Sustainability & Robotics Series: Webinar 2

After exploring why the AI and Robotics community actively needs to work towards sustainability in our first webinar, this second webinar focuses on what sustainability is about. Experts, who have worked or researched extensively in the field of sustainability, will share their knowledge with us. The goal is to get a good basic understanding of sustainability – because knowledge is the first step towards change.

This second webinar will be about:

• What is sustainability?
• What does research say about sustainability?
• How does industry outside AI and Robotics deal with sustainability?
• How can the AI and Robotics community learn from this?

Agenda:

15:00 Welcome, introduction about the webinar series by Franziska Kirstein

15:05 Setting the scene: Robotics & Sustainability beyond the SDGs by Patrick Courtney

15:25 Keynote speakers on Sustainability:

• Simon Weihofen, Viega Group
• Katrien Vandael, UC Leuven-Limburg, University of Applied Sciences

16:00 Panel discussion with Patrick Courtney, Simon Weihofen, Katrien Vandael

16:25 Closing and takeaways

About the Series

Sustainability has become a critical challenge in Society and the field of AI and Robotics will not remain unaffected. From environmental to social or economic impacts, roboticists, entrepreneurs, researchers and public authorities are increasingly confronted with the topic. What is Sustainability? Where does AI and Robotics stand in that regard? What can organizations do to integrate Sustainability in their projects? What are the existing tools, frameworks at our disposal today? Are there initiatives and lessons learnt in other fields that could help AI and Robotics? Several reports, publications and events have shown a growing interest in the community to be more proactive. But where to start? How to avoid greenwashing? All these questions (among others) will be addressed in our 2023 online series of 5 webinars.

This series is open to all actors of AI and Robotics: from industry, academia and beyond. Its goal is to raise the community’s awareness of Sustainability, spark discussions, exchange experiences and provide free introductory training with concrete use-cases. The webinar series will aim at having a balanced representation of academic and private organizations, sharing their knowledge. During each session, participants will be encouraged to share their experiences, needs, questions, and practical suggestions. Our goal? Identifying key priority actions to reinforce Sustainability in Robotics and AI.

This event is co-organized by a consortium of researchers, industrial stakeholders and experts (see list of partnering organizations).

Who is invited

• Roboticists
• Researchers
• Entrepreneurs and representatives of the industry
• Experts in related fields
• Life cycle professionals (e.g. analysts, consultants)
• Anyone interested in Robotics and Sustainability

Format: Online

Agenda

• Webinar 1: Why Sustainability – March 7
• Webinar 2: Sustainability Explained – April 26
• Webinar 3: Environment
• Webinar 4: Society
• Webinar 5: Economics
• Workshop: Tools (Hybrid session) – September

Partnering organizations

• FARI – AI for the Common Good Institute
• Sustainable Robotics
• euRobotics Topic Group on Sustainability
• CLAIRE
• United Robotics Group