Awards
Four main awards were distributed at IEEE Haptics Symposium 2020 to honor top contributions in each of the main categories of IEEE Transactions on Haptics short papers, technical papers, video presentations, and WIP papers. Commendations were also conferred for outstanding reviewing of technical paper submissions. Given the virtual format of the conference, no awards were given for hands-on demonstrations.
The details of each award appear below. All winners were announced during the award ceremony portion of the livestream event on June 25, 2020, which is also archived for online viewing. In addition to the listed monetary prizes, each winning team received a commemorative certificate by mail.
Best IEEE Transactions on Haptics Short Paper
Thirty-six of the papers presented at the conference were published as short papers in the IEEE Transactions on Haptics (ToH). The ToH Editor-in-Chief, Lynette Jones, selected six of these papers to be considered for this inaugural award based on the strength of the reviews they received. The authors of all six ToH short paper award finalists submitted video presentations that are available online and were also shown in the livestream event.
A committee of three experts (Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Vincent Lévesque, and Hiroyuki Shinoda) selected the winner of this award based on the final manuscripts, any supplementary materials, the anonymized reviews, and the video presentations. In addition to the winner, they selected one first honorable mention and one second honorable mention.
Winner:Path Routing Optimization for STM Ultrasound Rendering
Héctor Barreiro, Stephen Sinclair, and Miguel A. Otaduy
$1000 prize sponsored by Force Dimension
First honorable mention:Caring About the Human Operator: Haptic Shared Control for Enhanced User Comfort in Robotic Telemanipulation
Rahaf Rahal, Giulia Matarese, Marco Gabiccini, Alessio Artoni, Domenico Prattichizzo, Paolo Robuffo Giordano, and Claudio Pacchierotti
$500 prize sponsored by Intuitive Surgical
Second honorable mention:Altering the Stiffness, Friction, and Shape Perception of Tangible Objects in Virtual Reality Using Wearable Haptics
Steeven Villa Salazar, Claudio Pacchierotti, Xavier de Tinguy, Anderson Maciel, and Maud Marchal
$250 prize sponsored by Intuitive Surgical
Best Technical Paper
Forty-one of the papers presented at the conference were published as technical papers. The Haptics Symposium 2020 Editor-in-Chief, Veronica Santos, selected eight papers to be considered for this award based on the strength of the reviews they received. The authors of all eight papers submitted video presentations that are available online and were also shown in the livestream event.
A committee of three experts (Seungmoon Choi, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, and Veronica Santos) selected the winner of this award based on the final manuscripts, any supplementary materials, the anonymized reviews, and the video presentations. In addition to the winner, they selected one first honorable mention and two second honorable mentions.
Winner: Elastowave: Localized Tactile Feedback in a SoftHaptic Interface via Focused Elastic Waves
Gregory Reardon, Nikolas Kastor, Yitian Shao, and Yon Visell
$1000 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
First honorable mention: A Hybrid Active-Passive Actuation and Control Approach for Kinesthetic Handheld Haptics
Patrick Dills, Nick Colonnese, Priyanshu Agarwal, and Michael Zinn
$500 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Second honorable mention (1 of 2): Time-Dependent Cues Encode the Minimum Exploration Time in Discriminating Naturalistic Compliances
Chang Xu and Gregory J. Gerling
$250 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Second honorable mention (2 of 2): Vibrator Transparency: Re-using Vibrotactile Signal Assets for Different Black Box Vibrators Without Re-designing
Yusuke Ujitoko, Sho Sakurai, and Koichi Hirota
$250 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Best Video Presentation
In lieu of oral presentations, authors of all ToH short papers and technical papers were invited to prepare and submit a three-minute-long video presentation. All authors provided such a video, which can be accessed on the video presentations page of this website.
This award was selected through a community-based voting process. Each person associated with IEEE Haptics Symposium 2020 had the right to vote, including registrants, co-authors of all types of contributions, student volunteers, and members of the Organizing Committee, Program Committee, and Conference Editorial Board. Individuals were asked not to vote for videos produced by their own research team. The details of the voting process were distributed by email on June 13, and votes were due by June 21.
A coordination committee of three experts (Ildar Farkhatdinov, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, and Claudio Pacchierotti) tallied the votes, removing those that were invalid. The Awards Chair then selected the one winner and the three honorable mentions based on the votes received. All selected video presentations were shown in the livestream event.
Winner: A Hybrid Active-Passive Actuation and Control Approach for Kinesthetic Handheld Haptics
Patrick Dills, Nick Colonnese, Priyanshu Agarwal, and Michael Zinn
$500 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Honorable mention (1 of 3): Elastowave: Localized Tactile Feedback in a Soft Haptic Interface via Focused Elastic Waves
Gregory Reardon, Nikolas Kastor, Yitian Shao, and Yon Visell
$250 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Honorable mention (2 of 3): Interpersonal Vibrotactile Feedback via Waves Transmitted through the Skin: Mechanics and Perception
Taku Hachisu, Gregory Reardon, Yitian Shao, Kenji Suzuki, and Yon Visell
$250 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Honorable mention (3 or 3): PUMAH: Pan-tilt Ultrasound Mid-Air Haptics for Larger Interaction Workspace in Virtual Reality
Thomas Howard, Maud Marchal, Anatole Lécuyer, and Claudio Pacchierotti
$250 prize sponsored by Facebook Reality Labs
Most Exciting Work-in-progress Paper
A total of forty-four work-in-progress (WIP) papers were accepted for the conference. The Haptics Symposium 2020 WIP Chair, Heather Culbertson, selected four papers to be considered for this award based on the strength of the reviews they received. The authors of all four of these two-page-long WIP papers submitted short video presentations, which were shown in the livestream event.
A committee of four experts (Heather Culbertson, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Masashi Nakatani, and Myrthe Plaisier) selected the winner of this award based on the final manuscripts, the anonymized reviews, and the video presentations. In addition to the winner, they selected one honorable mention.
Winner: Modeling of Soft Bellows Actuators
Emma Treadway, Melissa Brei, and R. Brent Gillespie
$250 prize sponsored by Intuitive Surgical
Honorable Mention: Tactile Fingerspelling Letter Identification Using Whole-Hand Mechanical Signals
Stejara Dinulescu, Gregory Reardon, Sven Topp, and Yon Visell
$100 prize sponsored by Intuitive Surgical
Outstanding Reviewers
The Haptics Symposium publication process critically depends on careful and constructive expert review of submitted manuscripts. Individuals who reviewed IEEE Transactions on Haptics short papers were eligible for the journal’s annual reviewing awards, while individuals who reviewed at least one technical paper submission were eligible for this commendation from the conference.
After the review of all technical papers was complete, the Haptics Symposium 2020 Editor-in-Chief, Veronica Santos, invited all members of the Program Committee to nominate reviewers for this prize. A subset of the Best Technical Paper Award Committee looked over the reviews submitted by each nominee and selected the winners.
Winners:
- Pascal E. Fortin, McGill University, Canada
- Alastair Loutit, University of New South Wales, Australia
- Tatjana Seizova-Cajic, The University of Sydney, Australia
Awards Ceremony
All of the awards and honorable mentions listed above were first announced during the IEEE Haptics Symposium 2020 awards ceremony, which was part of the conference’s livestream event. The awards ceremony begins at 2:20:30 in the recording of the livestream.
The Awards Chair, the members of the awards committees, the Program Committee, and the Organizing Committee heartily congratulate the finalists, honorable mentions, and winners on their outstanding work. Many thanks to everyone for contributing to a very successful IEEE Haptics Symposium 2020!
