Making robots usable for people outside of the laboratory: That is the goal of Dr. Noémie Jaquier from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The information scientist is one of ten newcomers who have been recognized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. for their research work and extraordinary commitment in the field of artificial intelligence. The award ceremony took place at the International AI Camp 2023 (April 26, 2023).
“I consider robotics to be one of the most challenging areas of artificial intelligence and at the same time one of the areas from which people and society can benefit the most in the long term,” says AI newcomer Dr. Noémie Jaquier from KIT’s Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics (IAR) about her work. She received the award as one of the talents in the Technology and Engineering category.
Jaquier is a postdoctoral researcher in the Group for High-performance Humanoid Technologies with Professor Tamim Asfour at IAR. In particular, she focuses on learning robotic skills through human demonstrations and on adaptation techniques using Riemannian geometry, which underlies Einstein’s theory of relativity, as a cornerstone. “With my research, I aim to equip robots with human-like learning and adaptation abilities. To achieve this, I draw on geometric information that is already present in robotics and use it to develop data-efficient and theoretically sound learning algorithms,“ says Jaquier. “In this way, I hope to make robots usable for humans outside of the laboratory.“
Noémie Jaquier received the award in particular because of the uniqueness of her research area and the interdisciplinary methodology. In addition to being honored for her personal research work, the researcher also associates the award with a social message: “I hope to be able to encourage other scientists to research topics which – although they are of great importance – do not follow the biggest trends.” (iha)
About the AI Camp
At the AI Camp of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), AI talents and renowned AI experts from all over the world meet. In interactive discussion rounds, lecture sessions and hands-on formats, the free-of-charge research convention addresses transdisciplinary future issues from the fields of society, sustainability, health, art, and niche phenomena of AI research. The AI newcomers were chosen partly by public online voting and partly by a jury of experts.
Read more: https://kicamp.org/en/
Details about the KIT Center Information – Systems – Technologies
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.