Dr Sylvain Calinon,
Idiap Research Institute,
Centre du Parc, Rue Marconi 19,
CH-1920 Martigny, Switzerland

(Office) +41 27 721 77 61
sylvain.calinongmail.com

Born January 12, 1980 at Yverdon, Switzerland.
Marital status: Single.   Citizenship: Swiss and French.

Short bio

I am a Senior Researcher at the Idiap Research Institute, with research interests covering robot learning, optimal control and human-robot interaction. I am also a lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

From 2009 to 2014, I was a Team Leader at the Department of Advanced Robotics, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). From 2007 to 2009, I was a Postdoc at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory, EPFL. I hold a PhD from EPFL (2007), awarded by the Robotdalen Scientific Award, ABB Award and EPFL-Press Distinction. I co-authored over 100 publications in the field of robot learning, with recognition including Best Paper Awards in the journal of Intelligent Service Robotics (ISR, 2017) and at IEEE Ro-Man'2007, Best Presentation Award at CoRL'2019, as well as Best Paper Award Finalist at IEEE-RAS Humanoids'2009, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2013, ICIRA'2015 and IEEE ICRA'2016. I currently serve as Associate Editor in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) and IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).

The collaborative projects I am or have been involved in include SWITCH, CODIMAN, COB'HOOK, LEARN-REAL, HEAP, COLLABORATE, MEMMO, ROSALIS, DexROV, I-DRESS, TACT-HAND, PLATFORM-MMD, STIFF-FLOP, PANDORA, SMART-E, SAPHARI, AMARSI, ROBOT@CWE, FEELIX GROWING and COGNIRON, supported by the European Commission, by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and by the Swiss Innovation Agency.

Research Experience

Jan 2018-
Senior Researcher
Head of the Robot Learning and Interaction Group, Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
2014-2017
Researcher
Head of the Robot Learning and Interaction Group, Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
2014-
Lecturer
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).
2014-2018
External Collaborator
Department of Advanced Robotics (Prof. Darwin Caldwell), Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy.
2009-2014
Team Leader
Head of the Learning and Interaction Lab, Department of Advanced Robotics, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy.
2007-2009
Postdoctoral Fellow
Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (Prof. Aude Billard), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Mar 2008
Visiting Researcher
CNRS-AIST Joint Japanese-French Robotics Laboratory (JRL) (Prof. Abderrahmane Kheddar), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan.
Apr 2005
Visiting Researcher
Adaptive Systems Research Group (Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn and Prof. Chrystopher Nehaniv), University of Hertfordshire (UH), Hatfield, UK.
Sep 2003
Visiting Researcher
Humanoid Robotics and Computational Neuroscience department (HRCN) (Prof. Gordon Cheng), Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute (ATR), Kyoto, Japan.
Oct 2002
Visiting Researcher
Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab (CLMC) (Prof. Stefan Schaal), University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, USA.

Education

2003-2007
PhD Robotics
Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Thesis: "Continuous Extraction of Task Constraints in a Robot Programming by Demonstration Framework"
Advisor:
Prof. Aude Billard, EPFL, Switzerland.
Committee:
Prof. Hannes Bleuler, EPFL, Switzerland,
Prof. Herve Bourlard, Director of Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland,
Dr Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College London (ICL), UK,
Prof. Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California (USC), USA.
Awards:
Robotdalen Scientific Award,   ABB Award,   EPFL-Press distinction.
Defense:
May 1st, 2007. Public presentation: July 6th, 2007.
2001-2003
MSc Microeng.
Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL), EPFL, Switzerland. Thesis: "PDA Interface for Humanoid Robots using Speech and Vision Processing"
Advisor:
Prof. Aude Billard, EPFL, Switzerland.
Committee:
Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud, DIDEL S.A.
Defense:
March 1st, 2003.
1998-2001
BSc Microeng.
EPFL, Switzerland.

