Georges Giralt PhD Award
for the best PhD thesis in Europe
The
Georges Giralt PhD Award is an annual award given by EURON for the best PhD thesis in Europe. The aim is to encourage high-quality work amongst young researchers in their first research period. The prize consists of a diploma and, in addition, the authors of all short-listed theses are offered an opportunity to publish their thesis as a monograph with Springer.
The PhD award is named the Georges Giralt PhD Award in recognition of the significant efforts made by
Georges Giralt (LAAS) to set up and stimulate a European community in robotics during multiple decennia and starting from the 1970s.
To be eligible for the award, the thesis must not only be of high quality but also have been defended during the period mentioned in the yearly Call. Students who have been awarded a PhD degree within that time period can submit their thesis for consideration, if the PhD granting institute is a
member of EURON. A panel of senior EURON researchers reviews the submissions and selects a winner. The Award is presented during the yearly European Robotics Forum.
The jury of this event consists of the following members: Sarthak Misra, Geert De Cubber, Fabio Bonsignorio, Krzysztof Kozlowski, Paolo Rocco, Catalin Buiu, Giuseppina Gini, Jose A. Castellanos, Daniele Nardi, Alessandro Saffiotti, Aydan Erkmen, Jorge Dias, Angel P. del Pobil, Gerhard Kraetzschmar, and Herman Bruyninckx.
Twelfth PhD Award (to be awarded on March 20, 2013)
The Call for the
2013 Georges Giralt PhD Award resulted in
37 submissions. After two review rounds, three finalists have been selected, and are invited to present a summary of their PhD work on the upcoming
European Robotics Forum in Lyon, on March 20, 2013.
Eleventh PhD Award (awarded on March 6, 2012)
The Call for the
2012 Georges Giralt PhD Award resulted in
35 submissions. After two review rounds the first four candidates were selected as finalists, presenting a summary of their PhD work on the upcoming European Robotics Forum in Odense, on March 6, 2012.
Sami Haddadin was eventually awarded the 2012 Georges Giralt PhD Award.
Tenth PhD Award (awarded on April 7, 2011)
The Call closed on December 31, 2010, and we received
31 submissions. The first three in the list below have been selected by the
European Education and Training Board as the finalists, and they presented their work on the
European Robotics Forum. The winner was
Mario Prats. Congratulations to all finalists!
Ninth PhD Award (awarded on March 11, 2010)
The
2010 Georges Giralt PhD Award was won by
Ludovic Righetti from EPFL, with a thesis entitled
Control of Legged Locomotion using Dynamical Systems: Design Methods and Adaptive Frequency Oscillators.
The other finalists were Eris Chinellato, Angelika Peer, Christian Plagemann, and Davide Scaramuzza.
Eight PhD Award (awarded on April 7, 2009)
The three finalists that presented their PhD on the
Annual Meeting in Leuven are:
- Eric Demeester, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
User-adapted plan recognition and shared control for wheelchair driver assistance under uncertainty
- Alejandro-Dizan Vasquez-Govea, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble
Incremental Learning for Motion Prediction of Pedestrians and Vehicles
- Bram Vanderborght, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Dynamic stabilisation of the biped Lucy powered by actuators with controllable stiffness
And the winner was...
Alejandro-Dizan Vasquez-Govea!
Seventh PhD Award (awarded on March 28, 2008)
Two prizes were awarded in 2008, one for a Core Robotics thesis and one for a more applied, Technology Transfer, thesis.
CONGRATULATIONS!
to the
Technology Transfer winner: ^
Eduardo Rocón of the Instituto de Automática Industrial, Spain; for his thesis "Active reduction of pathological tremor of superior limbs by means of robotic exoskeletons.
Congratulations also to the two runners-up:
Matthijs T. J. Spaan, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands: "Approximate planning under uncertainty in partially observable environments"; and
Vincent Duindam, The Netherlands: "Port-Based modeling and control for efficient bipedal walking".
CONGRATULATIONS!
to the Core Robotics winner:
Cyrill Stachniss of the University of Freiburg, Germany; for his thesis "Exploration and Mapping with Mobile Robots.
Congratulations also to the two runners-up:
Andreas Nuechter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, Germany: "Semantic three dimensional maps for autonomous mobile robots"; and
Samir Bouabdallah, EPFL, Switzerland: "Design and control of quadrotors with application to autonomous flying".
