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I'am Salah Talamali a Research Associate in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield

I am currently a Research Associate in energy-aware swarm programming as part of the OpenSwarm European project, dedicated to advancing long-term autonomy in robot swarms. My research emphasises decentralised swarm intelligence, enhancing energy efficiency and adaptability in robotic systems for dynamic environments. Previously, I was a Lecturer in Automation, Control, and Robotics, where I was honoured with the Inspirational Teaching Award for two consecutive years, recognising my commitment to impactful and innovative teaching. Before that, I worked as a Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at University College London (UCL), where I focused on developing multi-agent systems for innovative human-computer interfaces. My work at UCL leveraged multi-agent systems theory and artificial intelligence to explore applications of spatial sound modulators (SSMs) in HCI. Prior to this, I earned my PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sheffield, where my research investigated individual behavioural rules that enable robot swarms to achieve collective behaviours.

My Resume

Education and Research
2023-Present

Research Associate in Energy-Aware Swarm Programming

The University of Sheffield

Research topic: Designing energy-aware and energy-efficient robot swarms.
Supervisor: Professor Roderich Groß

2020-2022

Research Fellow in Swarm Robotics

University College London (UCL)

Research topic: Building a swarm robotics based computer-human interaction technology.
Supervisor: Professor Sriram Subramanian

2017-2020

PhD In Computer Science

University of Sheffield

Thesis title: Simple behavioural rules for improving collective behaviours in swarm robotics
Supervisors: Professor James A. R. Marshall and Dr Andreagiovanni Reina
Examiners: Professor Melanie Moses and Dr Michael Mangan

2016-2017

MSc in automation, control, and robotics

Sheffield Hallam University

Thesis title: Automatic calibration for sclable collective robotics
Supervisors: Professor James A. R. Marshall, Dr Andreagiovanni Reina

Teaching
2021-2023

Lecturer in Automation, Control, and Robotics

Sheffield Hallam University

Modules:

2020-2021

Teaching Assistant

University College London (UCL)

Modules:

2019-2020

Teaching Assistant

University of Sheffield

Modules:

2018-2019

Teaching Assistant

University of Sheffield

Modules:

Students Supervision (Selected Projects)
2022-2023

MSc Thesis

Sheffield Hallam University

Student: Luis Eduardo Fernandez Romero
Thesis title: Exploring Collaborative Robots Capabilities based on Human Robot- Interaction and Machine Vision
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fiWFLl3f4U

2018-2024

PhD Thesis (co-supervisor)

University College London (UCL)

Student: James Hardwick
Thesis title: Reconfigurable Acoustic Metasurfaces as Reflective Spatial Sound Modulators
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTv3deIbRBs

Skills

C++

12+ years experience

git & Github

7+ years experience

Python

7+ years

Terminal &
Bash scripts

6+ years

Automation & Robotics Hardware

+8 years experience

Scientific writing & Presentation

5+ years

publications

2024 G. Miyauchi, M.S. Talamali, R. Groß. A Comparative Study of Energy Replenishment Strategies for Robot Swarms. In Proceedings of 14th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), LNCS 14987: 3-15. Springer, Cham, 2024. Conference proceedings BibTeX Open source code: https://github.com/genkimiyauchi/swarm-energy-replenishment
2024 J. Hardwick, D. M. Plasencia, S. Subramanian, M. S. Talamali, Segmented Acoustic Displays. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2024, 26, 2301557. Journal article BibTeX(2023 Impact Factor: 3.4)
2024 J. Hardwick, B. Kazemi, M. S. Talamali, G. Christopoulos, S. Subramanian, Actively Reconfigurable Segmented Spatial Sound Modulators. Advanced Materials Technologies. 2024, 9, 2470017. Graphical abstract BibTeX
2024 J. Hardwick, B. Kazemi, M. S. Talamali, G. Christopoulos, S. Subramanian, Actively Reconfigurable Segmented Spatial Sound Modulators. Advanced Materials Technologies. 2024, 9, 2301459. Journal article BibTeX (2023 Impact Factor: 6.4)
Online videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTv3deIbRBs
2023 L. Feola, A. Reina, M. S. Talamali, V. Trianni. Multi-Swarm Interaction through Augmented Reality for Kilobots. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 8(11): in press, 2023. Journal article BibTeX (2022 Impact Factor: 5.2)
Online videos: https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2023.3312031/mm1 and https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2023.3312031/mm2
This work will be also included in the conference proceedings of ICRA 2024 —the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation— Yokohama, Japan (Acceptance Rate about 45%)
2022 T. Aust, M.S. Talamali, M. Dorigo, H. Hamann, A. Reina. The hidden benefits of limited communication and slow sensing in collective monitoring of dynamic environments. In Proceedings of 13th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), LNCS 13491: 234-247. Springer, Cham, 2022. Conference proceedings BibTeX
(Acceptance Rate 42%)
2021 M.S. Talamali, A. Saha, J.A.R. Marshall, A. Reina. When less is more: Robot swarms adapt better to changes with constrained communication Science Robotics 6(56): eabf1416 (2021). Journal article BibTeX (5-year Impact Factor: 33.7)
Online video
This study has also been discussed in commentaries published in The Conversation and in PNAS Journal Club, among others.
Part of this work has also been presented at NetSci 2020 (online).
2020 M.S. Talamali, T. Bose, M. Haire, X. Xu, J.A.R. Marshall, A. Reina. Sophisticated Collective Foraging with Minimalist Agents: A Swarm Robotics Test. Swarm Intelligence 14(1):25-56, 2020. Journal article BibTeX (2023 Impact Factor: 2.1)
Online videos
2019 M.S. Talamali, J.A.R. Marshall, T. Bose, A. Reina. Improving collective decision accuracy via time-varying cross-inhibition. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019) 9652-9659, IEEE, 2019. Conference proceedings BibTeX (Acceptance Rate 44%)
2019 F. Canciani, M.S. Talamali, J.A.R. Marshall, A. Reina. Keep calm and vote on: Swarm resiliency in collective decision making. Proceedings of the Workshop Resilient Robot Teams of ICRA 2019. Workshop BibTeX
2018 A. Font Llenas, M.S. Talamali, X. Xu, J.A.R. Marshall, and A. Reina. Quality-sensitive foraging by a robot swarm through virtual pheromone trails. In Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), LNCS 11172: 135--149. Springer, Cham, 2018. Conference proceedings BibTeX (Acceptance Rate 34.8%)
Online videos: http://diode.group.shef.ac.uk/FontLlenas2018.html
* * * Best Paper Award * * *
2018 C. Pinciroli, M.S. Talamali, A. Reina, J.A.R. Marshall and V.Trianni. Simulating Kilobots within ARGoS: models and experimental validation. In Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS), LNCS 11172: 176-187. Springer, Cham, 2018. Conference proceedings BibTeX (Acceptance Rate 34.8%)
Open source code: https://github.com/ilpincy/argos3-kilobot

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