Speaker: Giovanna Colombetti, University of Exeter, UK

Title: Scaffolded emotions

Abstract:

Recent debates on the nature of the emotions include what has been called the “situated perspective”. Its proponents criticize the general tendency, in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, to consider emotions only as states, or processes, of a person’s brain or body (a position also known as “individualism”), with little consideration for the role of environment. As a remedy, they suggest regarding emotions as scaffolded by the environment, both synchronically and diachronically. In my talk I will present this notion of “scaffolded emotions” in detail, explain why I think it is valuable, and suggest various ways in which it can be developed further.

Bio:

Giovanna Colombetti is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Social and Political sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology of the University of Exeter (UK). At Exeter she is also member of EGENIS (The Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences), where she leads the Mind, Body, and Culture research cluster. Her interests lie at the intersection of philosophy of cognitive science (especially embodied and situated cognition), philosophy of emotion, phenomenology, and material culture studies. She is the author of several articles and chapters in these areas, and of the book The Feeling Body: Affective Science Meets the Enactive Mind (published by MIT Press in 2014). Since then, she has worked to develop the notion of “situated affectivity”, and is currently writing a second monograph on our affective relation to material objects. She is currently also Editor in Chief of the interdisciplinary journal Emotion Review.

TBA

Speaker: Mohamed Chetouani, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

Title: Insights from Observers: Advancing Natural Behavior Analysis and Artificial Behavior Generation

Abstract:
In this talk, we explore the indispensable role of observers in both natural behavior analysis and artificial behavior generation, focusing on affective computing and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). In affective computing, observers annotate emotional data, ensuring accurate interpretation and model performance, thus advancing emotional understanding algorithms. Similarly, in HRI, human observers evaluate robot behavior generation, ensuring alignment with human expectations, while computational observers aim to create human-aware systems, leveraging algorithms to interpret human behavior for adaptive robot actions.
This presentation delves into specific areas within natural behavior analysis and artificial behavior generation, including the annotation of affective states, generation of legible motion, and interactive robot learning.

Bio:
Mohamed Chetouani is currently a Full Professor in signal processing and machine learning for human-machine interaction. He is the Deputy Director the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (CNRS UMR 7222), Sorbonne University (formerly Pierre and Marie Curie University). His activities cover social signal processing, social robotics and interactive machine learning with applications in psychiatry, psychology, social neuroscience and education. He was the coordinator of the ANIMATAS H2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie European Training Network (2018-2022). He was the President of the Sorbonne University Ethics Committee from 20219 to 2023. He was involved in several educational activities including organization of summer schools. He is member of the EU Networks of Human-Centered AI (HumanE AI NET) and Robotics (euROBIN). He was General Chair of ACM ICMI 2023. He is in charge of the inclusion of Students with Disabilities for the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Sorbonne University.