Danish Institute for Advanced Study

Professor Norbert Krüger, The Faculty of Engineering, The Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute, SDU Robotics, and DIAS Chair of Engineering Interactive robots: Status, Problems and Perspectives Industrial Robots have transformed our society since the 1960ths by being able to perform repetitive movements with high precision, speed and strength. By that, a large amount of straining and monotonous work that before had been performed by human workers could be replaced. The application areas of robots could be further extended by the introduction of sensors such as cameras: Today also flexible and brittle objects that show a significant variation in shape (such as vegetables, meat, or fabrics) can be processed by robots. In addition, by simplifying robots programming – which was one of the reasons for the worldwide success of Universal Robot – in the last decade also more and more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been enabled to apply robots in their production. In addition to industrial robots, also mobile robots have been applied within production and warehouses and nowadays even appear in public spaces. However, in case there is an unforeseen situation such as a potential collision with a person, these robots tend to just stop instead of going into an interaction with the human to resolve the situation. If we were able to model satisfying interactions and dialogues with humans, robots could play an even larger role in our society by assisting humans, for example in areas where hands are urgently needed such as elderly care. However, the image presented by the media about what such assistive robots can do does not match reality. In my talk, I will first give a short overview of the history of robotics and the transformational effects they triggered and will then share some insights into the state of art of robots that already today are able to operate in public spaces. The question “What makes human-robot-interaction such a hard problem?” will then be the focus of my talk. At the end, I dare to speculate about assistive robots in the near and far future. About: Norbert Krüger is Full Professor and new DIAS Chair of Engineering. He has been employed at the University of Southern Denmark since 2006. Since having finalized his Master’s in mathematics and philosophy in 1993, Norbert Krüger has established an interdisciplinary research and teaching profile at five universities in three different countries. His research focuses on industrial robotics, machine learning and human-robot-interaction. In the context of industrial robotics, he coordinated two EU projects as well as a Danish national project ReRoPro. His main scientific focus was on the learning of gripper structures for industrial applications by simulation and optimization. Today, this approach is used in the I4.0 lab at SDU. From 2012 onwards, Norbert Krüger supported the development of the Welfare Robotics Group at SDU Robotics. The lecture takes place in the DIAS Auditorium, Fioniavej 34. Everybody is welcome and no registration is needed.

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Rajewsky, Scientific Director, Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology of the Max Delbrück Center Professor, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Invited and presented by DIAS Chair of Science Susanne Mandrup RNA in space About: "The Rajewsky lab studies how RNA regulates gene expression in health and disease. We collaborate with various clinicians and have built up human brain organoids as a personalized brain disease system. For understanding the function of RNA in early development, stem cell biology, diseases and regeneration, we traditionally work in a variety of model systems (including C. elegans, Planaria and mice) but in recent years are transforming into medical/clinical systems. For example, we have established patient-derived brain organoids in the lab and study the role of RNA in human brain diseases. We apply single-cell methods and gene-editing or RNA knockdowns by CRISPR directly in brain organoids. We also enjoy direct collaborations with various hospitals from the Charité, such as Neurological Diseases, Pediatric Cancer, and others." The lecture takes place in the DIAS Auditorium, Fioniavej 34. Everybody is welcome and no registration is needed.

Guest Lecture by Elizabeth D. Peña, Associate Dean of Faculty Development & Diversity, Education at University of California Irvine Worldwide, about half of the population is bilingual or multilingual. Many children grow up using and hearing more than one language at home. In addition, through immigration, some children have exposure to a home language and to a second language at school and the greater community. Thus, patterns of bilingual language acquisition can be highly variable. An educational challenge in this population is how to distinguish between typical and atypical performance in L1 and L2 use. Comparisons of bilingual children’s language to monolinguals may contribute to high rates of misidentification of developmental language disorder. On the other hand, assumptions of a “normal” bilingual delay may contribute to documented delays in identification and intervention. In this talk I will present data examining 1) whether bilingual children are at elevated risk for developmental language disorder (DLD); 2) how we can combine L1 and L2 performance to increase diagnostic accuracy for determining DLD in bilinguals; and 3) the nature of the “bilingual delay” using a person-based vs. a variable-based approach. About: Elizabeth Peña, Ph.D. CCC-SLP is a professor in the School of Education at UCI. She is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and is a Fellow of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Her research focuses on two lines of inquiry that address the goal of differentiating language impairment from language difference. These two interrelated areas include dynamic assessment and semantic development in bilinguals leading to test development. Dynamic assessment tests ability to learn new language skills. In contrast, standardized tests asses what children already know. The advantage of focusing on learning is that it greatly reduces bias by not assuming lack of knowledge is lack of ability. She further focuses on language impairment in children from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Specifically, she is interested in how children from diverse linguistic backgrounds learn new language skills and how they lexicalize their conceptual knowledge across two languages. Through careful qualitative and description of bilingual children’s performance, she is currently focusing on potential similarities among typical monolingual and bilingual children as well as differences between typical and impaired bilingual or monolingual children. Her work on test development for bilinguals has focused on assessment of semantic skills using a battery of related tasks. Because typical vocabulary tests rely on knowledge of specific vocabulary items children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds often perform below age expectations, possibly leading to misdiagnosis. The bilingual semantics test tasks are designed to allow responses that reflect cultural knowledge and allow children to respond in Spanish, English, or both. Outcomes of these efforts have resulted in publication of the Dynamic Assessment and Intervention: Improving Children's Narrative Abilities protocol and the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment test. The lecture takes place in the DIAS Seminar Room, Fioniavej 34. Everybody is welcome and no registration is needed.

Inaugural lecture by Mathematician Keith Devlin, Stanford University Can there be a (mathematically-grounded) “physics” of learning? Technically, modern physics is a precisely defined model of the “physical” world and universe we live in – as perceived by our minds, augmented by various observational technologies and measurement devices. As such, it has proved enormously successful not only in increasing dramatically our understanding of the universe we live in, including what we are made of and how it works, but also in construction-, civil-, mechanical-, automotive-, aerospace- and electrical-engineering, resulting in we humans living our lives in a manner totally unlike any other creatures on Earth. Chemistry performs a similar model to support biology, medicine, and pharmacology. Can there be an analogous model that provides a framework for the social and psychological domains, including learning and education? The lecture takes place in the DIAS Auditorium, Fioniavej 34. Everybody is welcome and no registration is needed. Live stream it at youtube.com/@danish-ias

Invited and presented by DIAS Senior Fellow Pieter Vanhuysse More information to come.

More information to come...

Invited and presented by DIAS Fellow Lasse Aaskoven. More information to come.