Event Location: NSH 1305
Bio: Since 2007, Gerhard Sagerer has been director at the Research Institute for Robotics and Cognition (CoR-Lab), which forms a strategic partnership with the industrial partner Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH (HRI-EU). From 2007 to 2009 Gerhard Sagerer was also vice-coordinator of the Centre of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), a research institute aiming at developing technical systems, in particular social robots that are capable of learning and adapting to human users. Gerhard Sagerer’s fields of research are social cognitive robotics, human-robot interaction, computer vision, speech and dialogue systems, architecture of intelligent systems, memory and learning for cognitive systems, and evaluation of complex systems: Since 2009, Gerhard Sagerer has been Rektor of Bielefeld University.

Abstract: The Center of Excellence “Cognitive Interaction Technology” (CITEC) pursues a three-fold mission:

-creating cognitive abilities in technical systems from everyday devices to humanoid robots to make them more useful, more friendly and easier to interact with for lay people,

-advancing our scientific understanding of the principles and mechanisms that enables seamless cognitive interaction, and,

-creating bridges between the cultures of engineering and humanity to better shape tomorrow’s technology according to human needs.

In his talk, Prof. Gerhard Sagerer outlines the structure and the research areas of CITEC and illustrates ongoing work focussing on research activities in the context of human robot interaction. Finally, he presents various robotic systems which are successfully on the long way from the lab into the real world.