Call for Papers:Special Issue on Pervasive Computing for Populations In Crisis
Maria Ebling, Gabriela Marcu, Claudio Pinhanez


Title and abstracts due: 30 April 2023 (to pvc1-2024@computer.org)
Publication: January-March 2024


Pervasive computing technologies have much to offer in times of crisis. Some crises are acute, happening over a relatively short period of time, such as natural disasters. Others are chronic and continue at different levels over a much longer period, such as the climate crisis or racial violence. Technologies can support people training for or experiencing different types of crises, including: first responders such as those performing search and rescue or fighting seasonal wildfires, volunteers coordinating with professionals to manage response to natural disasters, communities dealing with public health crises such as the opioid epidemic, gun violence, or gender-based violence, soldiers, government and NGO officials, and local and displaced populations in regions affected by geopolitical crises such as war, indigenous communities using drones to monitor their borders, individuals and populations affected by PTSD and other forms of psychological trauma after surviving or responding to a crisis.

This special issue aims to provide a broad view on the many different ways that pervasive computing technology is being used to support either acute or chronic crisis situations, whether training in preparation for, deployment during, or recovery after such situations. This special issue invites articles covering a wide range of topics including innovative computing methods, technologies, design and evaluation studies of their use and impact in practice, surveys, and vision papers. All investigations must include thorough and appropriate evaluations of their approaches and methods. In particular, we are seeking article submissions for this issue around topics such as (but not limited to):

Sensor networks for use in crisis situations
Techniques for gaining and disseminating situational awareness
Technology for social support, resilience, prevention, and interventions addressing psychological trauma and health issues
Novel approaches to maintaining communication and organization under adverse conditions
Roles for wearable computing and physiological monitoring of both first responders, soldiers, or victims
Integration of diverse digital and networked devices (robots, drones, etc.)
Pervasive computing techniques applied to robust and self-healing systems for extreme environments
Cybersecurity protocols for pervasive computing infrastructure in hostile environments
Pervasive technologies used to train personnel to respond to crisis situations
Open-source initiatives and experiences to develop pervasive applications to support populations in crisis
Human-centered design and evaluation of crisis-support applications


Submission Guidelines
For author information and guidelines on submission criteria, please visit the Pervasive Computing’s Author Information page. Please submit papers through the ScholarOne system, and be sure to select the special issue name. Manuscripts should not be published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for review, not abstracts, to the ScholarOne portal.

Questions?
Please contact the guest editors at pvc1-2024@computer.org.

Guest Editors:

Maria Ebling, United States Military Academy, West Point, USA
Gabriela Marcu, University of Michigan, USA
Claudio Pinhanez, IBM Research Brazil, Brazil