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Mobile and pervasive devices are rapidly becoming platforms of choice to support the development of state-of-the-art assistive technologies to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. Pervasive sensors, actuators, and IoT installations are able to provide key information about the environment and those who traverse it, while mobile devices enable general-purpose computing on the move, cutting edge sensing, and persistent connectivity. They are also compact, widespread and socially acceptable, and therefore well suited to provide assistance everywhere and at all times. These qualities can be leveraged to achieve ubiquitous assistance for everyday activities such as mobility, information access, interaction with the environment, or with other people.
The aim of MPAT workshop is to showcase recent advancements in mobile and pervasive assistive technologies, connecting researchers and practitioners working in the fields of accessibility and pervasive systems.
MPAT is collocated with the 19th International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2021), which will be held virtually between March 22-26, 2021.
Call For Papers
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people have some form of disability. Mobile and pervasive devices are rapidly becoming platforms of choice to support the development of state-of-the-art assistive technologies to improve the quality of life of those people.
Assistive technology research is multidisciplinary: it requires to address challenges in many different fields, including human-computer interaction, data management, distributed systems, and computer vision. In particular, recent research on assistive technologies often involves advanced data management techniques and evolved pervasive systems, all of which are key topics addressed by the PerCom community.
The aim of this workshop is to showcase recent advancements in mobile and pervasive assistive technologies, connecting researchers and practitioners working in the fields of accessibility and pervasive systems.
In particular, we encourage submissions in two tracks:
- Research track: original research advancing the state of the art in the field of mobile and pervasive assistive technologies.
- Tutorial track: papers that present the state of the art in the field of assistive technologies, introducing scientific and technical challenges for enabling accessibility and creating assistive technologies through data management and pervasive computing research.
Possible research topics include but are not limited to:
- Assistive technologies using mobile, wearable, and pervasive devices
- Wireless, distributed, and IoT-driven assistive technologies
- Smart homes, domotics, and smart cities for people with disabilities
- Accessibility of mobile and pervasive devices
- Mobile interaction techniques for individuals with disabilities
- Rehabilitation using mobile and pervasive devices
- Human factors in mobile assistive technologies design and evaluation
- Remote assistance and crowdsourced mobile assistive technologies
- Social aspects related to mobile accessibility and assistive technologies
Key information
Note:due to COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop will be held virtually
Formatting:
6 pages (including references), in the IEEE format (10pt font, 2-column format)
Submission:
EDAS submission page
Important dates:
- Paper submission deadline: December 04, 2020
- Submitted papers can be updated until: December 09, 2020
- Paper notification date: January 15, 2021
- Camera ready deadline: January 29, 2021
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Organization
Organizers
Sergio Mascetti received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Università degli Studi di Milano, where he is currently an associate professor at the Computer Science Department. His research interests cover the areas of mobile data management, with particular focus on the topics of privacy and assistive technologies.
Dragan Ahmetovic received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Università degli Studi di Milano, where he currently holds a position as an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science. His research interests involve accessibility, embodied sensing, and intelligent user interfaces, mediated by mobile and pervasive devices.
Uran Oh received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Now, she is an assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea. Her main research interests include natural user interaction, user interface personalization and assistive technology especially for people with visual impairments.
Program Committee
The Program Committee will include top researchers in the fields of pervasive computing and accessibility
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Meenakshi Balakrishnan | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN) |
| Maria Fernanda Cabrera-Umpierrez | Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (ES) |
| Gabriele Civitarese | University of Milan (IT) |
| James Coughlan | Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (USA) |
| Janick Edinger | University of Mannheim (DE) |
| Hyunggu Jung | University of Seoul (KR) |
| Sangsu Lee | KAIST (KR) |
| Clayton Lewis | University of Colorado (USA) |
| Vinod Namboodiri | Wichita state University (USA) |
| Paul Ruvolo | Olin College of Engineering (USA) |
| Volker Sorge | University of Birmingham (UK) |
| Hanke Sten | FH Joanneum (AT) |
Program
The workshop will be held on March 22nd, 2021. All times are in CET time zone
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 09:30 - 10:30 |
|
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Break |
| 11:00 - 12:30 |
Session 1, chair: Dragan Ahmetovic
|
| 12:30 - 14:30 | Lunch break |
| 14:30 - 15:30 |
Session 2, chair: Uran Oh
|
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Break |
| 16:00 - 17:00 |
Session 3, chair: Sergio Mascetti
|
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Closing: Dragan Ahmetovic |
Keynote
Tiago Guerreiro
MPAT will feature a Keynote with Tiago Guerreiro, Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon (Faculty of Sciences) and a researcher at LASIGE, where he leads the Tech&People lab. His main areas of expertise are HCI, Accessible Computing, and Pervasive Healthcare. In these areas, he has published 75+ peer-reviewed papers. He received awards for 10+ papers, including at ASSETS, CHI, SOUPS, HRI, ITS, and MobileHCI, and an ACM Best of Computing award in 2016. He is Editor-in-Chief for ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, track chair for "User Experience and Accessibility" at The Web Conference (previously WWW), and ASSETS 2020 General Chair, among many other service roles. He participated in 10+ EU projects and was an invited expert supporting the European Commission in implementing the Web Accessibility Directive. His research is normally done embedded in the communities he works and collaborates with, and characterized by long term deployments and iteration of prototypes with target users.
Sponsors
MPAT will feature a Keynote with Tiago Guerreiro, Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon (Faculty of Sciences) and a researcher at LASIGE, where he leads the Tech&People lab. His main areas of expertise are HCI, Accessible Computing, and Pervasive Healthcare. In these areas, he has published 75+ peer-reviewed papers. He received awards for 10+ papers, including at ASSETS, CHI, SOUPS, HRI, ITS, and MobileHCI, and an ACM Best of Computing award in 2016. He is Editor-in-Chief for ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, track chair for "User Experience and Accessibility" at The Web Conference (previously WWW), and ASSETS 2020 General Chair, among many other service roles. He participated in 10+ EU projects and was an invited expert supporting the European Commission in implementing the Web Accessibility Directive. His research is normally done embedded in the communities he works and collaborates with, and characterized by long term deployments and iteration of prototypes with target users.