Student Events

Time: 6:30pm – 9:30pm.

Location: Spectra Art Space (https://spectraartspace.com) 

Session Description: NextCom, a committee within the IEEE Control Systems Society, is dedicated to supporting and guiding students, early career researchers, and young professionals to become the next generation of control systems engineers and researchers. This event invites participants to explore the unique indoor exhibitions and outdoor botanical gardens of the Spectra Art museum. The evening provides an excellent opportunity for networking and international collaboration, with a focus on promoting diversity and bottom-up feedback within the Control Systems Society. The event is specifically tailored for students and young professionals but all are welcome. Join us for an evening, to reinforce the bonds in our research community while unwinding in a relaxed setting. Food and refreshments will be provided.

Organizers: Miguel Castroviejo-Fernandez (University of Michigan), Armin Lederer (ETH Zurich), Anastasia Bizyaeva (Cornell University), Philip E. Paré (Purdue University).

Time: 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Location: Plaza Ballroom, Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel

Abstract: Mathematical models are indispensable for system design. Until recently, one could argue that this was also true for robot control design. Recent advances in AI are calling this basic assumption into question: Why not learn a control strategy directly on a physical system, without any prior knowledge provided by mathematical models, just like animals – including human beings -- do? Or less ambitiously, only use mathematical models for simulating physical systems, but otherwise do control design directly on a robot, either real or simulated. In this talk, I will present my first-hand experiences in model-based control design, ranging from soccer playing robots to fleets of autonomous mobile robots in warehouses to acrobatic flying robots.  I will conclude with a live demonstration of CyberRunner, an opensource machine learning platform developed at ETH based on the popular “Labyrinth” dexterity game in which a ball is guided through a maze while avoiding traps. CyberRunner learns through experience and can beat any human with only 1 hour of training and without any prior knowledge.