Seminars

We at Heriot-Watt University and University of Edinburgh run a Computer Science Seminar Series on behalf of the CS department, the National Robotarium and Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. We invite leading researchers and industry experts from Scotland, rest of the UK as well as internationally. We hope such seminars can lead to new collaborations and networking opportunities, as well as allow attendees to learn about new and interesting topics. The seminar series are organised twice monthly and is usually hosted at the Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh campus or the University of Edinburgh.

Upcoming Event

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Time table

Date Time Speaker Title Confirmation
14-Jun-23 13:00 - 14:00 Dr Mary Ellen Foster, University of Glasgow Face-to-Face Conversation with Socially Intelligent Robots
Additional details for 14-Jun-23
28-Jun-23 13:00 - 14:00 Reserved TBC
Additional details for 28-Jun-23
Jul-Aug Summer Break
Additional details for Jul-Aug
23-Aug-23 13:00 - 14:00 Available
Additional details for 23-Aug-23
06-Sep-23 13:00 - 14:00 Prof Barry Brown, Stockholm University & University of Copenhagen TBC
Additional details for 06-Sep-23
20-Sep-23 13:00 - 14:00 Available
Additional details for 20-Sep-23
04-Oct-23 13:00 - 14:00 Available
Additional details for 04-Oct-23
18-Oct-23 13:00 - 14:00 Available
Additional details for 18-Oct-23
01-Nov-23 13:00 - 14:00 Available
Additional details for 01-Nov-23
15-Nov-23 13:00 - 14:00 Available
Additional details for 15-Nov-23
Additional details for 29-Nov-23
Additional details for 13-Dec-23
Additional details for 27-Dec-23


Previous Events

Understanding User Needs for Assistive Robots in Senior Living Communities
Laura Stegner, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
• Seminar
• 19th April 2023 13:00 - 14:00
• EMG.83 Robotarium Seminar Room, Earl Mountbatten building, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS

Many countries around the world are faced with challenges relating to an increasingly aging population and growing shortage of caregivers to support them. Robots, along with other technology solutions, hold significant promise to fill this gap. However, it has not yet been fully considered how these capabilities could be integrated into the daily lives of professional caregivers and care recipients. In this talk, I will present a research program that seeks to uncover the needs of these two key user groups to understand how assistive robots can be successfully integrated into senior living communities. First, we worked with professional caregivers using ethnographic and co-design methods to identify their workflows and needs from robotic assistance. Second, we developed a novel method called Situated Participatory Design to work with residents of a senior living community to explore how a robot could fit into their day-to-day lives. I will present results from both of these field studies and discuss the complex set of factors that influence how assistive robots need to be personalized to succeed in the complex caregiving ecosystem.

Specification and Formal Analysis of Attestation Mechanisms in Confidential Computing
Muhammad Usama Sardar, TU Dresden, Germany
• Seminar
• 17th May 2023 13:00 - 14:00
• EM1.83 Robotarium Seminar Room, Earl Mountbatten building, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS

Attestation is one of the most critical mechanisms in confidential computing (CC). This talk presents a novel approach based on the combination of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)-agnostic attestation architecture and formal analysis enabling comprehensive and rigorous security analysis of attestation mechanisms in CC. We demonstrate the application of our approach for three prominent industrial representatives, namely Arm Confidential Compute Architecture (CCA) in architecture lead solutions, Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) in vendor solutions, and Secure CONtainer Environment (SCONE) in frameworks. For each of these solutions, we provide a comprehensive specification of all phases of the attestation mechanism in confidential computing, namely provisioning, initialization, and attestation protocol. Our approach reveals design and security issues in Intel TDX and SCONE attestation.

Speaker Bio: Muhammad Usama Sardar is a Research Associate at TU Dresden working for the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 248 “Foundations of Perspicuous Software Systems” (CPEC) since October 2021. His current research focuses on the formal specification and verification of architecturally-defined remote attestation for confidential computing, specifically Intel SGX, TDX and Arm CCA. He leads the recently accepted formal specification project in CCC Attestation SIG, and contributes to various research networks, such as EuroProofNet (WG3), Open Compute Project (OCP), and Méthodes formelles pour la sécurité. He is also a tutor for the master’s courses: Systems Engineering, Principles of Dependable Systems, and Software Fault Tolerance.

Talk done joint with Cybersec / LAIV / DSG