Awards

2019
Best Presentation Award of the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL'2019), for the paper "Bayesian Optimization Meets Riemannian Manifolds in Robot Learning" presented by Noémie Jaquier. .
2017
Best Paper Award of the Intelligent Service Robotics (ISR) journal for the article "A Tutorial on Task-Parameterized Movement Learning and Retrieval".
2016
Best Paper Award Finalist of the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Paper on "Learning Robot Manipulation Tasks with Task-Parameterized Semi-Tied Hidden Semi-Markov Model".
2015
Best Paper Award Finalist of the Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA). Paper on "Learning the stiffness of a continuous soft manipulator from multiple demonstrations".
2013
Excellence in Reviewing, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (Elsevier).
  In recognition of an outstanding contribution to the quality of the journal
2013
Best Paper Award Finalist of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2013). Paper "On improving the extrapolation capability of task-parameterized movement models".
2009
Best Paper Award Finalist of the IEEE-RAS Intl Conf. on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids'2009).Paper "Handling of multiple constraints and motion alternatives in a robot programming by demonstration framework".
2009
Co-author of a chapter in the Handbook of Robotics (Springer) distinguished by two PROSE Awards.
2008
Robotdalen Scientific Award for Best 2007 PhD Thesis (See the press release here).
  The jury was impressed by the practical and economic importance of the problem, the systematic analysis and innovative layered approach of its implementation, the completeness of the solution, and the open release of source code, demonstrating confidence in the solution independence from specifics of any particular robot hardware or manipulation task.
2008
ABB Award for Best 2007 PhD Thesis.
  For the thorough and exemplary work in his Ph.D. thesis and important scientific contributions resolving two major issues in robot programming by demonstration.
2008
EPFL-Press distinction for Best 2007 PhD Thesis.
2008
First prize (LASA-EPFL Team) in the Grand Challenge on Human-Robot Interaction at the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2008).
2007
Best Paper Award of the IEEE Intl Symp. on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN'2007). Paper on "Active Teaching in Robot Programming by Demonstration".

Bibliometry

h-index: 43,   8700+ citations*.

The complete list of my publications can be found in the publications section.

Publications highlights

* Source: Google Scholar, 2019.
** Source: Elsevier, 2009.

Invited Talks

Oct 2020
Intl Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics, Innsbruck, Austria.
Jul 2020
Autonomous Learning Robots Lab, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Jun 2020
Naver Labs Europe, Grenoble, France.
Mar 2020
Workshop on Human-Robot Collaboration & AI for industrial applications, European Robotics Forum (ERF), Malaga, Spain.
Nov 2019
Intelligence Artificielle - Le Robot et Moi, Delémont, Switzerland.
Nov 2019
Workshop Factory of the Future - Intelligent Robots in Digitally Driven Production, IROS'2019, Macau, China.
May 2019
Workshop on Continuous management and scheduling of multiple simultaneous prioritized tasks for redundant robots, ICRA'2019, Montreal, Canada.
May 2019
Interpreting Machine Learning, Valais/Wallis Workshop on Artificial Intelligence, Martigny, Switzerland.
Feb 2019
Research Seminar Series on Frontiers of Robotics Research, University of Lincoln, UK.



