London has been selected to host IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s (RAS) flagship International Conference on Robotics and Automations (ICRA) in 2023.
The UK capital will welcome over 4,000 of the world’s top experts and researchers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics for a four-day conference to be held at ExCeL London between May 29-June 2, 2023.
ICRA will be the first major international robotics and automation congress to be hosted in the UK and is expected to bring over £13 million (A$23.3 million) economic benefit to London.
In a highly competitive bidding process, London was chosen ahead of other shortlisted cities, Vienna and Copenhagen. The city’s bid was fronted by Professor Kaspar Althoefer from Queen Mary University of London with the support of the London Convention Bureau, ExCeL London and MCI UK.
Additional backing for the congress was gathered from across the public and private sector with an impressive line-up of supporters including: The Mayor of London, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, King’s College London, Imperial College London, University College London, Queen Mary University, The Alan Turing Institute, Cognition X, as well as some of London’s top AI and robotics companies such as DeepMind and Shadow Robot.
Interactive workshops
The wide-ranging program will see delegates take part in interactive workshops, tutorials and networking events hosted at some of London’s most iconic venues.
The congress program will also feature outreach activities including a robot competition between schools in England, aimed at children aged 7 to 12 years old to raise enthusiasm for STEM subjects.
London has emerged as leader in hosting some of the world’s biggest tech events and conferences with the recent London Tech Week attracting over 55,000 delegates to 300 events across the city.
This year the UK capital will also host the financial services and fintech conference SIBOS in September 2019, as well as corporate events for globally recognised technology brands such as Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle and the largest Google Cloud event in Europe, Google Cloud NEXT.
“London is a global hub for innovation and technology and it’s great news for the city,” said Suzanne Singleton, Head of Associations at London Convention Bureau.
“Our world-class universities, research facilities, and a highly-skilled talent pool have helped Britain to become the European capital of Artificial Intelligence, making London a natural choice to host such a prestigious AI and robotics congress.”
Professor Kaspar Althoefer from Queen Mary University of London and project lead for London’s bid said the conference would provide a massive boost for UK Robotics.
