The 5th Future of Robotics in Finland Seminar was successfully held on Friday 24.11.2017 at Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, organized by the IEEE Finland Joint Chapter of the Control System Society, Robotics and Automation Society and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society. This year the main theme was on AI and Robotics in Health and Medical Technology, which attracted near 100 participants from around 25 organizations and companies and key players such as VTT, Nokia, Finpro, RemoteA, etc..

Attendees seminar

The morning session is organized by keynote talks and pitch talks. Prof. Simo Särkkä started the seminar at 9:00 and introduced the IEEE, the chapter and standing officers, followed by four keynote talks by IEEE RAS distinguished lecturer Prof. Xiaolan Xie from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines, Saint-Etienne, France and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P.R. China, Dr. Hanna Viertiö-Oja, GE Healthcare, Dr. Kalle Karhu, Planmeca, and Prof. Lauri Parkkonen, Aalto University on topics such as healthcare systems engineering, AI for effective interventions and optimal patient flow, AI in X-ray imaging and brain-computer interfaces. There is a coffee break and a lunch break during the keynote talks, which are organized together with the industry demonstration and poster sessions. The seminar is then followed by 3 pitch talks, one from industry and two from academia.

GE Healthcare keynote

The seminar ended with a panel discussion, featuring panelists Prof. Xiaolan Xie,  Dr. Hanna Viertiö-Oja, Dr. Kalle Karhu, Prof. Lauri Parkkonen and Prof. Simo Särkkä and moderator Mr. Pasi Hurri, on various aspects of the impact of AI on healthcare, robotics and automation.

Panel discussion

The standing officers of IEEE Finland Joint Chapter of the Control System Society, Robotics and Automation Society and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society organizing the event are Prof. Simo Särkkä, chair, Pasi Hurri, vice chair, Dr. Peter Jakubik, treasurer and Prof. Roel Pieters, secretary. Prof. Simo Särkkä was responsible of the organization of the seminar in general, assisted by other officers.

Reported by Roel Pieters, Email: roel.pieters@tut.fi
Secretary of IEEE Finland Joint Chapter of the Control System Society, Robotics and Automation Society and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society