University of Delaware faculty are invited to the UD IDEA Network Third Thursday Faculty Social from 4 to 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 19, at the Venture Development Center (VDC).

This program features UD faculty and an industry representative discussing challenges and opportunities related to autonomous systems. Refreshments and a social hour will immediately follow the presentations for a chance to interact and collaborate with faculty from across colleges.

The speakers on Oct. 19 will be

• Paul Huang, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering and computer and information sciences, "Localization and mapping for autonomous driving,”
• Andreas Malikopoulos, associate professor and director of the Information and Decision Science (IDS) Laboratory, "Smart Cities with Connected and Automated Vehicles,” and
• Peter Bale, CEO of Sentinel Robotic Solutions LLC, topic to be determined.

“We want to create a casual environment where like-minded faculty can come together and share information about what they’re doing, find out about new things happening on campus and hopefully meet potential collaborators,” said Martha L. Hall, a doctoral candidate in biomechanics and movement science and director for The Idea Network, a media and public relations agency.

Hall was inspired to organize the UD IDEA Network Third Thursday Faculty Social when she realized how little faculty knew of each other outside of their own departments and concentrations.

“I noticed that an art professor and an electrical engineering professor were doing similar research but they had never met,” said Hall. “The hope is that [attendees] get out of their own departments, engage with other faculty and form partnerships that can be fruitful to everybody.”

Each event will feature a different topic of discussion from virtual reality, to robotics to 3-D printing. The series will conclude on April 19 with a “maker crawl,” a mobile event in which participants will visit a handful of the centrally located maker spaces, ending with the VDC.

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