Recommended Publications

Journal Articles

• Agathe Blanchard, Sao Mai Nguyen, Maxime Devanne, Mathieu Simonnet, Myriam Le Goff-Pronost, and Olivier Rémy-Néris (2022). Technical Feasibility of Supervision of Stretching Exercises by a Humanoid Robot Coach for Chronic Low Back Pain: The R-COOL Randomized Trial, BioMed Research International. Hindawi Limited. 2022, 1--10 [ bib video youtube ]
• Damien Bouchabou, Sao Mai Nguyen, Christophe Lohr, Benoit LeDuc, and Ioannis Kanellos (2021). Using Language Model to Bootstrap Human Activity Recognition Ambient Sensors Based in Smart Homes, Electronics, 10, (20). [ bib ]
• Damien Bouchabou, Sao Mai Nguyen, Christophe Lohr, Benoit LeDuc, and Ioannis Kanellos (2021). A Survey of Human Activity Recognition in Smart Homes Based on IoT Sensors Algorithms: Taxonomies, Challenges, and Opportunities with Deep Learning, Sensors, 21, (18). 6037 [ bib ]
• Nicolas Duminy, Sao Mai Nguyen, Junshuai Zhu, Dominique Duhaut, and Jerome Kerdreux (2021). Intrinsically Motivated Open-Ended Multi-Task Learning Using Transfer Learning to Discover Task Hierarchy, Applied Sciences, 11, (3). [ bib youtube code ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Nicolas Duminy, Alexandre Manoury, Dominique Duhaut, and Cedric Buche (2021). Robots Learn Increasingly Complex Tasks with Intrinsic Motivation and Automatic Curriculum Learning, KI - Künstliche Intelligenz, [ bib ]
• Linda Nanan Vallée, Sao Mai Nguyen, Christophe Lohr, Ioannis Kanellos, and Olivier Asseu (2020). Building An Automated Gesture Imitation Game For Teenagers with ASD, Far East Journal of Electronics and Communications, 23, (1). 1--10 [ bib ]
• Nicolas Duminy, Sao Mai Nguyen, Dominique Duhaut (2019). Learning a Set of Interrelated Tasks by Using a Succession of Motor Policies for a Socially Guided Intrinsically Motivated Learner , Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 12: 87. [ bib ] [ code ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Christophe Lohr, Philippe Tanguy and Yiqiao Chen (2017). Plug and play your robot into your smart home: Illustration of a new framework. KI - Kunstliche Intelligenz, pages 1–7.doi:10.1007/s13218-017-0494-8 [ bib ]
• André Thepaut, Sao Mai Nguyen, Christophe Lohr (2017). Télé-rééducation fonctionnelle dans le cadre du projet VITAAL Actualités en médecine physique et de réadaptation, Edimark, pp.18-19. [ bib ]
• Paul-Ariel Kenigsberg, Jean-Pierre Aquino, Alain Bérard, François Brémond, Kevin Charras, Tom Dening, Rose-Marie Droës, Fabrice Gzil, Ben Hicks, Anthea Innes, Sao Mai Nguyen, Louise Nygård, Maribel Pino, Guillaume Sacco, Eric Salmon, Henriëtte van der Roest, Hervé Villet, Marion Villez, Philippe Robert, and Valeria Manera (2017). Assistive technologies to address capabilities of people with dementia: from research to practice. Dementia: the international journal of social research and practice. [ bib]
• Clement Moulin-Frier, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2014). Self-organization of early vocal development in infants and machines: The role of intrinsic motivation. Frontiers in Psychology (Cognitive Science). 4(1006). (ISI journal impact factor 2.8) [ bib ]
• Serena Ivaldi, Sao Mai Nguyen, Natalia Lyubova, Alain Droniou, Vincent Padois, David Filliat, Pierre-YVes Oudeyer, Olivier Sigaud (2013). Object learning through active exploration. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development. Pages 1-18. (ISI journal impact factor 2.2) [ bib code video ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2012). Active Choice of Teachers, Learning Strategies and Goals for a Socially Guided Intrinsic Motivation Learner, Paladyn Journal of Behavioral Robotics, 3(3):136–146. [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2014). Socially Guided Intrinsic Motivation for Robot Learning of Motor Skills, Autonomous Robots, doi:dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10514-013-9339-y, 36(3):273-294. (ISI journal impact factor 1.9) [ bib ]
  

