CFP: Workshop The Challenges of Human-Robot Interaction in Real-World Contexts

Call For Papers: Workshop The Challenges of Human-Robot Interaction in Real-World Contexts

In conjunction with the IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2016) http://ro-man2016.org/

Workshop Date: August 31, 2016, New York, NY, USA
www.challengesofhumanrobotinteractioninrealworldcontexts.wordpress.com/

Introduction
Most HRI research is performed in the lab which offers a simplification of the real-world context to allow problem solving. However, robotic systems should eventually be tested in ecologically valid settings to determine whether and how they actually meet real-world needs. Only recently, robotic systems have become reliable and robust enough to be deployed in real-world settings, such as homes, schools, care facilities, museums and alike. And long-term acceptance research of social robots in such real-world settings is about to become a sub-field in evaluating the interactions between robots and their human users. This stresses the need for more ecologically valid research and the inclusion of the real potential end-users required to be able to gain insight into how people perceive, accept and interact with robots in real-world contexts as well as to test the feasibility and/or usability of these robots in such contexts. The aim of ecologically valid research is to use methods, materials and settings that approximate the real-world as much as possible. Studying HRIs in real-world contexts reveals more natural interactions and human reactions. Moreover, the robotic system can be tested within its intended use context which is unpredictable, dynamic and unstructured, something that is difficult if not impossible to simulate in the lab. Therefore, HRI research in real-world contexts offers a unique insight into the interactions between robots and their human users. However, studying HRI in real-world contexts also brings along many challenges, among other topics related to:

• Technologically with regard to the robustness and reliability of the system
• Methodologically: with reference to the controllability of variables and a lack of validated measurement tool kits for the evaluation
• Contextually: in relation to the social and cultural aspects of HRI

Aim of the workshop
The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from both industry and academia to discuss best practices as well as pitfalls of HRI research in real-world settings, and to provide the HRI community with guidelines to inform future developments of their robotic systems. We invite multi-disciplinary contributions from researchers and practitioners from the fields of HRI, engineering, computer sciences, fine and media arts, (interactive) design, sociology, anthropology, psychology, neurosciences, cognitive sciences, semiotics, linguistics, literary studies, history, policy, law, communication science, and cultural studies.

Submissions
We welcome prospective participants to submit extended abstracts (max. 4 pages) covering any relevant topic (related to the problem statement on the homepage) addressing real-world HRI research. In addition to papers presenting empirical research, we also welcome papers about new theoretical perspectives, design challenges, and ethical or legal issues related to HRI research in real world contexts. The manuscripts should use the IEEE RO-MAN two-column format. Please submit a PDF copy of your manuscript to maartje.degraaf@utwente.nl.

Important deadlines:

• Submission deadline: May 22, 2016
• Notification of acceptance: June 1, 2016
• Camera-ready deadline: June 15, 2016

All submitted papers within the scope of the workshop will be peer-reviewed. Papers will be selected based on their originality, relevance, contributions, technical clarity, and presentation. Accepted papers will require that at least one author registers for and attends the workshop. After the conference, accepted authors will be offered to submit extended versions of their workshop contributions to be considered for a book chapter published by Springer.

Authors of accepted papers will be invited to provide a short pitch (2-3 minutes) about their most relevant topic to address in real-world HRI research, after which there is time scheduled for extended discussion (10-15 minutes) on that topic with the workshop audience. Advances made through the discussions will serve to push the sub-field of HRI in real-world contexts forward.

Organizers

Maartje de Graaf, PhD, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Somaya Ben Allouch, PhD, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Astrid Rosenthal – von der Pütten, PhD, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

one-year MSc ICT4D programme

The 2016 Development Informatics Scholarship - worth £17,000 - is available for developing country applicants to the one-year MSc ICT4D programme; creating ICT4D champions. 

Applicants apply first for the programme.  On receipt of an offer, they send a scholarship application statement by end April 2016.  The scholarship covers all tuition fees including overseas fieldwork.  Details at: http://www.seed.manchester.ac.uk/fees/postgraduate-taught-funding/idpm/

CFP: LSE Media and Communications PhD Symposium 2016

Call for Papers: LSE Media and Communications PhD Symposium 2016

"Everyday politics and media and communications:
New approaches for theories and methods in the 21st century"

Abstracts deadline: Friday, 22 April 2016  |  Symposium date: Thursday, 30 June 2016, 9.00-18.00

The Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science invites submissions of abstracts for the 2016 PhD Symposium. This year's theme seeks to explore the multifarious forms of politics in everyday life, and to address questions of theory and method that current scholarship in media and communications confronts.

