Applications of Computer Vision
Submission Date: 2021-09-30

Dear Colleagues,

Computer vision (CV) techniques are widely used by the practicing engineer to solve a whole range of real vision problems. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible, covering some practical application of CV methods in all branches of science and engineering. Submitted papers should report some novel aspect of CV use for a real-world engineering application and also validated using data sets. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. Electronic files and software regarding the full details of the calculation or experimental procedure, if unable to be published in a normal way, can be deposited as supplementary electronic material.

The website of the SI is https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Applications_CV

Focal points of the Special Issue include but are not limited to innovative applications of:

    Medical and biological imaging
    Industrial inspection
    Robotics
    Photo and video interpretation
    Image retrieval
    Video analysis and annotation
    Multimedia
    Sensors and more.

Dr. Eva Cernadas
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) in Power Grid: Challenges and Solutions
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues,

As distributed energy resources (DERs), such as renewable energy, distributed generation, demand response (DR), and energy storage systems, increase in a power grid, there are new challenges in power system operation and planning. In particular, the uncertainty and variability associated with DERs introduce various technical and economic problems in a power grid. Effective operation and planning methods are needed to handle the uncertainty and variability associated with DERs. The main purpose of this Special Issue is to attract high-quality articles that address challenges and solutions associated with integration of DERs in a power grid. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

    Impact of DERs on power system operation and planning;
    Hierarchical operation of DERs;
    Monitoring, control and maintenance of DERs;
    Data analytics in smart meter data of DERs including uncertainty analysis and anomaly detection;
    Renewable generation forecasting;
    Load forecasting considering behind-the-meter (BTM) solar generation;
    Technical and economic issues in demand response;
    New business model using DERs.

Prof. Dr. Sung-Kwan Joo
Guest Editor

SI link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/DER_Power_Grid

Special Issue on Deep Learning for Medical Images: Challenges and Solutions
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, with the great success of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) in areas of natural images, adapting and further developing DL techniques to medical images is an important and relevant research challenge. These developments have a huge potential for medical imaging technology, medical data analysis, medical diagnostics, and healthcare in general. Medical images achieved by modalities including X-rays, magnetic resonance, microwaves, ultrasound, and optical methods have been used widely for clinical purposes. It is almost impossible for clinicians to diagnose diseases without the aid of medical images. However, interpreting these images manually is time-consuming, expensive, and varies depending on the clinician’s expertise. Advances in DL enable us to automatically extract more information from images more confidently than ever before. The techniques of AI and DL have played an important role in medical fields like medical image processing, computer-aided diagnosis, image interpretation, image fusion, image registration, image segmentation, etc.

This Special Issue calls for papers presenting novel works about medical image/video processing using DL and AI. Furthermore, high-quality review and survey papers are welcomed. The papers considered for possible publication may focus on, but not necessarily be limited to, the following areas:

    Deep learning and artificial intelligence for medical image/video;
    Image segmentation, registration, and fusion;
    Image processing and analysis;
    Image formation/reconstruction and image quality assessment;
    Medical image analysis;
    Computer aided diagnosis;
    Machine learning of big data in imaging;
    Integration of imaging with non-imaging biomarkers;
    Visualization in medical imaging.

Special Issue Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/DL_Medical_Images

Prof. Dr. Jitae Shin
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Physical Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Technologies
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues,

Human gait analysis is one of the most active research fields in bioelectronics and has a broad range of applications, such as pathology detection, rehabilitation, prosthesis design, biometric identification and humanoid robotic locomotion. Clinical gait analysis methods aim to provide an objective means of quantifying the severity of pathology. A set of pathology-related gait disorders have been identified and can be used to support diagnosis and the development of new assistive technologies.

The aim of this Special Issue is to focus on the intersection of neuroscience and Physical Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Technologies, providing new approaches and technologies for better understanding neural systems’ applications, human movement, and the relationships between them, with a focus on assistive devices that improve life for patients, practicing clinicians, and everyday use.

Submissions to this Special Issue on “Physical Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Technologies” are solicited to represent a snapshot of the field’s development by covering a range of topics that include, but are not limited to, new devices, algorithms, solutions and applications in the following areas:

    Human gait and balance analysis;
    The diagnosis of gait disorders;
    Neuroscience-based physical diagnosis;
    Assistive instrumentation;
    Augmentative devices;
    Assistive robotics devices;
    Wearable sensors.

Prof. Dr. João Ferreira
Prof. Dr. Tao Liu
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/rehabilitation_technologies

Special Issue on Advances in Real-Time Artificial Intelligence and Multi-Agent Systems
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues, 

PREMISES

The study of task scheduling in real time has brought about a Copernican revolution in the conception of the correctness of an algorithm. Under a more holistic perspective, the evaluation of the adequacy of a computational process is not limited to the verification of the correctness of the implemented algorithm but also takes into account the response time of the actual process by evaluating its appropriateness according to the its goals. In other words, in addition to the requirement of logical correctness, which is desirable for any program, real-time correctness must be evaluated according to the respect of temporal constraints, precedence constraints and constraints forced by the sharing of mutually exclusive resources with other interacting processes. Therefore, this holistic perspective cannot disregard the analysis of the operational context in which the single process operates, both software and hardware. In hard-real time application contexts where the failure of an action or the simple missing of a deadline can have catastrophic consequences, the behavioral adequacy of a control system cannot be established by application testing alone.

REAL-TIME ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Achieving intelligent behavior in these contexts has proven problematic mainly because classical Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, such as logical reasoning and search, completely disregard the measurement of time passing while searching for a solution, and this is even more serious when reasoning and action must be alternated. Since when AI applications became mature, there has been growing interest in applying them into complex systems and physical equipment which involve hard deadlines, especially in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) scenarios. Unfortunately, most AI algorithms are characterized by unpredictable or high-variance performances, making them unsuitable for real-time control under soft and/or hard deadlines. In other words, the real-time response requirement has been considered mostly incompatible with the unpredictability of classical AI, namely its inability to accurately time its performance.

However, recently research has been conducted on tailoring AI techniques to make them more predictable by explicitly reasoning “within and about” strict timing and precedence constraints between different tasks.

So, a first aim of this special issue is to offer an opportunity to researchers who are using classical AI algorithms in practical application contexts, where time constraints need to be guaranteed.

REAL-TIME MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS

However, little effort has been spent to transfer these approaches over Multi-Agents Systems (MAS) where additional constraints deriving from concurrent use of mutually exclusive resources stand (e.g. internal memory, communication channels and peripherals such as sensors and actuators).

MAS have been a relevant topic within AI since its very beginning, and their technological advancements lead to a concrete adoption of decentralized flexible systems with increasing connections, interactions, and computational capabilities. Today radically new challenges are arising from the domains of the “Internet of Things” (IoT), CPS and “safety-critical” systems. Unfortunately, in these regards MAS tend to reproduce the same myopic approach of their parent discipline: high-quality of reasoning and human-like interaction with little attention to concrete temporal and resources constraints. In “safety-critical” systems, MAS should not only exhibit rational human-standard behaviors, they must also guarantee the completions of tasks within their deadlines without violating priorities and precedences constraints in accessing mutually exclusive resources. Furthermore, since agents interact, negotiate resources and exchange executions of tasks in a social manner, real-time guarantees should not only be provided at the level of each single agent but they should also be evaluated at the level of the "emergent behaviour" of the entire Agency, and this last vision is quite challenging from a theoretical point of view.

So, a second aim of this special issue is that of gathering contributions from both theoretical and pragmatic perspectives, targeting the employment of MAS in IoT and CPS through the exploitation of methodologies, algorithms and applications from the Real Time Community. We are looking at the next-generation Intelligent CPS, capable to face the challenges of the “ever more connected” IoT era.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Real-Time Problem Solving·       
    Real-Time Artificial Intelligence Control·        
    Real-Time Multi-Agent Systems·        
    Real-Time Autonomous Systems·        
    Real-Time Distributed Problem Solving·        
    Real-Time Smart Task Allocation and Execution·        
    Real-Time Negotiation and Interaction Protocols·        
    Simulators and Architectures for Real-Time MAS·        
    Agent-Oriented Programming for Control Applications·        
    Agent-Oriented Programming for the Internet Of Things·        
    Agent-Oriented Programming for Cyber-Physical Systems·        
    Agent Oriented Software Engineering for Real-Time Systems·        
    Cyber-Physical Agents·        
    Emergent Behavioral analysis·        
    Real-Time Behavior Scheduling·        
    Robot and Multi-robot Systems·        
    Simulation of Multi-Agent Systems·        
    Real-Time Cooperation and Coordination·        
    Agent Platforms for safety-critical systems·        
    Performance analysis of Multi-Agent Systems·        
    Response Time analysis in Multi-Agent Systems·       
    Industrial applications of Multi-Agent Systems·        
    Intelligent Real-Time Control for Power Distribution·        
    Intelligent Real-Time Control for Healthcare·        
    Control in Real-Time Bidding·        
    Edge Computing and Artificial Intelligence 

Prof. Dr. Aldo Franco Dragoni
Guest Editor

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Intelligence_MultiAgent

Special Issue on Wireless Power Transfer Technology: Current Situation and Future Perspectives
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues,

Wireless power transfer (WPT) refers to technologies and systems with the purpose of transmitting electrical energy from a source to destination, without using any physical connection. Generally, two main techniques are considered for WPT systems—near-field and far-field radio-frequency (RF) methods. Inductive and/or capacitive coupling are two types of near-field method operations. However, this technique is only capable of transferring power over short distances. In contrast, with WPT based on the far-field RF technique (referred to as far-field WPT), where power is transmitted by electromagnetic radiation, the transition of electrical energy over longer distances is made possible, at the cost of lower efficiencies. This feature makes the far-field method an attractive WPT option. To further promote the development of this area, we invite researchers to contribute original research manuscripts as well as review articles on recent advances in the design and performance analysis of micro- and milli-meter-wave systems that employ the concepts of WPT.

wireless power transfer
WPT techniques
near field
far field
coupling
rectenna
backscatter
energy harvesting
IoT and RFID
applications

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/WPT_Technology

Dr. Pedro Pinho
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Advanced Nonlinear Control Design Techniques
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues,  

There has been a great deal of excitement during the recent past over the emergence of new mathematical techniques for the modeling and analysis of complicated dynamic systems. For example, recent years have witnessed an explosion of work on the development of nonlinear control system models in a geometric form that are globally defined without singularities or ambiguities. These models are applied to the motion planning and feedback control of constrained mechanical systems such as a knife-edge, rolling-disk, and rolling-sphere moving on arbitrary smooth surfaces. These fascinating topics require the use of diverse parts of mathematics. Nonlinear control system theory and various design techniques are used widely in the robotics arena, especially in developing nonlinear control algorithms for autonomous robotic systems. The design of these systems involves advanced techniques, including nonlinear optimization, adaptive estimation, nonlinear observer, and control design methodologies. In this context, this Special Issue welcomes submission of papers from a wide range of researchers in applied mathematics and various engineering disciplines.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

Geometric control theory and applications;
Nonlinear optimization techniques;
Nonlinear observer design;
Nonlinear adaptive estimation;
Nonlinear robust control;
Reduced-order modeling and control;
Learning-based/intelligent control.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Control_Design

Prof. Dr. Mahmut Reyhanoglu
Prof. Dr. Ravi Banavar
Dr. William MacKunis
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Important Features Selection in Deep Neural Networks
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Dear Colleagues,

The development of deep-learning architectures continues to open up new fields of applications every day. However, several drawbacks of deep-learning models are now well-known, including 1) the fact that the results are not easy to explain and 2) the high memory size needed for the models, which usually implies high computational costs for the results’ inference.

