Speakers, organizers and schedule

List of speakers and organizers

(Main organizer and speaker) Diana Saplacan is a researcher at the University of Oslo, at the Department of Informatics, Robotics and Intelligent Systems Research Group. She has previously worked in the Multimodal Elderly Care Systems (MECS) project. The project investigated the use of a robot as a safety alarm for elderly people that wished to live independently at home. She currently works in Vulnerability in Robot Society (VIROS) research project. A complete list of publications is given here.

She has also recently been listed as one of the 30 women in Norway changing the field of Artificial Intelligence (2021), and in 2022 was featured in Women in AI. The nomination was made by the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Consortium (NORA) both years. She received her Ph.D. degree (2020) from the University of Oslo, Norway, and her M.Sc. degree (2013) from Kristianstad University, Sweden. Her Ph.D. degree is interdisciplinary within Design of Information Systems, at the cross of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) fields, with Universal Design (UD) knitting these fields. She previously worked as a Lecturer in Computer Science at Kristianstad University, Sweden (2013-2016/2020).

Her current interests include Human-Robot Interaction and Human-Robot cooperation, ethics regarded through Universal Design principles, inclusion, and accessibility. She has published several papers within the area. These are listed on the official webpage here or can be found in the Current Norwegian Publication System in Norway, CRistin.

(Co-organizer and speaker) Jim Torresen is a professor at the University of Oslo, where he leads the Robotics and Intelligent Systems (ROBIN) research group. He received his M.Sc. and Dr.ing. (Ph.D.) degrees in computer architecture and design from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of Trondheim in 1991 and 1996, respectively. He has been employed as a senior hardware designer at NERA Telecommunications (1996-1998) and at Navia Aviation (1998-1999). Since 1999, he has been a professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo (associate professor 1999-2005). Jim Torresen has been a visiting researcher at Kyoto University, Japan for one year (1993-1994), four months at Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba, Japan (1997 and 2000), and a visiting professor at Cornell University, USA for one year (2010-2011).

His research interests at the moment include artificial intelligence, ethical aspects of AI and robotics, machine learning, robotics, and applying this to complex real-world applications. Several novel methods have been proposed. He has published over 200 scientific papers in international journals, books, and conference proceedings. 10 tutorials and a number of invited talks have been given at international conferences and research institutes. He is in the program committee of more than ten different international conferences, associate editor of three international scientific journals as well as a regular reviewer of a number of other international journals. He has also acted as an evaluator for proposals in EU FP7 and Horizon2020 and is currently project manager/principal investigator in four externally funded research projects/centers. That includes being a principal investigator at the Centre of Excellence for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion (RITMO). He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA) and the National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT), where he is a member of a working group on research ethics for AI. More information and a list of publications can be found here: http://jimtoer.no.

See a relevant review paper. See a list of past and ongoing research projects here, and with the Vulnerability in the Robot Society (VIROS) project being much relevant for this tutorial.

Torresen has extensive experience in university course teaching; see overview in the CV here and an overview of past invited talks and tutorials here. An updated list of invited talks and tutorials can be found here.

(Co-organizer and speaker) Dr. Yueh-Hsuan Weng, Assistant Professor at Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS), Tokohu University and a Visiting Scientist at RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) in Tokyo, Japan.

He has been appointed as Visiting Scholar at WIAS, Waseda University (2021), TTLF Fellow at Stanford Law School (2018-2021), Visiting Assistant Professor at The University of Hong Kong (2018), Research Associate at Peking University (2010-2014), Visiting Researcher at HRI, Waseda University (2012-2013). He received his Ph.D. in Law from Peking University and his M.S. in Computer Science from National (Yang Ming) Chiao Tung University. He is strongly interested in interdisciplinary studies, especially in issues concerning the interface between Artificial Intelligence and Law, including Robot Law, Social Robotics, and Legal Informatics. During his Ph.D. studies, he has founded ROBOLAW.ASIA <http://www.robolaw.asia/>  and CHINA-LII <http://www.chinalii.net/> , which are China’s first initiatives in AI Law and Free Access to Law. Currently he is also an Associate Editor of Delphi – Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging Technologies (Berlin: Lexxion Publisher)

(Co-organizer and speaker) Dr Phoebe Li is a Senior Lecturer in Law and the Deputy Director of the Sussex Centre for Information Governance and Regulation (CIGR, @SussCIGR) at Sussex University in the UK.

Her research interests revolve around intellectual property (IP), regulation of science and technology, development, and international trade. She works with international multiple-disciplinary teams for addressing thorny issues arising from digitisation. She is particularly interested in exploring the convergence and divergence of risk regulation and IP in relation to emerging technologies. Dr Li is currently working on the UKRI/EPSRC regulating Trustworthy autonomous system (TAS, @tas_governance, led by Edinburgh Informatics and Law SCRIPT) project with a focus on AI used in vehicles, health and social care.

She is also working on the Biomodifying technologies projects funded by the ESRC (BioMod Tech) and the Leverhulme Trust (BioGov), examining the emerging regulatory landscape of gene editing, iPSC and 3D bioprinting (with colleagues in law, Science and Technology Studies, and medical sociologists from Sussex, Oxford and York Universities). Dr Li is the Principal Investigator for the EPSRC funded project on mass customisation governance of Re-distributed Manufacturing in 3D bioprinting (with colleagues in law, bioengineering and Science and Technology Studies, STS) at Sussex, Exeter, and Loughborough Universities and the bioprinting company 3Dynamic Systems). She concluded an international collaborative project on 3D printing licensing in China at the AHRC Centre for Digital Copyright and IP Research in China (AHRC/Newton Fund), and another project on medical 3D printing and patent policy in China (funded by BILETA).

Dr Li is an expert in regulating digital biofabrication, and has been actively engaging in multi-stakeholder dialogues and consulted by national governments and international organizations including the UK Parliament and the EU Parliament. Her work has been cited by the WIPO, EU, and UK IP Office policy documents. She is an Advisor to the 3D Bioprinting Pioneering project for the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA). Dr Li was the only academic lawyer delegate selected on the Digital Hospital initiative which incorporates digital biofabrication in healthcare between the UK and Peru partnership (funded by the British Council, 2019).

She has published articles in leading journals, including the WIPO Journal, Intellectual Property Quarterly, the Journal of Law, Innovation, and Technology, European Intellectual Property Review, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, International Review of Law, Computers and Technology, and European Journal of Law and Technology. Dr Li is bilingual in English and Chinese. She received her PhD from Edinburgh University working on the adoption of risk analysis into compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical patents. She published a monograph ‘Health technologies and international intellectual property law: A precautionary approach’ in 2014 with Routledge (pb 2015).

Tutorial schedule: 29/8 2022, hybrid format (online + in Napoli, Italy at RO-MAN conference), half-day. The time zone is GMT+2 (Italy-time).

Please visit also our 2nd Workshop on Design-Centered HRI and Governance - Theme: Designing the Digital Future: Affective Computing, Anthropomorphic Robots, and Ethics Issues in HRI.