Working in the field of robotics often means dreaming of many things at once: creating robots that help people, taking part in international competitions, earning peer recognition. The range is broad and, in many cases, includes taking part in the Imperial Robotics Summer School, organised by Imperial College London.
For INESC TEC researchers Pedro Afonso Dias and Miguel Nakajima Marques, reality proved even more surprising than the dream, as the pair embarked on a five-day experience at the prestigious Summer School. Renowned for opening doors and accelerating skills, this year’s edition brought together 35 participants and combined hands-on and advanced learning, contact with experts, and continuous interaction with cutting-edge technologies.
“I had the opportunity to observe up close several technologies still in development, as well as others perfectly aligned with my PhD plan, which made me realise that we are all on a common path towards consistent technological progress,” recalled Pedro Afonso Dias. “It was incredible to meet and attend lectures by leading names in the field who ‘materialised at the Summer School – people who, until then, were just names in scientific papers to me,” he confessed.
Miguel Nakajima Marques had a similar experience, highlighting the value of direct contact with some of the leading researchers in robotics. “Being able to listen to them and understand how they address the scientific questions that made them so influential in the field was extraordinary.”
A routine between theory and practice
The five days were filled with an intense mix of theory and practice. Mornings were dedicated to lectures and talks by professors and experts from Imperial College London, covering the fundamentals of robotics and complementary areas like computer vision, Reinforcement Learning (RL), and Learning from Demonstration (LfD).
In the afternoons, participants worked in groups in laboratory settings, preparing projects that would later be presented on the final day of the event – combining theory and practice in an intensive, collaborative way.
During this stage, Pedro and Miguel joined different groups. “I was part of the team responsible for programming a robot to study linguistic indicators for the early detection of dementia. The robot had a friendly appearance and was designed to maintain a fluent conversation with the user. The user’s task was to describe an image commonly used in this type of exercise (the Cookie Theft exercise), while the robot’s task was to help them describe it, provide details, encourage them, and keep them focused on the task. To achieve this, we used Visual Language Models (VLMs), as well as low-level control for the robot’s movements and synchronisation systems to keep interactions smooth and realistic,” explained researcher Pedro Afonso Dias.
Back in Portugal, both researchers draw a positive balance, describing the experience as highly valuable. “The main advantage is the amount of information and diversity of perspectives we were exposed to in such a short period,” Miguel noted – adding that the practical projects made it possible not only to get to know the structure of one of the world’s best universities but also to meet the people behind it.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC
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