For this Special Issue, we invite submissions from researchers addressing feature selection within DNN architectures with techniques such as pruning or attention modules, with a focus on the data that are the most relevant for the ongoing task. We encourage authors to submit papers within different domains such as NLP, computer vision or multimedia frameworks. We also invite submissions from researchers studying DNN model compression to obtain lighter and faster models for edge computing while maintaining performance, and researchers studying DNN attention models to better understand and explain the models’ decisions or to obtain more accurate results by focusing the models on the most interesting data for a given application.

This Special Issue aims to cover recent advances in DNN architecture compression, attention-based optimisation and understanding the model results. Reviews and surveys of the state-of-the-art DNN compression and attention models are also welcomed.

The topics of interest for this Special Issue include:

DNN compression;
DNN pruning;
Attention-based modules;
Transformers;
Saliency-based explainability;
Attention visualization;
NLP and speech processing;
Computer vision;
Edge computing;

However, please do not feel limited by these topics; we will consider submissions in any area of feature selection in DNN architectures.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/features_selection

Dr. Matei Mancas
Dr. Jean-Benoit Delbrouck
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Antennas for Wearable and Implantable Applications
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/antenna_application

Dear Colleagues,

Wireless communication has experienced immense growth in the past few years with the advent of IoT and is becoming an integral part of our daily life. This has resulted in wearable technology standing at the brink of a massive diversification with an explosion in popularity and applicability and an estimated market value of around $32 billion. Moreover, implantable devices are considered as one of the key enablers of smart health systems. Antennas are an integral part of these devices and play an important role in devising their performance. The ever-increasing demand for miniaturization along with mobility, power, data rate, bandwidth, and insensitivity to the human user makes antenna design very challenging for wearable and implantable applications. It requires innovative ideas and novel solutions for the antenna design. This Special Issue invites researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that seek to address the issues of design and application of wearable and implantable antennas.

Dr. Qammer Hussain Abbasi
Dr. Akram Alomainy
Dr. Asimina Kiourti
Dr. Masood Ur Rehman
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ali Imran
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Smart and Sustainable Energy Grids, Buildings and Cities
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/smart_grid_building_city

Dear Colleagues,

Smart grids have the potential to offer enhanced efficiency, flexibility, and reliability through automated control and optimization using modern communication infrastructures and intelligent energy management. As significant consumers of energy, buildings will play a critical role in the transition to distributed smart energy grids. Remote control and management of building systems and appliances will be necessary to utilize the flexibility of buildings on the demand side, and to an extent on the supply side when onsite micro-generation is taken into account. The integration of distributed renewable energy generation technologies into the smart grid also requires the consideration of their intermittency and probabilistic nature. Developments in sensor technologies, artificial intelligence, low-power embedded computing, and the internet of things (IoT) offer opportunities to integrate buildings and cities into smart energy grids to realize their potential for contribution to a sustainable energy future.

In this Special Issue, we welcome manuscripts that range from theory to applications and case studies related to smart energy grids where buildings, neighbourhoods, districts, and cities play a role. Review and survey papers are also welcome provided that they offer new insights based on critical analysis and synthesis of the state-of-the-art. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    artificial intelligence;
    building energy management;
    demand side management;
    district and community energy solutions;
    edge and cloud computing;
    energy systems;
    flexibility;
    forecasting;
    internet of Things (IoT);
    modelling and simulation;
    renewable energy;
    sensor networks;
    smart energy grids;
    smart materials.

Prof. Dr. Monjur Mourshed
Dr. Baris Yuce
Dr. Mokarram Hossain
Guest Editors

We look forward to reading your excellent work.

Special Issue on Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/nitride_semiconductors

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the GaN revolution! It is not an exaggeration to define the spectacular developments in the field of nitride semiconductors of last years as a revolution. Only twenty years ago, we illuminated our houses with an incandescent filament that produced light but also a significant cost on the electric bill. Today, we save more than 80% of energy with LED lamps. And that is not all: the newest nitride power devices have performances at least 10 times better than existing silicon devices, leading to significant reductions in energy consumption; amplifiers delivering 50 W in the Ku-band are commercially available; Blu-ray is now an established and well-known technology but twenty years ago was familiar only to Star Wars fans. Still, solar-blind flame detectors, UV sources, nanoscale electronics, spintronics, etc., the list could go on and on!

The purpose of this Special Issue is to cover some of the new research on nitride semiconductors, concerning the design of the devices and the development of new applications, along with advances in material processing. This Special Issue provides a chance to capture the latest advances, propose new exciting challenges, and disseminate innovative studies and breakthrough discoveries on nitride semiconductor devices.

The final goal of this issue is to become an outstanding reference for the latest progress in nitride semiconductor devices and applications for all the researchers working in this field. Being conscious that the revolution is far from over!

Prof. Mosca Mauro
Guest Editor

Welcome to contribute!

Special Issue on MIMO for Next Generation Wireless Systems
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/mimo_wirel

Dear Colleagues,

With the market penetration of 5G in the 30 GHz band, massive digitally controllable antenna arrays will be deployed worldwide. This trend will be reinforced in beyond 5G systems, where base stations will have a co-location of several compact arrays covering different azimuthal sectors, with hundreds or thousands of antennas per site. Thus, new strategies for antenna deployment, such as extremely large aperture arrays (ELAA) or holographic massive MIMO (HmMIMO), are needed to deploy more than a few hundred antennas per site and to obtain a truly massive MIMO (mMIMO) spatial resolution beyond 5G.

Cell-free mMIMO and radio stripes are among the techniques based on ELAA. One key advantage over mMIMO with compact arrays lies in the wider higher area with high throughput achieved by these techniques. Capacity can even be boosted with the integration of a huge number of antennas in a limited surface aperture as in HmMIMO. However, more antennas implemented in a distributed way means storing and analyzing huge quantities of channel state information (CSI), which is needed to implement interference-rejecting precoding and in combining schemes. Another problem lies in the energy burden due to computational complexity and the front-haul capacity requirements when thousands of antennas share a common centralized processing unit. However, tight latency requirements could lead to solutions where processing is done in a distributed way using local digital baseband processing units located in a base station or user device. Since processing power is limited in such devices, new algorithms are needed to improve efficiency. To deal with increasingly complex optimization problems and the huge amount of traffic generated by these ultra-dense massive MIMO structures, new techniques and network protocols/algorithms are needed to ensure that very low latency requirements are met.

Accordingly, this Special Issue calls for recent advances related to massive MIMO technologies beyond 5G that cover signal processing, hardware and complexity optimization, traffic optimization management, distributed and centralized optimized processing architectures, security, and implementation aspects. Topics of interest in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Transmitter and receiver techniques for mMIMO;
    Low energy/hardware complexity implementations (analog/digital mMIMO, 1 bit DAC/ADC, NL amplifiers, etc.);
    Channel estimation in mMIMO;
    mMIMO techniques for cell-free mMIMO systems;
    mMIMO for energy harvesting;
    mMIMO large intelligent surfaces, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, intelligent reflexive surfaces, etc.;
    Radio stripes;
    Machine learning and efficient distributed processing architectures and optimized resource allocation schemes;
    Network and traffic optimization for ultra-dense mMIMO;
    Physical security in mMIMO;
    Proof-of-concept (PoC) and trials.

Prof. Dr. Paulo Montezuma
Guest Editor

Hopefully we could read your excellent work!

Special Issue on Channel Estimation and Adaptive Modulation
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/CS_AM

Dear Colleagues,

Channel estimation (CS) and adaptive modulation (AM) are key physical layer techniques to enhance spectral efficiency over time/frequency/spatial variant channels while maintaining a target error rate.

At present, these tasks have to be performed in communication channels with a large variety of characteristics, which range from channel response sparsity, as in the upcoming fifth-generation (5G) millimeter-wave communications; extremely rapid channel response variations, as in underwater acoustic (UWA) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications; and cyclostationary noise, as in power line communications (PLC), just to mention a few examples.

The diversity of system features and operation modes (e.g., massive MIMO and in-band full-duplex), receiver architectures (e.g., iterative architectures), network configurations (e.g., relay networks), and processing techniques (e.g., machine learning) have also widened the catalogue of CS and AM strategies and methods.

This Special Issue is aimed at collecting high-quality contributions addressing CS and AM problems in all communication scenarios. Hence, possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

    Decision-directed and pilot-based CS;
    Compressed-sensing and parametric model-based CS;
    CS with non-orthogonal pilot signals;
    CS in single and multicarrier systems;
    CS in single and multiple input–output systems;
    Blind CS;
    Iterative CS;
    CS and AM using machine learning;
    CS and AM for optical communication systems;
    CS and AM for new channel fading models;
    CS and AM in relay networks;
    AM, coding, and HARQ;
    AM and network coding;
    AM with adaptive threshold;
    AM using unconventional symbol constellations (hexagonal, hierarchical, etc.);
    Efficient CSI feedback transmission;
    Blind recognition of modulation and coding level;
    AM oriented by QoS requirements;
    AM performance in cellular networks;
    AM for cognitive radio systems.

Welcome to contribute!

Prof. Dr. José Antonio Cortés Arrabal
Prof. Dr. Eduardo Martos-Naya
Guest Editors

Special Issue on 10th Anniversary of Electronics: Recent Advances in Microelectronics and Optoelectronics
Submission Date: 2021-11-30

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/10th_microelectronics_optoelectronics

Dear Colleagues,

It has now been ten years since the first paper was published in Electronics back in 2011. It has been a rocky road with many highs and lows, but we are extremely proud to have reached this very important milestone of the 10th anniversary of the journal. To celebrate this momentous occasion, a Special Issue is being prepared which invites both members of the Editorial Board and outstanding renowned authors, including past editors and authors, to submit a paper on the subject of Microelectronics and Optoelectronics.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    Micro/nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices;
    Electronic and optical properties of semiconductor, inorganic, organic, and hybrid nanostructures;
    Optoelectronic and photonic applications of novel materials and nanostructures;
    Micro/Nanoelectronic circuit and device integration;
    Micro/Nanofabrication, processing and characterization techniques;
    Electronic applications of superlattices, quantum structures, and other nanostructures;
    Information processing and optical communications.

