What is MorphoTalks?
Morphotalks is a series of monthly seminars on Morphological Computation (MC) at the Bristol Robotics Lab. The seminar uses MC as an umbrella term covering areas such as embodied intelligence, passive dynamics, reservoir computing...and beyond. All seminars take place in the BRL seminar room & Online (via Teams or Zoom) and are recorded.
After an exciting First Season, we have now ended MorphoTalks Season 2! Stay tuned for updates on Season 3…
What to expect?
MC is sparking an increasing interest in research across multi-disciplinary areas. Therefore, these seminars will enable us to bring state-of-the-art research, discuss emerging trends and share our interpretations and applications of MC with the aim to encourage networking and collaboration. We have lined up renowned researchers in robotics, biology, cognitive science, philosophy (and more!) to discuss cutting-edge topics that we believe you’ll be interested in! We will, of course, curate these seminars with your valuable input as we progress.
A typical seminar will look as follows:
Talk by a guest speaker outside of Bristol and a researcher within Bristol (UoB, UWE, BRL).
Q&A, discussions and debates about MC ...and beyond!
For guest speakers coming to BRL, a lab tour will be provided
Upcoming Talks
Stay tuned for Season3 updates!
We now have LIVE Streaming on our YouTube channel! Subscribe to receive notifications about LIVE events and our latest MorphoTalks uploads.
Past Talks Season 1
Thank you to all our previous speakers! All recordings of MorphoTalks Season 1 are available on our YouTube channel, starring:
Professor Josh Bongard (University of Vermont): “From rigid to soft to biological robots”
Professor Andy Philippides (University of Sussex): “Exploiting embodied dynamics in insect-inspired robotic navigation”
PhD student Emanuel Nunez Sardinha (Bristol Robotics Laboratory): “Embedding Soft Synergies into Soft Materials for Intrinsic Compliant Robotic Hand Grasping”
Dr Thomas George-Thuruthel (University of Cambridge): “Learning to let go: Minimalistic controllers for soft robots”
Dr Martin How (University of Bristol): “The visual ecology of cuttlefish”
Dr Simon Bowes (University of Sussex): “Emergence: Reentrant structures as the basis for ontological surprise"
Professor Michael Levin (Tuft University): “Xenobots, AI and You: Ubiquitous unconventional, multiscale, diverse intelligence of biology”
Dr Hemma Philamore (University of Bristol, Bristol Robotics Laboratory): "Life doesn’t survive in isolation"
Dr Tom Froese (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST)): “Using irresolvable tensions to drive system self-optimization”
Dr Matthew Uppington (University of Bristol & University of the West of England): “Towards Photo-contractile Swarms of Protocellular Robotic Agents”
Past Talks Season 2
Thank you to all our previous speakers! All recordings of MorphoTalks Season 2 are available on our YouTube channel, starring:
Professor Fumiya Iida (University of Cambridge): “From Bio-Inspired Soft Robotics to Morphological Computation and Embodied Intelligence”
Dr Van Ho (Ho lab, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, JAIST): “Adaptive Morphology and Embodied Intelligence towards Safe, Intelligent, and Resilient Human-Robots Coexistence”
Professor Sabine Hauert (University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory): “Swarms for People”
Professor Rudolf M. Füchslin (Zurich University of Applied Sciences): “Morphological Process Control: Morphological Computing Brings a Novel Perspective into the Life Sciences”
Dr Jasmine Wong (University of Bristol): “Feathers as multi-functional aeroelastic structures for flight”
Dr Madhur Mangalam (University of Nebraska, Omaha): “Rethinking Human Sensorimotor Performance: Beyond Engineering Assumptions and Towards a Fluid Understanding”
Organizers
Season 1 and Season 2
MorphoTalks Season 1 and Season2 were organised by Estelle Raffy and Vijay Chandiramani.
Season 3
The organizers of MorphoTalks are Ajmal Roshan and Kieran Nazareth. If you have any questions or if you want to give a talk please get in touch.