Lecture Programme

The Lecture Programme of the 2025 Edition!!! Check back it will be updated!

Lecture 1: Overview

  • 2025-10-30 09:00 to 11:00 CET
  • AI and Robotics as tools to face our times’ global dramatic challenges
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio

Lecture 2: AI, Robotics, Embodied AI: Questioning received opinions

  • 2025-11-6 09:00 to 11:00 CET
    • (continued) Coping with ‘interesting times’. The Role of Embodiment in Intelligent Systems vs. Practical Robotics in 2025
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 10:15 Guest Lecture by Lorenzo Jamone
    • University College London, London, UK
    • “The Intelligence of the Hand”

Lecture 3: Evolution: Cognition from Scratch

  • 2025-11-13 09:00 to 11:00 CET
  • 09:00 * A teaser about Emerging Intelligence: Embodiment, Cognition from Interaction, Development and Evolution*
  • Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 9:15 Guest Lecture by Jitka Cejkova,
    • University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Prague, Czechia, editor of “R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life”, MIT Press (2024)
    • “R.U.R. robots were…biorobots”
  • 10:15 Guest Lecture by Weidong Chen,
    • Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai,China
    • “Improving Autonomy and Safety of Intelligent Wheelchair in Dynamic Environments”

Lecture 4: Morphological Computation, Self-Organization of Behaviors and Adaptive Morphologies

  • 2025-11-20 09:00 to 11:00 CET
  • Morphological Computation, Self-Organization of Behaviors and Adaptive Morphologies
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 10:15 Guest lecture by Andrea Bertolini:
    • Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy
    • “The EU AI Act”

Lecture 5: Machine Learning and Deep Learning: an Embodied AI Perspective I

  • 2025-11-27 09:00 to 11:15 CET
  • 9:00 Welcome (Fabio)
  • 9:15 Guest lecture by Lola Canamero
    • CY Cergy Paris University and ETIS Lab, Paris, France
    • “Emotion Modeling in Robots “
  • 10:15 Guest lecture by Matej Hoffmann:
    • Czech Technical University Prague, Prague, Czechia
    • “Embodied AI in Machine Learning - is it Really Embodied?”

Lecture 6: Machine Learning and Deep Learning: an Embodied AI Perspective II

  • 2025-12-4 09:00 to 11:00 CET
  • *Machine Learning and Deep Learning: an Embodied AI Perspective *
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 10:15 Guest lecture by Alessandra Sciutti
    • IIT, Genoa, Italy
    • “A social perspective on cognitive architectures “

Lecture 7: Embodied Intelligence: principles and open issues

  • 2025-12-11 09:00 to 11:30 CET
  • Embodied Intelligence: principles and open issues. Welcome and day teaser!
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 9:15 Guest lecture by Josie Hughes,
    • EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
    • “Soft Robotics and Embodied AI “
  • 10:05 Embodied Intelligence: principles and open issues.
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 10:45 Guest lecture by Fumiya Iida,
    • University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
    • “Informatizing Soft Robots for Super Embodied Intelligence “

Lecture 6: Grab Bag, Summary, Discussion

  • 2025-18-12 09:00 to 11:00 CET
  • 09:05 Grab Bag, Summary and topics to discuss: Video is killing the radio stars
  • Lecturer: Fabio Bonsignorio
  • 10:15 Guest lecture by Josh Bongard
    • University of Vermont, Burlington (VT), USA
    • “Evolutionary Robotics, Xenobots and beyond”