The papers published in anniversary special issue will have the chance to apply the best paper award, and the winner will get 500 CHF, a certificate and a free offer to publish a paper in our journal. (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/awards). 

We look forward to receiving your submission to publicise your outstanding achievements.

Prof. Dr. Mengmeng Li
Prof. Dr. Brett D. Nener
Prof. Dr. Mattias Hammar
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Architecture Design and Signal Processing Techniques for Hardware-Efficient Massive MIMO
Submission Date: 2021-12-05

Special Issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Massive_MIMO_systems

Dear Colleagues, 

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with a large number of antennas, commonly referred to as massive MIMO systems, are considered to be a key technology in next generations of wireless networks. The key challenge of employing this technology is its implementational cost and complexity.

The implementational bottleneck of massive MIMO systems is to be addressed via efficient architecture design and signal processing techniques. This Special Issue intends to link the researchers who try to address this bottleneck from different viewpoints. To this end, we invite researchers to submit their original research or review papers on MIMO architecture design and signal processing techniques for the efficient implementation of massive MIMO. Potential topics are, but not restricted to:

    Single radio frequency massive MIMO
    Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted MIMO systems
    Hybrid analog digital precoding techniques
    Symbol-level precoding
    Peak to average power ratio (PAPR)-limited transmitter design
    Low-complexity architectures for massive MIMO
    Low-complexity architectures for millimeter wave (mmW) communications
    Antenna/user selection techniques is massive MIMO systems
    Spatial modulation techniques
    Channel estimation techniques for low-complexity massive MIMO systems

Welcome to submit your paper through our Special Issue webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Massive_MIMO_systems, and click "Submit to Special Issue". We look forward to reading your excellent work!

Dr. Ali Bereyhi
Dr. Vahid Jamali
Dr. Xianghao Yu
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advancements in Electric Motors, Drives, Power Converters and Related Systems
Submission Date: 2021-12-30

The special issue "Advancements in Electric Motors, Drives, Power Converters and Related Systems" has published 10 papers.

[CFP] Advancements in Electric Motors, Drives, Power Converters and Related Systems

Submission Deadlines: 
30 December 2021

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/AEMDPCRS_electronics

Submission server:http://susy.mdpi.com/

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

    electrical motors
    power converters
    electrical drives
    power electronics
    electric vehicles
    industrial, commercial, and residential applications
    power control system
    power semiconductor devices
    multilevel converters
    fault diagnosis in electrical motors and drives
    energy efficiency
    electrical propulsion
    wide-band-gap power electronic devices

Guest Editors
Dr. Lucia Frosini  (Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 5, 27100 Pavia, Italy)

CONTACTS:
=========
For any inquiry regarding the Special Issue please contact Ms. Hebbe Tian at hebbe.tian@mdpi.com

Special Issue on High-Power Density Multilevel Inverter/Converter System
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

Multilevel inverters/converters have become an increasingly attractive topology for industrial high-voltage applications. They have enabled important development in order to reach a high power at increasing voltage levels. They have been used in many applications such as traditional high-power motor drive systems, substations in grids, and railway systems. Recently, their application has even extended to low-voltage applications, because they enable achieving a high efficiency by reducing the loss caused by the high current.

Depending on the application requirements, such as high-input-voltage/low-output-voltage and AC-to-AC voltage conversion, multilevel inverters/converters are combined with other converters. The total system has become complex more than before. Moreover, we are facing new challenges, such as the miniaturization, lightening of weight, high efficiency, and high reliability in the complex system. This Special Issue focuses on the analysis, design, and implementation of high-power density multilevel inverter/converter systems for its miniaturization, lightening of weight, high efficiency, and high reliability.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Multi-level or multi-modular inverter/converter
    Solid-state transformer
    Parallel-series structure inverter/converter
    Zero-voltage-switching (ZVS)/zero-current-switching (ZCS) converter
    High-power-density converter
    Modulation (or switching) methods
    Voltage/current balancing control
    Fault detection and tolerant control
    Reliability evaluation and improvement method

Prof. June-Seok Lee
Prof. Jae-Bum Lee
Prof. Yeongsu Bak
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/multilevel_inverter

Special Issue on Power Converters for Photovoltaic Energy Processing: Topologies, Control and Applications
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,  

Motivated by the need to depart from fossil fuel-based electricity, photovoltaic (PV) power generation continues to attract attention from governments, industry, and academia. As the cost of solar panel manufacturing decreases, PV power generation has become competitive with other forms of renewable energy, and is being massively deployed. In this context, this Special Issue will publish original research on various aspects of power converters as enabling technology for efficient utilization of PV power generation systems.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

    DC-DC converter topologies for PV applications;
    Integrated PV cell-converter architectures;
    Circuital models of PV arrays;
    Maximum power point tracking algorithms;
    Inverter topologies for PV applications;
    Inverter modulation and control for ancillary services (e.g., power quality)
    Ride through and various grid support algorithms during faults (e.g., transient stability enhancement)
    Integrated PV power plants plus storage;
    PV power plants for electric vehicle charging;
    Artificial intelligence for control and optimization of PV systems;

Dr. Fabio Corti
Dr. Francesco Riganti-Fulginei
Dr. Fernando Mancilla-David
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Photovoltaic_Converters

Special Issue on Knowledge-Defined Networking and Network Intelligence
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

Recent developments in AI-based networking technology have enabled new services in network control and service management technology. The technologies underlying the development of this recognition and emerging services are based on essential machine-learning-based (ML-based) models, open protocols, and collaborative control algorithms. Recent knowledge-defined networking, cognitive networking, and white-box routing/switching technology also bring new opportunities for future networking on free-style management, learning capacity, fast response, and massive bandwidth, and this vantage continues to grow. To accommodate these needs, international standardization and industry are studying various AI-based networking and control technologies to provide various features for future open networks. At the same time, this Special Issue invites topics broadly across advanced AI technology, edge intelligence, and routing/switching algorithms and technologies for emerging networking services. Specific topics include but are not limited to the ones outlined in the keywords below.

Prof. Dr. Haipeng Yao
Prof. Dr. Maozhen Li
Prof. Dr. Nicola Calabretta
Dr. Fu Wang
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/network_intelligence

Special Issue on Advances in Signal, Image and Information Processing
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

Signal and image processing, which are both fundamental in electrical and computer engineering, incorporate research results from a very broad set of disciplines. The common scope of them is that, whenever a real-world problem is meant to be tackled automatically, one meets it by processing its representation—i.e., of signals and/or of images, which are obtained/captured, as a rule, via measurements. Consequently, serious research has taken place in recent years in order to achieve processing of signals and images that offers solutions to important practical, real-world problems. The scope of the present Special Issue is to capture this connection between advances in signal, image and information processing and the real-world problems that triggered them. Specifically, novel contributions are welcome belonging to the fields of:

    medical imaging/biomedical signal processing;
    image and signal processing applications in archaeometry;
    signal/image processing and pattern recognition applications in the arts;
    document analysis/automatic writer identification;
    moments for image processing and compression;
    automated reconstruction of fragmented objects;
    image content recognition;
    image segmentation;
    sound, speech and music automatic recognition;
    finite precision error in signal processing;
    image and signal processing for cultural heritage;
    image enhancement and recovery.

Prof. Constantin Papaodysseus
Dr. Dimitris Arabadjis
Prof. Michail Panagopoulos
Prof. Yiannis Boutalis
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/signal_image_information_processing

Special Issue on Technology, Circuits, Architectures and Packaging for Three-Dimensional Integration
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

The requirement of lower-power, higher-speed, heterogeneity, and increasingly smaller form-factor electronic systems has led the integrated circuit (IC) to migrate from the conventional 2D IC format to the third dimension by stacking ICs on top of each other. Three-dimensional (3D) integration provides vertical connectivity between chip or device layers, allowing ICs to integrate at the package (2.5D integration), circuit, or device level (monolithic 3D integration). Accordingly, a significant research effort spanning the past two decades has been expended on 3D integrated circuits and systems focusing not only on processing technology, circuits, architectures, and packaging but also on electronic design automation methodologies.

Electronics seeks original manuscripts for a Special Issue on Technology, Circuits, Architectures, and Packaging for Three-Dimensional Integration, scheduled for publication in January 2022. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

Technology

    Fabrication Processes for Monolithic 3D ICs;
    Through-Silicon-Via (TSV) Modelling and Manufacturing;
    Active/Passive Through Silicon/Glass Interposer Technologies.

Circuits

    Design and Test Methodologies for TSV-based and Monolithic 3D ICs;
    Novel Components and Circuits for Monolithic 3D ICs;
    Temperature management and thermal integrity for 3D ICs;
    Physical Design Automation for 3D ICs.

Architectures

    3D Emerging Memory Architectures;
    Logic-on-Logic or Memory-on-Logic Architectures;
    3D Architectures for Unconventional Computing (e.g., neuromorphic, probabilistic);
    Simulation Tools for 3D Architectures.

Packaging

    Design Methodologies for Heterogeneous 2.5D/3D Integrated Systems;
    Power and Signal Integrity for 2.5D Systems;
    Cooling Technologies and Methodologies for 2.5D/3D Systems;
    3D Integration of Power Module;
    Design and Analysis of Passive Devices for 2.5D Integrated Systems.

Dr. Roshan Weerasekera
Dr. Vasilis F. Pavlidis
Dr. Emre Salman
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/three_dimensional_integration_circuit

Special Issue on Low Power RFIC Architectures for Emerging Wireless Standards
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Special Issue Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/RFIC_electronics

Dear Colleagues,

The successful adoption of 5G and IoT standards, the coming standardization of 6G mobile communications, the continuous smartification of cities and integration of blockchain technology, the emerging vehicles connectivity and autonomous driving, all these push increased pressure on the practical development of more efficient RF architectures, able to cover multiple bands, at higher frequencies, and with improved power efficiency. To address such challenges, this Special Issue covers RFIC architectures with low power capability demonstrated on circuit or system level by means of prototype measurement and/or simulations. Wireless sensors and RFID implementations are not excluded.

Extended versions of conference articles are accepted as long as they have at least 50% novelty.

