Announcements

Prof. Dr. Juan-Carlos Cano has been a University Professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) since November 7, 2011, in the area of computer architecture and technology, and his research is developed in the area of communications networks. He has five research "sexenios" (six-year terms), one of which is for knowledge transfer. He is an author of more than 400 papers, and at present, his Google Scholar h-index is 46.

Name: Prof. Dr. Juan-Carlos Cano

Email: jucano@disca.upv.es

Affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Homepage: http://www.disca.upv.es/jucano

Research Keywords: mobile ad hoc networks; vehicular networks; mobile communication; computer networks; wireless networks; MANETs; VANETs

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Juan-Carlos Cano, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. Can you briefly share your research results?

To date, I have published more than 400 papers in international journals and congresses, highlighting 95 articles in international journals with the JCR impact index (more than 50 in Q1), 125 articles from congresses classified as CORE or SCIE, and more than 150 articles in international congresses (mainly IEEE and ACM and IFIP), of which I would highlight those published in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, which in 2003 was in the number 1 position by impact index in the “Communications” category.

2. Can you briefly share your teaching activity?

As for my teaching activity, I have received the award for Teaching Excellence by the Social Council of the UPV and the Generalitat Valenciana. At present (since June 2021), I am the Vice-Rector for Teaching Staff and Academic Organization, at the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia.

3. What is your vision for the “Networks” Section?

“Networks” contains many different fields of computer communications and networks while providing full coverage of all topics of interest involved in the networking area. I also support new emerging topics in the field of networks and hope this Section will publish more and more high-quality papers.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

I support Open Access, and Open Access increases the possibility for researchers from all over the world to read scientific literature.

The 2022 4th Asia Symposium on Image Processing will be held in Guangzhou, China from 23 to 25 June 2022. The conference aims to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners and professionals from the industry, academia and the government to discuss research, development and professional practice in image processing. We welcome scholars and researchers working in the field of image processing from all over the world to attend the conference and share their experiences and lessons with other enthusiasts and develop opportunities for cooperation.

Topics of interest for submission include but are not limited to:

If you have any questions regarding the conference, please contact us by email (asip@acm-sg.org) or via the conference Twitter account (Electronics Twitter: @Electronics_MDPI).

The 2022 4th International Artificial Intelligence Technology Conference aims to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners, and professionals from the industry, academia and the government to discuss research, development and professional practices in artificial intelligence technology. AITC 2022 is the workshop of SPML 2022. It will be held together with SPML 2022 in Dalian, China, from 4 to 6 August 2022. We welcome scholars and researchers working in the field of artificial intelligence technology from all over the world to attend and share their experiences and lessons with other enthusiasts and develop opportunities for cooperation.

Topics of interest for submission include but are not limited to:

• AI algorithms;
• Artificial Intelligence tools and applications;
• Automatic control;
• Bioinformatics;
• Natural language processing;
• CAD design and testing;
• Computer vision and speech understanding;
• Data mining and machine learning tools;
• Fuzzy logic;
• Heuristic and AI planning strategies and tools;
• Computational theories of learning;
• Hybrid intelligent systems;
• Information retrieval;
• Intelligent system architectures;
• Knowledge representation;
• Knowledge-based systems;
• Mechatronics;
• Multimedia and cognitive informatics;
• Neural networks;
• Parallel processing;
• Pattern recognition;
• Pervasive computing and ambient intelligence;
• Programming languages;
• Reasoning and evolution;
• Recent trends and developments;
• Robotics;
• Semantic web techniques and technologies;
• Soft computing theory and applications;
• Software and hardware architectures;
• Web intelligence applications and search.

If you have any questions regarding the conference, please contact us by email (aitc@acm-sg.org), or via conference twitter account (Electronics Twitter: @Electronics_MDPI).

It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 19th International Conference on Cooperative Design, Visualization and Engineering (www.cdve.org), which will be held from 25 to 28 September 2022 in Krakow, Poland.

Recently, many important technologies have emerged or reached a new stage of development, such as cloud computing, machine learning, blockchain, the Internet of Things, big data, and mobile computing. This new computing landscape opens a wider possibility to access social media, e-business, e-learning, e-finance, crowdsourcing, and many other online services. We are excited to see that the scale and popularity have reached a level that our human society has never experienced before.

The prestigious CDVE conferences have been and will still be a unique meeting point for experts, researchers, developers, and practitioners in cooperative design, visualization, engineering, and other cooperative application areas. The CDVE conferences provide an opportunity for researchers to publish their research results, get inspired by peer researchers, and develop their professional networks. Many past participants established pivotal cooperation relationships in their research during the conference. You are most welcome to join us!

