Speck&Tech Talks “(A)I, Robot” con Angelo Cangelosi e Leonardo Cavagnis

Talk 1 – “Cognitive Robotics: From Babies to Robots and AI” with Angelo Cangelosi (University of Manchester, UK)

Can robots learn languages like humans?
This talk dives into Cognitive Robotics, where AI, Psychology, and Neuroscience join forces to teach robots how we think, learn, and communicate. Using iCub and Pepper robots, researchers explore how babies acquire words, gestures, and even abstract concepts like numbers. But it’s not just about words: robots also develop a Theory of Mind, learning to interpret human intentions and build trust. The discussion goes beyond tech, tackling ethics, AI’s limits, and the future of human-robot collaboration. Can machines truly understand us? Let’s find out!

Talk 2 – “Edge AI: Bringing Intelligence to Embedded Devices” with Leonardo Cavagnis (Arduino)

Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to the cloud. Thanks to Edge AI, we can now run AI models directly on embedded devices with limited power and resources. In this session, we will explore the full pipeline of developing a Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) model, from data collection to deployment, addressing key challenges such as dataset preparation, model training, quantization, and optimization for embedded systems. We’ll explore real-world use
cases where AI-powered embedded systems enable smart decision-making in applications like predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and voice recognition.
The talk will include a live hands-on demonstration on how to train and deploy a model using popular tools like Google Colab and TensorFlow, and then run real-time inference on an Arduino board.

How to participate

Mandatory registration for attendance in person. Registration is now open.

Register here

About the speakers

Angelo Cangelosi is Professor of Machine Learning and Robotics at the University of Manchester (UK) and co-director and founder of the Manchester Centre for Robotics and AI. He was selected for the award of the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced grant (funded by UKRI). His research interests are in cognitive and developmental robotics, neural networks, language grounding, human robot-interaction and trust, and robot companions for health and social care. Overall, he has secured over £38m of research grants as coordinator/PI, including the ERC Advanced eTALK, the UKRI TAS Trust Node and CRADLE Prosperity, the US AFRL project THRIVE++, and numerous Horizon and MSCAs grants. Cangelosi has produced more than 300 scientific publications. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journals Interaction Studies and IET Cognitive Computation and Systems, and in 2015 was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Development. He has chaired numerous international conferences, including ICANN2022 Bristol, and ICDL2021 Beijing. His book “Developmental Robotics: From Babies to Robots” (MIT Press) was published in January 2015, and translated in Chinese and Japanese. His latest book “Cognitive Robotics” (MIT Press), coedited with Minoru Asada, was recently published in 2022 (Chinese translation in 2025).

Leonardo Cavagnis is an experienced embedded software engineer, interested in IoT and AI applications. At Arduino, he works as a firmware engineer, developing libraries and core functionalities for boards while also focusing on communication and engaging with the community.

Speck&Tech Association

Speck&Tech is the digital community of Trentino. Founded on March 1, 2016, it was registered as a “Cultural Association” on April 18, 2017. Its mission is to create a community of people united by a passion for technology and innovation, who want to exchange ideas and knowledge on these and related topics, mainly through the organization of monthly events (over 100 in recent years): https://speckand.tech/events.
Generally, the events consist of two half-hour talks on the same topic, in Italian or English, followed by 5 minutes of questions and answers. At the end of the evening, networking based on speck, focaccia and beers for all participants
All information on: https://speckand.tech/