1^st UMIQUE Workshop

UMI technologies combine mainly Ubiquitous computing, Mobile computing and Internet of Things, but also interface with Robotics, Augmented & Virtual Reality and other emerging technologies. These technologies enable the creation of smart environments, both static and mobile, which support human activities, in open and closed spaces. UMI technologies lead to the development of a wide range of applications from personal to city-wide; these applications will revolutionize ALL sectors of human and societal activity. Therefore, UMI technologies will affect our personal lives, our professional environments, our social activity, our citizenship – practically everything! That is why, people who are not familiar with UMI technologies and do not possess the necessary skills to use them run a high risk of being excluded from the benefits of participating in a dynamic society. At the same time, lack of trained UMI professionals will slow down technological and industrial development, while people who are UMI-savvy will hinder societal adoption of technological products.

In order to avoid creating such a fragmented and excluding society, the collaboration of ALL actors across the continuum from education to career to continuous professional development is absolutely necessary. This workshop aims to present best practices, to identify pitfalls and to start a dialogue among the stakeholders.

Members of the PerCom community belong to these stakeholders in their diverse capacities (i.e. whether they are researchers, professors, developers, makers, company representatives, policy makers, career consultants, managers etc.). In our view, the PerCom community is capable (and responsible) for researching and dealing with the issues that could create a non-inclusive society of UMI low-skilled citizens and professionals. Professors and teachers should focus on UMI skills and topics using UMI technologies as the means; industry representatives should collaborate with education and training providers in order to design curricula that meet the forecasted needs; researchers should process data and identify gaps and pitfalls, developers should place emphasis on producing educational and societal applications that enhance UMI competences; Communities of Practice involving all stakeholders should be formed and sustained.

The workshop is unique because it attempts to research and map the continuum from education to career to continuous professional development with respect to UMI technologies. In this respect, it is addressed to all who are involved in research, educational, training and career consultancy activities (see below).

Planned workshop format

The workshop will include a keynote speech (30’) and a number of presentations around the following axes: uses of UMI technologies in education & training, UMI technologies in education & training curricula, UMI technologies as societal enablers (includes topics on career & professional development). At the end of each session, all speakers will form a panel and will answer questions submitted by the moderator and the audience; the panel, together with the audience, will attempt to collaboratively draw a semantic map of the key notions and issues discussed in each session. Each session will last about 90’. The workshop will close with a hands-on participatory session, during which the participants will be invited to use specific outcomes from related research projects.

UMI technologies combine Ubiquitous computing, Mobile computing, Internet of Things and interface with several other technological domains, such as Robotics and Augmented / Virtual Reality. They enable the creation of smart environments, both static and mobile, which support human activities, in open and closed spaces. UMI technologies will lead to the development of a wide range of applications from personal to city-wide; these applications will revolutionize ALL sectors of human and societal activity. Therefore, UMI technologies will affect our personal lives, our professional environments, our social activity, our citizenship – practically everything! That is why, people who are not familiar with UMI technologies and do not possess the necessary skills to use them run a high risk of being excluded from the benefits of participating in a dynamic society.

But are we ready to exploit the full potential and avoid the risks posed by UMI technologies? How can we prepare the knowledgeable, capable, and consequently, active citizens of tomorrow? What could be the starting point towards an inclusive digital society that enables all citizens to take advantage of the advances caused by the UMI technologies?

In this workshop we investigate the components of the continuum education – career – lifelong learning, with respect to UMI technologies, and the factors that determine its success. The workshop will evolve around three axes: uses of UMI technologies in education & training, UMI technologies in education & training curricula, UMI technologies as societal enablers (includes career & professional development), and will give the participants the opportunity to be informed about latest research results, see tools and methodologies, get in touch with best practices presented by experts in the topics. Moreover, the audience will have the opportunity to address questions to panels of experts, collaboratively shape semantic maps on notions and issues that shape the above axes and, in the end, join hands-on sessions in order to use outcomes of related research projects.

The workshop is addressed to all who are involved in research, educational, training and career consultancy activities, as it attempts to research and map the continuum from education to career to lifelong learning with respect to UMI technologies, as described above. Indicative communities that the workshop aims to attract are: formal education teachers & professors, lifelong learning & VET trainers, instructional designers & educational policy makers (from regional, national or international bodies), researchers (who at the same time teach or are interested in educational uses of their results), representatives from industry (who are interested in their products being used in education or in codesigning training curricula with education & training providers), developers of educational applications & technologies (who can be used as education & training means), career consultants & HR managers, representatives of networks (of schools, HEIs, VET providers, industrial organizations).

The organizers of the workshop invite the submission of papers or proposals for technological outcomes on the following aspects of ubiquitous computing, mobile computing, IoT, robotics, physical computing, AR / VR etc:

• educational applications
• teaching / training curricula and content
• science education
• STEM education
• assessment, evaluation, certification
• professional development of teachers / trainers
• Communities of Practice
• educational policies
• digital skills and 21st century skills
• career consulting and entrepreneurship
• gender and inclusion issues

Important Dates

Submission deadline: November 24, 2018

Notification: December 22, 2018

Camera ready version: January 12, 2019 (FIRM)

Author registration due by: January 12, 2019 (FIRM)

Workshop: March 11-15, 2019 (exact day TBA)

Submitted papers should be at most 6 pages long including references and formatted in accordance with the IEEE Computer Society author guidelines. The IEEE LaTeX and Microsoft Word templates, as well as related information, can be found at the IEEE Computer Society website. Each accepted workshop paper requires a full PerCom registration (no registration is available for workshops only). It is mandatory that at least one author registers and presents the paper during the workshop. Workshop papers that fulfill the above will be included and indexed in the IEEE digital libraries (Xplore).

How to submit!

Important Dates

• Submission deadline: November 24, 2018
• Notification: December 22, 2018
• Camera ready version: January 12, 2019 (FIRM)
• Author registration due by: January 12, 2019 (FIRM)
• Workshop: March 11-15, 2019 (exact day TBA)

• Ioannis Chatzigiannakis, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
• Konstantinos Chorianopoulos, Ionian University, Greece
• Kieran Delaney, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland
• Michail Giannakos, NTNU, Norway
• Stefano Giordano, University of Pisa, Italy
• Christos Goumopoulos, University of the Aegean, Greece
• Athanassios Iossifidis, TEI of Macedonia, Greece
• Letizia Jaccheri NTNU, Norway
• Jarkko Lampiselkä, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Anna Mavroudi, KTH, Sweden
• Simone Mora, MIT, USA
• Kostas Stathis, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
• Ioannis Zaharakis, TEI of Western Greece, Greece