2021 Organisers

  • Robert Mahony

    General Chair

    Australian National University

    Robert Mahony is a Professor in the Research School of Engineering at the Australian National University. He received his BSc in 1989 (applied mathematics and geology) and his PhD in 1995 (systems engineering) both from the Australian National University. He is a fellow of the IEEE and was president of the Australian Robotics Association from 2008-2011. His research interests are in non-linear systems theory with applications in robotics and computer vision. He is known for his work in aerial robotics, geometric observer design, matrix subspace optimisation and image based visual servo control.

  • Carol Taylor

    Administrator

    Australian National University

    Carol Taylor is the Node Administration Officer at the Australian National University (ANU). She has previously worked in Administration at the ANU including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology within the Research School of Chemistry and at the Research School of Pacific Studies and the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses. Outside of work Carol enjoys spending time with her family, reading, dancing and having a cup of tea.

  • Dana Kulić

    Tutorial chair

    Monash University

    Dana Kulić received the combined B. A. Sc. and M. Eng. degree in electro-mechanical engineering, and the Ph. D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada, in 1998 and 2005, respectively. From 2006 to 2009, Dr. Kulić was a JSPS Post-doctoral Fellow and a Project Assistant Professor at the Nakamura-Yamane Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, Japan. In 2009, Dr. Kulić established the Adaptive System Laboratory at the University of Waterloo, Canada, conducting research in human robot interaction, human motion analysis for rehabilitation and humanoid robotics.  Since 2019, Dr. Kulić. is a professor at Monash University, Australia. Her research interests include robot learning, humanoid robots, human-robot interaction and mechatronics.

  • Pamela Carreno

    Program Chair

    Monash University

    Pamela Carreno-Medrano is a Research Fellow at Monash University under the supervision of Prof. Dana Kulic. Before joining Monash, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada. She received her Ph.D in 2016 (Computer Science) at Université Bretagne-Sud and the French Research Institute in Computer Science and Random Systems (IRISA) in France.

    Her research focuses on understanding and analyzing interactive human motion and behaviour. In particular, she is interested in determining which motion patterns and coordination strategies observed in human teams can be used to build robotic systems capable of close, efficient, and fluid interaction with humans.

  • Yizhak Ben-Shabat (Itzik)

    Program Chair

    Australian National University

    Itzik is a Research Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU) node. Previously, he was a Ph.D. student at Technion Israel Institute of Technology where he worked on “Classification, segmentation, and geometric analysis of 3D point clouds using deep learning” under the supervision of Prof. Anath Fischer and Michael Lindenbaum. Itzik completed his Bsc. Cum Laude in 2008 and his Msc. Summa Cum Laude in 2015 (Mechanical Engineering, Technion). His research interests lie at the intersection of robotic perception, 3D computer vision, and geometric analysis, usually using 3D point cloud data.

    During his time at the centre, he played a key role in the IKEA assembly dataset team, and presented DeepFit, a novel surface fitting method, at ECCV 2020 as an oral presentation. “My mission is to make beautifully practical and accessible 3D data algorithms to change the world”. In his quest to make research accessible he built an online FaceBook community for computer vision, machine and deep learning researchers, in academia and industry across Australia.

    You can view his research blog, where he shares his latest research in a language that non-experts can also understand.

  • Donald Dansereau

    Local Chair

    University of Sydney

    Dr Donald Dansereau is a senior lecturer in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, and the Perception Theme Lead for the Sydney Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems. His work explores how new imaging devices can help robots see and do, encompassing the design, fabrication, and deployment of new imaging technologies. In 2004 he completed an MSc at the University Calgary, receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal for his pioneering work in light field processing. In 2014 he completed a PhD on underwater robotic vision at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, followed by postdoctoral appointments at QUT and Stanford University. Donald’s industry experience includes physics engines for video games, computer vision for microchip packaging, and chip design for automated electronics testing.