While 'politics' has long constituted one of the central themes in media and communications research, it has now assumed a renewed meaning that goes beyond partisan politics and ideological debates. With increasingly habitual political use of media, we are witnessing a broad range of practices: from community-building to mobilizing social movements, and from online collaboration and participatory culture, to the widespread visual forms of representations and narratives in global crises and struggles.

Roles of media in these diverse kinds of politics have been construed under varying frameworks and developed through a myriad of theories and methods from different disciplines of social science. However, in the 21st century when the definition of what we customarily call 'media' may have undergone a radical change with the advent of online digital media platforms, explorations of those roles encounter a key question: have current theoretical and methodological foundations in media and communications research captured the full range of both possibilities and challenges made available by the diverse developments in the field of information and communications technologies?

This one-day symposium seeks to provide a forum for PhD students to engage with questions of multiple forms of politics, theories, and methods in the field of media and communications. We cordially invite PhD students who critically reflect upon and explore these issues, as related to the topics that include (but are not limited to):

• News, journalism, and political communication
• Civic engagement, digital citizenship, and community-building
• Agency, resistance and forms of protest
• Digital collaboration and participatory culture
• Big Data, algorithms, surveillance, computational politics, and networks
• Media governance, regulation, and ethics
• Shifting forms of media production and consumption
• Representation of gender and identity
• ICTs and development
• Theoretical and/or methodological approaches in media and communications

Submissions can be works in progress, provocative ideas, or engaging questions, as well as completed research in the form of papers. The symposium is particularly geared towards PhD students in the early stages of their research. The emphasis will be on thoughtful discussion with fellow PhD students, along with feedback from leading academics from the Department. This year's keynote speech will be given by Professor Nick Couldry, the opening address will be given by Dr. Bart Cammaerts.

Please email an abstract with title (200-300 words) to: <Media.PhD.Symposium@lse.ac.uk> by Friday, 22 April 2016, with your name, university, department, year of study, and your email address. Those invited to present will be notified by the third week of May.

Call for Abstracts: #SCREENTIME: Technological Affordances and Constraints in Mediated Life

Call for Abstracts

#SCREENTIME: Technological Affordances and Constraints in Mediated Life
GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE

Boston University
College of Communication

9am - 5pm

June 23, 2016

http://sites.bu.edu/demsconference/16-2/

The graduate students of Boston University’s Division of Emerging Media Studies are calling for abstracts for their second annual Conference on Emerging Media.

#Screentime aims to explore the social, emotional, and civic implications of today’s media landscape. Social forces and technological elements are driving changes in this developing field of study. This conference is an opportunity to bridge diverse perspectives on the roles of users and technology in new media, and will lay the groundwork for future research.

Emerging Media Studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field, and as such we welcome abstracts from a variety of perspectives and disciplines on a range of topics, including but not limited to:

• Civility, sub-cultures, and online discourse
• Uses and effects of mobile communication technologies
• Digital distribution and industry disruption
• Data mining of social networks
• Emerging technologies’ effects on users
• Video games and virtual worlds
• Digital communication and public health

The conference is free of charge to both presenters and attendees. This conference is aimed at graduate students to showcase their research, and as an opportunity to network with peers.

Deadline for Abstracts: May 1, 2016. Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words. Papers will be peer reviewed. To submit, please send an e-mail of your abstract todemsconf@bu.edu. Include your name and institutional affiliation (department/university), program and year of study, research focus/interests, and contact information (email and phone number) with all submissions. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance on a rolling basis no later than June 1, 2016.

For additional information, visit, http://sites.bu.edu/demsconference/ (website will be updated with additional details in the coming weeks).

CFP: ICA Blue Sky Workshop

ICA Blue Sky Workshop
Social Media and Mobile Media as Survey Research Tools
Time:  June 13   Monday 9:30-10:45 a.m.  Hilton Hotel, Fukuoka
Organizer:  Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University, USA
louisah@bgsu.edu

Social Media and Mobile Media are penetrating into almost everyone’s daily lives and have become important media for survey research dissemination and data collection.  However, not many academic researchers received training on this or know how to utilize these media creatively to conduct their survey research to maximize response rate and response quality.  Methodological rigor affect data quality and validity.  This workshop provides opportunity for fellow survey researchers both in the industry and in academe to share their experience and develop roadmaps on how to establish best practices for using these media for survey research.  Participants should have experience in using mobile media and social media in collecting survey/experiment data or at least large scale survey research experience.

