Frederic Kaplan graduated as an engineer of the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications in Paris and received a PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University Paris VI. He worked ten years as a researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris and supervises now a new team on interactive furniture at CRAFT laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). His most recent research focuses on the design of robotic objects. In 2008, he founded OZWE, a company that produces new kinds of personal computers.

In his research, Frederic Kaplan has been exploring technologies permitting to endow objects with a personal history so that they become different as we interact with them and to learn from one another, thus creating an ecosystem in perpetual evolution. With his colleague Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, he developed a new family of theoretical architectures based on the notion of intrinsic motivation systems, that has been used successfully to create curiosity-driven machines. In parallel with his investigations in artificial intelligence, he collaborates regularly with developmental psychologists, ethologists, neuroscientists, designers and architects. His researches have been published in international scientific journals of these different fields. He authored two popular science books in French "La naissance d'une langue chez les robots" (the birth of a language among robots) (Hermes, 2001) and "Les machines apprivoisées: comprendre les robots de loisir" (Tamed machines: understanding entertainment robots) (Vuibert, 2005) and co-authored a collection of prospective essays "Futur 2.0" (Fyp 2007). He is also the chief editor of the multidisciplinary journal "Frontiers in Neurorobotics" publishing leading edge research in the science and technology of embodied autonomous neural systems. His robots and devices have been exhibited in several museums including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

> A longer bio

> Portrait: Frederic Kaplan, AI Auteur by Marlowe Hood / IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2007 Issue, "Dream Jobs 2007"

Chronology

1997: Frederic Kaplan joins the Sony Computer Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. Research with Luc Steels on linguistic self-organization.

1999: Regular travels to Tokyo to work with Sony japanese teams on the conception of novel entertainment robots. Collaboration with Adam Miklosi and Eniko Kubinyi, ethologists of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.

2001: Publication of "La naissance d'une langue chez les robots"

2002: Research with Pierre-Yves Oudeyer on artificial curiosity. Collaboration with developmental psychologists.

2005: Publication of "Les machines apprivoisées" (Selected as one of the best popular science book of the year for the Roberval price)

2005: Collaboration with Martino d'Esposito, industrial designer and ECAL students on the project : A robot's playroom.

2006: Co-chair of the Epigenetic Robotics Conference in Paris.

2006: Invited by Pierre Dillenbourg, Frederic Kaplan supervises a new team on interactive furniture and robotic objects inside the CRAFT center at EPFL.

2007: Publication of "Futur 2.0" (Fyp editions)

2007: Chief-editor of "Frontiers in Neurorobotics"

2008: Presentation of Wizkid at the MoMA in New York.

2008: Foundation of OZWE with Martino d'Esposito

2009: Presentation of QB1, a new kind of personal computer.