Dr. Cristian Andriesei
Prof. Dr. Farid Temcamani
Guest Editors 

Special Issue on 10th Anniversary of Electronics: Advances in Circuit and Signal Processing
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

It has now been ten years since the first paper was published in Electronics back in 2011. It has been a rocky road with many highs and many lows, but we are extremely proud to have reached this very important milestone of the 10th anniversary of the journal. To celebrate this momentous occasion, a Special Issue is being prepared which invites both members of the Editorial Board and outstanding renowned authors, including past editors and authors, to submit their high-quality works on the topic of “Circuit and Signal Processing”.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Analog and digital integrated circuits and systems
Nonlinear circuits and systems
Signal processing theory and methods
Analog signal processing
Acoustic, bio, image circuit, and signal processing
Nanoelectronics and cellular networks
Multimedia systems and signal processing
Power and energy circuits and systems
Machine learning for signal processing
Circuits, systems, and signal processing for communication and networking

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/10th_circuit_signal

Prof. Dr. Paolo Colantonio
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Cidronali
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Virtual, Augmented, Mixed Reality and Interactive Media Experience
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to bring together the contribution of international researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, ranging from human-computer interaction, virtual, augmented and mixed reality, interactive multimedia engineering and design, to media studies, media psychology and sociology.

In this Special Issue, we welcome contributions on prototyping and evaluating prototypes, gathering user requirements, designing, developing or prototyping media experiences and applications (the broader sense), within known and emerging technologies, measuring and evaluating experience with users through experiments and user studies, in the wild, in the lab or simulated environments.

Specific topics and applications:

Interactive and immersive platforms & mediums: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), alternate reality, 360°, extended reality (XR)
Applications: storytelling, creative expressions, new content formats, platform-centric experiences, health, digital wellbeing, therapeutic, social/cultural expressions, social communication and similar.
Understanding audience interests and their interactions with interactive and immersive experiences
Analysing and developing underlying technologies and systems
Critiquing and creating production tools and workflows
Exploring the use and implications of AI and machine learning
Developing innovative business models and marketing techniques

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/mixed_reality

Technical Program Committee Members:

Professor Maria-Victoria Sanchez-Vives, ICREA, Spain
Professor Wijnand IJsselsteijn, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Dr Brian A. Smith, Columbia University, USA
Dr Marco Gillies, Goldsmith University of London, UK
Dr Pablo Santiago Cesar Garcia, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), The Netherlands
Dr Peter Vangorp, Edge Hill University, UK
Dr Sylvia Rothe, University of Munich (LMU), Germany
Dr Sylvia Xueni Pan, Goldsmith University of London, UK

Prof. Daniela M. Romano
Dr. Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Smart Inverters in Power Grids and Renewable Energy Systems
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

The role of inverters in power grids is diversifying beyond just providing the maximum available power to the utility and local loads. Inverters are required to provide voltage support during grid faults and form a grid during a loss of utility due to possible physical and cyber attacks. Inverters should provide resiliency and stability during internal abnormalities such as failure of semiconductor devices and external abnormalities such as disturbances and weak grid conditions. A smart inverter should be equipped with these capabilities and should be able to govern itself through seamlessly transitioning between its operational modes. A smart inverter in a network of smart inverters should be interconnected through a decentralized or supervisory structure to enhance its situational awareness, which would allow a faster response to grid abnormalities, black-start, and grid-forming commands.

The individual features mentioned above are attracting the attention of many researchers, while the presence of concurrent features leads to new challenges. Therefore, in this Special Issue, prospective authors are invited to submit original contributions and survey papers on the topics encompassing smart inverters. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

Detection of and operation under low voltage ride through;
Control schemes for grid-forming mode of inverter operation;
Corrective actions under internal and external faults;
Stability enhancement techniques under weak grids;
Seamless transition between inverter modes;
Supervisory or decentralized controllers for networked inverters;
Enhancing situational awareness of inverters.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/smart_inverters

Prof. Dr. Behrooz Mirafzal
Dr. Akanksha Singh
Dr. Aswad Adib
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Smart Bioelectronics and Wearable Systems
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

Researchers are developing smart bioelectronics and wearable systems to provide high-performance, cost-effective, wireless, and wearable/implantable health monitoring solutions, leading to various health monitoring solutions. This Special Issue welcomes papers describing attractive and creative approaches for smart bioelectronics and wearable systems. Topics include but are not limited to: i) smart biosensors and bioelectronic systems, ii) wearable and implantable health monitoring sensors, iii) smart imaging systems, iv) innovative circuits for medical instrumentation, v) point-of-care healthcare instrumentation, vi) mobile and lab-on-a-chip healthcare microsystems, vii) biomedical signal and image processing of smart electronics, and viii) machine learning/deep learning for smart electronics. In addition, smart wearable health monitoring systems and wireless body sensor networks are of interest because they enable us to enhance bioelectronic devices’ properties.

Biosensors
Bioelectronics
Health monitoring system
Wearable systems
Point-of-care healthcare
Mobile healthcare system
Biomedical signal processing
Machine learning algorithms
Body sensor network

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Bioelectronics_Wearable

Dr. Jo Woon Chong
Dr. Bersain A. Reyes
Dr. Oh Seok Kwon
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in Neurocognitive Analysis Based on EEG Signal Processing
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

The study of data derived from electroencephalography (EEG) can yield exhaustive information related to the physiological, functional, and pathological status of the brain. As a result, this information can be extremely useful for the identification of brain rhythms. The latest developments in signal processing and machine learning applied to EEG analysis have provided notable advancements in basic and clinical neuroscience. Hence, the combination of both, complete brain monitoring together with novel and improved signal processing, makes noninvasive EEG analysis a promising clinical tool for the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders and/or impairments.

This Special Issue invites original research papers that report on recent advancements in EEG signal processing for neurocognitive analysis and its applications. Prospective authors are invited to submit high-quality contributions and reviews. Potential topics include, but are not limited to the following:

EEG signal processing
EEG Data analytics
BCI applications
Machine learning
Neural networks
Neural signal processing techniques (EEG, MEG, MRI/fMRI, PET, fNIRS)
Neurofeedback
Neurostimulation

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/EEG_Signal

Dr. Alejandro L. Borja
Dr. Jorge J. Ricarte
Guest Editors

Special Issue on High-Performance Energy-Efficient Embedded Systems: Design and Applications
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

The novel and innovative applications in the Internet of Things (IoT), social networks, blockchain, pattern recognition, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data require highly-intensive applications that can execute complex computational tasks in high-performance computing (HPC) units. These computing units range from enterprise data clusters with huge computing resources to embedded systems limited in power, space, cooling or computational resources, but closer to the environment in which embedded systems operate. In both domains, HPC requires specific microprocessor designs (e.g., multi-processor, multi-core) where parallelism and distributed computing can be applied to maximize workload. However, HPC can have a dramatic impact to energy consumption that can be critical especially on embedded systems. 

To solve the competing requirements of embedded systems, high-performance energy-efficient computing (HPEEC) can provide methods and techniques to balance both the increasing high processing demands and energy saving, keeping the performance operating at a high level without sacrificing energy consumption. On the other hand, at the same time, embedded systems have to be kept operational and dependable, providing highly trustworthy available systems, ensuring a high degree of service integrity. 

Many new improvements have been proposed recently for the design of HPEEC-embedded systems such as the integration of FPGA/NPU/GPUs accelerators for specific purposes, the design of homogeneous or heterogeneous multiprocessors in different packaging (SoCs, SiPs), dynamic strategy for workload partitioning, and energy-efficient tasks scheduling, among others. 

In this Special Issue, we are particularly interested in the latest innovative contributions to the design, development, and applications of novel HPEEC methods and techniques that optimize the three key aspects in embedded systems, performance, energy and dependability.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Low Power High Performance Embedded Systems;
Resource Management;
Real time support;
Runtime support;
Security;
Virtualization in embedded systems;
Language and development tool-chains;
Design and applications of embedded image processing systems;
Modeling and optimization of distributed and/or parallel embedded systems;
Exploit parallelism in Deep Learning Applications onto heterogeneous processors;
Workload partitioning and task scheduling;
Design of FPGA-based accelerators and heterogeneous MPSoCs.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Efficient_Embedded

Technical Program Committee Members：

Dr. Jose Miguel Gutierrez-Guerrero, Abbot Laboratories
email: jose.gutierrezguerrero@abbott.com

Dr. José Manuel Soto Hidalgo, Department of Computer Architecture and Technology, University of Granada
email: jmsoto@ugr.es

Prof. Dr. Juan Antonio Holgado-Terriza
Prof. Dr. Miguel Damas Hermoso
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Circuits and Systems for Approximate Computing
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing need for power-efficient circuits and systems in mobile applications and extremely computer-intensive or I/O-intensive applications, there has been increased interest in the use of circuits and systems that may possibly sacrifice accuracy and/or performance for low power usage. Referred to as approximate computing, such techniques have been shown to be highly useful for neural network-based artificial intelligence techniques in error resilient applications such as image classification or action recognition, in which an extremely large number of computations are necessary while small losses in accuracy levels can be tolerated and may be barely noticeable. Such approximate computing circuits and systems can also be useful at a more basic level, providing extremely power-efficient low-level modules such as adders, multipliers, logarithm circuits, floating point arithmetic units, etc., that can then be used to build up specialized computer architectures that enable power-efficient neural processing units and other advanced applications. In this Special Issue, papers are sought on all topics related to circuits and systems for approximate computing, including basic arithmetic circuits and entire systems that use approximate computing techniques for low power usage.

approximate computing
low power
computer arithmetic
error resilient applications
neural network accelerators

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Circuits_Computing

Prof. Dr. Sunggu Lee
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Applications of Next-Generation IoT
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

The Internet of Things (IoT) from technological and protocols perspectives has matured considerably. However, in terms of IoT applications, assimilation in everyday life and businesses is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Undoubtedly, an increasing diversity of intelligent devices connect rapidly at different levels and associate with all types of data flow. As a result of this, the next-generation IoT (NGIoT) has to evolve into a human-oriented environment that respects the fundamental values of privacy, participation, diversity, trust, value creation, and embrace of self-awareness. Underpinning this global development, this Special Issue on the Application of Next-Generation IoT in the journal Electronics aims to gather the latest industrial and academic progress, business, research, innovation, and development efforts within the rapidly maturing IoT ecosystem. This Issue will profoundly explore the concept of IoT as well as information and communications technologies (ICT) applications in new functionalities to support people’s needs in a broad context, and to address global sustainability challenges. It aims to link research, policy, business, and society for the benefit of society. Additionally, the Issue aims to highlight the recent activities and achievements therein, as well as provide insights into the theoretical and practical matters related to breakthroughs in this field from different perspectives. We welcome contributions on the emerging IoT topics that support prospective radical IoT applications as well as ICT-based enablers. The submissions should be tutorial in nature and significantly advance the state-of-the-art in the topics on IoT nanosensor/haptic/tactile/wearables, network configurations, IoT for digital business transformation (digitalization), IoT for enhancing the operations in enterprises setup, and IoT systems of systems, which include but are not limited to:

