The International Conference on Social Robotics brings researchers and practitioners together to 
report on and discuss the state-of-the-art research in the field of social robotics. The conference
focuses particularly on social interaction between humans and robots, the integration of robots 
into our society, and the design of next generation social robot interfaces and systems.

The theme of the 2011 conference is "Alive!" It expresses the vitality of the social robotics 
research, paying particular attention to the development of robots that appear increasingly 
social -- the point that people perceive them to be alive. The conference aims to foster discussion
on the development of computational models, robotic embodiments, and behavior that enable robots 
to act socially and the impact that social robots have on people and their social and physical 
environment.

*Full Papers*
The conference welcomes rigorous, original research work that makes scientific, technical, and/or 
philosophical contributions. Submissions will be evaluated for scientific and intellectual merit 
through a rigorous peer-review process. Authors of top papers will be invited to expand their work 
for publication in the International Journal of Social Robotics. We encourage multidisciplinary work that combines knowledge and methods from computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, psychology, sociology, anthropology, design, and philosophy. We also encourage the integration of scientific and practical perspectives such as how social robots might improve practices in health, wellbeing, rehabilitation, and education. Studies may report on technological developments, innovative ideas, new discoveries, and practical applications.

*Tutorials*
The conference will also feature tutorials that aim at training the next generation of social 
robotics researchers. Experts in the field will offer the tutorials and cover overviews of related 
work and multidisciplinary research methods in social robotics. We invite senior researchers to 
propose tutorials and students and others who would like to expand their knowledge of social 
robotics and tools for conducting research in this area to participate.

*Design Competition*
Finally, the conference will also invite contributions to a robot design competition. The 
competition will follow the conference theme "Alive!" and aim at creating the social robot of year 
2020 where robots are integrated into the human physical and social environments and offer their 
users natural, fluent, and purposeful interactions. The submissions can be conceptual or 
work-in-progress prototypes, but must contribute to "social" robots. Competition entries will be 
evaluated during the conference by an international panel of experts in robot design.

*Organizers*

Standing Committee:
Sam Ge (National University of Singapore, Singapore), Chair Maja Mataric (University of South 
California, USA) Haizhou Li (A*Star, Singapore) Jong-Hwan Kim (KAIST, Korea)

General Chairs:
Vanessa Evers (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Jaap Ham (Eindhoven University of 
Technology, The Netherlands) Takayuki Kanda (ATR IRC, Japan)

Program Chairs:
Christoph Bartneck (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) Bilge Mutlu (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

Tutorials Chair:
Martin Saerbeck (A*STAR, Singapore)

Design Competition Chair:
Henrik Scharfe (Aalborg University, Denmark)

Publication Chair:
Dana Kulic (University of Waterloo, Canada)

Exhibition Chair:
Astrid Weiss (University of Salzburg, Austria)

Finance Chair:
Birna van Reimsdijk (TU Delft, The Netherlands)

Website Chair:
David van der Pol (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)

Program Committee:
Kai Oliver Arras (University of Freiburg, Germany) Christian Becker-Asano (University of Freiburg, 
Germany) Tony Belpaeme (University of Plymouth, UK) Cindy Bethel (Yale University, USA) XiaoQi Chen
(University of Canterbury, New Zealand) Dylan Glas (ATR, Japan) Masayuki Kanbara (NAIST, Japan) 
Myung-Suk Kim (KAIST, South Korea) Takanori Komatsu (Shinshu University, Japan) Kolja Kuehnlenz 
(Technical University of Munich, Germany) Bruce MacDonald (Auckland University, New Zealand) 
Michio Okada (Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan) Sarah Perez-Kriz (University of Washington, USA) 
Selma Sabanovic (Indiana University, USA) Aaron Steinfeld (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) Leila 
Takayama (Willow Garage, Inc., USA) Manfred Tscheligi (University of Salzburg, Austria) Britta 
Wrede (University of Bielefeld, Germany) Yuichiro Yoshikawa (Osaka University, Japan)

*Submission*
Submissions must be made in the PDF format and follow the Springer LNCS style for the layout. 
Templates for MS Word and LaTeX are available on the conference website. Full papers are limited 
to *ten* A4 sized pages. The conference proceedings will be published by Springer and included in 
its online archives.

*Important Dates*
Paper and tutorial submissions:    June 1, 2011
Notification of acceptance:        August 1, 2011
Final manuscript submission:       September 7, 2011
Conference:                        November 24-25, 2011

Full details can be found on the conference website (http://www.icsr2011.org). A PDF conference 
poster is available at http://icsr2011.org/poster.pdf.