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)
Gert Jan Gelderblom (Zuyd University, The Netherlands)

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 Reimsdijk (TU Delft, The Netherlands)

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

*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 six 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