Nov 2018
The Cyborg Days, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Nov 2018
SolvAxis ProConcept UserDay, Bern, Switzerland.
Nov 2018
11th International Workshop on Human Friendly Robotics (HFR), Shenzhen, China.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Human-Robot Cooperation and Collaboration in Manipulation: Advancements and Challenge, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Haptic-enabled shared control of robotic systems: a compromise between teleoperation and autonomy, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Closing the loop on Human Robot Symbiosis: Human/Robot in-the-loop Machine Learning, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Variable Impedance Robot Skills: Control & Learning, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Aug 2018
Idiap Innovation Day, Martigny, Switzerland.
Jul 2018
Workshop on Human-Machine Collaboration in Movement-based Practices, IRCAM, Paris, France.
Jun 2018
Workshop on Learning Applications for Intelligent Autonomous Robots, 15th Intl Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS), Baden Baden, Germany.
Jun 2018
Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.
May 2018
Workshop on Robots in Human Environments, Gipsa Lab, INP Grenoble & Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, France.
Feb 2018
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
Dec 2017
Intl workshop on representation, analysis and recognition of shape and motion from image data, Aussois, France.
Nov 2017
Small data: challenges and opportunities, Valais/Wallis Workshop on Artificial Intelligence, Martigny, Switzerland.
Oct 2017
Intrinsically Motivated Open-ended Learning Workshop, Rome, Italy.
Oct 2017
Delft Workshop on Robot Learning, TU Delft, The Netherlands.
Sep 2017
Workshop on Synergies Between Learning and Interaction, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2017, Vancouver, Canada.
Sep 2017
Workshop on Human in-the-loop robotic manipulation: on the influence of the human role, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2017, Vancouver, Canada.
Sep 2017
Workshop on Learning for Collaborative Robotics: Enabling flexible, re-deployable and agile industrial applications, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2017, Vancouver, Canada.
Aug 2017
Tai Mountain Robotics Forum, Tai'An, China.
Aug 2017
Intl Conf. on Gesture and Speech in Interaction (INTERSPEECH'2017 satellite event), Poznań, Poland.
Jun 2017
Intelligent Autonomous Systems lab, TU Darmstadt.
Jun 2017
Gesture & Artificial Intelligence in Industry & Arts Think-Tank, Thessaloniki, Greece.
May 2017
Numerical Analysis Seminar, Mathematics Dept, University of Geneva.
Apr 2017
Autonomous Motion Department, Max Planck Inst. for Intelligent Systems, Tuebingen, Germany.
Apr 2017
Inst. of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany.
Dec 2016
Neurorobotics Workshop, 30th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS'2016), Barcelona, Spain.
Nov 2016
"AI and Robotics: from technology to the arts" seminar, Mines-ParisTech, France.
Oct 2016
Workshop on Human-Robot Collaboration: Towards Co-Adaptive Learning Through Semi-Autonomy and Shared Control, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2016, Daejeon, Korea.
Jun 2016
Workshop on Planning, Scheduling and Dependability in Safe Human-Robot Interactions, IEEE ICAPS'2016, London, UK.
Jun 2016
Curzon-Goldsmiths Cinema, Goldsmiths University of London, UK.
Feb 2016
Conference Cerveau & Robot, Sion, Switzerland.
Aug 2015
Workshop on Learning for Human-Robot Collaboration, Ro-Man'2015, Kobe, Japan.
May 2015
Agile and Dexterous Robotics Lab, ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland.
Feb 2015
CITIA Roadmap for Conversational Interaction Technologies Conference, Brussels, Belgium.
Feb 2015
Robotics and Computer Vision Group, ENSTA-ParisTech, France.
Jan 2015
GIPSA-lab, CNRS/University of Grenoble, France.
Nov 2014
Intl Conf. on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nov 2014
PI Symposium (Posthuman and Digital Art), Monthey, Switzerland.
Oct 2014
Nipconf'2014, SwissTech Convention Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sep 2014
Workshop on Compliant Manipulation: Challenges in Learning and Control, Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2014), Chicago, USA.
Jun 2014
iCub and friends: a workshop on open source robotics to celebrate the iCub 10th birthday, IEEE ICRA'2014, Hong Kong, China.
Jun 2014
Workshop on Soft and Stiffness-Controllable Robots for Minimally Invasive Surgery, IEEE ICRA'2014, Hong Kong, China.
Mar 2014
DIBRIS, University of Genova, Italy.
Mar 2014
LIRMM HRP-4 Inaugural Workshop, Montpellier, France.
Jan 2014
RoSEC Winter School, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Nov 2013
Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
Nov 2013
NII Shonan Meeting on Cognitive Social Robotics: intelligence based on embodied experience and social interaction, Shonan Village Center, Japan.
Oct 2013
Workshop "Benchmarking of State-of-the-Art algorithms in Generating Human-Like Robot Reaching Motions", IEEE-RAS HUMANOIDS, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Oct 2013
Workshop "From Safety to Comfort in the Humanoid Coworker and Assistant", IEEE-RAS HUMANOIDS, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Aug 2013
Biorobotics Lab, TU Delft, Netherlands.
Jun 2013
Workshop on Robot Learning, ICML'2013, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
May 2013
Workshop on Semantics, Identification, and Control of Robot-Human-Environment, IEEE ICRA'2013, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Apr 2013
Workshop on haptic collaboration in shared control tasks, IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC’2013), Daejeon, Korea.
Mar 2013
Workshop on Collaborative Robotics in Industry, European Robotics Forum (ERF’2013), Lyon, France.
Jan 2013
RoSEC Winter School, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Sep 2012
12th International UJI Robotics School on Perceptual Robotics for Humanoids, Benicassim, Spain.
Jun 2012
German-French Workshop: Perspectives on Cognitive Interaction and Technology, CITEC, Bielefeld, Germany.
Jun 2012
iCub Facility kick‐off meeting, IIT, Genova, Italy.
Apr 2012
LCCC Symp. on Robotic Skill Learning and Cognition, Lund, Sweden.
Jan 2012
Intl Workshop on Cognition, Control and Learning, CHIC, KIST, Seoul, Korea.
Jan 2012
RoSEC Winter School, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Dec 2011
Intl Conf. of the European SKILLS Project, Montpellier, France.
Oct 2011
Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab, University of Southern California (USC), USA.
Aug 2011
Learning from Demonstration Challenge, Twenty-Fifth Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'11), Boston, USA.
Jul 2010
Campus Party, Science and Arts City Museum, Valencia, Spain.
(Technology festival since 1997 with renowned invited speakers such as Stephen Hawking, Al Gore, Neil Amstrong, Steve Wozniak, Vint Cerf or Tim Berners-Lee)
Oct 2009
Automatic Control Dept, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2008
Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics - CoR-Lab, CITEC, Bielefeld, Germany.
2008
HONDA Research Institute Europe, Offenbach, Germany.
2008
Nakamura Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan.
2008
Workshop on Grasp and Task Learning by Imitation, IEEE/RSJ IROS)'2008, Nice, France.
2008
Workshop on Interactive Robot Learning, Robotics: Science and Systems (R:SS), Zurich, Switzerland.
2008
RobotX Industrial forum on robotics, Yverdon, Switzerland.
2008
Workshop on Social Interaction with Intelligent Indoor Robots, IEEE ICRA'2008, Pasadena, CA, USA.
2008
Swedish robotics initiative Robotdalen annual event, Volvo Group, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
2007
Workshop on Concept Learning for Embodied Agents, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Roma, Italia.
2006

