COORDSTS@TETC

 CALL FOR PAPERS

COORDINATION IN LARGE-SCALE SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing (TETC)

**** Deadline for submissions: 31 May 2014 ****

IEEE Transaction on Emerging Topics in Computing seeks original manuscripts for a Special Issue/Section on Coordination in Large-Scale Socio-Technical Systems scheduled to appear in the Second Issue of 2015.

The massive diffusion of networked ICT devices, increasingly entangled with our physical and social world, is leading to the emergence of large-scale distributed computing systems. These can provide us with a variety of innovative service and new functionalities, once we understand how to direct and coordinate their activities. You can consider sensor/actuator networks; robot swarms; platforms for collective sensing and actions; platforms for global collaboration and production. All of these, to be of some use, require the capability of effectively coordinating the activities of a very large number (up to the millions) of heterogeneous components, such as humans, software agents, robots, and generic ICT devices. And this in spite of components that are: situated in dynamic and unpredictable environments; inherently context-aware in their interaction; inherently autonomous; and, thus, practically impossible to be controlled at the individual level.

This special issue welcomes theoretical and practical contributions focusing on systemic issues for large-scale socio- technical systems, and providing either innovative viewpoints or novel models, technologies, and methodologies on the subject. Contributions can address (but are not limited to) the following topics of interests:

* Coordination models, languages, and technologies for large-scale socio-technical systems, there included non-conventional (e.g., nature-inspired or socially-inspired) approaches;
* Models and tools for decentralized control of behavior in large-scale distributed and multiagent systems;
* Bottom-up vs. top-down models of coordination in large-scale systems;
* Formal models for the analysis and prediction of the behavior of complex coordinated socio-technical systems;
* Coordination in large-scale human-robot teamwork;
* Large-scale urban computing systems, there included platforms for participatory sensing, awareness and action;
* Models, languages, and tools for crowdsourcing of complex and large-scale tasks;
* Experiences gained in coordinating large-scale socio-technical systems;

Submitted articles must not have been previously published or currently submitted for journal publication elsewhere. Papers that emphasize the generality of the proposed approach/technique and the potential applicability in different classes of large- scale socio-technical systems are particularly welcome.

As an author, you are responsible for understanding and adhering to our submission guidelines. You can access them at the IEEE Computer Society web site, http:www.computer.org. Please thoroughly read these before submitting your manuscript. TETC is the newest Transactions of the IEEE Computer Society with Open Access only. Please submit your paper to Manuscript Central at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tetc-cs

Please note the following important dates.

* Submission Deadline:                             31 May 2014
* Reviews Completed:                               30 September 2014
* Major Revisions Due (if Needed):                 31 October 2014
* Reviews of Revisions Completed (if Needed):      30 November 2014
* Minor Revisions Due (if Needed):                 31 December 2014
* Notification of Final Acceptance:                31 January 2015
* Publication Materials for Final Manuscripts Due: 15 February 2015
* Publication date:                                Second Issue 2015

Please address all other correspondence regarding this special Section to Lead Guest Editor Franco Zambonelli 

Guest Editors

* Franco Zambonelli
  DISMI - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia - Italy
  mailto:franco.zambonelli@unimore.it 
  http://www.agentgroup.unimore.it/Zambonelli
  
* Andrea Omicini
  DISI – Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna - Italy
  mailto:andrea.omicini@unibo.it
  http://apice.unibo.it/xwiki/bin/view/AndreaOmicini/

* Paul Scerri
  Robotics Institute - Carnegie Mellon University - USA
  mailto:pscerri@cs.cmu.edu
  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pscerri/