International Conferences with Proceedings

• Andrei Mitriakov, Panagiotis Papadakis, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Serge Garlatti (2020). Staircase Traversal via Reinforcement Learning for Active Reconfiguration of Assistive Robots, World Congress on Computational Intelligence. [ bib ]
• Alexandre Manoury, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Cédric Buche (2019). Hierarchical affordance discovery using intrinsic motivation, Human Agent Interaction. [ bib ]
• Maxime Devanne, Panagiotis Papadakis, and Sao Mai Nguyen (2019). Recognition of Activities of Daily Living via Hierarchical Long-Short Term Memory Networks, International Conference on Systems Man and Cybernetics. IEEE. [ bib ]
• Alexandre Manoury, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Cédric Buche (2019). Learning a set of interrelated tasks by using sequences of motor policies for a strategic intrinsically motivated learner, IEEE International Robotics Conference. [ bib ]
• Maxime Devanne and Sao Mai Nguyen (2019). Generating Shared Latent Variables for Robots to Imitate Human Movements and Understand their Physical Limitations , Computer Vision -- ECCV 2018 Workshops, 190--197. [ bib ]
• Nicolas Duminy, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Dominique Duhaut (2018). Effects of social guidance on a robot learning sequences of policies in hierarchical learning, International Conference on Systems Man and Cybernetics. [ bib ]
• Nicolas Duminy, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Dominique Duhaut (2018). Learning a set of interrelated tasks by using sequences of motor policies for a strategic intrinsically motivated learner , IEEE International Robotics Conference. [ bib ]
• Maxime Devanne, Sao Mai Nguyen, Olivier Remy-Neris, Beatrice Le Gales-Garnett, Gilles Kermarrec, and Andre Thepaut (2018). A co-design approach for a rehabilitation robot coach for physical rehabilitation based on the error classification of motion errors , IEEE IRC workshop on Collaboration of Humans, Agents, Robots, Machines and Sensors. [ bib ]
• Maxime Devanne and Sao Mai Nguyen (2017). Multi-level Motion Analysis for Physical Exercises Assessment in Kinaesthetic Rehabilitation, IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots, IEEE Humanoids 2017. [ bib ]
• Nicolas Duminy, Sao Mai Nguyen and Dominique Duhaut (2016). Strategic and interactive learning of a hierarchical set of tasks by the Poppy humanoid robot , ICDL-EPIROB 2016: 6th Joint IEEE International Conference Developmental Learning and Epigenetic Robotics. [ bib ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Philippe Tanguy, Olivier Rémy-Néris and Andre Thepaut (2016). A humanoid robot for coaching patients for physical rehabilitation exercises , Asian Conference on Computer Aided Surgery, [ bib ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Philippe Tanguy and Olivier Rémy-Néris (2016). Computational Architecture of a Robot Coach for Physical Exercises in Kinesthetic Rehabilitation , RO-MAN 2016 : IEEE International Symposium on Human and Robot Interactive Communication, 1-6 [ bib video ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2013). Strategic robot learner for interactive goal-babbling. In Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A. [ bib ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Serena Ivaldi, Natalia Lyubova, Alain Droniou, Damien Gerardeaux-Viret, David Filliat, Vincent Padois, Olivier Sigaud and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2013). Learning to recognize objects through curiosity-driven manipulation with the iCub humanoid robot, in proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning - Epirob, Osaka, Japan. [ bib video youtube code ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2012). Interactive Learning Gives the Tempo to an Intrinsically Motivated Robot Learner, in proceedings of 2012 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Osaka, Japan. [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2012). Properties for Efficient Demonstrations to a Socially Guided Intrinsically Motivated Learner, in proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Paris, France. [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2012). Whom Will an Intrinsically Motivated Robot Learner Choose to Imitate from?, in proceedings of the Post-Graduate Conference on Robotics and Development of Cognition, J. Szufnarowska, editor, pages 32–35. [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Adrien Baranes Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2011). Bootstrapping Intrinsically Motivated Learning with Human Demonstrations, in proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning - Epirob, Frankfurt, Germany (2nd Best Student Paper award). [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Adrien Baranes and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2011). Constraining the Size Growth of the Task Space with Socially Guided Intrinsic Motivation using Demonstrations. In 2011 IJCAI Workshop on Agents Learning Interactively from Human Teachers (ALIHT). Barcelona, Spain. (ERACORE Rank A*) [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Masaki Ogino and Minoru Asada (2010). Real-time face swapping as a tool for understanding infant self-recognition, in proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics, pp.171--172, Glumslov, Sweden. [ bib video youtube ]
  

Book chapters

• A. Thépaut, S. M. Nguyen, M. Devanne, and O. Rémy-Néris (2018). Rééducation fonctionnelle assistée par robot humanoïde , Des robots au service des soignés, et des soignants.

