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(a)uni-bielefeld.de) and Ian Fasel (ianfasel(a)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(a)uni-bielefeld.de) and Ian Fasel (ianfasel(a)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(a)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