Minoru Asada: “Cognitive Developmental Science Based on Understanding the Process from Neuro-Dynamics to Social Interaction”

April 14, 2017  Friday Lunch Seminar
12:15 〜 13:00

CiNet 1F Conference Room

“Cognitive Developmental Science Based on Understanding the Process from Neuro-Dynamics to Social Interaction”

Minoru Asada

CiNet PI
Professor
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University

Host PI : Minoru Asada

Abstract:

How the microscopic neural activity is reflected in the human behaviors is a big mystery shared by many different disciplines. Medical and neuro-science have tried to explain the microscopic structure inside a brain but have not much focused on the macroscopic structure of social interaction. Contrarily, cognitive science and developmental psychology mainly observe human behaviors and therefore it is difficult to understand the internal mechanism.
JSPS Grand-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research entitled “Constructive Developmental Science Based on Understanding the Process from Neuro- Dynamics to Social Interaction (PI:Asada)” has been attacking this big issue by a team of four groups: brain development simulation with body, imaging studies (fMRI and MEG), psychological and behavioral studies, and robot platforms. In this symposium, representative researchers from four groups show their achievements, and three guest speakers give their stimulating talks from developmental psychology, cognitive robotics, and psycho-physics.

Minoru Asada (F’05) received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in control engineering from Osaka University, Suita, Japan, in 1977, 1979, and 1982, respectively. He became a Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering for Computer-Controlled Machinery with Osaka University, in 1995. Since 1997, he has been a Professor with the Department of Adaptive Machine Systems, Osaka University. During April 2013 and March 2017, he has been the Director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience Robotics, Institute for Academic Initiatives, Osaka University. Currently, he is the Director of the Division of Systems Intelligence, Open Transdisciplinary Research Institute, Osaka University. He was the Research Director of the Japan Science and Technology Agency Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology ASADA Synergistic Intelligence Project during 2005 and 2012, the Research Leader for the Specially Promoted Research Project(Tokusui) on Constructive Developmental Science Based on Understanding the Process From Neuro-Dynamics to Social Interaction (2012-2017).

Prof. Asada was a recipient of the 1992 Best Paper Award of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, one of ten finalists for the 1995 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Best Conference Paper Award in 1995, the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, Japan Award from the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy in 2006, the Okawa Publications Prize (The Okawa Foundation) in 2007, the Good Designs Award for vivid oral conversation through acquiring language (Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization) in 2008, and the Best Paper Award of the Robotics Society of Japan in 2009 and 2016. His team called JoiTech in the humanoid adult size league in 2013 got the championship and the best humanoid award in RoboCup 2013, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. In 1997, his team was the inaugural champion (shared with the University of Southern California), in the middle-sized league of the first RoboCup competition held in conjunction with The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence’97, Nagoya, Japan. In 2001, he received a Commendation by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan Government as Persons of Distinguished Services to Enlighten People on Science and Technology. He served as the General Chair for the IEEE/RSJ 1996 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, the 2005 International Conference on Development and Learning, the tenth 2008 International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, and the IEEE-Robotics and Automation Society 2012 International Conference on Humanoid Robots. He has been the Founding Vice President of the RoboCup Federation since 1998 and served as the President in 2002 and 2008. He was elected as a fellow of the IEEE for Contributions to Robot Learning and Applications in 2005.

About CiNet’s Friday Lunch Seminars:
The Friday Lunch Seminar is CiNet’s main regular meeting series, held every week at 12:15 in the beautiful main lecture theatre on the ground floor at CiNet. The talks are typically 40mins long and orientated towards an inter-disciplinary audience. They are informal, social, and most people bring their own lunch to eat during the talk. They are open to anyone who is feeling curious and wants to come, regardless of where you work.