Other International Presentations

• Damien Bouchabou, Christophe Lohr, Ioannis Kanellos, and Sao Mai Nguyen (2021). Human Activity Recognition (HAR) in Smart Homes, https://encyclopedia.pub/17108 [ bib ]
• Linda Vallee, Sao Mai Nguyen, Christophe Lohr, Ioannis Kanellos, and Olivier Asseu (2020). How an automated gesture imitation game can improve social interactions with teenagers with ASD, IEEE ICRA workshop on Social Robotics for Neurodevelopmental Disorders. [ bib youtube ]
• Nicolas Duminy and Sao Mai Nguyen (2020). Découverte et exploitation de la hiérarchie des taches par motivation intrinsèque, GDR "Apprentissage et Robotique". [ bib video youtube ]
• Andrei Mitriakov, Panagiotis Papadakis, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Serge Garlatti (2019). Learning-based modelling of physical interaction for assistive robots, Journées Francophones sur la Planification, la Décision et l'Apprentissage pour la conduite de systèmes (JFPDA). [ bib ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen, Nathalie Collot-Lavenne, Christophe Lohr, Sebastien Guillon, Patricio Tula, Alvaro Paez, Mouad Bouaida, Arthus Anin, and Saad El Qacemi (2019). An implementation of an imitation game with ASD children to learn nursery rhymes , HAI Workshop on Clinical Use of Technology for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. [ bib code ]
• Nicolas Duminy, Alexandre Manoury, Sao Mai Nguyen, Cedric Buche, Dominique Duhaut (2018). Learning Sequences of Policies by using an Intrinsically Motivated Learner and a Task Hierarchy , Workshop on Continual Unsupervised Sensorimotor Learning, ICDL-Epirob. [ bib video youtube ]
• S. M. Nguyen and P. Tanguy (2016). Cognitive architecture of a humanoid robot for coaching physical exercises in kinaesthetic rehabilitation , International Workshop on Cognitive Robotics. [ bib ]
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2013). Strategic robot learner for active goal-babbling. In Workshop in Active Learning in Robotics at Robotic Science and Systems, Berlin, Germany. (ERACORE Rank A*)
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2013). Data Collection of an Interactive Learner for Strategy, Outcome and Policy Exploration. In Workshop in Hierarchical Learning at Robotic Science and Systems, Berlin, Germany. (ERACORE Rank A*)
• Clement Moulin-Frier, Sao Mai Nguyen, and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2013). The role of intrinsic motivations in early vocal development: a computational study. In Workshop on Intrinsic Motivations, Rome, Italy.
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2012). Socially guided intrinsic motivation. In Spring School on Developmental Robotics and Cognitive Bootstrapping.
• Sao Mai Nguyen and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (2012). Socially Guided Intrinsically Motivated Learner, in proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning - Epirob, San Diego, United States. [ bib ]
  
• Sao Mai Nguyen (2009). Role of default network in the understanding of subjectivity of desire, in proceedings of the NIPS International Workshop for Scientific Study of Consciousness 2009 (at Neuroscience 2009). Okazaki, Japan.
  

Theses and Reports

• PhD Thesis (2013): A Curious Robot Learner for Interactive Goal-Babbling : Strategically Choosing What, How, When and from Whom to Learn . [ bib code video + ]
  My PhD defense proposes an algorithmic architecture for robots to collect data for learning, by choosing the best strategy to learn and generalise from its experience to a wide variety of outcomes. The interactive learner thus learns multiple tasks in a structured manner, discovering by itself developmental sequences. Below is a video of my PhD defense: +
  

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• Master Thesis (2010): Real-time face swapping based on head posture using particle filter towards the understanding of infant self-recognition.
• The report on the play "I, worker" (2009). available only in Japanese: Hataraku watashi.
• The report of my internship at the AI Lab, Stanford (2008) is only available in French: Comportement réactif pour l'évitement d'obstacles en Robotique : application à un bras manipulateur.

