Dear Autonomous Systems engineers, scientists, and enthusiasts,

you are welcomed to register in the 2020 'Programming short course and workshop on Deep Learning and Computer Vision for Autonomous Systems', with applications on various autonomous systems, notably drones.  It will take place on 19-21th August 2020 as an e-course hosted by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Thessaloniki, Greece, providing a series of lectures and programming workshops delivered through a tele-education platform.

Due to the special COVID-19 circumstances, the course is scheduled to take place primarily as web course (default mode). Remote participation will be available via teleconferencing.

Students will be helped on line for executing the programming workshops while at home.

A physical meeting (second short course mode) is also planned for the same dates, provided that: a) AUTH and national regulations allow it and b) there are sufficient physical attendees. 

Greece has had an excellent COVID-19 epidemic record (one of the best worldwide) and our University had no reported COVID-19 cases, whatsoever. We intend to take all appropriate measures to ensure this record in the future as well.

The programming short course consists of a good mix of lectures and programming workshops (hands-on exercises) aiming at developing registrants’ programming skills for
Deep Learning and Computer Vision, with focus on autonomous systems planning/control and imaging/perception. It is organized three parts (one per day):

1) Part A aims at deep neural network programming (Convolutional NN and their use in target/object detection, PyTorch, Tensorflow).
2) Part B aims at computer vision programming (target tracking and localization, GPU architectures and programming, CUDA, OpenCV programming, drone mission simulations).
3) Part C aims at autonomous systems perception and programming (ROS, Gazebo, AIRSIM).

You can use the following link for course registration: http://icarus.csd.auth.gr/autonomous-systems-2020/

For questions, please contact: Ioanna Koroni <koroniioanna@csd.auth.gr&gt;

The short course is sponsored by the European Horizon2020 R&D project Aerial Core. It is organized by Prof. I. Pitas, IEEE and EURASIP fellow, Coordination of the European Horizon2020 R&D project Multidrone, Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Information analysis Lab (AIIA Lab), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Chair of the IEEE SPS Autonomous Systems Initiative. He is ranked 249 top Computer Science and Electronics Scientist internationally by Guide2research (2018).

The lectures and programming sessions will be delivered by very qualified Postdoc/PhD researchers and Professors, with a long R&D record in drone and autonomous systems programming from University of Seville (Robotics, Vision and Control Research Group) and AIIA Lab, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki is a very pleasant city at the end of August, with vibrant night-life, very close to world-class resorts in Chalkidiki peninsula.

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the biggest University in Greece and in SE Europe. It is highly ranked internationally and its campus is at the city center.

Course registrants may also want to register (if so desired) in the back2back short course on ‘Short course on Deep Learning and Computer Vision for Autonomous Systems 2020. Application focus on autonomous/self-driving cars', 17-18th August 2020: http://icarus.csd.auth.gr/dl-and-cv-for-autonomous-cars-2020/

Relevant links:

1. H2020 project Aerial-Core: https://aerial-core.eu/

2. AIIA Lab: http://www.aiia.csd.auth.gr/

3. Prof. I. Pitas: https://scholar.google.gr/citations?user=lWmGADwAAAAJ&hl=el

Description of ‘Programming short course and workshop on Deep Learning and Computer Vision for Autonomous Systems’, 19-21th August 2020.

Part A (8 hours), Deep learning sample topic list

1. Deep neural networks. Convolutional NNs
2. Deep learning for target detection
3. PyTorch basics
4. Target detection with PyTorch
5. Object oriented Tensorflow in Google Colab

Part B (8 hours), Computer vision sample topic list

1. 2D target tracking
2. Parallel GPU and multi-core CPU architectures. GPU programming
3. CUDA programming
4. OpenCV programming for object tracking

Part C (8 hours), Drone planning/control sample topic list

1. Drone mission simulations.
2. Drone perception and estimation.
3. ROS UAL Abstraction Layer for drone applications.
4. Drone perception with ROS.

Sincerely yours
Prof. I. Pitas
Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Information analysis Lab (AIIA Lab)

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece