29 Apr 2010: Proceedings added
22 Feb 2010: Schedule and Funding updated.
16 Feb 2010: Career Panel, Attendees, Schedule, and Travel information updated

The field of human-robot interaction is new but growing rapidly. While there are now several established researchers in the field, many of the current human-robotic interaction practitioners are students or recently graduated. This workshop, to be held in conjunction with the HRI 2010 conference, aims to bring together this group of researchers to present their current research to an audience of their peers in a setting that is less formal and more interactive than the main HRI conference; to talk about the important issues in their field; and to hear about what their colleagues are doing. Participants are encouraged to actively engage and form relationships with others by discussing fundamental topics in HRI and by engaging in hands-on group activities.

We are happy to report that the United States National Science Foundation has agreed to help fund the workshop. (Award number: IIS-1015953.)

Attendees will receive information about what that means for workshop-related expenses.

This year, the Pioneers workshop will feature a career panel of researchers from academia and industry. The idea of the panel is to give participants an overview of the kinds of careers available to them, as well as discuss topics such as finding a job, getting funding, publishing, and so on. We are pleased to have the following panelists:

• Dr. Christoph Bartneck, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
  
• Dr. Jennifer Burke, SA Technologies, USA
  
• Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro, Osaka University, Japan
  
• Dr. Selma Sabanovic, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
  

Participants will hear short presentations on current research from 6 selected participants, with time allotted for questions and discussion after each of these talks. Participants not allocated to oral presentations are encouraged to discuss their research with others throughout the day, such as during the ice breaker game, at lunch, during breaks, etc.

Following this, a panel of senior HRI researchers from both academia and industry will field questions from participants. These discussions may continue over lunch in smaller groups.

In the afternoon, a hands-on breakout session will involve small group projects in which participants will investigate how to design a HRI experiment. Afterward, the groups will present a summary to the entire workshop.

The workshop will take place on March 2, 2010, in Osaka, Japan, in conjunction with the HRI 2010 conference.

• Anja Austerman, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
  
• Roger Chadwick, New Mexico State Univ, USA
  
• Crystal Chao, Georgia Tech, USA
  
• Tiffany Chen, Georgia Tech, USA
  
• Francisco Cuellar, Osaka University
  
• Soren Hansen, Aalborg Univ., Denmark
  
• Yasuhiko Hato, ATR
  
• John Harris, Univ. of Calgary, Canada
  
• Richard Kelly, Univ. of Nevada Reno, USA
  
• Tomas Kollar, MIT, USA
  
• Nathan Koenig, Univ. of Southern California, USA
  
• Rongbin Lin, Brigham Young Univ., USA
  
• David Lu, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, USA
  
• Jason Monast, Univ. of Colorado Denver, USA
  
• Mitesh Patel, Univ. of Technology Sydney, Australia
  
• Osamu Sugiyama, ATR
  
• Stefanie Tellex, MIT, USA
  
• Nishant Trivedi, Arizona State Univ., USA
  
• Steve Yohanan, Univ. of British Columbia, Canada
  
• Astrid Weiss, Univ. of Salzburg, Austria
  

• 9:45-9:50 Welcome and introduction
  
• 9:50-10:15 Breakfast, Coffee, and Ice-breaker game: HRI Bingo!
  
  
• 10:15-11:15 Participant and organizing committee introductions
  
• 11:15-12:45 Career panel: Christoph Bartneck, Jennifer Burke, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Selma Sabanovic
  
  
• 12:45-14:00 Lunch
  
  
• 14:00-15:15 Breakout session: Design an experiment
  
• 15:15-15:45 Presentation of break out session results
  
  
• 15:45-16:15 Coffee break
  
  
• 16:15-17:15 Student presentations: Astrid Weiss, Steve Yohanan
  
• 17:15-17:30 Break
  
• 17:30-18:45 Student presentations: Stefanie Tellex and Tom Kollar, David Lu
  
• 18:45-19:00 Wrap up
  
  
• 19:00-21:00 Reception and group dinner
  

• Kate Tsui, Univ. of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
• Henriette Cramer, Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Dr. Hirotaka Osawa, Keio Univ., Japan
• Min Kyung Lee, Carnegie Mellon, USA
• Laurel Riek, Univ. of Cambridge, UK
• Dr. Satoru Satake, ATR, Japan
• Dr. Kristen Stubbs, iRobot, USA
• Ja-Young Sung, Georgia Tech, USA

• Dr. Michael Goodrich, Brigham Young University, USA
• Dr. Michita Imai, Keio University, Japan
• Dr. Sara Kiesler, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• Dr. Hideki Kozima, Miyagi University, Japan
• Dr. Hideaki Kuzuoka, University of Tsukuba, Japan
• Dr. Kristen Stubbs, iRobot, USA
• Dr. Greg Trafton, Naval Research Lab, USA
• Dr. Holly Yanco, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA

• 18 December 2009 - Applications due
• 11 January 2010 - Notification of acceptance
• 2 March 2010 - HRI 2010 Young Pioneers Workshop
• 3-5 March 2010 - HRI 2010 Conference

The workshop will be held in room 6B at the Business Innovation Center Osaka. Please consult the main HRI conference website for maps and directions.

Proceedings can be viewed here.