts will appear online
at Frontiers in Neurorobotics
http://www.frontiersin.org/neurorobotics/about). Accepted abstracts
will be presented during the evening poster sessions.

Manuscripts should be submitted through the online conference management
system, available at the conference website www.icdl-epirob.org. For the
paper preparation, follow the instructions at the conference website.

== Call for tutorials
We invite experts in different areas to organize a 3-hour tutorial, which
will be held on the first day of the conference. Participants in tutorials
are asked to register for the main conference as well. Tutorials are meant
to provide insights into specific topics as well as overviews that will
inform the interdisciplinary audience about the state-of-the-art in
child development, neuroscience, robotics, or any of the other disciplines
represented at the conference.

Submissions (max. two pages) should be sent no later than March 15th to
Katharina Rohlfing (kjr at uni-bielefeld.de) and Ian Fasel (
ianfasel at cs.arizona.edu) including:
- Title of tutorial
- Tutorial speaker(s), including short CVs;
- Concept of the tutorial; target audience or prerequisites.

All proposals submitted will be subjected to a review process.

== Call for special sessions
A special session will be an opportunity to present a topic in depth, for
which format a slot of 1.5 hours will be offered. Special session organizers
are invited to submit (1) a summary (250 words) describing the topic,
purpose and target audience of the session as well as (2) abstracts of
papers (each 250 words) that will constitute the group of presentations. It
is suggested that a special session includes three oral presentations to
allow for sufficient presentation and discussion time. A discussant (from
another discipline) may be added to the special session.

Tutorial and Special Session proposals should be sent no later than March
15th to Katharina Rohlfing (kjr at uni-bielefeld.de) and Ian Fasel (
ianfasel at cs.arizona.edu).

All proposals submitted will be subjected to a review process.

== Important dates

Abstract and Paper Submission Deadline:        March 28, 2011
Notification Due:                                             May 16, 2011
Final Version Due:                                          June 20, 2011
Conference:                                                   August,
24—27, 2011

== Child-care
For families, child-care services will be provided. Please contact
Katharina Rohlfing (kjr at uni-bielefeld.de) concerning your interest in
child-care services by the end of May. The detailed organization will be
planned according to the needs.

Matthew Schlesinger
Brain and Cognitive Sciences Program
Department of Psychology
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
http://matthew.siuc.edu