Business development and new digital business model development in IoT engineering to embrace the potential of next-generation IoT (NGIoT) for all generations of humanity.
NGIoT applications to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and strategic value creation.
IoT applications promoting business globalization tailored for local needs and entrepreneurship.
NGIoT emerging applications (e.g., IoT for agriculture, smart cities, smart energy, the automotive industry, smart health, smart transport, public safety, humanitarian technologies, Industry X.0, Society X.0, artificial intelligence).
Novel NGIoT systems complimented with VR/AR, machine learning/AI, robotics, drones, and mechatronics for advanced reliable teleoperations and social interactions.
Blockchains in NGIoT for enhancing trust in business transactions and alleviating disputes in contracts.
Advanced functional nanoelectronics and materials (flexible, printed, biocompatible, hybrid) for enabling next-generation IoT applications.
-Efficient energy scavengers and energy management setups for green powering next-generation IoT applications.
Economical and resourceful sustainable large-scale energy production, storage, distribution, and utilization using NGIoT for society.
Enhanced Digital Lean Boards with NGIoT applications for optimizing operations in industrial setups, efficient project management, real-time user feedback and effective KPIs monitoring.
NGIoT for smart manufacturing, industrial systems interoperability, global supply chains, traceability, quality, reliability, and trust embrace combining technologies such as block chains, e-coins, and smart contracts.
NGIoT for retail applications including B2B, B2C, and M2M.
Swarm NGIoT system architecture, protocol design, and integrated communications for e-commerce platforms to promote business value creation in terrestrial and interstellar environments.
Data compression, edge and fog computing in NGIoT for efficient bandwidth consumption and storage.
NGIoT for entertainment, art, and design applications.
NGIoT application for trustworthy real-time user feedback for mass product customization and advanced product development methodologies.
Ethical hacking techniques, security penetration tests in controlled environments (simulation, testbed, and measurement campaigns) for enhancing the self-aware security in NGIoT applications.
NGIoT applications in medicine, biomimetics, wearables, minification of medical examination devices, lab-on-chip, and data retrieval to improve diagnosis speed and early prevention in a trusted social environment.
Smart objects, devices, environments, middleware, platforms, and tools for NGIoT applications.
Socio-economic, security and privacy, standardization, policy, and regulatory aspects for NGIoT applications.
Novel next-generation Internet of Things applications for everything, paradigms (e.g., internet of bio-nano things, internet of vehicles/automotive, internet of drones, internet of space, internet of people, internet of furnitures, internet of education).

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Next_IoT

Dr. Michail J. Beliatis
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits and Systems for 5G Applications
Submission Date: 2021-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the explosive growth of mobile devices and 5G connectivity, wireless transmission at a greater than one gigabit-per-second (Gbps) data rate is becoming essential. As a result, the network infrastructure will be endowed with an unprecedented degree of intelligence, integrating with the environment and offering fast, secure, and reliable communications. Objects like lamp posts, road signs, buildings, vehicles, drones, robots, trains, and watercrafts will be equipped with intelligent devices able to detect electromagnetic signals, perform computations, and store data.

It is extremely challenging to achieve Gbps data rate applications below a 6 GHz band due to spectrum scarcity. Therefore, the millimeter-wave (MMW) band has drawn increasing interest over recent years for enabling ultrahigh-speed wireless transmission. Combining cutting-edge network technology and MMW integrated circuit design, 5G technology offers connections that are multitudes faster than current connections with low latency (1 ms or less) and high speed (>1 Gbps) for massive Internet of Things (IoT), tactile internet, drones, and robotics. It will transform the way we live, play, work, and travel while delivering more performance, efficiency, and comfort. New products, systems, services, business models, and entire industries will be born as 5G technology provides a huge leap forward in speed, capacity, and connectivity. 

The main aim of this Special Issue is to disseminate latest findings, new research developments, and future trends and innovations in MMW integrated circuits and systems for 5G applications. Both theoretical and experimental studies for MMW IC design, architectures, technologies, devices, circuits, and systems are encouraged. Furthermore, high-quality review and survey papers are welcomed.

The papers considered for possible publication may focus on but not necessarily be limited to the following areas:

MMW circuits, such as low noise amplifiers, mixers, voltage-controlled oscillators, power amplifiers, variable gain amplifiers, etc.;
MMW architectures, systems and subsystems, such as receivers, transmitters, transceivers, phase-locked loops, frequency synthesizers, multistandard transceivers, digital radio, etc.;
MMW passive structures such as transformers, hybrid couplers, filters, baluns, switches, antennae, etc.;
MMW digital baseband; MMW data converters; wireless communication systems; wideband integrated circuits and systems; low-power and energy-efficient MMW digital systems;
Advanced MMW IC; emerging MMW nanoscale CMOS IC; MMW 3D integrations; MMW SiP and SOC.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/MMwave_circuit

Prof. Dr. Yeo Kiat Seng
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Compressive Optical Image Encryption
Submission Date: 2022-01-20

Special Issue Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Optical_Image_Encryption

Dear Colleagues,

New data-processing network systems and new image processing tools have considerably increased the volume of transmitted information. Thus, more complex networks and long processing time become necessary. High image quality and transmission speed are requested for an increasing number of applications. To satisfy these two requests, several either numerical or optical solutions have been offered separately. This Special Issue explores both alternatives and gives particular consideration to research works on the nature to converge towards optical/numerical hybrid solutions for high-volume signal and image processing and transmission. Without being limited to hybrid approaches, the latter are particularly investigated in this Special Issue with the purpose of combining the advantages of both techniques. Pure numerical or optical solutions are also considered since they emphasize the advantages of one of the two approaches separately.

This Special Issue will gather a series of articles dealing with compressive optical image encryption. These topics highlight the importance of studying complex data treatment systems and intensive calculations designed for high-dimensional imaging and metrology for which high image quality and high transmission speed become critical issues in a number of technological applications. A second purpose is to highlight the important role of optics in actual information processing systems.

The session topics include but are not limited to the following areas:

    Optical/digital cryptography;
    Optical/digital watermarking;
    Optical/digital biometrics;
    Compressive image;
    Compressive sensing for images;
    Compressive optical image encryption;
    Image compression for the medical image processing domain;
    Optical cryptanalysis;
    Novel devices and systems for optical information security;
    Face/fingerprint/iris/person recognition, person tracking, 3D object recognition;
    Liveness detection for face recognition;
    Holography, phase imaging, and their applications;
    Integral imaging;
    Devices and systems for 3D imaging and display;
    Polarization imaging, hyperspectral imaging;
    Remote sensing: aerial and satellite image interpretations;
    Industrial applications (e.g., product inspection/sorting).

Prof. Dr. Ayman Alfalou
Prof. Dr. Saad Rehman
Dr. Marwa Elbouz
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Nanosensors: Sensing Principle, System and Application
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Dear Colleagues,

The recent trend in sensing technology development is to build from multidisciplinary aspects and brings a new horizon of collaborative studies from electronics, physics, chemistry, informatics, biosciences, and related fields especially in this era of nanotechnology. The enormous range of research topics focus on the specific design and application of sensors for biomedical, food safety, chemical, and environmental monitoring, which lead to detection advancement, performance enhancement, or system simplicity for practical use in various experimental fields. You are cordially invited to submit your novel studies in the nanosensor field to this Special Issue entitled, “Nanosensors: Sensing Principles, Systems, and Applications”.

Topics within the Special Issue scope include:

Sensing design – theory and simulation of sensors.
Sensing structures and principles – micro- and nanofabrication, nanostructures, nanoparticles, nanomaterials, organic materials, nanodevices, low-dimensional materials, metamaterials, metal oxide structure, 2D materials for sensors.
Sensor platforms: optical, electrochemical, plasmonic, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), magnetoresistive, field-effect transistor (FET), high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) sensors.
Lab-on-a-chip: microfluidics, MEMS, micro-TAS, particle trapping, optical tweezers.
Signal processing for sensors – data acquisition, smartphone sensor display, signal enhancement, pattern recognition, machine learning for sensors.
System integration – wearable sensors, instrumentation and circuits for sensors.
Low-cost and disposable sensors: organic sensor, lateral flow, miniaturized device, portable sensor, reusable sensing membrane, colorimetry sensing, non-lithographic fabrication, green synthesized sensors.
Sensing treatment – surface, crosslinking and interface functionalization, assay strategy, sensing in complex media.
Sensors applications – chemical sensors, gas sensors, biosensors, environmental monitoring.
Submissions on other topics are also welcome so long as they are within the theme of the Special Issue.

Special Issue Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Nanosensors_System_Application

Dr. Briliant A. Prabowo
Prof. Brian Yuliarto
Dr. Joanna Jankowska-Śliwińska
Dr. Agnes Purwidyantri
Dr. Irene Palacio
Dr. Nicholas A. Kurniawan
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Theoretical and Experimental Research in High-Power Microwave Electronics
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Dear Colleagues,

The broad and exciting field of High-Power Microwaves (HPM) continues to enjoy active research and development at various universities, research facilities, and commercial organization around the world.  In this rapidly changing field with evolving applications, it useful to gather the results of current and continuing work in one journal issue. 

The goal of this Special Issue on High-Power Microwave Generation is, therefore, to collect manuscripts on the most recent theoretical and experimental results on HPM oscillators and amplifiers for applications including electronic warfare, radar, and accelerators.  In addition, review papers that capture the history and current state of broad areas of the technology and applications of HPM are welcome.

The Special Issue topics include the following:

    Theoretical of High-Power Microwave oscillator and amplifier, including relativistic magnetrons, MILOs, vircators, travelling wave tubes, and gyrotrons;
    Experimental demonstrations of new HPM devices;
    Virtual cathode effects;
    Electric breakdown issues and solutions;
    High-voltage drivers and transmission lines for HPM;
    Applications for HPM devices;
    Special pulse generation;
    HPM diagnositics;
    Review papers on HPM device physics, demonstrations, theory, and modeling.

Dr. Vladislav V. Rostov
Prof. Yakov Krasik
Dr. Monica Blank
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Electronics_Microwave

Special Issue on Novel Microwave/Millimeter-Wave Devices and Antennas
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit papers to this Special Issue of Electronics (MDPI) devoted to the novel microwave/millimeter-wave devices and antennas. As a key component of modern wireless communication systems, microwave/millimeter-wave devices and antennas such as antennas, filters (duplex/multiplexers), couplers, power dividers, as well as metamaterials have always been a research hotspot in the field of communication circuit technology. High frequency, miniaturization, multi-band/multi-mode, low cost, and easy system integration with active devices have become the main research directions. So far, microwave/millimeter-wave technologies have been widely used in the fields of radar, communication, navigation, and medical treatment systems. At the same time, in response to the diversified application requirements of different wireless communication application fields, new passive devices of various structures have been reported, such as artificial dielectric materials, substrate-integrated waveguides (SIW), etc. The purpose of this Special Issue is to comprehensively collect the latest papers dedicated to the theory and application of novel microwave/millimeter-wave devices and antennas. Therefore, we invite qualified scientists in this field to submit their valuable contributions to this Special Issue. Original research works, as well as tutorials and review papers, are welcome. Topics include, but are not limited to the following:

    5G/6G wireless or mobile systems;
    Antenna theory and antenna array techniques
    RF/microwave/mm-wave components/circuits;
    Metamaterials/metasurface/smart surface;
    Artificial dielectric materials, substrate-integrated waveguides (SIW);
    Artificial Intelligence for RF/wireless/antennas;
    RF/mm-wave system applications.