Within the scope of the conference are all the application areas concerning multiple users, multiple locations, multiple units, and multiple sensors, including but not limited to the following:

Cooperative design (CD):

• Multiple users, multiple location collaborative design applications;
• Concurrent design, collaborative editing, real-time user interactions;
• Cooperative User Experience (UX) design.

Cooperative visualization (CV):

• System architecture, prototypes, user interfaces for CV: web applications, textual and multimedia 2D, 3D desktop interfaces, 3D virtual world environments, and multiple user embedded systems;
• Visualization for multiple users, multiple locations, concurrent visualization;
• Cooperative visual analytics and communication.

Cooperative engineering (CE):

• Collaborative process planning, scheduling, control, conformance testing and interoperability checking, cooperative decision making;
• Human–machine interfaces, frameworks, reference models, architectures, tools and systems for CE;
• Concurrent prototyping, manufacturing, and engineering;
• Concurrent process modeling, product modeling, reference models, business models, data representations, and standards.

Cooperative applications (CA):

• Human–computer interface for cooperative working;
• Cooperation between humans and autonomous systems;
• Social networks;
• Crowdsourcing;
• Collective intelligence;
• Cooperative learning.

Basic theories, methods, and technologies that support CDVE (BT):

• Modeling of group behavior;
• Distributed systems, grid systems, real-time systems, groupware;
• Cloud computing, edge computing for cooperative work;
• Fog computing for cooperative storage, cooperative working;
• Big data processing, fusion;
• Multi-sensor data processing, fusion.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative, the Special Issue Mentor Program. 

This program intends to provide an opportunity for early career scientists to enhance their editing, networking, and organizational skills and to work closely with our journal to gain more editorial experience. Early career scientists who have novel ideas for new Special Issues of Electronics (ISSN: 2079-9292) will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Electronics Editorial Board or may be from other well-established research institutes or laboratories, etc. 

Early career scientist’s responsibilities:

• Providing a CV that includes a list of publications;
• Proposing a Special Issue title and prepare a short introduction;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue;
• Reviewing and making decisions for submissions under the mentorship of our Editorial Board Members.

Mentor’s responsibilities:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Co-editing Special Issues with younger scholars and performing quality control for the publications in the SI;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue.

Certificates and awards:

When the Special Issue is closed, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all of the mentors. The young scholars involved in the program will be prioritized as candidates for Electronics Young Investigator Awards in the future.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Electronics Editorial Office (electronics@mdpi.com), and we will discuss the process (mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, Electronics will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals based on hot research topics as usual.

Electronics Editorial Office

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sergio Busquets-Monge has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Electrical and Autonomous Vehicles” in Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292).

Dr. Sergio Busquets-Monge is an Associate Professor at the Electronic Engineering Department at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC), Barcelona, Spain. He acquired his M.S. degree in electrical engineering and Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering at UPC, Barcelona, in 1999 and 2006, respectively, and an M.S. degree in electrical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 2001. He works in the area of power electronics applied to electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. His current research interests include modular and scalable power converter design and multilevel conversion for electric vehicles.

He has been involved in more than 30 funded research projects in the area of power electronics, involving the development of novel topologies, modeling, modulations, controls, applications, and design optimization. He is currently participating as principal investigator in two European research and innovation projects and one research national project focused on the development of novel power electronics technology for electric vehicles.

He is the author of more than 100 works, including more than 35 papers in international scientific journals and more than 65 papers in international scientific conferences, with an h-index of 30.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Sergio Busquets-Monge, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?

The Electronics journal is relatively young, but with the potential to become a consolidated reference journal with a good reputation in the future. I agree with the general publishing policy, which I believe is well-aligned with the current and future needs of the research community: publish articles in open access, a quick peer review and publication process to guarantee a minimum quality but without forcing large revision changes that require substantial time and efforts and do not typically bring significant added value, fast publication of the research results to speed-up the global community research advancements, possibility to comment online the articles to dynamically establish their significance, foster the exchange of ideas, foster collaboration, etc.

The participation of known researchers in my field within the Editorial Board also helped raise confidence in the journal’s opportunities.

I have personally spent much more time preparing and reviewing my own publications in traditional journals than doing the corresponding technical research. This does not seem right. I want to explore other editorial options.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

I think the journal should follow its current editorial policy, outlined above, to convince the community of the advantages of this approach. I think that in the future it is possible to transform journals into some sort of research social networks for researchers, where traditional papers are mixed with video presentations, comments, etc. From this point of view, maybe the journal should try to promote and facilitate the incorporation of video presentations of the articles to make them more appealing.

