Curriculum Vitae - CV

• Robot programming by demonstration
• Human-robot interaction
• Machine learning

• Learning by imitation
• Artificial intelligence

Team leader at the Advanced Robotics Dept leaded by Prof. Darwin Caldwell, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) , Genova, Italy.

Postdoctoral research fellow at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA) leaded by Prof. Aude Billard, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Switzerland.

Visiting research fellow at the CNRS-AIST Joint Japanese-French Robotics Laboratory (JRL) leaded by Prof. Abderrahmane Kheddar, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan (1 month).

Visiting research fellow at the Adaptive Systems Research Group leaded by Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn and Prof. Chrystopher Nehaniv, University of Hertfordshire (UH), Hatfield, UK (2 weeks).

Visiting research fellow at the Humanoid Robotics and Computational Neuroscience department (HRCN) leaded by Prof. Gordon Cheng, Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute (ATR), Kyoto, Japan (1 month).

Visiting research fellow at the Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab (CLMC) leaded by Prof. Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, USA (1 month).

PhD in robot programming by demonstration at the LASA Laboratory, EPFL, Switzerland.
"Continuous Extraction of Task Constraints in a Robot Programming by Demonstration Framework"
Supervisor: Prof. Aude Billard.
Committee: Prof. Hannes Bleuler, EPFL, Prof. Herve Bourlard, IDIAP Research Institute, Dr Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College London (ICL), UK, Prof. Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California (USC), USA.
Oral exam: May 1st, 2007.
Public presentation: July 6th, 2007.
Awards: Robotdalen Scientific Award, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) Award, EPFL-Press distinction.

MSc in Microengineering, specialization in robotics, EPFL, Switzerland. MSc thesis on human-robot interfaces at the Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL), EPFL, Switzerland
"PDA Interface for Humanoid Robots using Speech and Vision Processing"
Supervisor: Prof. Aude Billard.
Committee: Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud, DIDEL S.A., EPFL.
Oral exam: March 1st, 2003.

BSc in Microengineering. EPFL, Switzerland.

Best paper award finalist of the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Paris, France.

Robotdalen Scientific Award for best 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.

ABB Award for best 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.

EPFL-Press distinction for PhD Thesis.

First prize in the Grand Challenge on Human-Robot Interaction at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2008).

Best paper award of the IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Jeju, Korea. Paper on "Active Teaching in Robot Programming by Demonstration".

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A Probabilistic Approach. Campus Party 2010, Science and Arts City Museum, Valencia, Spain, 2010.

A Probabilistic Programming by Demonstration Framework Handling Constraints in Joint Space and Task Space. Workshop on Grasp and Task Learning by Imitation. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Nice, France, 2008.

A Robot Programming by Demonstration Framework Integrating Statistical and Social Cues. Workshop on Interactive Robot Learning. Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (RSS), Zurich, Switzerland, 2008.

Humanoid robots and learning by imitation. Industrial forum on robotics (RobotX), Yverdon, Switzerland, 2008.

A Framework Integrating Statistical and Social Cues to Teach a Humanoid Robot New Skills. Workshop on Social Interaction with Intelligent Indoor Robots. International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Pasadena, CA, USA, 2008.

Extraction of Task Constraints in a Robot Programming By Demonstration. Workshop on Concept Learning for Embodied Agents. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Roma, Italia, 2007.

Learning and Probabilistic Representation of a Task in a Humanoid Robot. Workshop on Collaborative Human-Robot Teamwork. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Orlando, Florida, USA, 2006.

Program Committee of the International Symposium on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction, Leicester, UK, 2010.

Coordinator of the Robotics Area for Campus Party Europe, Madrid, Spain, 2010. Event represented by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, and centered around three knowledge areas: Science, Digital Creativity and Innovation.

Examiner of Diego Pardo's PhD thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, 2009.

Program Committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA), Daejeon, Korea, 2009.

Program Committee of the International Symposium on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2009.

Member of the Technical Committee on Robot Learning, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), 2008.

Chair of the Learning and Control session at the {IEEE/RSJ} International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2008.

Member of FIBRS Student/Chair Mentorship Program, IROS, 2008.

European Project ROBOT@CWE (Advanced robotic systems in future collaborative working environments). 3-years project started in 2006 under contract FP6-034002 involving 7 universities and 2 industrial partners.