Dr. Bian Wu
Dr. Feng Wei
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/microwave_millimeter_antennas

Special Issue on Design and Theoretical Study of New Antennas
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Dear Colleagues,

The emergence of nanotechnology is promising to revolutionise the semiconductor industry, offering a still greater reduction in the size of electronic components with better performance and lower energy consumption. Future mobile phones, personal computers, and other portable electronic devices will enjoy progressively greater size reduction and superior computational performance, but these improvements will be compromised by the existing antenna technology, that is, using conventional high-permittivity substrates, since miniaturisation of the antenna will result in degradation of both its bandwidth and efficiency. More exotic materials such as low-loss, high-epsilon ceramics may permit size reduction without much efficiency loss, but this still incurs reduction of bandwidth, and such materials are costly.

The primary aim of this Special Issue is to seek high-quality submissions that highlight recent breakthroughs in the development of design and theoretical Study of new antennas for future electronic transceivers.

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

New materials for antennas and millimetre-wave systems;
Wideband antennas;
Antenna arrays;
MIMO and smart antennas;
Active and integrated antennas;
Adaptive and reconfigurable antennas;
Antennas/antenna arrays for energy harvesting and scavenging;
Antennas/antenna arrays measurement;
Advanced RF materials, meta-materials, metasurfaces and EBG;
Antennas/antenna arrays for 5G communications and the Internet of Things.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/new_antennas

Dr. Chan H. See
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Advances in Low-Frequency Noise Measurements
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Dear Colleagues,

Low-frequency noise measurements are widely recognized as one of the most sensitive tools for the investigation of the quality and reliability of electron devices and systems. The fluctuations that are recorded at the ends of a biased device carry information about the interaction of the charge carriers with the detailed microstructure of the device, and important information about conduction mechanisms in new devices can be obtained from measuring noise. Moreover, it has been suggested that the observation of the noise generated in sensing devices can be used to increase the sensitivity and selectivity of sensors. Notwithstanding the huge amount of scientific literature on the subject, the fundamental mechanisms leading to the generation of low-frequency noise are not fully understood, even in mature devices. With the continuous introduction of new active materials and new advanced devices, being able to measure, characterize, and, possibly, identify the main factors affecting noise in a given technology is of paramount importance. On the one hand, investigating low-frequency noise can provide clues for a deeper understanding of the conduction mechanism in exotic materials and devices; on the other hand, understanding noise origin is a key factor for introducing process changes aimed at increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in emerging technologies.

This Special Issue focuses on the latest advances in the field of low-frequency noise measurements, with a particular focus on experimental results relating to new and advanced electron devices, applications in the field of quality and reliability, measurement methodologies, and dedicated instrumentation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Low-frequency noise in electron devices and circuits;
Low-frequency noise in advanced materials;
Low-frequency noise in optical devices;
Low-frequency noise measurement methodologies and instrumentation;
Application of low-frequency noise to the evaluation of the quality and reliability of electron devices and systems;
Low-frequency noise simulation and modeling.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/noise_measurements

Prof. Carmine Ciofi
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Application of Volumetric/3D Antennas in/for NF-FF Transformation Techniques
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Dear Colleagues,  

In modern wireless communication systems, where increasing by a high performance is required, volumetric antennas play a fundamental role, since they can provide superior antenna characteristics with respect to their planar counterparts. For this kind of antennas, accurate measurements are mandatory to verify that they satisfy the design requirements for their proper use both in communication systems and innovative NF facilities.

The scope of this Special Issue is to collect antenna community contributions relevant to the state of the art and/or enhancements on the applications of volumetric antennas in/for NF-FF transformation techniques.

The topics covered by the issue include (but are not limited to):

    NF-FF transformations
    Innovative NF acquisition techniques
    3D antennas
    3D printed antennas
    Antenna measurements
    Measurements for 5G antennas
    Metamaterial based antennas
    Near-Field measurements
    Measurements for MIMO antennas
    Antenna measurements through Unmanned Aerial Vehicle / drone
    Phaseless measurements
    Non-redundant NF-FF transformations
    New instrumentation for testing, data acquisition and processing
    Measurements for IOT antennas
    Antenna measurements uncertainty
    Volumetric aperture efficiency

Prof. Francesco D'Agostino
Prof. Yiannis Vardaxoglou
Prof. Claudio Gennarelli
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Millimeter-Wave-Integrated CMOS Radars and Communication Systems: Architecture and Circuit Designs
Submission Date: 2022-01-31

Special issue website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Millimeter_Wave_Integrated_CMOS_Radars

Dear Colleagues,

In the 2000s, radar systems became available as standard equipment even for lower cost vehicles, thanks to the diversification of radar-based applications, which now include automatic emergency braking systems, adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, intelligent parking assistance, forward collision warning, etc. Most modern commercial radars host their key functions in two chips: a microcontroller and a SiGe BiCMOS chip which drives the TX and RX antennas, and integrates all the RF functions, the ADC/DAC conversions, and the basic baseband functions. The Holy Grail for next generation automotive radars is the implementation of a system‑on‑chip (SoC) sensor in CMOS technology. Despite the great amount of research produced in the last ten years, most CMOS radar implementations are targeted only to short/medium range applications and are very far from proposing actual solutions for a long-range radar sensor. Technical problems are still present and mm-wave designers from academia and industry are working on these. This bottleneck is still represented by the implementation of a high-performance mm‑wave radio front-end. Research efforts are now being made to integrate all the sensors into CMOS technology, which will provide higher data processing capacity in the digital domain, lower power consumption, and costs. Since nanoscale CMOS is also able to cope with communication applications up to the mm-wave spectrum (e.g., 5G), this poses CMOS as the dominant process over BiCMOS in the next future.

This Special Issue will host the latest results in the field of integrated mm-wave CMOS ICs for radar and communication, with a focus on circuit design, architectures, component modelling, electromagnetic (EM) simulation, SoC integration, advanced package-to-chip co‑design, and antenna-to-chip co-design.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Mm-wave CMOS front-end circuits (LNAs, mixers, VGAs, T/R switches, amplifiers, filters, demodulators)
    CMOS Oscillators and frequency synthesizers (VCOs, frequency dividers, multipliers, PLLs, charge pumps)
    CMOS transmitters and power amplifiers for mm-wave applications
    Integrated radar sensors
    mm-wave communication circuits and systems-on-chip

Prof. Dr. Egidio Ragonese
Dr. Angelo Scuderi
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advance Technologies of Navigation for Intelligent Vehicles
Submission Date: 2022-02-22

Special Issue Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Navi_Intel_Vehicles
Guest Editors:  Dr. Jinwen Hu (Northwestern Polytechnical University),  Prof. Wei Meng (Guangdong University of Technology), and Dr. Shenghai Yuan (Nanyang Technological University)

Dear Colleagues, 

Intelligent vehicles have become an area of intense research within the robotics and control community, wherein unmanned ground/aerial/underwater vehicles have covered a wide range of applications from the civil domain to the military domain, such as logistics, mine detection, building and environment monitoring, intruder detection and attacking, etc. In recent years, swarms or networks of such autonomous robots are emerging as a disruptive technology to enable highly reconfigurable, on-demand, distributed intelligent vehicles with a high impact in many areas of science, technology, and society. In any application, networked and cooperative vehicles are expected to be more capable than a single large vehicle, offering significantly enhanced flexibility (adaptability, scalability, and maintainability) and robustness (reliability, survivability, and fault tolerance).

Autonomous navigation is one of the supporting pillars for realizing the abovementioned intelligent applications of intelligent vehicles. To date, efforts in this study have been continuously increasing, but many problems remain to be explored, discovered, and solved. The primary purpose of this Special Issue is to explore and display the latest achievements of theory and practice related to the advance technologies of navigation for intelligent vehicles. The areas of interest include but are not limited to:

    Overview of intelligent vehicles;
    Signal processing methods and sensor modules for intelligent vehicles;
    Autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments;
    Multi-sensor target localization and tracking; 
    Autonomous decision making for game and cooperation;
    Cooperative path planning and re-planning for homogeneous/nonhomogeneous vehicles;
    Synchronization for large-scale networks of intelligent vehicles;
    Learning-based and bio-inspired control for complex tasks;
    Distributed optimization and parallel decision making;
    Fault tolerance and robustness in disturbed and uncertain environments;
    Artificial intelligence in swarm cooperative control;
    Deep learning for resource-constrained embedded vision sensor applications;
    Event-driven control strategies for silent and camouflaged intelligent vehicles.

Dr. Jinwen Hu
Prof. Wei Meng
Dr. Shenghai Yuan
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Intelligent Surveillance and Smart Home
Submission Date: 2022-02-28


Dear Colleagues,

The smart home field has been studied intensively in the last decade, but recent developments in the field of ICT (e.g. wearable devices, wireless local area network, artificial intelligence techniques, human machine interfaces) have enabled the implementation of new services in the home environment such as monitoring the health status of frail people, energy management, advice and support for rehabilitation, home monitoring of disabled people. Advanced artificial intelligence techniques enable the implementation of wearable devices offering a high decision-making capacity to operate actuators or trigger alerts or to choose the right intervention solution without users’ intervention. Numerous emerging applications become possible based on data fusion and processing algorithms and self-adaptive systems. Indeed, the mass of heterogeneous data are very large and require new approaches to make quick and local decisions with low power consumption. Therefore, innovative and flexible hardware and software architectures are expected, as well as adapted and easily usable user interfaces.

While this Special Issue invites topics broadly across the tools, methodology, infrastructure, devices, and use cases in real conditions, the topics of interest include but are not limited to: 

    Wearable electronic device design for health monitoring;
    People’s daily activities data learning;
    Human activity recognition;
    Assisted living solutions, assistive technologies;
    Living labs for health and autonomy;
    Self-configurable networks for smart homes;
    Smart homes/home networks/residential gateways;
    Adaptive interaction for home control by users;
    Processing and data fusion algorithms based on artificial intelligence;
    Smart dust and buried sensors for home environments;
    Smart control for energy management;
    Heterogeneous data learning;
    Internet of Things for smart environments and e-Health;
    Middleware support for smart home and health telematic services;
    Context awareness/autonomous computing;
    Human–machine interface/ambient intelligence;
    Epidemic disease prediction systems;
    Human factors in autonomous smart systems.