Each participant will share their experience on using mobile media and social media in collecting survey/experiment data, comparing the effectiveness of using these media vs. traditional surveys and innovative use of these media.  Several experts on this topic are invited to join the workshop so that they can share their experience and tips on using these media for survey data collection.
The ultimate goal of this session to facilitate the exchange of experience in using these media for collecting survey data to improve data quality and response rate of communication survey research in an age of social and mobile media.  We plan to ask the participants to prepare a written handout for their report and compile them online for others to use.

ICA attendees interested in attending this Blue Sky Workshop please RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fhoBi29k_YZzEXW_7V7_fFpPQ__Pi8sE5O5KOWKo7ig/viewform before May 1, 2016.

Introduction 9:30-10:15
Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University:  Overview of Social Media and Mobile Media as Survey Tools and Effect of Screen Size and User Response Entry Methods on Data Quality

Patrick Yuli Hsieh, Survey Methodologist, RTI International:  RTI’s Experience in Using Social and Mobile Media for Survey Research

Tetsuro Kobayashi, City University of Hong Kong:  Using Smartphone Applications to Record Basic Information Stored in Calling and Texting Logs.

Yuengang Xie, Shanghai Jiaotung University, China:  Mobile Phone Survey experience in China.  Xie is the Founder and President of the Public Opinion Association in China.
Report from Participants and Discussion 10:15-10:45

Aisthesis and the Common: Reconfiguring the Public Sphere

Media@McGill International Colloquium

Aisthesis and the Common: Reconfiguring the Public Sphere

www.aisthesis.ca

March 18-19, 2016

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

185, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest

Free and open to the public

Bilingual (French/English) interpretation available

Aisthesis and the Common: Reconfiguring the Public Sphere proposes an interdisciplinary investigation into contemporary art’s renewed engagement with the public sphere. Bringing together artists, designers, art historians, curators, philosophers and media studies scholars, the colloquium examines the place and role of aisthesis (αἴσθησις) -- the faculty of perception by the senses and the intellect -- in emerging models of the public sphere. With the working hypothesis that art offers a unique realm for the configuration of public spheres today, the colloquium asks: How is the public sphere rethought aesthetically (in terms of forms, media, materialities and sensibilities) in contemporary art? And how does an artistic public sphere succeed in permeating a political public sphere?

Keynote speakers (via Skype): Jean-Luc Nancy ● Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Rethinking the Common: Santiago Zabala ● Pierre Dardot

Sound Atmospheres: Frances Dyson ● Caleb Kelly

Sculpting the Common: Nadia Myre ● Romeo Gongora ● Marjetica Potrč

Sharing Space: Nermin Saybasili ● John Paul Ricco

Virtualized Spaces: Adriana de Souza e Silva ● Gerard Goggin

The Digital Common: Dominique Cardon ● Dietmar Offenhuber

Critical Cosmopolitanism: Nikos Papastergiadis ● Marsha Meskimmon

Registration, program, livestream: www.aisthesis.ca

CFP: Business Travel, Mobile ICTs and work-life balance

Business Travel, Mobile ICTs and work-life balance: Day Workshop and Research Network Building

FINAL CALL: A FEW REMAINING PLACES AVAILABLE (including travel bursaries for PhD students/early career academics)

We invite you to attend this free one day research event exploring opportunities for research on how the use of Mobile ICTs by business travellers affects their experience of work life balance.

Date: Wednesday 13th April 2016, 10am-4pm

Location: The Wesley (central London, near Euston Station - http://www.thewesley.co.uk/).

Event Organizers: Donald Hislop (Loughborough University) & Jon Beaverstock (University of Bristol)

The event is designed to be a forum for discussion of research issues and agendas between academics, and a range of industry and policy stakeholders (including train operating companies, and business travel management firms). The event has two distinct elements. Firstly, there is a seminar-based element involving presentations by a number of senior academics. Secondly, there will be a networking and research generation element to facilitate agendas for conducting future research on business travel, ICT and work-life balance. One key aim of the event is to begin developing collaborative approaches to research capacity building for future external funding opportunities and stakeholder engagement.

                                                                       

Confirmed Speakers include:

Dr Anna Aguilera, Ecole des Ponts, Paris, France, talking about Business travel, ICT and work-life balance: review and research agenda

Prof. James Faulconbridge, Lancaster University, talking about Demanding business travel

Prof. Glenn Lyons, University of the West of England, talking about Digital Age Rail Travel

Prof. John Urry, Lancaster University, talking about The new mobilities paradigm

To register for this free event, email one of the event organizers (d.hislop@lboro.ac.uk , jonathan.beaverstock@bristol.ac.uk). A small number of travel bursaries are available to help PhD early career research attend the event.