Awareness Science and EngineeringCall for PapersThe goal of awareness computing (AC) is to build systems that are aware. Awareness is an ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious. It does not necessarily mean full comprehension yet implies vigilance in observing and alertness in drawing inferences from what one experiences. Compared with artificial intelligence (AI), the goal of AC is less ambitious. Nevertheless, AC could be more important for solving practical problems. Without being aware, a system may never become intelligent. Moreover, awareness could make computation towards the goal of AI more efficient by shedding of irrelevant possibilities. AC would also lead an efficient way for realizing granular computing.In the last decade, AC has been studied extensively from an engineering perspective. To create real aware systems, however, studying different applications in an ad hoc manner is not enough. We need to study all kinds of AC-related problems in a unified framework and gain more insight about aware systems and the mechanism of awareness existing in different living beings. For this purpose, we are organizing the International Conference on Awareness Science and Technology (iCAST2011) under the cosponsorship of IEEE SMCS, IEEE CIS, and several other academic societies.The goal of this special issue is to provide an opportunity for researchers, engineers, and scientists to publish their latest results related to AC. Papers well presented at iCAST2011 can be re-submitted to this special issue after substantial revisions. We also welcome submissions of excellent papers not presented at iCAST2011. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following ...