Proposed is travel support for US graduate students to participate in the IEEE Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) conference. IROS will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, October 2010. A unique aspect of this proposal is lab visits. Approximately 30 students will visit academic, government and/or industrial labs in Taiwan while in Taiwan for IROS. These students will be hosted by Taiwanese graduate students. The envisioned outcome is that the 30 students will reciprocate; they would host the Taiwanese students when future conferences are held in the US.

Project Report

This grant ultimately supported 53 students to travel to the ICRA and IROS conferences, when held outside the US. For IROS 2010, held in Taipei, Taiwan, 19 students were given partial travel support (roughly 75% of airline fare). For IROS 2012, which was held in Vilamoura, Portugal, 28 students received travel support. Finally, for ICRA 2014, held in Hong Kong, six students were supported. Note that for ICRA 2014, six students spent out this grant's budget, but there were other funding sources to support student travel. Supporting student travel to attend an international conference helps develop the human resources for the future of robotics. These students eventually become the professors and practitioners that move the field forward. One of the most useful parts of a conference is to meet researchers from other institutions. It is not sufficient simply to become fluent in the technical literature by reading. Ultimately, high quality research results from collaborations, both within the US and internationally. This grant gave the supported students the opportunity to meet researchers from around the world in a congenial atmosphere that starts to forge personal relationships. It is always difficult to predict where these relationships may lead over time, but I am certain that there will be considerable impact from this grant.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1014762
Program Officer
gregory chirikjian
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2010-05-15
Budget End
2014-10-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$49,639
Indirect Cost
Name
University of New Mexico
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Albuquerque
State
NM
Country
United States
Zip Code
87131