CALL FOR WORKSHOP PAPERS
Selected Workshops
The 3rd International Workshop on BLockchain Enabled Sustainable Smart Cities (BLESS 2020)
Rationale of the Workshop:
Enabled by the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), edge-fog-cloud computing, and interconnected networks, smart cities are capable of innovative solutions to change the lifestyles of its residents. Unavoidably the potential benefits come along with new challenges and concerns related to information security and privacy. Blockchain technology is a platform that would provide tamper-proof storage for data derived from smart cities and ensure the access to the data is tracked and provided to authorized users. The resultant chain of custody will provide an interoperable platform that would facilitate decisions in smart cities that would impact the communities. The transparency of the platform would provide citizens would go a long way in building trust and ensure that the businesses will hold to high standards of accountability.
Researchers and developers from both academia and industry have recognized the potential of blockchain technology as a trusted platform for the information and communication infrastructure of smart cities. The integration of blockchain in smart cities would benefit applications such as universal ID cards, land/property/housing/energy/ water/pollution management, improving public transit urban planning, universal data storage and keyless signature interfaces, amongst several others.
BLESS’2020 will bring researchers and experts together to present and discuss the latest developments and technical solutions concerning various aspects of blockchain technology in the context of smart cities. BLESS’2020 seeks original unpublished papers focusing on theoretical analysis, emerging applications, novel system architecture construction and design, experimental studies, and social impacts of blockchain. Both review/survey papers and technical papers are encouraged. BLESS’2020 also welcomes short papers that summarize speculative breakthroughs, work-in-progress, industry featured projects, open problems, new application challenges, visionary ideas, and preliminary studies.
Scope and Topics of the Workshop:
BLESS’2020 aims at highlighting the roles that blockchain technology can play in the smart cities, it is cross-disciplinary and covers multiple areas including information security, infrastructure security, facilities, communication networks, data storage, distributed computing, and more. The main goal of the workshop is to gather researchers from these areas together to foster the collaboration among such interdisciplinary areas and to spark discussion on open topics related to blockchain-enabled applications in smart cities.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Blockchain based cyber physical systems for smart cities
- Blockchain based information hiding/encryption in smart cities
- Blockchain based lightweight algorithms and protocols for IoT
- Blockchain based security and privacy solutions for smart cities
- Blockchain enabled novel applications and services in smart cities
- Smart contract and distributed ledger for smart cities
- Security, privacy and trust of blockchain based decentralized systems
- Blockchain in critical infrastructure resilience (power grid, oil and gas, etc)
- Blockchain for supply chain protection
- Blockchain for networked identity management
- Scalability of Blockchain
- Secure Blockchain based identity management systems
- Interoperable Blockchain systems
- Blockchain infrastructure for public transit management
- Blockchain for social impact
- Blockchain based voting systems for urban and regional planning decisions
- Blockchain for universal data storage
- Keyless signature interfaces
Submission Guidelines:
Please submit regular full papers (8 pages) and short papers (4 pages) including all figures, tables, and references, following the IEEE ISC2 submission instructions. Authors are requested to follow the standard IEEE double-column format with Font 10 (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html). Papers should be submitted electronically in PDF format through the EDAS website together with a short abstract (approximately 150 words). Submitted papers must not have appeared in or be under review/consideration for another workshop, conference or journal during the review process. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three reviewers and will follow the IEEE ISC2 standards for quality.
Important dates:
- Paper Submission – August 15, 2020
- Acceptance Notification – September 05, 2020
- Camera-ready due – September 10, 2020
- Conference dates – September 28, 2020
Workshop Organizers:
- Yu Chen, Binghamton University – SUNY, USA, (ychen@binghamton.edu)
- Sachin Shetty, Old Dominion University, USA, (shetty@odu.edu)
For more information, please refer to the BLESS 2020 Workshop’s website (http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~rxu22/BLESS_2020.html)
The IEEE P2784 standardization process: A Guide for the Technology and Process Framework for Planning a Smart City
Scope and aim:
This IEEE Smart Cities Planning and Technology Workshop is intended to educate end-users as well as their engineering consultants and other partners on planning, implementation and operational best practices required to build sustainable, economically sensible Smart City solutions. It’s based upon the IEEE P2784 Smart Cities Planning and Technology draft standard.
Who Should Attend? This workshop is specially tailored to public works personnel, Department of Transportation staff, consulting engineers, utility staff, resilience and sustainability experts, planners, community leaders and the general public are strongly encouraged to attend.
As an outcome of this workshop, participants will learn:
- What Human Factors Impact a Smart City;
- What are the Nine Applications That Must Be Considered;
- What Seven Technologies Drive Those Applications;
- How to Identify Stakeholder Communities;
- What Stakeholder Communities Must Be Included;
- How to Document Needs of the Communities;
- How to Build a List of Consensus-Based Needs;
- How to Refine Consensus-Based Needs into Measurable Functional Requirements;
- How to Develop a Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP);
- How to Develop and Implement Test Plans to Keep You on Track;
- How to Manage Smart City Projects Over Their Entire Lifecycle;
Topics of interest:
- Smart Cities;
- Standards and Metrics;
- Policy Development;
- Governance.
Submission Guidelines:
Please submit regular full papers (8 pages) and short papers (4 pages) including all figures, tables, and references, following the IEEE ISC2 submission instructions. Authors are requested to follow the standard IEEE double-column format with Font 10 (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html). Papers should be submitted electronically in PDF format through the EDAS website together with a short abstract (approximately 150 words). Submitted papers must not have appeared in or be under review/consideration for another workshop, conference or journal during the review process. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three reviewers and will follow the IEEE ISC2 standards for quality.
Important dates:
- Paper Submission – August 15, 2020
- Acceptance Notification – September 05, 2020
- Camera-ready due – September 10, 2020
- Conference dates – September 28, 2020
Workshop Organizers:
- Jim Frazer, ARC Advisory Group, USA (jfrazer@arcweb.com)
- Larissa Paredes Muse, Brazilian Network for Smart & Human Cities, USA (larissaparedesmuse@ieee.org)
- Eduard Fidler, ARC Advisory Group, USA (efidler@arcweb.com)