Workshop on Collaborative Human-Robot Teamwork, IEEE ICRA'2006, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Public outreach and robot demonstrations

2020
Demonstrations of Roboclette at CES, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
2019
Demonstrations of Roboclette at Foire du Valais, Martigny, Switzerland.
2016
Demonstrations of learning by interaction applications with the Baxter robot, Conference Cerveau & Robot, Sion, Switzerland.
2014
Demonstrations of learning by interaction applications with the Baxter robot, TEDx Martigny.
2010
Futura Campus Party, demonstrations of a chief cook learning robot at the Science & Arts City Museum, Valencia, Spain.
2009
Futura Campus Party, demonstrations of a chief cook learning robot at the Corferias International Exhibition Center, Bogota, Columbia.
2008
Google Zeitgeist Partner Forum, Mountain View, CA, USA, demonstrations of a portraitist humanoid robot.

Projects and Grants

Project Coordinator
2019-2022
LEARN-REAL (Learning Physical Manipulation Skills with Simulators using Realistic Variations)
(CHIST-ERA Collaborative Project, Swiss NSF)
Project Leader for Idiap
2020-2023
SWITCH (Learning by Switching Roles in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration)
(Lead Agency programme, Swiss NSF)
2020-2024
CODIMAN (Cobotics, digital skills and the re-humanization of the workplace)
(National Research Programme "Digital Transformation", Swiss NSF)
2019
Roboclette (robots learning to serve raclette cheese)
(State of Valais)
2019-2020
COB'HOOK (Dexterous manipulation for electroplating jig loading in the watchmaking industry)
(Innosuisse)
2018-2021
COLLABORATE (Co-production CeLL performing Human-Robot Collaborative AssEmbly)
(H2020-FoF Grant)
2018-2021
MEMMO (Memory of Motion)
(H2020-ICT Grant 780684)
2016-2020
TACT-HAND (Improving control of prosthetic hands using tactile sensors and realistic machine learning)
(D-A-CH Collaborative Project, Swiss NSF)
2015-2018
DexROV (Effective Dexterous ROV Operations in Presence of Communications Latencies)
(H2020-BG Grant 635491)
2015-2018
I-DRESS (Assistive Interactive Robotic System for Support in Dressing)
(CHIST-ERA Collaborative Project, Swiss NSF)

Project Co-Leader for Idiap
2020-2023
The Nature of Artificial Intelligence
(Agora, Swiss NSF)
2019-2022
HEAP (Human-Guided Learning and Benchmarking of Robotic Heap Sorting)
(CHIST-ERA Collaborative Project, Swiss NSF)
2018-2022
ROSALIS (robot skills acquisition through active learning and social interaction strategies)
(Swiss NSF)
2016-2017
PLATFORM-MMD (Platform for Reproducible Acquisition, Processing, and Sharing of Dynamic, Multi-Modal Data)
(R'Equip grant, Swiss NSF)

Project Leader for IIT
2012-2015
STIFF-FLOP (STIFFness controllable Flexible and Learn-able Manipulator for surgical OPerations)
(IP FP7-ICT-287728)

