IEEE RAS Summer School in Germany: Bridging AI and Robotics
The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) German Chapter is pleased to announce the IEEE RAS Summer School on Cognitive Robotics, taking place from September 7–11, 2026 (arrival on September 6, 2026), at the historic Abtei Frauenwörth, Chiemsee, Germany.
Robotics is rapidly evolving from laboratory research into a transformative technology with impact across manufacturing, healthcare, mobility, civil security, and everyday life. At the same time, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence are creating new opportunities for autonomous systems that can perceive, reason, learn, interact, and act in complex real-world environments.
This Summer School brings together leading researchers from AI and robotics to explore the foundations and future of cognitive robotics. The program will address key topics such as decision making, automated planning, continual learning, task and motion integration, perception-driven autonomy, and human-AI interaction.
Participants will benefit from lectures, discussions, and networking opportunities in an interactive setting designed for students, early-career researchers, and professionals interested in the next generation of intelligent robotic systems. The Summer School also offers a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with international experts, connect with peers, and engage with entrepreneurs working at the forefront of robotics and automation.
Applications are open until July 13, 2026. The number of participants is limited to ensure a highly interactive learning experience. Registration is open until July 31, 2026.
Important notes for registration -- PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!!!
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Registration fees are processed in USD through the IEEE vTools registration system.
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Registration is open only to accepted applicants. Please register only if you have received an official acceptance notification and invitation to register. Full payment is required to complete your registration. Please ensure that you select the correct registration category.
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Registrations submitted without a valid invitation or with the wrong registration category will be cancelled. In such cases, refunds are subject to IEEE policies and procedures. A minimum processing fee of USD 50 will be deducted from any approved refund.
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Non-Student Registration Fees
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Non-IEEE Member: USD 870 (19% VAT included)
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IEEE Member: USD 820 (19% VAT included)
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IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Member: USD 770 (19% VAT included)
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Student Registration Fees (Please bring a valid student ID or an official proof of enrollment to the summer school to verify your student status.)
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Student / Non-IEEE Member: USD 750 (19% VAT included)
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Student / IEEE Member: USD 710 (19% VAT included)
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Student / IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Member: USD 670 (19% VAT included)
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- Upon successful registration and payment, we can, upon request, issue an invoice that clearly itemizes the registration fee and the applicable VAT.
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An IEEE Account may be required to access the IEEE vTools registration and payment system. Creating an IEEE Account is free of charge. IEEE membership is required only to qualify for the IEEE member registration fees.
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Cancellation requests received before August 10, 2026, are eligible for a refund, subject to an administrative fee of 20% of the amount paid. Cancellation requests received after August 10, 2026, are not eligible for a refund.
Visit the event's website for more details.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
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- Frauenwörth Abbey in Chiemsee
- Chiemsee-Frauenchiemsee (Insel), Bayern
- Germany 83256
- Click here for Map
- Starts 17 July 2026 10:00 PM UTC
- Ends 30 August 2026 09:59 PM UTC
- Admission fee ?
Speakers
Hector Geffner of RWTH Aachen
Biography:
Hector Geffner is an Alexander von Humboldt Professor at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Before joining RWTH in 2023, he was an ICREA Research Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.
Hector obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UCLA and worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York and at the Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas. Distinctions for his work include the 1990 ACM Dissertation Award and three ICAPS Influential Paper Awards. He currently leads a project on representation learning for acting and planning (RLeap) funded by an ERC grant.
Address:United Kingdom
Brian Williams of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Biography:
Brian Williams is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Principal Investigator in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and an Adjunct Researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research focuses on online task and motion planning with bounded risk and human-robot collaboration, with applications to autonomous vehicles and robotic teams.
Address:United States
Hermann Blum of Lamarr Institute
Biography:
Hermann Blum is a junior professor at the Lamarr Institute / University of Bonn. Previously, he worked as a postdoc in the Computer Vision and Geometry Lab of ETH Zürich. For his PhD, he was part of the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zürich. His research focuses on embodied perception. He develops models and methods to understand an agent’s environment semantically and geometrically, with recent interests in robotic manipulation, video understanding, and mixed reality.
Jan Peters of TU Darmstadt
Biography:
Jan Peters is a Professor of Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the Department of Computer Science of the Technical University of Darmstadt and Head of the Systems AI for Robot Learning (SAIROL) department at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). He is also a founding faculty member of the Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI). His research focuses on robot learning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, motor skill acquisition, and autonomous intelligent systems. Before joining TU Darmstadt, he completed degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in Germany, followed by two Master’s degrees and a PhD at the University of Southern California (USC). Throughout his academic career, he has held research appointments at institutions including the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Siemens, and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) in Japan.
João Silvério of German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Biography:
João Silvério is a Senior Researcher and Group Leader at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he leads the Interactive Skill Learning Group. His research focuses on efficient robot skill acquisition through imitation and reinforcement learning, with an emphasis on data-efficient learning and generalization. Prior to joining DLR, he spent five years at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, where he obtained his PhD in 2017, followed by 2.5 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Idiap Research Institute in Switzerland. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Robotics and is a member of the ELLIS network.
Majid Khadiv of Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Biography:
Majid Khadiv’s research interests include planning, control, and learning for robotic systems, with an emphasis on locomotion and manipulation. His research goal is to develop theoretical frameworks that enable loco-manipulation systems to autonomously interact with the environment and continuously learn from these interactions. He received his PhD from K. N. Toosi University of Technology in 2017. From 2018 to 2023, he was a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. In 2023, he was appointed Professor for AI Planning in Dynamic Environments at TUM and MIRMI.
Marc Toussaint of TU Berlin
Biography:
Marc Toussaint is professor for Learning and Intelligent Systems at TU Berlin. His research is in the intersection of AI and robotics, in particular combining machine learning, optimization, and AI reasoning to tackle fundamental problems in robotics.
Rudolf Lioutikov of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Biography:
Rudolf Lioutikov is a Tenure-Track Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He started the Intuitive Robots Lab in June 2021 after being accepted into the Emmy Noether Programme by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). The group develops new robot learning methods that focus on human-robot interaction with non-experts.