BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:REQUEST PRODID:Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 VERSION:2.0 BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:AUS Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:16010101T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1100 TZOFFSETTO:+1000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=4 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:16010101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=10 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT ORGANIZER;CN=ECE Research;SENT-BY="mailto:bianca.brymer@sydney.edu.au":mailto :ece.research@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=_ECE Postg raduates:mailto:eiepostgraduates@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=_ECE Resea rch:mailto:eieresearch@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=_ECE Acade mics:mailto:eieengineeringacademics@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=ECE Admini stration:mailto:ece.admin@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=ece_ext_sc hool_seminar@mailman.sydney.edu.au:mailto:ece_ext_school_seminar@mailman.s ydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=everybody: mailto:everybody@acfr.usyd.edu.au ATTACH:CID:D12F4B5B27CA93438673335333C3A22C@ausprd01.prod.outlook.com DESCRIPTION;LANGUAGE=en-US:Hello ECE Community\,\n\nWe warmly invite you to attend the next ECE Research Seminar. Light refreshments will be provided \, so please RSVP to confirm your attendance.\nWe kindly ask HDR attendees to bring their signed attendance form on the day\; this form is also atta ched to the calendar invite.\nPlease feel free to reach out if you have an y questions.\n\n\nDate and Time: Wednesday 27th May 12:00- 1:00pm\nLocatio n: :J02\, PNR Building\, Lecture Theatre 304\n\nTitle: Optimizing for the Unknown: Toward Robots That Can Explore Anywhere\, Handle Anything\, and L earn from Little\nAbstract:\nRobots have the potential to become extraordi nary tools that extend humanity’s reach\, automating tasks that range fr om exploring the solar system and the deep oceans to manipulating delicate objects in our homes. Across these settings\, robots face a common challe nge: making good decisions when the world is only partially known\, data a re scarce\, and mistakes are costly.\nIn this talk\, I will present recent work from my group on principled numerical optimization methods that enab le robots to reason\, act\, and learn in uncertain and partially observabl e environments. I will show how these methods support long-horizon ocean e xploration by balancing information gathering\, safety\, and resource cons traints\; improve precision manipulation by accounting for uncertainty in perception\, contact\, and dynamics\; and accelerate multimodal (visual) p olicy learning by extracting more capability from limited experience.\nAcr oss these domains\, a central theme emerges optimization provides a powerf ul framework for building robots that are not merely reactive\, but purpos eful—capable of planning over long timescales\, adapting to changing con ditions\, and learning efficiently from limited data. Together\, these adv ances point toward a future in which robots can travel farther\, handle mo re diverse tasks\, and learn more quickly in the real world—bringing rob ust autonomy to environments where human presence is limited\, uncertainty is unavoidable\, and intelligent decision-making is critical.\nSpeaker Bi o:\n[AI\, rat whiskers\, and robots in the wild: Talking with Ian Abraham | Yale News]\n\nDr. Ian Abraham’s research sits at the intersection of robotics\, optimization\, control\, machine learning\, and artificial inte lligence. His work focuses on developing computational methods that enable robotic systems to interact with\, explore\, and learn in extreme and rem ote environments.\nHe has received numerous prestigious awards\, including an NSF CAREER Award. Prior to joining the University of Sydney\, Ian was an Assistant Professor at Yale University\, with appointments in the Mecha nical Engineering and Computer Science departments. He earned his PhD from Northwestern University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ro botics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.\n\n UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E008000000008CE7901C1FE7DC01000000000000000 010000000D6FC71B9F374934A93C2927C44C8B13D SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-US:ECE - Research Seminar Series DTSTART;TZID=AUS Eastern Standard Time:20260527T120000 DTEND;TZID=AUS Eastern Standard Time:20260527T130000 CLASS:PUBLIC PRIORITY:5 DTSTAMP:20260519T001516Z TRANSP:OPAQUE STATUS:CONFIRMED SEQUENCE:0 LOCATION;LANGUAGE=en-US:J02\, PNR Building\, Lecture Theatre 304 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-APPT-SEQUENCE:0 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-OWNERAPPTID:2124782536 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:TENTATIVE X-MICROSOFT-CDO-INTENDEDSTATUS:BUSY X-MICROSOFT-CDO-ALLDAYEVENT:FALSE X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-INSTTYPE:0 X-MICROSOFT-DONOTFORWARDMEETING:FALSE X-MICROSOFT-DISALLOW-COUNTER:FALSE X-MICROSOFT-REQUESTEDATTENDANCEMODE:DEFAULT X-MICROSOFT-ISRESPONSEREQUESTED:TRUE X-MICROSOFT-LOCATIONDISPLAYNAME:J02\, PNR Building\, Lecture Theatre 304 X-MICROSOFT-LOCATIONSOURCE:None X-MICROSOFT-LOCATIONS:[{"DisplayName":"J02\, PNR Building\, Lecture Theatre 304"\,"LocationAnnotation":""\,"LocationUri":""\,"LocationStreet":""\,"Lo cationCity":""\,"LocationState":""\,"LocationCountry":""\,"LocationPostalC ode":""\,"LocationFullAddress":""}] BEGIN:VALARM DESCRIPTION:REMINDER TRIGGER;RELATED=START:-PT15M ACTION:DISPLAY END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR