Waseda University, together with Italy's Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and the Italian Embassy (Tokyo), will host the Italy Japan Workshop 2016 on November 22 and 23.

The 13th annual event will bring together robotics experts and their engineering creations from Japan and one of Italy's noted centers of higher education.

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Italy, this year's event is expanded to include lectures, discussions and exhibitions over two days.

Focusing on the novel theme of Robotics & The Arts, the first day features a technical workshop on the nexus of robotics with visual arts, music and theater, by collaborating companies, artists and young researchers.

Day Two has a full schedule with presentations and discussions in the morning, followed in the afternoon by exhibitions and demonstrations of all kinds of robotics, including performances by robot musicians.

The 2016 Workshop will focus on the connections of robotics with both visual and performing arts, including eminent professors, artists and industry representatives from Italy and Japan. Concrete examples of artistic expression using robotics in the field of visual arts (such as painting and sculpture) and performing arts (such as music, fashion, dance and theater) will be presented and discussed. While artistic production has been an invaluable asset through the centuries both in Italy and in Japan, a panel on the second day will discuss how robotics can enable innovative new forms of artistic expression.

This year's Workshop will also promote the participation of Japanese universities, research centers and companies in the First International Festival of Robotics, to be held September 7-13, 2017, in Pisa.

For details, please see the special event site (http://italyjapan2016.blogspot.jp).

Event: ITALY JAPAN WORKSHOP 2016: ROBOTICS & THE ARTS

Time/Date: Nov 22 (9:00-18:30), Nov 23 (9:00-17:00)

Language: English (Nov 23 morning program will include Japanese simultaneous interpretation)

Place: Waseda University Nishi Waseda Campus Bldg. 63 (Okubo 3-4-1, Shinjuku)

Intended For: Experts, Waseda students & staff, the public

About Waseda University

Waseda University is one of Japan's top institutions of higher learning. Waseda University has led the world in robotics research on anthropomorphic robots, developing humanoid robots such as WABOT-1, the first full-scale human-like robot made in 1973, the musician robot WABOT-2 in 1984, the Hadaly-2 that works together with a human partner, and the biped walking robot WABIAN in 1997. In April 2000 Waseda established the Humanoid Robotics Institute (http://www.humanoid.waseda.ac.jp) to promote research on a new relationship between humans and machines in the advanced information society. The joint laboratories RoboCasa (2003) and Robot-An (2007) were created by a Japan-Italy intergovernmental agreement, and they still are conducting collaborative research projects and regular exchanges of personnel.

About the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa

The Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA) is a special autonomous public university active in education and research in applied and social sciences: Economics and Management, Law, Political Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and Plant Biotechnology, Medicine, and Industrial and Information Engineering. SSSA is ranked 10th in the Times Higher Education world's 150 Best Universities under 50. The BioRobotics Institute of SSSA has pioneered the field of BioRobotics worldwide, and has investigated and developed a wide range of surgical robots, rehabilitation robots, bionic limb prostheses, assistive robots, bioinspired robots, soft robots, systems for bio-automation, new approaches to robotic ethical, legal and social issues, and many activities on robotics education, from kindergartens to PhDs.