Computer, the flagship publication of the IEEE Computer Society, publishes peer-reviewed articles written for and by computer researchers and practitioners representing the full spectrum of computing and information technology, from hardware to software and from emerging research to new applications. The aim is to provide more technical substance than trade magazines and more practical ideas than research journals. Computer seeks to deliver useful information for all computing professionals and students, including computer scientists, engineers, and practitioners of all levels.

Special Issue on Technology Predictions
Submission Date: 2021-12-01

Publication issue: July 2022

Technology predictions have always been hard to make, yet they attract wide audiences because of their speculative nature and potential impact. Accurate predictions could have substantial impact on business. Degree of speculation as well as potential impact is dramatically amplified with radical changes introduced by pandemics. The ability to correctly predict may differentiate countries that will sustain tragic losses from those that will evade impact. Similarly, technology trends may make a difference in whether industries will entirely go away, undergo complete transformation, or suddenly start blooming.

Technology prediction is hard because it entails both technical and business components, as well as a time dimension. Superior technologies have not always won. And those that did win sometimes took much more time to mature and ultimately reach adoption. Technology success depends on technical, production, market, social, and many other aspects.

Successful technology predictions will provide a basis and justification for the prediction, including research and development results that can quantify and qualify prediction. Ideally, the prediction will have been motivated by novel technological aspects or the use thereof.

Over the past ten years, the IEEE Computer Society has conducted technology predictions at the end of each year. Many other organizations around the world do the same. For examples of papers on technology predictions, see the December 2019 issue of Computer, including a rebuttal by Jeff Voas, at that time the incoming EiC of Computer. For examples of technology predictions, see the IEEE Computer Society Press Room, including scorecards from the past 10 years.

Scope of Interest

All submitted papers to this special issue are to focus on state-of-the-art technology predictions from various academic and industry viewpoints. The topics of interests in this special issue include, but are not limited to:

    AI, machine learning, and deep learning
    Novel computer technologies such as CPUs, accelerators, memories (including non-volatile), storage, and interconnects
    Communication technologies such as the Internet, wireless, and 5G
    Deployment of cloud and edge technologies
    Predictions from the standards perspective
    Predictions from the road-mapping perspective
    Novel technology applications and use cases, including in manufacturing, biotech, healthcare, oil and gas, transportation, finance, smart cities, and education
    Personal and pervasive computing technologies
    Societal, legal, and ethical aspects
    Security and reliability aspects
    Impact on supply chains
    Future workforce support

Important Dates

    Paper submissions due: 1 December 2021
    First-round review due: 22 January 2022
    Revision due: 5 March 2022
    Final decision notification: 9 April 2022
    Camera-ready submission due: 23 April 2022
    Publication: July 2022

Submission Guidelines

Computer is looking for succinct, practical, readable articles that will appeal to experts and nonexperts alike. Feature articles shouldn’t exceed 6,000 words (minimum 4,500 words), including text, bibliography, and author biographies. Columns shouldn’t exceed 2,500 words (minimum 1,500 words), including text, author biographies, and table text. Each figure and table is counted, on average, as 300 words. Any article that exceeds these word counts may be rejected automatically without going through the review process. Article titles shouldn’t exceed nine words. All manuscripts are subject to peer review on both technical merit and relevance to Computer’s international readership–primarily practicing engineers and academics who are looking for material that introduces new technology and broadens familiarity with current topics. We do not accept white papers, and papers that are primarily theoretical or mathematical must clearly relate the mathematical content to a real-life or engineering application. Manuscripts should not be published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere.

Please read Computer‘s submission guidelines. When you are ready to submit, visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/com-cs.

Guest Editors

Contact the guest editors at co7-22@computer.org.

    Phillip A. Laplante, Penn State
    Dejan Milojicic, Hewlett Packard Labs

Special Issue on Software Supply Chains
Submission Date: 2022-02-15

A software supply chain (SSC) is the sequence of events required to analyze, design, and deliver a software service or product. Although there are similar challenges with SSCs as there are in traditional supply chains–such as outsourcing, risk analysis, and managing relationships–SSCs come with unique challenges that can be more difficult to manage.

An effective and optimized SSC is critical to the success of not only the organization but also its customers. Consider the case of security; there has been a 430% increase in SSC attacks. In the recent SolarWinds attack, a simple customer software update delivery also included a devastating virus. This infected update reached 425 of 500 US Fortune 500 companies, which included telecommunication companies, accounting firms, government, and academic institutions.

Malicious actors are also finding ways to compromise the tools and open source packages used by software developers. Part of the SSC process is making sure the code being developed satisfies the critical requirements of the software. Depending on the scale of the project, this process may include managing software development tools and processes to track and achieve numerous requirements (both functional and not), multiple developers, and unique delivery modes, such as open source, in which the quality and security of the software will be even more difficult to manage.

Just as in a traditional supply chain, once the product is complete, there is also marketing, sales, and retailers that require integration and management. Delivering the software internationally will bring an additional level of challenges such as compliance, translation, and vulnerabilities.

The goal of this special issue is to improve the state of the art and bring together the latest advances, experiences, findings, and developments related to SSCs. We invite novel, innovative, and exciting contributions relating to SSCs. Topics of interest for this special issue include (but are not limited to):

- SSC security
- SSC management
- SSC attacks
- SSC strategies
- SSC scalability and performance
- SSCs and e-business
- SSCs and open source
- SSC best practices
- SSC tools 

Special Issue on Smart and Circular Cities
Submission Date: 2022-03-30

The goal of this special issue is to address the domain of smart cities from a computational point of view, to improve the state of the art, and to present recent technological advances and experiences that are employed in smart cities to enable circular economies and reduce their climate impact. Authors are encouraged to submit original contributions related to smart and circular cities. Topics of interest for this special issue include (but are not limited to):

- Smart cities as systems of systems
- Smart city applications and services
- Smart city pilot projects
- Smart city embedded and cyberphysical systems
- Smart city management platforms
- Computing for smart cities (IoT, edge/cloud, Industry 4.0, Society 5.0, etc.)
- Communication technologies, including 6G
- Data management and knowledge extraction
- Distributed ledger technologies supporting smart city ecosystems
- Robust smart and circular cities
- Open data initiatives, cases, and applications
- Digital twins and their application to smart cities
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the smart city domain
- People-centric systems and crowd-based computing in smart cities
- Tools and techniques for urban co-creation
- Studies on behavioral change aspects for sustainability
- Policy for smart cities and their development
- Business models for smart and circular cities