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=Australian Centre For Robotics Administration;SENT-BY="mailto:s abrina.asri@sydney.edu.au":mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=everybody: mailto:everybody@acfr.usyd.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=students@a cfr.usyd.edu.au:mailto:students@acfr.usyd.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=seminars@a cfr.usyd.edu.au:mailto:seminars@acfr.usyd.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN='academics -meeting@acfr.usyd.edu.au':mailto:academics-meeting@acfr.usyd.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=OPT-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=Thien Hoan g Nguyen:mailto:thienhoang.nguyen@sydney.edu.au ATTENDEE;ROLE=OPT-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=Pieter van Goor:mailto:pieter.vangoor@sydney.edu.au ATTACH:CID:image001.png@01DD1908.14FBEC30 DESCRIPTION;LANGUAGE=en-US:Faculty of Engineering\n\n\nACFR Seminar Series\ n[https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260720/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318d a0add393c81.png]\n[https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260720/90/62/a1 /a0/e806283be685b4d065bc82ba.jpg]\n\n1) Symmetry and Beyond: Towards Effic ient\, Generalizable Learning for Low-Level Control of Aerial and Space Ro bots.\n2) Advancing Healthcare Through Soft Robotics and Intelligent Syst ems\n\nPresented by Asst. Professor Jake Welde (Cornell) & Asst. Professor Thai Mai Thanh (VinUniversity)\nDate: Thursday\, 23 July 2026\, at 1:00 p m AEST\nVenue: ACFR seminar area\, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building)\nZoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455\n\n\n** RSVP by COB Tuesday 21 July for catering purposes. Accept this calendar in vitation if you plan to attend the seminar in person and join us for a lig ht lunch at approximately 12.30pm.\nAbstract:\n\n\nSymmetry and Beyond: To wards Efficient\, Generalizable Learning for Low-Level Control of Aerial a nd Space Robots\n\nTo perform useful\, interactive work\, aerial and space robots must evolve beyond simple\, single-body designs (e.g.\, quadrotors ) towards high-dimensional\, articulated morphologies. However\, explicit analytical controllers for such systems are not easily crafted\, and numer ical optimal control algorithms quickly overwhelm the lightweight processo rs available onboard. Reinforcement learning frontloads these burdens to o ffline training\, typically employing vast computational resources to run brittle training pipelines fine-tuned to particular tasks. To mitigate the se downsides\, we exploit the natural symmetries of robotic systems to eff iciently learn high-performance\, generalizable policies for low-level rob ot control. In particular\, we develop a theory of symmetry reduction for tracking control problems\, proving that a tracking controller trained in a reduced setting will perform equally well on the original system while a lso generalizing automatically to unseen trajectories. However\, the class ical notion of symmetry is too rigid to apply to many practical systems\, which may enjoy only a very small symmetry group. We thus propose a relaxe d notion of symmetry (termed “weak invariance”) that balances structur e with generality\, enabling us to factor out a much larger symmetry group while still attaining the same performance guarantees\, greatly expanding the applicability and impact of these methods.\n\nAdvancing Healthcare Th rough Soft Robotics and Intelligent Systems\n\nThis talk presents recent a dvances in soft robotics and intelligent systems aimed at transforming hea lthcare and improving the quality of life. It highlights the development o f flexible\, bio-inspired robotic technologies for minimally invasive surg ery\, including soft robotic endoscopic platforms integrated with in situ 3D bioprinting and real-time navigation. The talk also explores wearable s oft sensors and robotic devices for rehabilitation\, enabling low-cost\, a ccessible\, and data-driven patient recovery. By combining soft materials\ , embedded systems\, and artificial intelligence\, these innovations offer safer\, more adaptive\, and patient-centered solutions. The presentation concludes with a vision for deploying such technologies in resource-constr ained settings to address global healthcare challenges and enhance quality of life at scale.