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The ShanghAI Lectures 2010
 

Lectures 2009

# Title Date
1 Intelligence: An eternal mystery 2009-10-15
2 Embodiment 2009-10-22
3 Towards a theory of intelligence 2009-10-29
4 Design principles for intelligent systems 2009-11-05
5 Development and Learning 2009-11-12
6 Evolution 2009-11-19
7 Collective intelligence 2009-11-26
8 Memory 2009-12-03
9 Principles and Insights 2009-12-10
10 Future Trends (3 hours) 2009-12-17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Central topic:

Natural and Artificial Intelligence

 

Based on the book "How the Body Shapes the Way We Think - A New View of Intelligence" by Rolf Pfeifer and Josh C. Bongard, MIT Press, November 2006, ISBN 0-262-16239

 

Lecture content

While in the classical approach “intelligence” was viewed essentially as information processing taking place in the brain, more recently the insight that the interaction with the environment is of central importance is gaining increasing acceptance. This has led to the metaphor of embodiment, i.e., that intelligence is always a property of an entire organism. This idea has farreaching implications and often leads to surprising insights.


This lecture series, consisting of nine sessions of roughly two hours (including a short break) and a tenth session of about 3 hours, provides a systematic introduction to the concept of embodiment (“Embodied Intelligence”). The implications of an embodied view on intelligence are not only of a scientific nature but lead to a completely different way of how we view ourselves and the world around us. Examples and illustrations will be taken from humans, animals, and engineering (robotics in particular) and are intended to demonstrate that things can always be seen differently from what we would normally expect.


Using the method of “understanding by building”, the lectures provide a set of design principles that on the one hand enable a better understanding of biological systems,and on the other provide heuristics for how to design artificial ones, in particular robots. The argument is based largely on the notions of time scales, complex dynamical systems, self-organization, and emergence.

 

The theoretical ideas will be illustrated with many examples and case studies from academia and the private sector, and there will be hands-on exercises with computer simulations and real robots (depending on the respective university's participation mode) and in the 3-dimensional collaborative virtual environment UNIworld.

Date 2009/10/15 2009/10/22 2009/10/29 2009/11/5 2009/11/12 2009/11/19 2009/11/26 2009/12/3 2009/12/10 2009/12/17
Title Intelligence: An eternal mystery Embodiment Towards a theory of intelligence Design principles for intelligent systems Development and Learning Evolution Collective intelligence Memory Principles and Insights Future Trends (3 hours)
Lecturer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Rolf Pfeifer Wenwei Yu
Topics Intelligence: An eternal mystery. Introduction The need for embodied perspective on intelligence; includes short greeting by president of UZH, Andreas Fischer Towards a theory of intelligence
Design principles for intelligent systems Ontogenetic development: From Locomotion to cognition Evolution: cognition from scratch. Collective intelligence: Cognition from interaction. Where is human memory? How the body shapes the way we think – principles and insights Human-oriented robotics - Trends and developments – Rehabilitation devices and robotics - Design for emergence – Moderation: Rolf Pfeifer *** suggestion, each speaker 30min, Weinwei, Hiroshi Y., LPD, and Adrianne 20m at the end.
HTB chapter(s) 1, 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 10 8, 9, 11, 12 --
Speaker 1 (30 minutes) Andreas Fischer (UZH) √ Lutz Jäncke (UZH) √ Auke Ijspeert (EPFL) √ Koh Hosoda (Osaka) √ Shaohua Tan √ Josh Bongard √ Weidong Chen √ Christopher Lueg √ Alois Knoll (Manuel Giuliani/Mary Ellen Foster)√ Hiroshi Yokoi √
Speaker 2 (30 minutes) President SJTU (tbc) Michael Gardner (Essex) √ (empty) --> Zaia Alimazighi? SAYA/Hiroshi Kobayashi √
Fatmah Baothman √ Hisato Kobayashi √ Maxon Motors? Xiao'an Li √ Samia Nefti-Mezziani √ Sukhan Lee √ Louis-Philippe Demers, Adrianne Wortzel √;
podium discussion
 

announcements

Project Report 2009 available
The Project Report of last year's ShanghAI Lectures is available as a PDF in two versions: Optimized for online viewing (ca. 5 MB) and optimized for printing (ca. 22 MB).
 
ShanghAI Lectures 2010

Planning for the ShanghAI Lectures 2010 has started.

There will be another round of videoconference lectures, complemented with discussions and exercises in the collaborative virtual environment. Intended start: 30 September 2010.

For updates regarding the project, subscribe to the mailing list (don't worry: very low traffic).
 
Lecture 10 online
The SWITCHcast recordings of Lecture 10 (introduction, panel discussion) are available now, as well as the guest talks by Wenwei Yu, Hiroshi Yokoi, Adrianne Wortzel, and Xiaoan Li.
 
Lecture 9 online
The SWITCHcast recording of Lecture 9 is available now, as well as the guest talks by Alois Knoll/Mary Ellen Foster/Manuel Giuliani and Sukhan Lee.

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