KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Oussama Khatib received his Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from Sup’Aero, Toulouse, France, in 1980. He is Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and Director of Stanford Robotics Lab. His work on advanced robotics focuses on methodologies and technologies in human-centered robotics including humanoid control architectures, human motion synthesis, interactive dynamic simulation, haptics, and human- friendly robot design. He is Co-Editor of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics series, and has served on the Editorial Boards of several journals as well as the Chair or Co-Chair of numerous international conferences. He co-edited the Springer Handbook of Robotics, which received the PROSE Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE and has served as a Distinguished Lecturer. He is the President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR). Professor Khatib is a recipient of the Japan Robot Association (JARA) Award in Research and Development. In 2010 he received the IEEE RAS Pioneer Award in Robotics and Automation for his fundamental pioneering contributions in robotics research, visionary leadership, and life-long commitment to the field. Professor Khatib received the 2013 IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his vision and leadership for the Robotics and Automation Society, in establishing and sustaining conferences in robotics and related areas, publishing influential monographs and handbooks and training and mentoring the next generation of leaders in robotics education and research. In 2014, Professor Khatib received the 2014 IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation. He has published extensively in the areas of his research interest with a total publication count exceeding 370, with over 20 books, total citation exceeding 20,000 and Scopus H-Index of 37.

Gerald Schaefer gained his PhD in Computer Vision from the University of East Anglia. He worked at the Colour & Imaging Institute, University of Derby (1997-1999), in the School of Information Systems, University of East Anglia (2000-2001), in the School of Computing and Informatics at Nottingham Trent University (2001-2006), and in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University (2006-2009) before joining the Department of Computer Science at Loughborough University where he leads the Vision, Imaging and Autonomous Systems Research Group.

His research interests are mainly in the areas of colour image analysis, image retrieval, physics-based vision, medical imaging, and computational intelligence. He has published extensively in these areas with a total publication count exceeding 400. He is/was a member of the editorial board of more than 20 international journals, has reviewed for over 120 journals and served on the programme committee of more than 350 conferences. He has been invited as keynote or tutorial speaker to numerous conferences, is the organiser of various international workshops and special sessions at conferences, and the editor of several books, conference proceedings and special journal issues.

Prof. Shedden Masupe Holds a BSc (Maths & Physics) from the Mt Allison University, Bachelor of Science Engineering (BSc Eng.) (Electrical – Communications and Fields) from the University of New Brunswick, MSc (Digital Systems) from Cardiff University and a PhD (Electronics Systems – Computer Vision) from Edinburgh University. He is the Executive Director of Technologies at Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI). His research interests are in the areas of Computer Systems, Microprocessor Architectures, Low Power VLSI Design, Computer Vision and Smart ICT Solutions for Development.

Prof. Horia Hedesiu received his B.Sc. and PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania (formerly Polytechnic Institute of Cluj) in 1991 and 1999 respectively.

He is currently a Professor with the Electrical Machines and Drives Department at the TUCN. He has authored over 90 papers in international journals, books or communications to conferences. Horia Hedesiu is co-author for two US patents in the field of embedded data acquisition systems. His research interests are in the information systems area, real-time simulation systems, Hardware-in-the-Loop, also dedicating resources to the industrial application implementations that involve machinery, graphical programming technologies and computer based measurement systems. Horia Hedesiu is a managing director with National Instruments in Romania since 2005.