Waterloo RoboHub Spring Symposium

Join Us at the Waterloo RoboHub Spring Symposium

Join us on campus on April 4th for a full-day symposium: an interdisciplinary event where a variety of people and organizations across the private and public sectors will come together to discuss and learn about the opportunities and challenges provided by robotics over the coming 5-10 years.

We will have several keynote talks from experts in various fields related to the future of robotics, as well as exhibitors and lightning talks from across the robotics ecosystem.

Click here to jump to our registration form at the end of the page, or feel free to have a look below for a list of keynote speakers, lightning talk presenters, and exhibitors.

Symposium Agenda

0830 - 0900: Registration and Breakfast

A registration table will be set up on the 7th floor of Engineering 7 starting at 0830, where you can pick up your badge and get directions if/as needed.

A light continental breakfast will also be provided during this registration period before we start the first talk of the day.

0900 - 1000: Keynote - "More Just, For All of Us: Telling the Story of our Robotic Future(s)"

In this keynote, communication and technology expert Heather Suzanne Woods offers four sets of provocations on emerging technology for robotics researchers, engineers/makers, industry stakeholders, and all those who engage with increasingly ubiquitous robots. Building on her research in cultural innovation, and using narrative as a diagnostic, Woods invites playful introspection and disciplined collective action on: (1) “AI’s PR problem” (2) runaway optimization (3) the banality of the bot and (4) the problem with “opt-in” human-robot interaction. This talk will be of particular interest to those concerned with the societal impact of robotics and automation (and those who tend to doomscroll).

1000-1100: Lightning Talks by RoboHub's Community Partners

This session will consist of lightning talks by movers and shakers at various RoboHub Community Partner organizations.

This includes speakers from the Canadian Robotics Council, the Urban Robotics Foundation, the Nuclear Innovation Institute, WatSPEED (the professional education unit on campus), the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics, the Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, the local chapter of Women in AI & Robotics, and the Open Roboethics Institute.

1100-1300: Networking Lunch and Exhibition

Over this extended networking break, a wandering lunch will be provided to our attendees on the second floor of Engineering 7.

While eating this lunch, they will also get the opportunity to talk to fellow attendees, RoboHub partners with exhibition booths, and a selection of undergraduate and graduate students who will be demonstrating their capstone projects and research projects in the field of robotics.

1300-1400: Keynote - "Challenges and Opportunities of Social Robots in Health and Wellbeing Applications"

In this keynote, social robotics expert Kerstin Dautenhahn will briefly introduce the field of social robotics and highlight some key challenges when designing such robots. This includes both basic research to understand the fundamental principles of human-robot interaction as well as applications of social robots in therapy, care and education.

1400-1500: Lightning Talks by RoboHub's Commercial Partners

This session will consist of lightning talks by movers and shakers at various RoboHub Commercial Partner organizations.

This includes speakers from Clearpath Robotics, Avidbots, Kinova Robotics, Teledyne/FLIR, Labforge, and Real Life Robotics.

1500-1600: Keynote - "Future of Robotics: False Promises and Unexplored Opportunities"

In this keynote, economics expert and author Larry Smith will talk about the challenges and opportunities he sees coming for robotics over the next 5-10 years: Amid robotics’ great potential, hype and intense competitive pressure, we discuss how to identify false promises and find rich unexplored avenues of endeavour. Whether with the latest tech or well-established domains, basic economic principles will not be denied.

1600-1700: Networking and Exhibition

To wrap up the day, participants will get another opportunity to talk to their fellow attendees, a selection of RoboHub partners with exhibition booths, and several groups of undergraduate and graduate students who will be demonstrating their capstone projects and research projects in the field of robotics.

Keynote Speakers

Heather Suzanne Woods is a scholar and researcher of digital rhetoric. Her areas of expertise include memes, virtual assistants Siri and Alexa, online activism and social media, and smart homes. She is the Interim Director and an Associate Professor of the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication at Kansas State University. She is also the co-author of Make America Meme Again: The Rhetoric of the Alt-Right with Leslie Hahner.

Specializing in the economics of innovation and forecasting, Larry has worked with governments, financial institutions, professional associations and companies developing new markets or new products. Along with his role as an economics professor, he is the Founding Director of the Problem Lab, one of the few in the world devoted solely to finding and understanding important problems. He has happily taught ten percent of Waterloo’s alumni and is a recipient of the University’s Distinguished Teacher Award.

Since August 2018, Kerstin has been a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the Canada 150 Research Chair in Intelligent Robotics. The main areas of her research are Human-Robot Interaction, Social Robotics, Assistive Technology and Health Technologies. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), an IEEE Fellow, a member of ACM, and a Lifelong Fellow of AISB.

Lightning Talks

Throughout the day, we will have two "Lightning Talks" sessions presented by thought leaders from many of our professional and research partners.

These talks will provide an avenue for each of our partners to talk about what they see as the key challenges and opportunities in robotics over the next 5-10 years.

These talks aim to introduce these organizations to the broader RoboHub community and to plant seeds for potential collaborations.

Exhibitors

As part of the Spring Symposium, RoboHub partners taking part in the recently launched Professional Partnership Program will have booths setup where you can talk to experts across our community, learn what their organizations are all about, and see some exciting demos of robots, sensors, and other technology.

Throughout the day, you will have several opportunities to network with our partners without missing any of our interesting keynotes and lightning talks, including during the extended networking break over lunch and after the final talk of the day.

Registration

We hope you're excited to join us at the Waterloo RoboHub Spring Symposium! If you would like to join us at the symposium on April 4th, please fill out the contact form below. For more information about the symposium, including details about sponsoring the event, hosting a booth, or taking part in the lightning talks, please reach out to us directly at robohub@uwaterloo.ca.