Social Activities

This year there will be several social activities to support the networking between HRI attendees. Some of the activities have two time slots so that you can join at your best convenience, according to your timezone. As the conference will happen remotely instead of in Japan, some of the activities have a little bit of the Japanese culture. We hope you enjoy, have fun and meet your research peers!

  • Elevator Pitch Competition
  • Virtual Lab Tours
  • Games Night
  • Judo and the Japanese culture: learn & practice
  • Yoga for Wellbeing
  • Karaoke
  • HRI Plays D&D

Elevator Pitch Competition

How would you explain your research if fate placed you in an elevator with your dream researcher and you only had the time it takes to get from the top of the building to the bottom?

    The HRI conference invites all participants to join the elevator pitch competition where they can pitch their research topic, future collaboration ideas, or job talks for 30 seconds to a panel of judges. Believe us, it’s harder to tell people what you do in 30 seconds than in 10 minutes. Challenge yourself and your reward will be the feedback from our panel and people who might contact you for future collaboration and of course our HRI sponsored award. This year we have two time slots available and you can sign up here: https://forms.gle/f7Qcr1Xx93AFfi7h7

      Organiser: Elmira Yadollahi

      Schedule – you must choose either slot 1 or slot 2:

      • 9 Mar at 17:30-18:30 JST – Slot 1
      • 10 Mar at 5:30-6:30 JST – Slot 2
      • 10 Mar at 22:40-23:10 JST – Awards Announcement (at Closing Session)

        Virtual Lab Tours

        This social activity will consist of a live tour of the lab and robots at Kyoto University’s HRI Lab, with video and slides presentation of the lab’s research.

        Kyoto University

        Organiser: Drazen Brscic

        Schedule:

        • 10 Mar at 10:40-11:10 JST

        National Institute of Informatics

        In our laboratory, we are trying to bring various advantages to HRI research by conducting human-robot interaction in VR space based on the SIGVerse system (http://www.sigverse.org/wiki/en/). This system enables us to login as a human avatar in a robot simulator. This lab tour will show an example application of an online HRI competition based on this system.

        Organiser: Tetsunari Inamura

        Schedule:

        • 10 Mar at 18:00-18:30 JST

          Games Night

          Shall we play a game? Or two?! Fun guaranteed!

            The games to be played are still under discussion. If you plan to join this social activity, please answer this questionnaire to share your preferences and suggestions: https://forms.gle/stebziYiX8UPuMYE6

              Organisers: Bahar İrfan and Ross Mead

              Schedule:

              • 9 Mar at 5:00-6:00 JST
              • 9 Mar at 10:40-11:40 JST

                Judo and the Japanese culture: learn & practice

                This social activity will address the Japanese active life-style and how to implement it into your every day busy and ambitious life. The workshop focuses on how Japan and Japanese culture (in particular martial arts, such as Judo) have influenced western countries. The philosophy behind the Japanese martial arts promotes important values that can be helpful in order to establish a long-lasting active lifestyle. During this workshop we will have: 1) a brief introduction on the history of Judo and Japanese culture; 2) a Judo tutorial – Judo techniques and self-defence 3) a 20 minutes HIIT workout.

                Equipment: Fitness mat and clothes

                Organisers: Giorgia Mancioppi and Alessandro Roncone

                Schedule:

                • 10 Mar at 11:10-12:10 JST

                  Yoga for Wellbeing: Classical Hatha Yoga Workshop

                  This session offers tools to balance the body, mind and emotions for a complete experience of inner wellbeing. The session includes physical practice, a breathing technique and an emotion balancing exercise.

                  Class Guidelines:

                  • For this class, the participants need to be on a Light Stomach Condition (at least 1.5 hours after a meal).
                  • Registration is necessary (registration deadline is March 8th at 23:59 JST): https://forms.gle/mbEEs5pXS5qyRrTD6

                  Materials:

                  • Yoga mat, towel or blanket which you can roll to raise your heels.
                  • Stable internet connection.

                  Precautions:

                  • All the practices are safe and can be done by anyone above 7 years of age.
                  • Pregnant ladies in the 3rd and 4th months of pregnancy should avoid the physical practice, but can participate in the rest of the session.

                  Organisers: Gerardo Chavez-Castaneda (gerardo@chavezcastaneda.com) and Shruti Chandra (shruti.chandra@uwaterloo.ca) 

                  Schedule:

                  • 9 Mar at 22:40-23:40 JST

                    Karaoke

                    Do you want to sing along to all the greatest hits ever? Join us!

                      Organisers: Nicole Salomons and Filipa Correia

                      Schedule:

                      • 8 Mar at 10:40-11:40 JST
                      • 8 Mar at 22:40-23:40 JST

                        HRI Plays D&D

                        Every week, a group of HRI researchers plays Dungeons and Dragons (DND) — and, at the HRI-2022, you can be part of the action! Following the success of last year’s “HRI Plays DND” session, we are re-opening our game to the HRI conference community to join in on the fun, either as a spectator… or as a player! Whether you’re watching or playing, you don’t need to know anything about DND — this will be a simplified and streamlined version of the game that requires nothing more than your own imagination!

                          Duration: [1.5 – 2] hours 

                          Materials: one or more six-sided dice (optional)

                          Signup link: https://forms.gle/3ffgB3eyQFysV1446

                          Link to watch: https://www.twitch.tv/williamstome

                          Link to play: the organizers will contact you directly for instructions on how to call in and play after you sign up

                          Organisers: Ross Mead and Tom Williams

                          Schedule:

                          • 10 Mar at 3:30-5:30 JST