Prof. Dr. Eric Campo
Prof. Dr. Norbert Noury
Prof. Dr. Mounir Mokhtari
Guest Editors

Special Issue Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/intelligent_surveillance

Special Issue on Advanced Sensing Techniques for Intelligent Human Activity Recognition using Machine Learning
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Sensing_Techniques_Recognition_ML


Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites original scientific and research articles on state-of-the-art human activity recognition, vital sign monitoring using various sensing techniques (contact and non-contact), and remote patient monitoring in the advanced intelligent healthcare sector. Additionally, this issue invites articles/reviews on cybersecurity for human activity recognition. The core idea is to provide an opportunity to academics, researchers, and industry professionals to showcase their current developments and set future directions.

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    Data analytics for human activity recognition in intelligent healthcare;
    Wearable sensors, devices, or techniques for physiological monitoring;
    Wearable sensors health applications;
    Software-defined radios for vital signs monitoring;
    Disease detection based on handwriting using deep learning;
    Identifying disorders using eye movements;
    Heartrate monitoring techniques using machine learning;
    Gait analysis using wireless sensing;
    Cybersecurity in remote patient monitoring.

Prof. Dr. Syed Aziz Shah
Prof. Dr. Qammer Hussain Abbasi
Prof. Dr. Jawad Ahmad
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ali Imran
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advances in High Frequency Electronics and Antennas for Connected and Autonomous Systems
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Special Issue Website link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/High_Frequency_Electronics_Antennas


Dear Colleagues,

We will soon witness a complete transformation of the world by connected autonomous and intelligent systems. These systems require an array of diverse technologies, some of which are still in the research phase. Innovations in high-frequency electronics and antennas are the bedrock of research in this area.

The purpose of this issue is to report on the state-of-the art research on high-frequency systems that will enable the much sought after fully autonomous, connected, and intelligent systems. The major drivers of the research are the ever-increasing performance expectations from future generation communication and sensing systems. Systems such as beyond 5G and 6G cellular systems, autonomous vehicles, IoT, satellite-based global wireless systems, etc., are expected to employ novel approaches, such as 3D printing, all metal antennas, flexible electronics, conformal antennas, engineered and intelligent metasurfaces, multifunctional systems, millimeter wave and terahertz front ends.

This Special Issue invites the latest research on the following non-exhaustive list of areas, which includes front-end electronics, antennas, and antenna arrays for the following systems and technologies:

    Beyond 5G and 6G systems;
    Wireless power transfer;
    Smart antennas;
    Beamforming and MIMO systems;
    CubeSats;
    Satellite ground stations;
    Tracking systems;
    Automotive radars and sensors;
    Reconfigurable systems;
    Imaging systems;
    Multi-standard and multifunctional systems;
    Planar and non-planar passive components and circuits;
    Artificial intelligence technologies for microwaves;
    Multiphysics for microwave.

Dr. Umair Naeem
Prof. Dr. Kamel Frigui
Prof. Dr. Farhan Abdul Ghaffar
Dr. Dushmantha Thalakotuna
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in the IoT and Smart City Based on Artificial Intelligence
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/IoT_Smart_City_AI


Dear Colleagues,

The technology of IoT and smart city systems is based on sensors through which an enormous amount of data is collected. Given the inhomogeneity of data coming from different sources and different devices, it is difficult to determine the right methods for their collection, processing, and analysis. The IoT and smart city can be supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to create devices that simulate intelligent behavior and enable decision making with little or no human intervention. The main role in guiding decision making and autonomous action is played by data analysis, which refers to the extraction of patterns and inferences from collected data through the use of statistical methods and deep learning. Studying and analyzing current information can be used to make better decisions in the future and drive intelligent actions depending on the decisions made. When talking about data analysis, it is important to mention text mining, because many of the data analyzed are in text form.

In smart city, IoT devices are interconnected and communicate for various tasks. The use of IoT applications is increasing exponentially, generating a large amount of connected data and, hence, the risk of data breaches and information leakage. Artificial Intelligence is used to develop complex algorithms to protect networks and IoT and smart city systems.

This Special Issue of Electronics covers research and discussion on applying AI methods to data collected by IoT and smart city devices in various domains, as well as improving the security of IoT and smart city systems. Both original research articles and comprehensive review papers are welcome.

Topics of interest of this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

    Data analysis methods for IoT and smart city systems;
    Text mining in IoT and smart cities;
    AI decision support systems;
    Security of IoT and smart city systems supported by Artificial Intelligence;
    Real-world applications of Artificial Intelligence in areas such as:
        IoT;
        Smart cities;
        Smart homes;
        Smart agriculture;
        Smart transportation;
        Smart industry;
        Smart health;
        Smart city services;
        Smart energy.

Prof. Dr. Maja Matetić
Prof. Dr. Marija Brkić Bakarić
Prof. Dr. Lucia Nacinovic Prskalo
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Frequency Selective Surfaces and Printed Antennas
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Dear Colleagues,

Designing user terminal antennas for 5G bands, mainly when the design includes several frequencies, is a must in the antenna research. New smartphone terminals, managing a variety of sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave frequencies, will arise in the market in the next semesters, and the antennas could be a bottleneck if their designs are not perfectly adapted to their application.

In parallel, and no less important, many research works focus on the design and construction of frequency selective surfaces. These elements provide control of the radio transparency of building materials, given the possibility of selective obstruction, and even blocking the radio waves propagating across them.

This Special Issue will present scholarly papers that address critical issues in the theory, design, manufacturing (use of new materials and manufacturing process), and measurements (such as fast near-field measurements) of both user terminal antennas and frequency selective surfaces at bands assigned to fifth generation networks.

Printed antenna
Frequency selective surface
Measurements
New materials and constructive models
2D and 3D radiating structures
Millimeter waves

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/terminal_antennas

Prof. Dr. Iñigo Cuiñas
Prof. Dr. Luca Catarinucci
Prof. Dr. Rafael F.S. Caldeirinha
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Application of Wireless Sensor Networks in Accredited Monitoring
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Dear Colleagues,

For a while now, there has been a tendency to monitor all kinds of production processes (Industry 4.0), of logistic processes, our physical activity, the evolution of our health, our eating habits, our sleep habits, our energy consumption, etc. Our daily lives are dotted with smart monitoring devices in charge of providing a large amount of data concerning many aspects of our lives and activities. Current technology allows classical monitoring, but also activity and lifestyle monitoring. This allows us to anticipate the appearance of problems or adversities that can be avoided or minimized by making the right decisions well in advance.  

IoT devices (Internet of Things) make the development of health, sport, and home-care applications easy. Classical monitoring includes issues such as air pollution, the environment, water quality, parking occupancy, traffic monitoring, and many others. In fact, different approaches have emerged, focusing on other, more novel aspects, such as reliability, quality assurance, accreditation of responsibilities, custody assurance, etc. Current WSN monitoring applications are not only in charge of data collection, but also of guaranteeing its integrity, certifying the processes carried out, and guaranteeing full transparent traceability. The integration of monitoring systems with both certification tools and smart contracts is a further step in the evolution of this type of system, where it is not only a question of monitoring the state of a certain process or activity, but of guaranteeing the authenticity and veracity of the information acquired, and of attesting to its veracity and of safeguarding the corresponding evidences. This Special Issue will explore new and visionary applications in wireless sensor network monitoring. Contributions that address but are not restricted to the following topics are welcome:

Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) applications: patient monitoring, elderly monitoring, health assistants, e-nurse, smart and assisted self-care, etc.
Smart cities monitoring applications: social pattern identification, governance impact monitoring, informational ecosystem discovery and sharing, participatory applications, etc.
Mobility monitoring: dynamic proposition of travel routes according to individual user parameters (phobias, phyllia, allergies, etc.), event-driven mobility due to culture, sport or traditional events, monitoring the environment of people with intellectual disabilities, mobility difficulties (Parkinson disease) or reduced mobility in order to facilitate their mobility through active policies.
Drone surveillance and monitoring: unmanned systems (US) in cooperation with wireless sensor networks, optimal data collection, inspection, and monitoring of power transmission lines, critical infrastructure monitoring, large area monitoring, collaborative monitoring.
Structural health monitoring: damage detection and characterization for engineering structures, monitoring of the changes demonstrated by a material, or certain properties of a structural system.
Environmental monitoring: early fire detection, landslide detection, detection and monitoring of floods and river overflows, forest monitoring, etc.
Athlete monitoring: fatigue and recovery monitoring in high-performance sport, smart heart rate monitoring for sports, evaluation of people’s movement, etc.
Multi-sensor fusion approaches
Blockchain-based certification for smart monitoring systems.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/wsn_accredited_monitoring

Prof. Dr. José Javier Astrain
Prof. Dr. Alberto Córdoba
Prof. Dr. Jesus Villadangos
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Robots
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Dear Colleagues,

Intelligent robotic systems are increasingly leaving the protected lab environment and are being deployed not only in factories, but also as unmanned mobile agents in the maritime, aerial or ground domains. A second evolution is that these robotic systems are being equipped more and more with artificial intelligence methodologies (using an Internet-of-Things Cloud infrastructure or embedded on the platform), for tasks such as perception, modeling, planning, resource optimization, etc.

However, the incorporation of artificial intelligence into the control paradigm of intelligent robotic systems also still faces many challenges, which are often related to the ‘black box’ nature of artificial intelligence approaches. This leads to problems in terms of risk assessment, explainability, trust, certification and even socio-ethical issues.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together researchers and practitioners in the field of artificial intelligence and intelligent robotic systems. The Special Issue will present key challenges associated with the incorporation of artificial intelligence methodologies inside intelligent robotic systems and will propose methodologies to address such challenges. We invite original contributions, as well as review papers in this area.

Artificial intelligence
Intelligent robotic systems
Unmanned systems
Robotics
Industrial robots
Drones

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/AI_Robots

Dr. Geert De Cubber
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Broadband Wireless Communication Networks for 5G and Beyond
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Dear Colleagues,

5G is now commercially being developed to offer higher data throughput as well as extreme low data transfer latencies. However, the increasing density of wireless devices, rge ever-growing demands for extremely high-data rates, and ultra-low latency services require new technologies and development. Furthermore, other than the use cases of 5G networks, the enablement of real time services such as holographic communications, autonomous vehicles, and high-precision manufacturing operations induces new challenges going beyond 5G. Many research issues still need to be addressed to achieve a fully intelligent resource management and real-time network management for 5G and beyond networks.

The objective of this Special Issue is to define the millstones for 5G findings and also trails to beyond 5G. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Resource allocations for ultradense 5G and beyond networks;
Machine learning into 5G and beyond networks;
New approaches to simultaneously increase peak data rates and decrease latency;
Energy efficiency and green communications;
Autonomic and execution in end-to-end intelligent resource management for 5G and beyond;
New architecture high-precision manufacturing in 5G and beyond;
Heterogeneous network, including various radio access technologies.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Broadband_Communication

Dr. Sungoh Kwon
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power Electronics Converters
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Special issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Converters_Power

Dear Colleagues.

