Transformative Computing and Communication—Call for Papers
Abstracts Due: 1 November 2018 (send to co-0719@computer.org)

Articles Due: 1 December 2018

Publication Date: July 2019

Computer plans a July 2019 special issue on Transformative Computing and Communication.

Advances in wireless technologies, coupled with the widespread use of mobile and wearable devices, smart textiles, on-body interfaces, and so on, have opened the door for novel technologies and systems that can augment our awareness, improve our health, and help us experience physical and digital reality in radically different ways. Transformative or cross-fertilization of computing and communication technologies—including leveraging existing hardware, network, and building infrastructures and services to provide new functionalities have spurred research interest and resulted in new value-added services. Examples include analyzing the ambient Wi-Fi signals to understand users’ activities; measuring vital signs using RF (for example, using indoor radar), a smartphone camera, or inertial sensors; automatically constructing a semantic-rich floorplan by analyzing sensor traces; authenticating the device’s users through usage patterns; remote device charging using ambient RF signals; and using light to transmit information or for localization.

Indeed, through the Internet of Things and ubiquitous connectivity, sensory spaces have become an integral part of our everyday living. These new dynamics pave the way for opportunistic sensing through the transformation of natural ambient RF, acoustic, and light signals into sensing modalities. The compound effect of these advancements are new capabilities to have semantic awareness of our surrounding environment, to power and control large-scale connected devices with ease, and to go far beyond the sensors raw data collection and direct control. However, there are also new challenges that have emerged with the increasing implementation of these technologies, including handling the low-cost noisy sensors, fusing heterogeneous multi-quality signals, building robust and efficient AI and machine learning models, addressing scalability issues, detecting outliers, as well as many others.

In this special issue of Computer, the guest editors welcome submissions that cover different aspects of designing and implementing cross-use of computing and communication technologies. All submissions should focus on leveraging existing technologies or data for new non-direct applications or services. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Novel transformative use of computing and communication technologies.
New hardware and emerging materials that improve opportunities for cross-pollination of technologies.
Novel digital signal processing techniques for transformative technologies.
New sensor fusion techniques for heterogeneous data sources to drive transformative technologies.
New machine learning algorithms for both training and runtime inferences on data from transformative technologies.
New applications using transformative technologies, ideally with real deployment experiences.
Novel approaches for control and automation using transformative technologies.
New evaluation metrics and methodologies for assessing transformative technologies.
Insights based on designing robust commercial-grade transformative technologies.
Security applications using transformative technologies.


Only submissions that describe previously unpublished, original, state-of-the-art research and that are not currently under review by a conference or journal will be considered.

There is a strict 6,000-word limit (figures and tables are equivalent to 300 words each) for final manuscripts. Articles should include no more than 20 references. Authors should be aware that Computer cannot accept or process papers that exceed this word or reference limit.

Articles should be understandable by a broad audience of computer science and engineering professionals, avoiding a focus on theory, mathematics, jargon, and abstract concepts.

All manuscripts are subject to peer review on both technical merit and relevance to Computer’s readership. Accepted papers must be well written and understandable, as the level of editing will be a light copyedit. For accepted papers, authors will be required to provide electronic files for each figure according to the following guidelines: for graphs and charts, authors must submit them in their original editable source format (PDF, Visio, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.); for screenshots or photographs, authors must submit high-resolution files (300 dpi or higher at the largest possible dimensions) in JPEG or TIFF formats.

Questions?
Please direct any correspondence before submission to the guest editors:

Moustafa Youssef, E-JUST and Alexandria University (moustafa.youssef@ejust.edu.eg)
Fahim Kawsar, Nokia Bell Labs, UK and TU Delft, Netherlands (fkawsar@nokia-bell-labs.com)
For author guidelines and information on how to submit a manuscript electronically, visit www.computer.org/web/peer-review/magazines. For full paper submission, please visit mc.manuscriptcentral.com/com-cs.