Project Co-Leader for IIT
2012-2014
PANDORA (Persistent Autonomy through learNing, aDaptation, Observation and Re-plAnning)
(STREP FP7-ICT-288273)

Project Participant
2013-2017
SMART-E (Sustainable Manufacturing through Advanced Robotics Training)
(ITN FP7/2007-2013/ Marie Curie REA 608022, affiliated with IIT)
2011-2015
SAPHARI (Safe and Autonomous Physical Human-Aware Robot Interaction)
(IP FP7-ICT-287513, affiliated with IIT)
2010-2014
AMARSI (Adaptive Modular Architectures for Rich Motor Skills)
(IP FP7-ICT-248311, affiliated with IIT)
2007-2009
ROBOT@CWE (Advanced robotic systems in future collaborative working environments)
(STREP FP6-34002, affiliated with EPFL)
2006-2010
FEELIX GROWING (Feel, interact, express: a global approach to development with interdisciplinary grounding)
(IP FP6-IST-045169, affiliated with EPFL)
2004-2007
COGNIRON (The Cognitive Robot Companion)
(IP FP6-IST-002020, affiliated with EPFL)

Technology Transfer
2015
Baxter, What Else? (Incremental learning of movements for service robots)
(IdeArk, TheArk)
2011
Commissioned service of technology for the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan
(development of a portraitist robot software for interactive showcase of industrial robots)

Teaching

2015-2019
EPFL course EE613 - Machine Learning for Engineers.
2019-2020
Engineering Master program on Applied Artificial Intelligence, in partnership with Swiss Distance Learning University. Responsible for the course on Robotics.
2018-2020
Post-Master program AI Move (Artificial Intelligence and Movement in Industries and Creation) at Mines-ParisTech. In charge of the courses on Statistical, Geometrical and Dynamical Representations of Movement (Module 2: Motion Capture, Modelling and Gesture Recognition) and on Human-Robot Interaction and Collaborative Robotics (Module 4: Humans, Machines and Connected Objects).
Jan 2019
"Memory of Motion" Winter School, Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland. Lectures on movement primitives.
Oct 2018
Tutorial "From Least Squares Regression to High-dimensional Motion Primitives", IROS'2018.

Committees / Editorships

2015-2016
Publication Chair
IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2016).
2011-2012
Steering Committee
ACM/IEEE Intl conferences on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).
2012
Financial Chair
ACM/IEEE Intl Conf. on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Boston, MA, USA.
2011
Financial Chair
ACM/IEEE Intl Conf. on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Organizing Committees
2020
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Interactive Robot Learning, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2020), Paris, France.
2020
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Robustness in robot manipulation: how do we scale to 99.xxx%?, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2020), Paris, France.
2019
Organizing Committee
Special Issue on Skill Transfer Learning for Autonomous Robots and Human-Robot Cooperation, Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
2019
Organizing Committee
Minisymposium on Algebraic Geometry for Kinematics and Dynamics in Robotics at the SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry 2019, Bern, Switzerland.
2019
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning for Industry 4.0: Feasibility and Challenges, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2019), Montreal, Canada.
2018
Organizing Committee
Workshop on AI for rehabilitation and prosthetics, HES-SO, Sierre, Switzerland.
2018
Organizing Committee
Tutorial From Least Squares Regression to High-dimensional Motion Primitives, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2018).
2018
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Robots for Assisted Living, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2018).
2017
Organizing Committee
Special issue on Learning and Control for Autonomous Manipulation Systems: the Role of Dimensionality Reduction, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
2017
Organizing Committee
Special issue on Learning for Human-Robot Collaboration, Autonomous Robots (Springer).
2017
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Micro-Data: the new frontier of robot learning? at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2017).
2017
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning for Collaborative Robotics: Enabling Flexible, Redeployable and Agile Industrial Applications at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2017).
2017
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning and control for autonomous manipulation systems: the role of dimensionality reduction at the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2017).
2016
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Artistically Skilled Robots at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2016).
2015
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Physical Human-Robot Collaboration: Control, Learning, Safety and Applications at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2015).
2015
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning for Human-Robot Collaboration at the IEEE Intl Symp. on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man'2015).
2015
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Compliant and Versatile Robot Control in Human Environments at the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2015).
2012-2013
Organizing Committee
IEEE Intl Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man'2013).
2012
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning and Interaction in Haptic Robots at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2012).
Associate Editor
2017-now
Associate Editor
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO).
2015-now
Associate Editor
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
2015-now
Associate Editor
Intelligent Service Robotics (Springer).
2015-now
Associate Editor
Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
2013-2017
Associate Editor
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems.
2012-now
Associate Editor
IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
2012-now
Associate Editor
IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
2013
Associate Editor
IEEE Intl Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man'2013).
Program Committee
2014-now
Technical Committee
Human Movement Understanding, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).
2008-now
Technical Committee
Robot Learning, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).
2015-2016
Program Committee
HRI Pioneers Workshop.
2015
Program Committee
Workshop on Machine Learning for Interactive Systems (MLIS) at the Intl Conf. on Machine Learning (ICML).
2015
Program Committee
Intl Symp. on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (AISB'2015).
2014
Program Committee
Intl Symp. on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (AISB'2014).
2014
Program Committee
AAAI Symp. on Knowledge, Skill, and Behavior Transfer in Autonomous Robots.
2013
Program Committee
Robotics Track, Twenty-Seventh AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
2013
Program Committee
Intl Workshop on Cognitive Robotics Systems: Replicating Human Actions and Activities.
2012
Program Committee
IEEE Intl Conference on Development and Learning / EpiRob 2012.
2012
Program Committee
AAAI 2012 Symposium on Robots Learning Interactively from Human Teachers.
2011-2012
Program Committee
Robotics: Science and Systems Conferences (RSS).
2009
Program Committee
IEEE Intl Symp. on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA), Daejeon, Korea.
2009-2010
Program Committee