Invited Talks

• 2022/04 : I am invited as a keynote speaker at the Fifth International Workshop on Intrinsically-Motivated Open-ended Learning (IMOL2022).
• 2020/09 : I am invited to give a talk on "Discovering the Hierarchy of Tasks with Intrinsic Motivation Enables Transfer Learning in Curriculum Learning" at the Summer school Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO).
• 2020/03 : I am invited to give a lecture on "Artificial curiosity for robot learning in interaction with its environment and teachers" at the Spring school Interdisciplinary College 2020 Curiosity, Risk and Reward.
• 2018/12/04: I will be presenting at the event EURÊKA, la journée inspirante du Village by CA - "Entreprendre en s'inspirant de la Nature"
• 2018/11/28: I will be presenting at The panel discussion on intelligent robots at the event 360 possibles
• Invited speaker by the Vietnamese departments of Innovation and Investment, Science and Technology to meet the president, prime minister and ministers and give a talk on robotics research
• Invited speaker at HAI 2017 Workshop on Multicentric Interaction with Smart Homes & Home Robots
• Artificial Intelligence and Vision Group, Department of Computing and Communication Technologies, Oxford Brookes University, 2016, invited by Matthias Rolf
• Loria team, Inria, 2016, invited by Serena Ivaldi
• Applied Informatics Group, Bielefed University, 2015, invited by Britta Wrede
• Learning Algorithms and Systems Lab, EPFL Lausanne, 2012, invited by Pr. Aude Billard
• Lab. for Intelligent Systems and Informatics, Dept. of Mechano-Informatics Grad. School of Information Science and Technology, Université de Tokyo, Japon. 2013, invited by Pr. Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
• Takanishi Laboratory, Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering & Humanoid Robotics Institute, Université Waseda, Japon. 2013, invited by Pr. Atsuo Takanishi.
• Personal Robotics Lab, Electrical Engineering Department, Imperial College, London. 2014, invited by Dr. Y. Demiris.

In the press

• "Seminaire sur l'intelligence artificielle", Le 20 Heures de RTI 1 du 09 mai 2019 par Fatou Fofana Camara, 09/05/2019 [Link]
• "Des robots pour le maintien a domicile", Tebeo, TV Residences, 20/03/19 [Link]
• I was interviewed by the radio RCF for their daily news [ Link]
• "A l’IMT Atlantique, la recherche en santé veut révolutionner le quotidien des patients". Usine nouvelle, 22/10/2018. [ Link ]
• Invited speaker with 100 scientific experts by the Vietnamese departments of Innovation and Investment, Science and Technology to meet the president, prime minister and ministers and give a talk on robotics research [ Link Link Link ]
• "Maintien@domicile. La technologie en appui". Le Télégramme, 11/07/17 [ Link]
• "La technologie au service du handicap". Hit West, 11/06/17 [ Link]
• "Maintien à domicile. A Lorient, l’université planche sur les besoins". Ouest France, 11/06/17 [Link]
• "Et maintenant...la curiosité". Sciences et Vie, 10/17 [Article, Link]
• "Un robot pour accompagner les lombalgiques". Kiné Actualité n. 1493, 06/15/17 [ Article, Link]
• "Un robot pour assister les kinésithérapeutes". Coté Brest, 03/06/17 [Article, Link]
• "Poppy, le robot qui soigne les dos". Ouest-France, 03/06/2017 [Article, Link]
• "Kinés. Bientôt un robot à la rescousse". Le Télégramme, 03/03/2017 [Article, Link]
• "Cap sur l'intelligence artificielle". Le Télégramme - Forum, 03/02/2017 [Article, Link]
• "Intelligence artificielle : la curiosité enfantine comme moteur d’apprentissage:. I'MTech, 2016/07/25 [Link]
• "Intelligences Artificielles. Quelles promesses? Quels défis?". Cahier de veille de la Fondation Télécom, 28/06/16 [Article, Link]
• "Le numérique contre la dépendance". Sillage, 09/17 [Article, Link]
• Au japon, les robots font du théâtre. Le Monde, Nov 2008 [Link ]
• "Actor robots take japanese stage. BBC, November 2008 [Link ]
• "Wakamaru’s latest gig: distraught thespian, clothes rack. Engadget, November 2008 [Link]
• "Household bot makes theatrical debut. Cnet, November 2008 [Link]