While at ICRA, I tried brainstorming and pinpointing what would be most beneficial to students. The most common desire was that students wanted an opportunity to network with other roboticists. Unless they had an extremely conscience, outgoing faculty member who introduced them around, most students stayed with their lab, congregated with other students, or went back to their rooms. As an initial way to close the gap between students and roboticists in an educational purpose, I would like to propose the first of many activities under the “Fostering Interaction Between Robotists and Students (FIBRS) Program”: a Student/Chair mentoring program at IROS 2008.

I was at another conference, Engineering Meets Biology Conference, that had this program, and it worked out really well. Interested students would be paired with either a track chair or session chair to learn how a conference is organized and structured. This would give them a unique opportunity to learn how papers are selected, interact with new faculty members, and connect with roboticists in their field. It would also help train the next generation of faculty by giving students a window into the world of academia. This event would take place all throughout the conference as long as session and track chairs participate (I might need an email list to solicit chairs to volunteer for this program). I understand that people are busy at the conference, but it is up to the individual chair how much time they would like to spend with the students. It can be 15 min. or a dinner invitation to join them, it is entirely up to the chair. I am anticipating about 20 students paired up with 20 faculty members.

ICRA 2008 social had logistic problems. Students complained that event: * was inside conference center where they'd been all week * no free alcohol * lights too bright * place too large so that it didn't seem like there were too many people there * food should be closer to tables * too many guys * music too loud

ICRA 2008 Chapter and Leadership Workshop * Not enough discussion * No tangible, useful outcomes from the meeting

IROS 2008 social * Everyone who came had a wonderful time and got a chance to see the city * Should have had set times for doing the pub crawl. We ended up staying mainly only in one place

FIBRS Program * ???