Empowering the Next Generation: IEEE Young Professionals Luncheon

Saturday 23 November, at 12:30-13:30, Banquet Room (top floor)

The IEEE RAS Young Professional Committee is happy to invite you to the 1st Young Professional Luncheon at HUMANOIDS!

Join us for a dynamic and engaging luncheon designed to empower the next generation of leaders in technology and engineering. This event provides a unique opportunity for IEEE Young Professionals to network with peers, industry experts, and thought leaders. Attendees will gain valuable insights into career development, emerging technologies, and strategies for professional growth. Enjoy a delicious meal while participating in interactive discussions and activities aimed at fostering innovation and collaboration. Don’t miss this chance to build connections, share experiences, and be inspired to take your career to the next level.

Coffee and sweets will be served during this lunch!
=> This event is free, but has limited space. Registration is required, please register at this link!

Program

Speaker 1: Catherine Tessier
Title: Ethics and humanoid robots: some (open) questions
Abstract: We will first focus on what ethics is not and on what it is. We will then give some guidelines to set an ethical thought and raise some questions: Why do we want a robot to resemble a human being? Is it necessary? Which statements are misleading and how can we avoid fantasies? Do we need to distinguish a robot from a living being? What is possible/acceptable? What are the benefits and risks of the interaction of a (vulnerable) person with a humanoid robot? Are there tensions between values?
Short Bio: Dr. Catherine Tessier is a Director of Research at ONERA in Toulouse, France, and ONERA’s Research Integrity and Ethics Officer. Her research focuses on the modeling of ethical frameworks and on ethical issues related to the “autonomy” of robots. She has been a member of the French National Committee for Digital Ethics and a member of the French Defense Ethics Committee.

Speaker 2: Jean-Pierre Merlet
Title: The practical impacts of ethics on experiments involving humans
Abstract: This talk will address the various ways in which ethics will influence the planning of an experiment involving humans. Practically all the
steps of this planning will be affected by ethical issues:
– pre-experiment: defining exactly the experimental protocol, recruiting subjects, hardware that will be used for the experiment, ensuring the safety of the subject and of the personnel, preparing remediation of possible risks, preparing the informed consent, timing the experiment(s) and their number, determine which data may be stored especially in view of anonymization , ensuring the safety of the data storage area and who may gain access to these data
– experiment: getting the informed consent signed, ensuring both the safety of the subjects and personnel and being ready to manage risks
– post-experiment: managing eventual assessment about the quality of the experiment, checking the data regarding privacy and anonymization if it is planned to make the data open-source
Short Bio: J-P. Merlet is a senior research director emeritus at INRIA, working in the field of assistance robotics for frail people. He has published 300 papers in  robotics, algebraic geometry, interval analysis, mechanism theory, geometry, control theory, mechanism history. He is an IEEE fellow and Doctor Honoris Causae of Innsbruck University. Until 2023 he was a member of the ethical committee of the University of Nice and the local correspondent for INRIA ethical committee.