About RAISE 2025

RAISE 2025 condenses the essentials of modern robotics and AI into an intensive three-day boot camp that blends theory, hands-on practice, and a team challenge. This year's unifying theme is "AI-Empowered Robotics for Smart Agriculture."

Participants learn to design mobile robots that diagnose plant-health conditions with computer vision and Large-Language-Model (LLM) reasoning, then recommend – or autonomously execute – remedial actions.

Daily Program

1 ROS 2 Foundations for Field Robots

09:00 – 12:00 | Morning Session

  • Understanding the ROS 2 computation graph and communication
  • Exploration of topics, services & actions in ROS 2
  • Publishing velocity commands using geometry_msgs/Twist
  • Mastering frame transforms and odometry concepts
  • Implementing reactive obstacle avoidance
  • Demonstration: Navigating a robot between crop rows

13:00 – 16:00 | Hands-On Lab

Hands-on exercise: Fork a pre-written GitHub repository and complete missing nodes & launch files to:

  1. Drive a simulated robot within the Gazebo environment
  2. Deploy your code on a Turtlebot-like platform operating inside a mini-greenhouse

16:15 – 17:00 | Assessment

ExamGPT Mini-Quiz #1 (auto-graded). Scoring ≥ 70% awards the Level-1 Certificate.

2 AI & Computer Vision for Plant Diagnostics

09:00 – 12:00 | Morning Session

  • Evolution of AI: From AlexNet to Generative and Agentic AI
  • Introduction to vision-language models: OpenAI GPT-4o and Google Gemini
  • YOLOv10 pipeline for real-time plant disease detection
  • Prompt engineering with large language models for symptom classification

13:00 – 16:00 | Hands-On Lab

  1. Train and fine-tune YOLO model on a supplied tomato-leaf disease dataset
  2. Utilize Gemini-Vision API to label and classify leaf ailments
  3. Integrate detection results and language model outputs into a ROS 2 diagnostic topic

16:15 – 17:00 | Assessment

ExamGPT Mini-Quiz #2. A score ≥ 70% grants the Level-2 Certificate.

3 Integrated Challenge & Awards Ceremony

09:00 – 09:30 | Opening Ceremony

Welcome address and overview of the day’s integrated challenge and award proceedings.

09:30 – 12:30 | International Summer School RAISE Competition

Teams will compete in various robotics challenges designed to test their skills and knowledge acquired over the first two days.

09:30 – 12:30 | Parallel Sessions

Track A: Industrial Presentations & Poster Exhibitions — Industry partners showcase innovations and research posters.
Track B: PCB Workshop covering:

  • Session 1: Basics of Electronics for PCB Prototyping
  • Session 2: Principles of PCB Design
  • Session 3: Practical PCB Design Exercises
  • Session 4: Visit to the CRNS PCB Prototyping Lab

12:45 – 13:30 | Awards Ceremony & Closing Remarks

Recognition of competition winners, distribution of certificates, and closing speeches to celebrate participants’ achievements and the event’s success.

Target Audience & Prerequisites

🎓 Student Track

Intended for: BSc / MSc students in EE, CS, Mechatronics

Entry Skills: Basic Python + linear algebra

🔬 Academic / PhD Track

Intended for: Researchers & lecturers

Entry Skills: Intro ROS/AI helpful

🏭 Industrial Track

Intended for: Engineers & developers

Entry Skills: C++/Python & Linux basics

Technical Requirements: A laptop with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Docker installed, and 20 GB free disk space is required. All extra hardware is provided on-site.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of RAISE 2025, participants will be able to:

Deploy ROS 2 stacks for mobile manipulation and navigation
Implement YOLO-based vision pipelines tailored to agricultural crops
Integrate LLMs for multimodal (image + text) reasoning in ROS ecosystems
Prototype end-to-end agri-robot solutions within tight time-frames
Collaborate cross-disciplinarily under competition pressure

Assessment & Certification

ExamGPT Quizzes

Two short, auto-graded MCQ/short-answer tests at the end of Days 1 & 2.

Certificates

  • Certificate of Completion: ≥70% on both quizzes plus active challenge participation
  • Certificate of Participation: All other attendees

Organization Committee

General Chair

Prof. Omar Cheikhrouhou

ENET'Com, Tunisia

Technical Program Chair

Prof. Anis Koubaa

Alfaisal University / ScaleX Innovation

Scientific Committee

Hatem Bentaher

ISGIS, University of Sfax

Houssam Chouikhi

ISSIG, University of Gabès

Nidhal Ayadi

University of Sfax

Mohamed Bahloul

Alfaisal University

Yassine Bouteraa

Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University

Amira Echtioui

ENSTAB, University of Carthage

Mohamed Kharrat

University of Sfax

Manel Boujelben

ENET'Com, University of Sfax

Adem Ghorbel

IPEIS, University of Sfax

Registration & Fees

Secure your spot at the International Summer School RAISE 2025 by completing the registration form below.
Deadline: July 10, 2025.

📝 Full Registration
Category Fee (TND) Includes
Student 400 All sessions, coffee breaks, challenge kit, certificate
Academic / PhD 500 All student benefits + digital proceedings
Industrial 700 All academic benefits + networking dinner & sponsor booth access

Logistics & Resources

📚 Pre-school Pack

GitHub repositories, Docker images, reading list, and VM snapshot delivered to confirmed participants by July 1, 2025.

🤖 On-site Hardware

Jetson Nano robot kits with depth cameras, Li-Po batteries, and QR-coded plant stands.

🛠️ Support

Slack workspace + nightly office hours for troubleshooting and technical guidance.

Ready to Join RAISE 2025?

Don't miss this opportunity to master AI-powered robotics for smart agriculture!

Register Now