e-VITA Virtual coach

Roman Englert from Siegen University and Deutsche Telekom AG. Roman Englert is Honorary Professor, Dr. habil.After his Doctorate and Habilitation in Machine Learning he initiated and joined funded R&D projects in the areas of Artificial Intelligence. In 2004, he became a founding member of the Telekom R&D Laboratories and started to focus on Usability and End-User Development for Human Support Systems. In 2010, when he returned from Ben-Gurion University (Israel) to Siegen University, the research focus was intensified onto Elderly Support Systems. Currently Roman Englert is member of several scientific boards to evaluate and support research for the Elderly Society. He received two fellowships from the German Research Society. His mission is to integrate Elderly Support Systems for assistance and communication into the ageing society to enable everybody to live self-reliant.

Masahiro Fujita graduated from Waseda University in 1981 and received a Master’s degree (MSEE) from University of California Irvine in 1989. In 1981, he joined Sony Corporation and developed the entertainment robot AIBO and the small humanoid QRIO. Afterwards, he studied a new approach to realize self-development intelligence focusing embodiment and dynamics.  In 2018, he became Senior Chief Researcher and started some new project such as gastronomy project and AI Ethics project. He worked to release Sony Group AI Ethics Guidelines in 2018 and establish Sony Group AI Ethics Committee in 2019, and he is the head of the Secretariate. He became a Director of Sony AI established April 1^st, 2020. The mission of Sony AI is to unleash human imagination and creativity with AI including Gastronomy project.

Yves Gellie, Filmmaker, Photographer, Artist Plastician After medical studies, he practiced tropical medicine, then start a career in photo-journalism, publishing his work in magazines like National Geographic, Sunday Time, Stern, Geo, Le Monde… World press in 1982. From 1999, he has developed a work being between Documentary and Contemporary Art. In 2016, he started a new movie “Year of the robot”, working with the Anne- Sophie Rigaud’s team at the LUSAGE lab of the Broca hospital (Paris), involved today in E vita project. His movie got 16 awards. There is a strong analogy between his movie and the spirit of E-vita project. Yves Gellie  foreshadows a future world in which mankind will grow closer to robots, making their dreams come true. his commitment in robotic and IA made him explore many facets of this relationship.

Dr. Franz Waldenberger has been Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo since October 2014. He is on leave from Munich University where he holds a professorship for Japanese Economy. His research focuses on the Japanese Economy, Corporate Governance and International Management. He is editor in chief of the international peer reviewed journal Contemporary Japan. His recent publications include Governance, Risk and Financial Impact of Mega Disasters. Lessons from Japan, Springer 2019 (co-edited with A. Kamesaka). As member of the Japanese German Forum and the board of the Japanese German Business Association, he has for many years been working for the betterment of German Japanese relations.

Prof. Dr. med. Kai Kolpatzik, MPH, EMPH Prof. Dr. med. Kai Kolpatzik is a medical physician and public health expert, and worked as a medical practitioner in surgery at hospitals in Freiburg and Lake Constance. He was based at the University of Bielefeld – where he completed a Master of Public Health and European Master of Public Health – and at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva before taking up his post at the AOK Federal Association in 2004. Since 2009 he has been heading up the Department of Prevention in the AOK Federal Association with 27 million insured persons. He is initiator of the first study of health literacy in Germany as well as the first study of food literacy, digital health literacy and the National Action Plan on Health Literacy. His focus of work is on health promotion and prevention, health literacy, health communication and digital health.

Daniel Knopp from BBT Germany; Daniel Knopp is head of care for the elderly at Barmherzige Brüder Trier (BBT) Gruppe in Germany. Nursing and care for the elderly have been at the centre of Daniel Knopp’s professional life right from its outset. As a trained nurse, he received a degree in Nursing Management from KFH Mainz in 2002 and later on specialized on care for the elderly when obtaining a Master’s degree in Gerontomanagement from the same institution in 2008. Throughout his professional career as manager, director and advisor of elderly care institutions, Daniel’s focus has been on quality management and assurance in care institutions, paying particular attention to a patient-centred approach. As a member of the dissemination-exploitation advisory board of eVITA, Daniel’s mission is to ensure that this patient-centred approach will be applied to the highest possible standards in the eVITA project “Virtual Coach for Smart Ageing”.

Alexandre Mazel from Aldebaran Alexandre Mazel is Innovation Director from Aldebaran, previously Softbank Robotics. After 10 years of experiences in R&D on various subjects (AI, video games, military, audio and graphical effects), Alexandre joined Aldebaran Robotics in 2008 to insufflate his technical vision of entertainment to create the first NAO software and strategic demonstrations. After years of work on NAO, Romeo and Pepper, he then proceeded to input his valuable experience into research projects experimenting on robot assistance for visually impaired people, the elderly and kids with autism spectrum disorders. His mission today is to keep enhancing SoftBanks’ robots, to produce robots able to become life companions.