Plan to encourage interaction among participants

A set of actions are planned to solicit broad and active participation in the workshop,
including:

  • Organization of a Round Table to promote active discussion between established experts and early-career researchers.
  • Organization of a lunch or dinner in conjunction with the workshop sponsored by IEEE RAS with new fundings allocated by TCs the RAS TAB to increase sharing of ideas and discussions among the participants as well as to help rejuvenate TC activities and empower TCs. We will include during this event an early-career research panel involving both students and leaders in the field to discuss and provide advice to students about research and future career needs.
  • Discussion of posters in coffee-breaks.
  • Plan a hybrid workshop with remote access participation.
  • Use of social networks: dedicated pages on common social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will provide updates on the workshop program and discussions. These pages will also allow interactions between participants and remote researchers.
  • Creation of online pools among both in person and remote participants to identify top discussions themes during round tables and breaks.

Dissemination

The organizers aim to take a set of actions to maximize the dissemination of the workshop outcomes with a series of complementary activities including:

● Preparation of a Call for Contributions focusing on posters, short presentations and videos. A committee of experts in the area will help to peer-review the submitted papers. We have planned at least 2 reviews for each paper. A special issue on the workshop topics has also been planned and the organizers are discussing options with multiple editors. We would like to facilitate open access of the papers, free of charge. The special issue will help further promote outstanding works and ideas in the field. Accepted paper, poster, and video contributions will be archived online on the workshop website that will be permanently maintained by the organizers.

● A special issue on the workshop topics has been planned and the organizers are discussing options with multiple editors. We would like to facilitate open access of the papers free of charge. The special issue will help further promote outstanding works and ideas in the field.

● Dissemination through organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers, women in AI, Society of Women Engineers, and Black in AI.
● Dissemination through websites and lists of the Robotics community (IEEE Aerial Robotics and UAV Technical Committee, IEEE TC on Multi-robots systems, robotics-worldwide, euRobotics, Aerial Robotics Topic Group of euRobotics), the Controls community (E-letter) and the Computer Vision community (Vision-List, ImageWorld). This proposal has been endorsed by the RAS TC on Aerial Robotics and UAVs and the RAS TC on Multi-Robot systems.

● Dissemination via the channels of AERIAL-CORE, the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant GRIFFIN.

● Dissemination through the contacts of the organizers and presenters.

● Dissemination using lists for potential end-users.

● Dissemination via social networks: dedicated pages on common social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will provide updates on the workshop program and discussions. These pages will also allow interactions between participants and remote researchers.

● Dissemination through a video collecting results from the organizers and presenters.

● We aim to facilitate real-time online attendance of the workshop via a dedicated YouTube channel and the release of each presentation/talk
subsequently.

● We plan to ask the presenters and attendees of the workshop to help us organize a central repository of datasets. We will then organize and release a public repository that will stand as central access to such resources.

● We plan to release a survey form after the workshop asking for community feedback on the relevant topics. A link will be posted during the ICRA 2023.

● Conference days using the social media apps of the conference and generic lists of the robotics community.

● We will use all the communication channels described in the Plan to Solicit Participation in order to actively disseminate both the workshop itself and its results and conclusions. Those channels include websites and lists of the robotics community, channels of existing research projects, the contacts of the organizers and presenters, lists dedicated to end users, and social media networks.