Intl Symposiums on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction.

2010
Coordinator

Robotics Area for Campus Party Europe, represented by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, Madrid, Spain.

Examiner
2019
Examiner
Omar Mohammed's PhD Thesis, CNRS, Grenoble-Alps Univ. & INP Grenoble, France.
2019
Examiner
Amor Ben Tanfous's PhD Thesis, CRIStAL UMR - CNRS & IMT Lille-Douai, France.
2018
Examiner
Philipp Schlehuber-Caissier's PhD Thesis, UPMC, Paris, France.
2018
Examiner
Hang Yin's PhD Thesis, IST (Portugal) and EPFL (Switzerland).
2017
Examiner
Yiming Yang's PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, UK.
2017
Examiner
Adrià Colomé's PhD Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2017
Examiner
Alexandros Paraschos' PhD Thesis, TU Darmstadt, Germany.
2017
Examiner
Gennaro Raiola's PhD Thesis, ENSTA-ParisTech, France.
2016
Examiner
Eva Coupeté's PhD Thesis, Mines-ParisTech, France.
2014
Examiner
Miguel González-Fierro Palacios' PhD Thesis, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain.
2013
Examiner
Leonel Rozo's PhD Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2009
Examiner
Diego Pardo's PhD Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
Member
2015-now
Member
Topic Group on Physical Human-Robot Interaction.
2014-now
Member
Topic Group on Natural Interaction with Social Robots.
2010-now
Member
European Network for the Advancement of Artificial Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics (EUCog).
2008
Member
FIBRS Student/Chair Mentorship Program.

Supervision

Postdoctoral Fellows
2019-now
Dr Marco Ewerton, Idiap Research Institute, co-supervised with Jean-Marc Odobez.
2019-now
Dr João Silvério, Idiap Research Institute.
2018-2019
Dr Antonio Paolillo, Idiap Research Institute.
2017-2018
Dr Andras Kupcsik, Idiap Research Institute (next: Research Scientist at Bosch Center for AI)
2015-2017
Dr Ioannis Havoutis, Idiap Research Institute (next: Lecturer at the University of Oxford).
2012-2015
Dr Leonel Rozo, ADVR-IIT (next: Research Scientist at Bosch Center for AI)
2012-2015
Dr Danilo Bruno, ADVR-IIT (next: Software Analyst at CAMELOT biomedical systems S.r.l.).
2009-2011

Dr Petar Kormushev, ADVR-IIT (next: Lecturer at Imperial College London).

