| The ShanghAI Lectures |
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Upcoming project in Fall 2009 -- check for more information at http://shanghailectures.org In the winter term 2003/2004, we organized a lecture series on embodied intelligence, called The AI Lectures from Tokyo. The AI Lab’s director, Prof. Rolf Pfeifer, was holding the lectures to a live audience at the University of Tokyo. At the same time, audiences in Zurich, Munich, Warsaw, Lodz, Jeddah, and Beijing were participating interactively via videoconference. In addition, the lectures could be followed via live webcast and viewed afterwards as streaming and downloadable video on demand (VOD) (http://tokyolectures.org). As a follow-up event, the AI Lab organized a two-day event called The AI Days in December 2005, where researchers around the world were given a platform to present their work in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics, again using multi-point videoconferencing with live webcast and VOD (http://tokyolectures.org/ai-days). Now, three years later, we would like to step it up a few notches. We have started working on a global virtual lecture and conference series on embodied intelligence and biologically inspired robotics, exploring innovative technologies to teaching, cross-cultural collaboration, and community building. The content of the lectures on Introduction to Embodied Intelligence is based on the book How the Body Shapes the Way We Think by Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard (MIT Press, 2007). The topic is appropriate for a global educational experiment because the ideas developed in this book not only pertain to the study of intelligence per se but more generally to how we view ourselves and the world around us. The Chinese translation is scheduled to appear in 2009. At this occasion, the lectures are planned to be hosted at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai in the fall term 2009. We intend to use a mixed reality setting combining video streaming and virtual worlds for educational real-time events such as presentations and lectures. We are considering to use the Project Wonderland toolkit (https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net) to develop a virtual 3D environment, as it seems perfectly suitable for our purposes. In addition, we want to facilitate exchange between students and experts by scheduling virtual meetings before and after the lectures. For example, the times the experts are available will be scheduled such that eventually, everyone around the globe can participate at some point. In order to foster long-term collaboration and knowledge sharing, we intend to build a web-based resource for embodied intelligence, and to establish an interdisciplinary community starting with the participants from the real-time lectures and conference events. In parallel to the lectures, we will use project-based work for cross-cultural group assignments in order to promote networking and international collaboration among students. There can be a competition for students in that the best projects will be selected for presentation at a final conference. The projects can be entered into the embodied intelligence resource for later use. The project has the following goals:
For this purpose, we seek on the one hand the support from different universities which are interested in joining the global virtual lecture hall and accrediting their students for participation. We would like to encourage students with technical backgrounds to contribute to the development of the virtual world's communication and collaboration facilities. On the other hand, we try to obtain funding from organizations who want to contribute resources or financial support to this pioneering endeavor. As this project will also serve as a platform to carry out research involving technological or social aspects, we bring together researchers from various disciplines. Research fields that are involved in the planning, execution, and post-processing stages of the project include software development, management science, pedagogy, social and educational psychology, media science, and engineering. More information at http://shanghailectures.org/ 2008-07-07 |