How To Organize The Retreat

Modules

Module name	Description	Exp. Duration
Poster session	Presentation of research in form of an A1/A2 poster.	1h - 2 h
Tutorial session	A tutorial provides an overview of the research field rather than specific individual works.	90 min - 3 h
Talk session	Invited Talks: Research talk of an invited speaker/expert including a Q&A Short break: Provides the opportunity to have a chat with the invited speaker Research Talk: A brief research talk including a Q&A	45 min - 1h 15 min 10 min - 30min per talk
Focus group session*	Discussion: Divide into groups and assign one question per group. Preparation: Give the groups time to prepare a brief presentation. Presentation: One representative from each group presents their outcomes.	45 min - 1h 15 min 5 min - 10 min per group
Workshop session**	Mini tutorial: introduction into the topic. (not mandatory) Research talks: brief research talks. Panel discussion or debate: exchange views and opinions. Group discussion: Q&A session	10 min - 30min 10 min - 25 min per talk 15 min - 30 min 10 min - 20 min
Dinner talks session	Short ted-like talks directly after dinner.	10 min - 15 min

\* To ensure we have enough topics for the focus group session, ask the participants to contribute questions before the retreat. During the retreat, organize an interactive session where participants can add questions to a board. We have the backup set if we run out of questions during this session.
\** Try to outsource the organization of the workshop sessions. Therefore, assign a fellow student that works in the field to organize it.

Reach out to invited Speakers

Mail Template

Dear Marc Toussaint

I hope this email finds you well. I am a Ph.D. student at the Technical University Darmstadt in the Intelligent Autonomous Systems group (IAS) led by Jan Peters. We would like to invite you as a guest speaker to the 8th International Workshop on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IWIAS).

The IWIAS consists of ourselves and an `extended family` of research groups, such as Gerhard Neumann’s Autonomous Learning Robots Lab (ALR), KIT, and Jens Kober’s group from the Cognitive Robotics Department (CoR), TU Delft. The workshop is held at the Kleinwalsertal, Austria, from 13.08.2023 to 20.08.2023. During the event, we feature research talks, workshops, and focus groups on robotics and decision-making.

A deep understanding of machine learning, optimization, and reasoning plays a critical role in addressing the fundamental challenges of modern robotics. With this in mind, it would be a great pleasure if you could give a research talk or tutorial on the intersection of robotics and AI. Your vast expertise in this field would be a tremendous contribution to our retreat and would make the great time we have there even better.

We would be more than happy to discuss the details further and provide any additional information you may need. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me, <Other PhDs> or Jan (in CC) directly.

Kind regards,