PhD Students
2020-now
Julius Jankowski, Idiap/EPFL.
2019-now
Suhan Shetty, "Low-Rank Approximation Techniques for Robot Learning". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2019-now
Martin Troussard, "Sim-to-Real Transfer of Robot Skills with Human Guidance". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2018-now
Hakan Girgin, "Learning Behavior Primitives for Human-Robot Collaboration". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2018-now
Teguh Lembono, "Building Memory of Motion to Warm-start Trajectory Optimization". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-now
Thibaut Kulak, "Robot skills acquisition through active learning and social interaction strategies". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2016-now
Noémie Jaquier, "Machine learning applied to the control of prosthetic hands". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2016-now
Emmanuel Pignat, "Robot learning for interactive dressing assistance". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2015-2018
Ajay Kumar Tanwani, "Probabilistic learning models for skill acquisition in teleoperated robots". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Postdoc at AUTOLAB and BAIR, UC Berkeley)
2014-2018
Martijn Zeestraten, "Programming by demonstration on Riemannian manifolds". PhD Thesis, ADVR-IIT/UniGenova.
(next: R&D Engineer in Madern Group)
2014-2017
João Silvério, "Human-robot collaborative manipulation and coordination in bimanual tasks". PhD Thesis, ADVR-IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Postdoc at IIT, Genova, Italy)
2012-2015
Milad Malekzadeh, "Machine Learning for a Soft Robotic Arm Assisting in Minimally Invasive Surgery". PhD Thesis, ADVR-IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Postdoc at CoR-Lab, University of Bielefeld)
2011-2014
Tohid Alizadeh, "Modulation and Statistical Modeling of Human Movements Through Demonstrations". PhD Thesis, ADVR-IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Lecturer at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan)
2011-2014
Davide De Tommaso, "Active Vision and Projections as User Interface in Robot Learning from Demonstration". PhD Thesis, ADVR-IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Software Engineer at IIT, Genova, Italy)
2010-2013
Antonio Pistillo, "Approaches To Open And Closed-Loop Probabilistic Model Learning In Programming By Demonstration". PhD Thesis, ADVR-IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Data Scientist at Accenture)
Research and Development Engineers
2019-now
Guillaume Clivaz, Research and Development group at Idiap, supervised by Olivier Bornet.
2018-now
Philip Abbet, Research and Development group at Idiap, supervised by Olivier Bornet.
Visiting PhD Students
2019-2020
Xiao Gao, WuHan University, supervised by Prof. Miao Li.
2019
Jarosław Łokietko, Goldsmiths University of London, supervised by Prof. Frederic Fol Leymarie.
2018
Markku Suomalainen, Aalto University, supervised by Prof. Ville Kyrki.
2015
Daniel Berio, Goldsmiths University of London, supervised by Prof. Frederic Fol Leymarie.
2011
Leonel Rozo, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, supervised by Prof. Carme Torras.
Internships
2019-2020
Clément Vaes, MSc Student at Université Catholique de Louvain, supervised by Estelle Massart and Prof. Pierre-Antoine Absil, co-supervised by Noémie Jaquier at Idiap.
2018
Hakan Girgin, MSc Student at Bogazici University, supervised by Prof. Emre Ugur.
2017
Olivier Baseggio, "Case studies for the application of robot learning techniques in industrial applications". Internship, Idiap.
MSc Theses
2019-2020
Jérémy Maceiras, "Planning of robot manipulation tasks". Master in Artificial Intelligence, Idiap/UniDistance.
2017
Yanick Bertrand, "Synthesis of exaggerated movements to facilitate robot skill acquisition". MSc Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
2016-2017
Fabien Crépon, "Robot-Assisted Learning for Object Recognition". MSc Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
2016
Noémie Jaquier, "Robot drawing skills acquisition with vision feedback". MSc Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: PhD Student at Idiap/EPFL, Switzerland)
2015-2016
Emmanuel Pignat, "Online learning of task-parameterized models". MSc Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: PhD Student at Idiap/EPFL, Switzerland)
2012-2013
Martijn Zeestraten, "Robot Learning using Tree-Based Policy Representation". MSc Thesis magna cum laude, ADVR-IIT/Delft University (Erasmus exchange program).
(next: PhD Student at IIT, Genova, Italy)
2012
Sunniva van Ipenburg, "Learning of a table skittle game with reinforcement learning and parametric Gaussian mixture model". MSc Thesis, ADVR-IIT/Delft University (Erasmus exchange program).
2012
Affan Pervez, "Movement skill acquisition with imitation and reinforcement learning". MSc Thesis, ADVR-IIT/KTH (Erasmus exchange program).
(next: PhD Student at TUM, Munich, Germany)
2008
Florent D'halluin, "Robust learning and reproduction of gestures from human demonstrations". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2007
Murielle Richard, "Implementation of a learning-by-imitation algorithm on the Katana robot". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
(next: PhD Student at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland)
2005
Frederic Magnard, "Object tracking for a camera designed to be worn by children". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2004
Adrien Brossard, "Control of the humanoid robot HOAP-2". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2004
Andre Maurer, "Artificial Neural Network (ANN) - Hidden Markov Model (HMM) Comparison for a gesture recognition application". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
(next: teacher in computer science, with a PhD from EPFL)
2003

