Ambassador of France and CNRS delegation Visit

On Thursday 14 April, a delegation from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) led by Professor Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO of CNRS, visited the University of Adelaide’s North Terrace campus.

The delegation met with executives for a productive discussion and morning tea, followed by a visit to the joint International Research Laboratory, the French-Australian Laboratory for Humans-Autonomous Agents Teaming (IRL CROSSING). The research in IRL CROSSING focuses on fundamental research to support interaction between humans and autonomous agents, with a goal of effective human-machine teaming. This is a multidisciplinary topic bringing in researchers from disciplines including human factors, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning and behavioural neuroscience. The lab was launched in February 2021 through a virtual and in person ceremony.

While at the CROSSING lab, the visiting delegation were presented with an overview of strategy and research at the laboratory, as well as presentations about the following collaborative research projects:

• Augmented and virtual reality, including a demonstration of a shared workspace for a team between France and Australia
• Human factors and task performance monitoring, based on wearable sensors
• Interactive robotics, including a robot demonstration
• Study of fatigue and sleep impact on team performance
• Learning by robot manipulation
• Bio-inspired machine learning to improve the control of underwater vehicles.

The presentations were followed by an engaging open panel discussion on the above collaborative projects from CNRS, the University of South Australia, IMT Atlantique, the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and Naval Group. These projects reflect the bilateral cooperation opportunities of the IRL with l' Université Bretagne Sud (UBS), l’ École Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Brest (ENIB) and l’École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA), also present as participants in these projects in addition to the CROSSING partners.

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), Professor Anton Middelberg, also hosted a lunch for His Excellency Mr Jean-Pierre Thébault, Ambassador of France, and the CNRS delegation. The lunch featured South Australian produce and wines made by University of Adelaide alumni.

The Ambassador and delegation were joined for lunch by The Honourable Dr Susan Close MP, Deputy Premier of South Australia.

Following lunch, the delegation proceeded to Lot Fourteen for a tour of the Australian Institute of Machine Learning (AIML).