Eventually, if a good portion of highly reputed researchers find value in this novel publication approach, others will follow.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

Very promising. Electronics, and particularly power electronics, are enabling technologies for the current technological challenges. Electrical and autonomous vehicles are key in the current transportation and energy revolution. Very few technologies are so important for the current society goals.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

I think it is fundamental. For the sake of humanity, knowledge should end up being open to everyone, not only those who can afford paying a subscription fee. A big portion of the research is funded with the taxes paid by the whole society. Therefore, the benefit for the whole society should be maximized.

We warmly welcome Dr. Sergio Busquets-Monge in his new role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to his guidance in helping “Electrical and Autonomous Vehicles” reach many more milestones.

It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 2022 2nd Power System and Green Energy Conference (PSGEC 2022) (https://www.psgec.org/), which will take place from 25 to 27 August 2022 in Shanghai, China.

With the development of the world’s economy, the environment has suffered serious pollution and damage. To prevent a global climate disaster, the large-scale development and utilization of green energy have become an important part of the energy strategy of many countries around the world. Currently, green energy, such as wind power and solar power, is developing rapidly and has played an important role in the energy supply. However, the operation of the power system is facing a major challenge in terms of the integration of green energy due to its randomness and fluctuation.

This conference focuses on the latest research on the power system and green energy and is dedicated to promoting exchanges and discussions among scientists, scholars, researchers, and engineers from power industry concerning the above topic. Thus, we hope to promote the development of the power system and green energy.

PSGEC 2022 is being organized by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with technical support from IEEE PES Chongqing Chapter; support from Southeast University and Shanghai University of Electric Power; and media support from the Journals Center, China Electric Power Research Institute, and MDPI’s Electronics.

We welcome prospective authors to submit their new research or technological contributions to PSGEC 2022 in order to share their valuable experience with scientists and students from around the world.

The topics of PSGEC 2022 include but are not limited to:

• AI Applications in Power Systems;
• Diagnostics and Condition Monitoring;
• Distributed Generation;
• Electrical Machines and Transformers;
• Electricity Market and Power System Economics;
• Energy Storage, Fuel Cell Technologies, and Trends;
• Electrical Vehicles, Grid to Vehicle (G2V) and Vehicle to Grid (V2G);
• Energy Efficiency;
• Energy Management;
• High Voltage Systems;
• HVDC and FACTS Devices;
• Industrial Automation and Control;
• Modeling and Simulation;
• Modeling Cyber-physical Smart Grids and Demand Response Management;
• Power Electronics and Drives;
• Power Engineering Education;
• Power Quality (PQ);
• Power System Operation and Planning;
• Power System Reliability;
• Power Systems Control and Protection;
• Renewable Energy including Modelling, Operation, Control, and Integration;
• Safe and Resiliency through Community-Scale Micro-Grids;
• Solar Power Systems, Energy and Water Management and Sustainability;
• Smart Grid Development;
• Sustainable Energy Technologies;
• Transmission and Distribution.

It is our great honor to congratulate the Editorial Board Members and Editors in MDPI's journals who have been distinguished as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, according to Web of Science data. We herewith express our gratitude for the immense impact the named researchers continue to make on scientific progress and on our journals' development.

Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 22 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.

The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of Science^TM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

Academic editors play a crucial role in leading our journals and ensuring that each article undergoes a robust and timely peer-review. With the launch of Topics this year and addition of Topic Editors to our family of academic editors, we decided it would be a good time to restructure our academic boards, thus providing more clarity and support for each role. MDPI is pleased to announce the launch of a new position—Topical Advisory Panel Member, that will replace the previous position of Topics Board Member. The Topical Advisory Panel will be comprised of early career researchers eager to gain experience in editorial work.

The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Each year, the members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Have received a Ph.D. in the last 10 years, approximately;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the editorial office by email.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

In November 2021, The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) will host the World Engineers Summit 2021 (www.wes-ies.org) from 10 to 12 November 2021 in Singapore. The fifth biennial conference will continue to advance engineering-centric discussions on sustainable, climate-resilient, and low-carbon urban developments.

Themed “Engineering towards a Post-Pandemic Sustainable World”, WES 2021 will offer the international engineering community, along with scientists, academics, business leaders, policymakers, and researchers, a timely opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas to support the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will focus on creating, mobilizing, and realizing innovative engineering solutions to address challenges arising from the global crisis; create new economic frontiers; and capture new opportunities in sustainability.

The summit will deliver a rich program comprising keynote addresses by leading field experts and discussions along six tracks:

• Sustainable Living through Technology;
• Future Engineering and Industry 4.0;
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digitalization;
• Sustainable Urban Mobility;
• Engineering Education;
• Impact of New Technologies on Productization, Safety, and Human Factors Practice.

Join us at WES 2021 to be part of the action to drive positive change towards a better, sustainable future.