Marc Kunze, "Person recognition for the humanoid robot Robota". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
(next: Engineer at ETEL Motion Technology, with a PhD from EPFL)

MSc/BSc Projects
2019
Gauthier Mueller, "Convolutional Neural Networks and Tensor Methods". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2019
Hedi Fendri, "Dictionary learning of movement primitives". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2019
Christine Whiteley, "Interactive visualization of trajectories on a smartphone for a robot learning from demonstration application". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Dylan Bourgeois, "Pose sketching interface to control a humanoid robot". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Machine Learning Engineer at Robust.AI in Palo Alto, CA, USA)
2017-2018
Laila El Hamamsy, "Streamline extraction from images for a robotic light painting application". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Frederick Gusset, "Body-aware assistance for the execution of human-robot collaborative tasks". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Florian Standaert, "Mobile interface for the generation of movements with variations in robots". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017
Robin Wütschert, "Smartphone interface for the Baxter robot". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017
Yuxiang Li, "Robot experiential learning of movement primitives". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2016
Yuxiang Li, "Extracting low-level motion primitives and high-level macro actions". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2016
Nikol Guljelmovic, "Incremental learning of movement with Trajectory-HMM". Internship, Delft University.
2015-2016
Christian Abbet, "Surface extraction and interactive anamorphic image rendering for a robotized projector". Internship, Idiap/EPFL.
2015-2016
Dominique Tao, "Robot drawing skills acquisition". Internship, Idiap/EPFL.
2008
Adrian Bodenmann, "Hierarchical learning of a movement through Hidden Markov Model". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Researcher at the University of Tokyo)
2008
Florent D'halluin, "Incremental learning of gestures through the support of a human teacher". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Data scientist at Netheos, Montpellier, France)
2007
Caroline Nadeau, "Vocal analysis to teach a humanoid robot manipulation skills". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Research Engineer at IRISA/INRIA Rennes, with a PhD from Universite de Rennes 1)
2007
Manon Pulvin, "Imitation of legs motion by a humanoid robot through the use of motion sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
2006
Adrien Hitz, "Locomotion control module for the HOAP3 robot". BSc Project, EPFL.
2005
Julien Epiney, "A Humanoid Robot that can paint". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Automation Engineer at Mikron)
2005
Patrick Schoeneich, "Gaze direction detection using inertial sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: R&D Engineer at Imina Technologies, with a PhD from EPFL)
2004
Jean-Joel Borter, "Motion data representation using motion sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: R&D Engineer at Thermo Fisher Scientific)
2004
Christophe Dubach, "Recognition of trajectories using a stereoscopic vision system". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Assistant Professor at the University of Edinburgh, with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh)
2004
Vincent Hentsch, "Gestures analysis using gyroscopic sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
2003
Andre Noth, "Development of an auditory systems running on a Pocket-PC". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Systems Research Project Manager at Nestle, with a PhD from ETH Zurich)
2003
Yves Linder, "Robust visual arms and head tracking running on a Pocket-PC". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: Group Leader at Electro Medical Systems)
2003
Cecile Grivaz, "Interactive game of a pair of mini-humanoid robot Robota". BSc Project, EPFL.
(next: PhD graduate from the University of Geneva)

Other skills

Languages
French (native),   English (fluent),   German (good command),   Italian (basic communication skills).
Robots
Panda (Franka Emika), Baxter (Rethink Robotics), WAM (Barrett Technology Inc.),   LightWeight Arm (Kuka, DLR),   COMAN humanoid robot (IIT),   iCub humanoid robot (IIT),   HOAP-2, HOAP-3 (Fujitsu),   Katana (Neuronics),   DB (Sarcos),   HRP-2 (Kawada Ind., General Robotix),   Robota (Didel).
Coding

C/C++, Matlab/GNU Octave, OpenGL, GLSL, ROS, OpenFrameworks, Processing.

I maintain PbDlib, a collection of source codes for robot programming by demonstration including various functionalities at the crossroad of statistical learning, dynamical systems, optimal control and Riemannian geometry.