It is our pleasure to announce the following keynote speakers for AutomotiveUI 2017:
Opening Keynote on Monday, 09:30
Dr. Michaela Schäfer
Head of CEO Office and Projects, HELLA KGaA Hueck&Co.
Software – innovation driver of the mobility solutions of tomorrow
Digitalization has a dynamic impact on markets and societies worldwide. Car functionalities, the automotive value chain as well as the E/E architecture will change significantly in light of the automotive mega-trends of autonomous driving, connectivity & digitalization, efficiency & electrification, and individualization. OEMs and automotive suppliers alike need to position themselves in this dynamic market environment to be prepared for the future.
Bio: Dr. Michaela Schäfer leads the CEO Office at HELLA and is in this role in particular responsible for the Corporate Strategy Process of HELLA. Until 2015 Dr. Schäfer led the global purchasing function of HELLA and has been a member of the Executive Board of the Business Division Lighting. Before joining HELLA in 2006 she has worked 9 years in Top Management consulting with a focus on the automotive industry.
Pre-Lunch Keynote on Tuesday, 12:20
Prof. Dr. Andrew Kun
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Hampshire, and director of the UNH Human-Computer Interaction Lab.
In-vehicle interfaces: From manual driving to automation
Today’s vehicles have myriad user interfaces, from those related to the moment-to-moment control of the vehicle, to those that allow the consumption of information and entertainment. The bulk of the work in this domain in the recent past and the present is related to manual driving. In exploring user interfaces for manual driving a key issue has been assessing the effects of the interfaces on driving safety. Very frequently this is done in the context of an application, such as navigation, entertainment, or communication. With the recent advances in automated vehicles, there is an increased attention on user interactions as they relate to creating a place for work and play during a trip. Given that it is unlikely that most vehicles will be fully automated in the near future, there are also significant efforts to understand how to help the driver switch between different modes of automation. This talk will provide a brief review of these areas of research, and it will provide recommendations for future work.
Bio: Andrew L. Kun is Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Hampshire, and director of the UNH Human-Computer Interaction Lab. His primary research interest is in-vehicle human-computer interaction. He serves on the Steering Committee of the ACM AutomotiveUI conference series, and was General Chair of the conference in 2012. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM.
Closing Keynote on Wednesday, 14:00
Prof. Dr. Gordon Pipa
Institute of Cognitive Science, Neuroinformatics, University Osnabrück, Germany.
A cognitive computing approach to self-driving cars and ethics.
Self-driving cars are posing a new challenge to our ethics. By using algorithms to make decisions in situations where harming humans is possible, probable or even unavoidable, a self-driving car’s ethical behavior comes pre-defined. Ad hoc decisions are made in milliseconds, but can be based on extensive research and debates. The same algorithms are also likely to be used in millions of cars at a time, increasing the impact of any inherent biases, and increasing the importance of getting it right. I will present a cognitive computing system, that is a combination of immersive virtual reality, to assess ethical behavior in simulated road traffic scenarios, and use the collected data to train and evaluate a range of decision models and machine learning tools to model this behavior to allow machines to behave as humans do.
In this talk, I will present the experimental results and guide the audience to discuss the ethical consequences. The talk will end with key questions that we need to address as a society today in order to be ready for a new time, in which our living space is shared between autonomous system and us. Keep in mind that autonomous cars seem to be just the beginning.
Bio: Prof. Pipa is currently chair of the Neuroinformatics Lab at the Institute of Cognitive Science at Osnabrück University, Germany. He started this position after research positions at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He studied physics with a focus on complex systems and statistical physics, holds a Ph.D. degree in computer science and Habilitation in biology. Additionally, he holds several patents in the domain of neuro-inspired image processing. Currently, his research is focused on cognitive computing systems, that fuse artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language based interactions with humans.