European Integrated Project FEELIX GROWING (Feel, interact, express: a global approach to development with interdisciplinary grounding). 4-years project started in 2006 under contract FP6-IST-045169 involving 6 universities and 2 industrial partners.

European Integrated Project COGNIRON ("The Cognitive Companion"). 4-years project started in 2004 under contract FP6-IST-002020 involving 8 universities.

International Journal of Social Robotics (SORO), 2010.

IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM), 2009.

Journal of Behavioral Robotics, 2009.

IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2007 and 2008.

IEEE Transactions on on Autonomous Mental Development (AMD), 2008.

IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Autonomous Robots (AR), 2008 and 2009.

International Journal of Humanoid Robotics (IJHR), 2007 and 2008.

Advanced Robotic Systems (ARS), 2007.

International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2007.

Neural Networks (NN), 2005.

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2008 and 2009.

IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), 2009.

FIRA RoboWorld Congress, 2009.

French (native), English (fluent), German (good knowledge).

WAM (Barrett Technology Inc.), iCub, HOAP-2, HOAP-3 (Fujitsu), Katana (Neuronics), DB (Sarcos), HRP-2 (Kawada Ind., General Robotix), Robota (Didel).

Unix/Linux and Windows OS, C/C++, Matlab, Java, Assembler, PHP, OpenGL.

Guest lecturer for Applied Machine Learning course, class on Hidden Markov Models for graduate students in Microengineering, EPFL (class of 2 hours, 2007 and 2008).

Supervision of Applied Machine Learning lab for graduate students in Microengineering, EPFL, 2006.

Supervision of practical work on human-robot interfaces and image processing during one semester, robotics class of 3 hours per week for graduate students in Microengineering, EPFL, 2004.

Supervision of a half-day workshop on human-robot interfaces for humanoid robots and industrial robots during the international Winter School on Human Robot Interaction (CWSHRI) organized by the COGNIRON European integrated project, Lausanne, Switzerland, January 21-25, 2008.

Supervision of a half-day workshop on human-robot interfaces and vision processing for the international Summer School on Human-Robot Interaction organized by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR), Volterra, Italy, July 19-23, 2004.

External expert for the exam of the Autonomous Robots course for PhD students, 2007.

D'halluin, F. "Robust learning and reproduction of gestures from human demonstrations". MSc thesis, EPFL, 2008.

Richard, M. "Implementation of a learning-by-imitation algorithm on the Katana robot". MSc thesis, EPFL, 2007.

Magnard, F. "Object tracking for a camera designed to be worn by children". MSc thesis, EPFL, 2005.

Brossard, A. "Control of the humanoid robot HOAP-2". MSc thesis, EPFL, 2004.

Maurer, A. "Artificial Neural Network (ANN) - Hidden Markov Model (HMM) Comparison for a gesture recognition application". MSc thesis, EPFL, 2004.

Kunze, M. "Person recognition for the humanoid robot Robota". MSc thesis, EPFL, 2003.

Bungu, M. "Automatic calibration of a 3D vision tracking system". Semester project, EPFL, 2008.

Bodenmann, A. "Hierarchical learning of a movement through Hidden Markov Model". Semester project, EPFL, 2008.

D'halluin, F. "Incremental learning of gestures through the support of a human teacher". Semester project, EPFL, 2008.

Nadeau, C. "Vocal analysis to teach a humanoid robot manipulation skills". Semester project, EPFL, 2007.

Pulvin, M. "Imitation of legs motion by a humanoid robot through the use of motion sensors". Semester project, EPFL, 2007.

Hitz, A. "Locomotion control module for the HOAP3 robot". Semester project, EPFL, 2006.

Epiney, J. "A Humanoid Robot that can paint". Semester project, EPFL, 2005.

Schoeneich, P. "Gaze direction detection using inertial sensors". Semester project, EPFL, 2005.

Borter, J.-J. "Motion data representation using motion sensors". Semester project, EPFL, 2004.

Dubach, C. "Recognition of trajectories using a stereoscopic vision system". Semester project, EPFL, 2004.

Hentsch, V. "Gestures analysis using gyroscopic sensors". Semester project, EPFL, 2004.

Noth, A. "Development of an auditory systems running on a Pocket-PC". Semester project, EPFL, 2003.

Linder, Y. "Robust visual arms and head tracking running on a Pocket-PC". Semester project, EPFL, 2003.

Grivaz, C. "Interactive game of a pair of mini-humanoid robot Robota". Semester project, EPFL, 2003.