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ORIentate Seminar, Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford

ORIentate Seminar

ORIentate is the bi-weekly seminar series ran by the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI). It is an opportunity for the ORI community to connect and share their work. We host diverse sessions ranging from presentations from our academics and students, tutorials on technical topics, and keynotes given by invited external speakers. 

This event is only for members and associates of the Oxford Robotics Institute.

Lead: Perla Maiolino

Postdoc Chairs: Victor-Alexandru Darvariu and Joe Watson

 

 

Upcoming Talks

19 March 2026: Lorenzo Masia (Technical University of Munich)

Title TBC

Speaker: Lorenzo Masia (Technical University of Munich)

Location: LR1, Thom Building

Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

 

5 March 2026: Nick Hawes (ORI)

ORGS Lecture Series: How to Give a Presentation

Speaker: Nick Hawes (ORI)

Location: LR1, Thom Building

Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

 

19 February 2026: Jana Tumova (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Title TBC

Speaker: Jana Tumova (KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Visiting Professor at ORI)

Location: LR2, Thom Building

Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

 

Past Talks

22 January 2026: Digby Chappell (ORI)

Placing Humans at the Centre of Wearable Assistive Robotics and Technology

Speaker: Digby Chappell (Oxford Robotics Institute)

Location: LR1, Thom Building

Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

 

11 December 2025: Transfer of Status Presentations

Transfer of Status Presentations

Speakers: ORI students preparing for Transfer of Status (ToS)

Location: HBAC Lecture Theatre

Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

 

12 November 2025: Zac Manchester (CMU)

Composable Optimization for Robotic Motion Planning and Control

Speaker: Zac Manchester (Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University)

Location: LR1, Thom Building

Time: 4pm-5pm

Note that this seminar is taking place on a Wednesday.

 

30 October 2025: Intro to Oxford University Innovations and Tutorial on Graph Neural Networks

Location: TBC

Session 1

Intro to Oxford University Innovations (OUI)

Speaker: Serena de Nahlik (OUI)

Session 2

Tutorial on Graph Neural Networks

Speakers: Alex Schutz and Victor Darvariu (GOALS Group, ORI)

 

16 October 2025: Introduction to ORI Research Groups

Introduction to ORI Research Groups

Speakers: All ORI Principal Investigators

Location: Lecture Theatre LR7 (Information Engineering Building)

Time: 3:30pm-5pm

 

18 September 2025: Michael Levin (Tufts University) and Jianhao Yuan (ORI)

Location: Thom Building Lecture Theatre LR2

Session 1

Intrinsic motivation in evolved, engineered, and hybrid systems: the interface of biophysics, computer science, and behavioral science

Speaker: Michael Levin (Tufts University)

Session 2

Evaluating Intuitive Physics Understanding in Video Diffusion Models via Likelihood Preference

Speakers: Jianhao Yuan (CRG & MRG Groups, ORI)