\n\nBio:\n\n\nJake Welde\n\nJake Welde is an Assistant P rofessor with the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University\, where he leads the Geometry\, Design\, and Control L aboratory (or the “GeoDesiC Lab”). Prior to joining Cornell\, he spent a decade at the University of Pennsylvania\, where he completed his under graduate and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechan ics and his Masters in Robotics\, working in the GRASP Laboratory with Vij ay Kumar. He is broadly interested in how mathematical structure — symme try\, hierarchy\, and mechanics — can be harnessed to create more capabl e algorithms for robot control\, and how the interplay between control and morphology mediates overall robot capabilities.\n\nThai Mai Thanh\n\nDr. Thai Mai Thanh is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at VinU niversity and Principal Investigator (PI) of the VinUni Biorobotics Lab. H e earned his B.E. from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (2016)\, M.S. from KAIST (2019)\, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from UNSW Syd ney (2023)\, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in medical robotics.\n\nHis research focuses on advancing healthcare through soft rob otics\, intelligent systems\, and medical devices\, with applications in m inimally invasive surgery\, in situ bioprinting\, rehabilitation\, and wea rable haptics. He has authored over 40 publications and holds multiple int ernational patents\, with a strong emphasis on translating cutting-edge te chnologies into real-world clinical impact.\n\n[Register for Event >]\n[https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260720/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70b aef8b350e3840963efe.png]\n\n[Web Site]\n[LinkedIn] \n[X]\n[YouTube]\n\nCopyright © 2026\n\nThe Unive rsity of Sydney\n\nPlease add acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you c ontinue to see our emails in the future.\n\n\n\nCricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057\nDisclaimer | Privacy statement |\n\n\n\n UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E00800000000755997BCEA17DD01000000000000000 010000000CA5B7B3AE1D5B14688EA804C787CAAAA SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-US:ACFR Seminar Series: Asst. Professor Jake Welde (Cor nell) & Asst. Professor Thai Mai Thanh (VinUniversity) DTSTART;TZID=AUS Eastern Standard Time:20260723T130000 DTEND;TZID=AUS Eastern Standard Time:20260723T140000 CLASS:PUBLIC PRIORITY:5 DTSTAMP:20260721T051054Z TRANSP:OPAQUE STATUS:CONFIRMED SEQUENCE:3 LOCATION;LANGUAGE=en-US:ACFR J04 Level 2 Seminar Area:\; https://maps.app.g oo.gl/PUJdbB9oUTtg5fLr8\; ZOOM:\; https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-APPT-SEQUENCE:3 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-OWNERAPPTID:2124916330 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:ACFR J04 Level 2 Seminar Area:\; https://ma ps.app.goo.gl/PUJdbB9oUTtg5fLr8\; ZOOM:\; https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/873 06457455 X-MICROSOFT-LOCATIONSOURCE:None X-MICROSOFT-LOCATIONS:[{"DisplayName":"ACFR J04 Level 2 Seminar Area:"\,"Lo cationAnnotation":""\,"LocationUri":""\,"LocationStreet":""\,"LocationCity ":""\,"LocationState":""\,"LocationCountry":""\,"LocationPostalCode":""\," LocationFullAddress":""}\,{"DisplayName":"https://maps.app.goo.gl/PUJdbB9o UTtg5fLr8"\,"LocationAnnotation":""\,"LocationUri":""\,"LocationStreet":"" \,"LocationCity":""\,"LocationState":""\,"LocationCountry":""\,"LocationPo stalCode":""\,"LocationFullAddress":""}\,{"DisplayName":"ZOOM:"\,"Location Annotation":""\,"LocationUri":""\,"LocationStreet":""\,"LocationCity":""\, "LocationState":""\,"LocationCountry":""\,"LocationPostalCode":""\,"Locati onFullAddress":""}\,{"DisplayName":"https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/873064574 55"\,"LocationAnnotation":""\,"LocationUri":""\,"LocationStreet":""\,"Loca tionCity":""\,"LocationState":""\,"LocationCountry":""\,"LocationPostalCod e":""\,"LocationFullAddress":""}] BEGIN:VALARM DESCRIPTION:REMINDER TRIGGER;RELATED=START:-PT15M ACTION:DISPLAY END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR