QoL-Smart Cities 2022 : Improving Quality of Life for People with Disabilities (PwD) through the use of Technologies in Smart Cities

Workshop Title: Improving Quality of Life for People with Disabilities (PwD) through the use of Technologies in Smart Cities
Acronym: Smart Cities, AI, ML, QoL, IoT

Summary
The rapid pace of research, innovation, and technological advancements have given people with an impairment the hope for a better future. These latest developments open up the possibilities for better Quality of Life (QoL) with the possibility of bringing ease in mobility and the useability of resources/facilities in smart cities.
Through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data analysis, high bandwidth, a large number of connected devices, and the citizens' collaboration in a smart city, the lives of People with Disability (PwD) can be improved by providing them with more independence and safety. Moreover, smart cities also support the concept of sustainable economic growth and the well-being of their citizens; therefore, their development relies on strong ICT (Information Communication Technology) infrastructure. The rise in smartphones and wearable devices usage, and the surge in the adoption of AI, Internet of Things (IoT), and Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR)/(AR), have provided aspiration for people with impairments to have a better QoL.
The main sectors that could be improved to cater to PwD in smart cities are public areas, transportation systems, and home systems, to name a few.
Recent technological advancements have provided new opportunities for building smart cities catering to PwD and restricted mobility.

Scope and aim
In today’s busy world, having access to information, performing everyday tasks independently or engaging in education or employment is crucial. Therefore, it is essential to facilitate those with needs, just so that they can make use of technology for a better livelihood. Furthermore, with the help of ubiquitous edge computing, the engagement and interaction of PwD with other humans as well as their surroundings are achievable anytime and anywhere. Edge computing is not only an important direction of the development of IoT, but also an important extension of machine learning technology in the future. The interconnection of all things and the introduction of machine learning intelligence into edge computing will make intelligent computing closer to applications for PwD in smart cities.

Some of the challenges PwD face in cities and societies today are mainly associated with mobility and navigating through known and unknown obstacles. In smart cities, ICT solutions can help in mitigating the aforementioned challenges.
The features that should be considered to build smart cities for the disabled include smart homes, smart working environment, smart transportation, social interactions, and smart healthcare, which need to be supported by proper legislation.

There have been some privacy and cybersecurity risks that have been already raised when it comes to the development of smart systems in a smart city setting. In addition, if proper protocols are implemented, then in the long term, smart cities can reduce environmental degradation with low emission of toxic gases and lower energy consumption.

Smart city adoption is inspired by the fact that the QoL of people will be enhanced and it would make their home and office environment more disabled-friendlier. Technological advancements can improve the ability of individuals to participate in social activities and live independently. Furthermore, development towards this direction will provide ease of accessibility and support for all levels of citizens. Moreover, the ICT-based technologies implemented in smart cities make them more manageable by deploying sensing and monitoring capabilities along with utilizing data-driven approaches. In a generation of connected technologies, our developed smart cities will show their readiness and potential to align with such evolution and facilitate the technological future.
The adoption of the smart city is still in its infancy as far as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is concerned. Besides, user acceptance in terms of accessibility, privacy, and security are pre-requisites for smart cities to find sustainable success.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers working in the broad area of smart cities to improve mobility and QoL of people with impairments. The focus of the workshop will be on theoretical and experimental components of communication, networking, and system-oriented techniques that tackle challenges in smart cities using smart technologies. Therefore, in this workshop, the researchers working on emerging problems in different sectors of the smart cities can share their latest results, gather new problems from communication, networking, and data analytics perspectives.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

Topics of Interest
• Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)
• Access to public areas in smart cities for PwD
• Smart transport systems in smart cities for PwD
• Smart homes of the disabled in smart cities
• Obstacle detection and space perception
• Crowdsourcing to help the disabled in smart cities
• IoT applications for PwD
• AI solutions for PwD
• Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for PwD
• Smart living
• Smart health
• Smart education
• Smart working
• Users’ experience in smart cities
• Security, privacy and trust in smart cities

List of keynotes planned and invited speakers
- Dr. Marios Lestas
Affiliation: Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Informatics Frederick University Cyprus
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Marios Lestas received the B.A and M.Eng degrees in Electrical and Information Engineering from the University of Cambridge U.K and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2000 and 2006 respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Informatics of the School of Engineering at Frederick University, teaching undergraduate as well as postgraduate courses. He is also teaching courses at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and at the Marine Engineering Program. His research interests include application of non-linear control theory and optimization methods in Intelligent Networks such as Computer Networks, Transportation Networks, Power Networks, Molecular Nano-networks and Metasurfaces. In the aforementioned networks he has investigated issues pertinent to congestion control, information dissemination, network vulnerability, demand response and more recently privacy and security. He has participated in a number of projects funded by the Research Promotion Foundation and the EU.

- Dr. Anish Jindal
Affiliation: Assistant Professor in Department of Computer Science at Durham University
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Dr. Anish Jindal is working as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Durham University, UK since Jan. 2022, fellow of Durham Energy Institute and is a visiting fellow in School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (CSEE), University of Essex. Prior to this, he worked as a Lecturer in CSEE, University of Essex from Mar. 2020 to Dec. 2021, and senior research associate at the School of Computing & Communications, Lancaster University, UK from Oct. 2018 to Mar. 2020. He completed his Ph.D., M.Engg. and B. Tech. degrees in computer science engineering in 2018, 2014, and 2012, respectively. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award, 2019 from the IEEE Technical Committee on Scalable Computing (TCSC) and conferred with the IEEE Communication Society's Outstanding Young Researcher Award for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Region, 2019. He has also been a visiting researcher to OFFIS - Institute for Information Technology, Germany in 2019.
His research interests are in the areas of smart cities, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cyber-physical systems, wireless networks, and security. Some of the particular aspects of my research relates to resource aware computing, energy optimization, programmable and scalable networking, and wireless network & security. He has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (GCRF), Innovate UK (KTP), Alumnode, The Royal Society (International Exchanges), Durham Seed Corn and startup grant for some of his research ideas.
Many of his research findings are published in top-cited journals such as IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, IEEE Communication Magazine, IEEE Network, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Future Generation Computer Systems, and Computer Networks. In addition to it, his research works have also been presented in various conferences of repute such as IEEE ICC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE WiMob, IEEE PES General Meeting, ACM MobiHoc, etc. He has served as General co-chair, TPC co-chair, TPC member, Publicity chair and Session chair of various reputed conferences and workshops including IEEE ICC, IEEE WoWMoM, IEEE INFOCOM and IEEE GLOBECOM. He is also the guest editor of various journals including Software: Practice and Experience (Wiley), Neural Computing & Applications (Springer), Computer Communications (Elsevier), IET Smart Cities (IET), and IJCS (Wiley). He has also delivered many invited talks and lectures in various international avenues. He is a member of the ACM, IEEE, and actively involved with various working groups and committees of IEEE and ACM related to smart grid, energy informatics and smart cities.

Short bios of organizers and contact details
1. Dr Waqar Asif
Affiliation: School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Dr. Waqar Asif is a Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security at the University of West London. Before this, he has worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the City University of London for three years after completing his PhD from the same institute. Dr. Asif has been involved in multiple EU projects where he has contributed as both a researcher and a developer; thus, giving him a complete insight into how a research outcome could be integrated into a real-world solution.
Dr. Asif likes to explore new technologies day in and day out, and thus, his area of interest is a constantly growing list. He has worked in Communication protocols such as Space-Time Block Codes and Turbo Codes. He also is interested in Wireless Sensor Networks, Internet of Things, Information Privacy, Information Security, Risk Analysis, Cryptography, Blockchain, GDPR, data anonymization, Social Network Analysis, Authentical and Access control approaches.

2. Dr Moustafa Mazin Nasralla
Affiliation: Department of Communications and Networks Engineering, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Email: [email protected]
Biography:
Dr MOUSTAFA M. NASRALLA (SM'21) is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Communications and Networks Engineering at Prince Sultan University (PSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He is currently an active member of the Smart Systems Engineering lab at PSU. He received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing (SEC), Kingston University, London, UK. He was a member of the Wireless Multimedia and Networking (WMN) research group. He received his M.Sc. degree in Networking and Data communications from Kingston University London, UK, in 2011 and his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Hashemite University, Jordan, in 2010, with honours. He served as an active reviewer and received several distinguished reviewer awards from several reputable journals such as IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Elsevier Wireless Communications, and Elsevier Computer Network. He has solid research contributions in the area of networks and data communications which are proven with publications in reputable journals with ISI Thomson JCR. He has won several national and international funded projects such as UK home office, EU FP7 CONCERTO, and 5G- enabled Smart City Development in Saudi Arabia. he has published over 40 articles in high impact factor journals and reputable conferences. Currently, he is serving as a guest editor of Alexandria Engineering Journal (Elsevier), International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks (SAGE), Frontiers in Communications and Networks and an organiser of the International conference on sustainability: developments and innovations, and the 5G-Enabled Smart Cities workshop in the 7th IEEE International Conference on Smart Cities. Moreover, he is a Senior Member IEEE, IEEE Young Professionals, IEEE ComSoc, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). His research interests include the latest generation of wireless communication systems (e.g., 6G, 5G, LTE-A, and LTE wireless networks), Wireless Sensor Networks, Network Security, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Radio resource allocation, Telemedicine & video compression, and Multimedia Communications.

3. Dr. Drishty Sobnath
Affiliation: Solent University, Southampton, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Dr. Drishty Sobnath is a Senior Lecturer in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Her research focused on the design and evaluation of smart health systems for patients with chronic conditions. Drishty has been working on EU funded to provide smart healthcare solutions to patients to improve their quality of life. Her work included implementing and testing IoT solutions, wearables, and mobile application development to improve lifestyle and self-management of various conditions. Her research interests lie in Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Mobile Health and behavioral change management in the healthcare sector. Drishty is a member of the Technical Program Committee for several IEEE conferences and a member of the British Computer Society.