Robotics + X Symposium

Recent advances in Generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs) and vision language models (VLMs), are revolutionizing robotics by enabling intelligent interaction with multimodal data such as vision, language, speech, and semantic behavior. At UVA SEAS, the Robotics + X initiative leverages interdisciplinary expertise to unify robotics research efforts across departments, fostering collaboration and innovation through symposia, joint proposals, and shared resources in areas such as autonomous systems, human-robot interaction, and embodied AI.

Robotics and Autonomous Systems is a core pillar of research of the Link Lab at UVA SEAS, a world-class research center for cyber-physical systems, and includes faculty from different SEAS departments, including CS, ECE, ME, and SIE. The robotics research being pursued at UVA SEAS includes, but are not limited to, autonomous mobile robots, multi-robot systems, human-robot interaction, autonomous racing, and autonomous driving. Furthermore, due to the nature of the Robotics + X symposium, we will also be calling on faculty from aligned areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, control, human-computer interaction, human factors, and data science.

We propose a full-day symposium or workshop that focuses on two main agendas. The first agenda is to highlight the various robotics research efforts that are being conducted by SEAS faculties and students across different departments. The objective is to unify the various directions of robotics research in a single location. This will be achieved via speaker keynotes by the faculty, student presentations, robot demonstrations, and poster sessions. The second agenda then looks towards the future, fostering ideas for future collaboration on joint proposals through a panel discussion that will take all the ideas that were presented in the first agenda and brainstorm future plans and ideas.