IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2012 - 97

*
Marcelo made an incredible effort
in delivering the student newsletter
to you every month and Ludo provided indispensable help in setting
up and running the Student Reviewer
Program (SRP). Thank you folks,
well done!
Also, I'm happy to announce the
winner of the 2011 IEEE International

Conference on Intelligent Robots and
Systems (IROS) student photo con
test: Benoit Rosa [Ecole
polytechnique
Universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie-
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)]. The runner-ups
were Evan Chang-Siu [University of
California (UC) Berkeley], Jae Hyun
Yoo (Seoul University), and Shridhar

Shah (University of Delaware). You
can see their winning submissions in
Figures 2-5.
Congratulations! Once again,
thanks to all for making it such a wonderful experience and I hope to see
many of you at the IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in St. Paul.

*
Letter from the 2012-2013 RAS Student AdCom Member Laura Margheri
Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone
else and thinking something different.
€ rgyi de Nagyra
polt
-Albert Szent-Gyo
Hungarian Physiologist
Physiology or Medicine Nobel Prize in 1937
It is a great pleasure and honor for me to serve as chair of
SAC of RAS. I think that it is very important for us, and for
our research activities, to have an effective and incisive
representative. I will try to do my best to fulfill this responsibility, together with the students' group, and discuss with
you any ideas or problems. Thank you all in advance for this
opportunity.
I am a Ph.D. student in biorobotics at the BioRobotics
Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy. My
occupational fields and research topics include biorobotics
and biomimetics, biomechanics, motion analysis, and modeling. From the beginning of my Ph.D., I have been directly
involved in research leading activities and the coordination
of research groups, such as biologists, neuroscientists, and
roboticists (in the framework of the OCTOPUS Integrating
Project), in the organization of summer schools, exhibitions, and full-day workshops during international events
(ICRA, International Conference on Advanced Robotics, the
European Future Technologies Conference and Exhibition,
and others; for details see http://www.octopusproject.eu/
events.html). In addition to my research, I've been involved in
scientific education with undergraduate students, teaching
robotics to the groups who periodically visit our laboratories,
and I also had the opportunity to serve as a representative for
one year for the Ph.D. students in engineering at the Scuola
Superiore Sant'Anna. Getting involved in diverse experiences
along the way was among the reasons why I was strongly motivated to join the Students Committee and to apply for the chair
position. I've been involved in RAS and other professional
organizations (IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology) for
several years, and recently I've started to work for the activities
of the students. Attending the past IROS 2011 in San Francisco,
together with the Students' Committee, was an enlightening
experience. I spent all week taking part in the meetings of the
Society Boards: IEEE Transactions on Robotics Full Editorial
Board Meeting, SAC Meeting, Technical Advisory Board Meeting,
RAS Conference Activities Board Meeting, RAS Member Activities
Board Meeting, and RAS Administrative Committee (AdCom)
Meeting. All these meetings were chances for me to directly
understand the organization dynamics, the state of the Society,
the vision for the next years, new initiatives, planned actions and

events, as well as which problems or needs have the highest priorities. As I look back, my time spent at IROS was a great opportunity to meet innovators, leaders, possible future colleagues,
and friends.
I am glad to share the vision of the Society, in which education and networking have a key role for research and
technological development and a consequent impact to
enhance the quality of life of future generations and global
society. Students and researchers should see that joining
the Students' Committee and the Society, and being active
within them, is a chance to find higher-quality information
and also to find the best places and events where robotics
innovators meet and exchange their scientific and technological knowledge. I'm working together with the help of the
students to increase and enforce the connections to the
areas of sciences related to robotics, to recruit new members, capture novel ideas for projects and research activities
by extending the network and initiatives of the students,
and creating new events during ICRA, IROS, and more. It is
important to work for the promotion of SAC with the IEEE
and thus to work in concert with other IEEE Societies to
enlarge the exchange of scientific and technological development and to foster the growth of future generations of
leaders. Interdisciplinary, active networking, and education
at all levels are used to take care and support students'
careers and growth. We are working to improve the involvement of members and to keep them active by organizing
joint events and meetings, proposing benefits to support
and enhance their careers, and providing updated tools for
education online. Periodic kits, Webinars, special sessions,
and tutorials are some examples of useful resources to help
students better understand their field-to learn how to
move in academia-in their relationships with industry, during international scientific events, or with the media and the
general public.
The students' Web site, newsletter, and the "Student's
Corner" column in IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine
are more and more used as first ways for training, sharing,
communications, as well as to inspire and motivate students. Updated announcements about our activities, events,
opportunities, and technological and scientific reports can
continuously be found on our Web site or via the newsletter.
Our Facebook and Google groups are open to daily discussions, communications, and proposals. Education and training in robotics and automation is now carried out for
students at different ages, using international events,
summer schools, and media as fundamental ways to catch

MARCH 2012

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

http://www.octopusproject.eu/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2012