I2A2 and Pequi Mecânico present: The wave of robotics: surf or drown?

With recent advances in hardware development and artificial intelligence techniques, the adoption of solutions involving robotics has been accelerating. Will robotics be the next big thing? Is it a good bet for your career? Is it a good investment for your company? Find the answers to these and other questions in this fantastic panel discussion.

Speakers:

• Nigel Dias - Lead Robotics Researcher @ Synkar Autonomous

Master and PhD student in Computer Science from the Federal University of Goiás in the area of Computer Vision, with a research line focused on topics related to understanding and modeling geometry of multiple cameras, with particular interest in Visual Odometry and Visual SLAM. He is a research leader in the area of robotics at the startup Synkar Autonomous and a researcher at the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CEIA). Enthusiast in robotic vision.

• Hugo Eduardo Belchior de França Silva - Electrical Engineering Student | Federal University of Goiás

Electrical Engineering student from the Federal University of Goiás. Former Member and Researcher of the Pequi Mecânico Robotics Center at the Federal University of Goiás. He has experience in the area of Embedded Systems and Software Development. Interested in Robotics, Industrial Automation, Technology applied to Education and Entrepreneurship. Currently, he is an Engineering Analyst at the company SATOSAN Engenharia e Tecnologia.

• Juan Ramón B. de França Silva - Computer Engineer

Computer Engineer from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil) in 2018. For two years he worked as a software developer at a technology solutions company in Goiânia. Since 2014, he has been a member of the Pequi Mecânico Robotics Center (a robotics research center at the Federal University of Goiás), and in 2017, he served as project coordinator at this research center. For 4 years he worked as a research engineer in the R&D project at the Technological Institute of Aeronautics - ITA, in the development of an Autonomous Inspection System for Adduction Tunnels for hydroelectric plants, a project developed with support from CERAN, ENERCAN, and FOZ DO CHAPECÓ, under the supervision of the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) project PD 02476-2502/2017. He is currently a Master's student at the Intelligent Machines Laboratory at ITA, as well as a researcher in the R&D project at the Technological Institute of Aeronautics, funded by Petrobras, aiming at the development of new sensors based on carbon nanotubes, for monitoring structural integrity. He is interested in robotics, automation and related areas.

• Luana Guedes Barros Martins - Machine Learning Researcher

Bachelor of Computer Science from the Federal University of Goiás, she has experience in the areas of artificial intelligence with a focus on deep reinforcement learning and recommendation systems. She is currently a researcher in the reinforcement learning research and development group at the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence of Goiás.

• Kléber Cabral - Researcher at Queen's University

PhD in Robotics from the Royal Military College of Canada and currently a researcher at Queen's University. My research focuses on control techniques applied to multi-agent systems and autonomous assembly strategies for structures. I am interested in understanding how to coordinate multiple robots that interact with each other and how local rules and interactions can lead a group of robots to perform a specified behavior. To this end, I am studying network control, graph theory, and decentralized autonomous construction methodologies and techniques. In the past, I have worked on the application of robotic systems in several areas, for example, the study of pursuit techniques (pursuer-evader game), the development of localization systems for indoor environments, crop monitoring and smart agriculture using UAVs, and robotic soccer.