Welcome to the website of the 2026 IEEE Summer School on Telerobotics and Cyborg Technologies! This is a joint effort between the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, the Future Directions Initiative on Telepresence, and the Robotics and Automation Society.
Summer School Details
Where: Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT, Rochester, NY, USA
(please note that this will be an in-person event)
When: July 13-17, 2026
What: (1) A series of lectures by world experts in telerobotics, cyborg, user experience, and telepresence technologies. (2) Face-to-face with numerous telerobotics and cyborg technology companies from around the world. (3) Chance to win prizes in a multi-robot teleoperation user interface design challenge. (4) Earn Professional Development Hours from IEEE.
Application Form
The summer school will be open to 40 graduate students (Master’s and PhD) and postdoctoral fellows. To apply, please fill out the form in the link below. You will need to upload (1) your latest CV, (2) a motivation letter as to why you wish to join the summer school, and (3) a reference letter from your supervisor.
Evaluations will start on May 1st and will continue until all 40 slots are filled. Results will start to be announced after May 13, 2026.
Registration Details
The summer school will cover meals and accommodations for the 40 selected students during the week. There will be a nominal registration fee of $250 and students are to cover travel expenses themselves. We will seek corporate sponsorship and, if successful, travel awards will be made available to the students.
The link to the registration portal is available in your acceptance letter. Registration Deadline for accepted students: June 15, 2026
Multi-Robot Teleoperation Unified User Interface (UUI) Design Challenge
Summer school students will be placed in teams of four to work together on developing a unified user interface (UUI) to control 2+ teleoperated robots. Rovers and humanoid robots will be available. Students will be required to bring their own laptops with the required software (to be defined at a later date). The UUIs will be evaluated by expert teleoperators on the last day of the summer school and the winning teams will take home prizes (and bragging rights!)
Available Land Robots
Available Humanoids
Schedule
Draft Schedule, subject to change
Confirmed Speakers
Daniel I. Goldman
Georgia Tech, USA
Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu
NASA/JPL, USA
Jessie YC Chen
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, USA
Lecture: Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Machine Teaming, and Agent Transparency.
Jamison Heard
Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Levi J. Hargrove
Northwestern University, USA
Maria Kyrarini
Santa Clara University, USA
Lecture: Cognitive fatigue assessment in voice-based human-robot interactions
Neal Lii
DLR, German Space Agency, Germany
Corey Du Val
Booster Robotics, USA
Chris Kudla
Mind Children, USA
Lecture: Rethinking the Cyborg
Edward Tunstel
Southwest Research Institute, USA
Lecture: Practical Matters in Real-World Telepresence Applications
Selma Šabanović
Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Organizers
Tiago H. Falk
INRS-EMT, Canada
Ferat Sahin
RIT, USA
Adrian Stoica
JPL, USA
UUI Challenge Organizers and Support Team
Daniel Soto,
Ground Control Robotics, USA
Mohamad Shaaban
IIT, Italy
Yonas Tefera
IIT, Italy
Rob Mueller
NASA, USA
Olmo Moreno
IIT, Italy
Sponsors
Industry partners