The Development of Power Electronics Converters consists in a research area that has contributed decisively to the modernization and evolution of the vast majority of technologies that we use today, covering an enormous range of applications. Furthermore, it is significant to highlight that the evolution of Power Converters is supported by emerging technologies in different phases, including the power stage (e.g., passive components and power semiconductors), the signal acquisition (e.g., new sensors and digital processing units), and the control system (e.g., new power theories and current or voltage control). Encompassing all these subjects, this specific Special Issue aims to introduce a guideline of Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power Electronics Converters, involving innovative contributions from academics, scientists and researchers.

The topics of interest are related, but not limited to:

    Power Converters for smart grids (e.g., renewables, energy storage and electric mobility).
    Power Converters for industrial applications (e.g., motor drives and UPS).
    Digital platforms for Power Converters (e.g., DSP, FPGA, real-time HIL).
    Digital control for Power Converters (e.g., predictive control, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms).
    Digital Modulation for Power Converters.
    High-performance magnetic elements for Power Converters.
    Wide-band-gap (WBG) components for Power Converters.
    Gate-drivers for WBG of Power Converters.
    Soft-switching of Power Converters.
    Snubber circuits for Power Converters.
    High power density of Power Converters.
    High efficiency of Power Converters.
    Electromagnetic interferences and compatibility of Power Converters.
    Stability analysis and control of Power Converters.
    Topologies of Power Converters (e.g., Z-source and switched-capacitor).
    Reliability and lifetime prediction of Power Converters.
    Coordinated association of Power Converters.
    Hardware design and modeling of Power Converters.
    Life-cycle analysis of Power Converters.
    Monitoring and measuring of Power Converters.
    Thermal analysis of Power Converters.
    Passive components for Power Converters.
    Sensors and signal conditioning for Power Converters.
    Advanced control of Power Converters.

Prof. Dr. Joao Luiz Afonso
Prof. Dr. Vítor Monteiro
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Special Issue "Grid-Connected PV Systems"
Submission Date: 2022-02-28

Grid-Connected PV Systems
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Grid_PV

Renewable energy, such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine, will play the most important role in future power systems. Today, grid-connected PV systems are the mainstream application style for PV generation, featuring high conversion efficiency, low cost, easy installation, etc., such as in the transformerless PV system structure. In order to further increase the proportion of PV power in the power system, higher-performance grid-connected PV systems with high safety, low volume, high power density, and high grid support ability are necessary. 

The main aim of this Special Issue is to publish high-quality submissions that highlight technical trends of grid-connected PV systems and address recent breakthroughs in the modeling, safety, reliability, high power density, smart control, and power shifting for grid-connected PV systems. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:·      

    Modeling and analysis methods of grid-connected PV systems;
    Safety issue of grid-connected PV systems;
    Topologies for grid-connected PV systems;
    Control strategies for grid-connected PV systems;
    Wide-bandgap (WBG) devices applications in grid-connected PV systems;
    High-frequency and high-power density of grid-connected PV systems;
    Energy storage strategies for grid-connected PV systems;
    Standard aspects of grid-connected PV systems

Prof. Dr. Huafeng Xiao
Prof. Dr. Frede Blaabjerg
Dr. Chushan Li
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Computer Vision for Surveillance
Submission Date: 2022-03-30

Special issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Violence_Detection

Dear Colleagues,

While automatic video surveillance has led to early successful research in tasks such as unattended baggage detection, loitering detection and virtual fences, new tasks are now being explored, such as violence detection, weapon detection, COVID-19-related applications, etc. Despite their complexity, such applications are being fueled by powerful deep learning methodologies. In most cases early detection is crucial to save lives and reduce risks. The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide an academic platform to publish high-quality research papers on the applications of innovative AI algorithms to video surveillance.

 

The potential topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

    Violence detection;
    Aggressive behavior detection;
    Fight detection;
    Vandalism detection;
    Firearm detection;
    Knife detection;
    Suspicious object detection;
    Motion detection;
    Object tracking;
    Scene analysis;
    COVID-19 applications (mask detection, thermal imaging, distancing, etc.);
    Combination with other modalities or sensors (i.e., sound, multispectral, 3D, etc.);
    Violence detection from mobile platforms (i.e., drones) or PTZ cameras;
    Real-life applications;
    Datasets.


Dr. Oscar Deniz Suarez
Dr. Juan Antonio Álvarez García
Dr. Noelia Vállez Enano
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advanced Research in Electromagnetic Devices for Electric Vehicles
Submission Date: 2022-03-31

The electric vehicle theme is an important and relevant subject that paves the path for popular green vehicle technologies, since vehicle emissions account for more than 60% of the total pollutants in the urban air and have aroused great attention. Therefore, today, the need for zero-emission and ultra-low-emission vehicles is pressing, and the current fossil energy consumption is problematic. Moreover, as core components, electromagnetic devices are crucial for electric vehicles, and significantly impact the characteristics of the vehicles. In this context, Electronics is proposing to bring out a Special Issue aiming to provide the reader with a better understanding of the advanced research in electric vehicles and electromagnetic devices. 

We invite authors to submit original research articles to this Special Issue addressing the following potential topics. The Scope will include, but is not limited to:

    Pure electric vehicles and electric drive systems;
    Independent drive/brake/steering systems;
    Vehicle noise and vibration;
    Multiple driving modes and new control systems;
    Instability mechanisms and handling stability, acceleration slip regulation, model predictive and trajectory tracking control theories for electric vehicles;
    New sensors and data collection systems;
    Artificial intelligence and driverless technology;
    Electromagnetic elements and techniques;
    Electromagnetic system design, simulation, and control. 

In addition, in order to facilitate the comprehensive exchange of scholars, several open scopes of the Special Issue are provided, and mainly include:

    Mechatronic engineering;
    Electromagnetism ;
    Power electronic technology;
    Mechanical engineering and automation. 

Studies may utilize analytical models, different numerical methods, as well as experimental approaches. 

Dr. Yan Shi
Dr. Hang Su
Dr. Xianzhi Zhang
Dr. Zhibo Sun
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Applications of Machine Learning in Biomedical Informatics and Image Processing
Submission Date: 2022-03-31

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/ML_Biomedical_Informatics_Image

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid development of computer hardware and software has brought about a way to realize artificial intelligence. In the past ten years, machine learning has evolved into a multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary field. Accordingly, machine learning is the fastest growing field in artificial intelligence, and biomedical informatics and image processing are amongst the critical application challenges, offering numerous benefits in biometric identification, DNA sequencing, medical diagnosis, data mining, computer vision, natural language processing, speech and handwriting recognition, search engine detection for credit card fraud, strategic games, stock market analysis, robotics, and so forth. This Special Issue seeks high-quality papers that highlight innovative applications and address recent breakthroughs in biomedical informatics and image processing using machine learning techniques in various clinical and agricultural applications, including diagnostic and therapeutic devices, robotic systems for rehabilitation, healthcare monitoring devices, intelligent agricultural systems, and artificial intelligence to enable automatic diagnosis and detection.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Machine learning for biomedical and health informatics;
    Machine learning for biomedical signal processing;
    Machine learning for disease analyses;
    Machine learning for medical diagnoses;
    Machine learning for pharmaceutical development;
    Machine learning for healthcare technology;
    Machine learning for cardiovascular and respiratory systems engineering;
    Machine learning for biomedical sensors and wearable systems;
    Machine learning for neural and rehabilitation engineering;
    Machine learning for bio-robotics and biomechanics;
    Machine learning for healthcare innovation;
    Machine learning for agricultural applications;
    Machine learning for detection of plant diseases;
    Machine learning for detection of animal diseases;
    Machine learning for various image processing applications.

Prof. Dr. Cheng-Fa Tsai
Prof. Dr. Chi-Ren Shyu
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in Energy Management and Planning of Microgrids
Submission Date: 2022-03-31

Special Issue Website link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Energy_Management_Microgrids_Planning


Dear Colleagues,

A microgrid can be defined as a self-sufficient and self-contained energy system that serves a specific user (or group of users) such as a university campus, a hospital complex, a business center, or a neighborhood. Microgrids can operate either isolated or connected to the main grid and are usually composed of several different types of renewable-based and fuel-based generation systems, as well as energy storage systems (ESS). The consideration of all these features gives microgrids high flexibility and allows them to provide continuous energy supply with high reliability and efficiency, as well as at low cost. Nevertheless, to accomplish this, the operation of all the available energy resources within the microgrid must be properly planned and coordinated, which is the main task of the microgrid’s energy management system.

In the current microgrid control paradigm, the energy management system is embedded in a control architecture that allows to simultaneously manage the slow- and fast-changing dynamics within the microgrid. This control paradigm is known as hierarchical control, which can be deployed using either centralized and/or distributed communication and control architectures based on classical and/or metaheuristics optimization. Recently, with the rapid adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), a larger amount of operational data is being stored. In this sense, new energy management tools aim to extract patterns and new ways of operating based on this data using tools such as data analytics and machine learning.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to seek high-quality submissions that highlight new applications, address recent challenges related to design, implementation, operation, and validation of the energy management and planning of microgrids. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Innovative control schemes for microgrids (e.g., non-hierarchical, non-droop control).
    Energy management of microgrids using centralized and/or distributed approaches.
    New data-driven and/or Machine Learning-based strategies for energy management of microgrids.
    Optimal design, planning, and operation strategies of microgrids.
    New data-driven and/or Machine Learning-based strategies for planning microgrids.
    Lesson learned from already implemented microgrid projects.

Prof. Dr. Pedro P. Vergara
Dr. Juan S. Giraldo
Prof. Dr. Peter Palensky
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advances in Sensor Readout Electronics for Precise Timing
Submission Date: 2022-03-31

Dear Colleagues,

Electronic design for the readout of fast radiation detectors is a very active field of research. The advances in this area have potential applications in many fields of science, such as physics, medicine, chemistry, and biology, among others.

In the past decade, there has been steady progress in detector developments and their readout electronics. This includes new front-end circuits in very deep submicron CMOS technologies and advances in time-to-digital converters (TDCs). Additionally, the availability of vertical integration technologies is paving the way for new advances in the field.

The goal is to create a well-balanced collection of papers that will help to map the application of microelectronics design in instruments for various application areas and identify the perspectives and open challenges for future developments.

We would like to invite authors to submit papers related to research and applications in sensor readout electronics for precise time measurements. The topics include but are not limited to:

Electronics for the readout of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs);
Photomultiplier tube (PMT) and micro channel plate PMT (MCP-PMT) readout;
Silicon sensor readout electronics;
Analog and digital ASIC readout;
Time-to-digital converters (TDCs);
Monolithic active pixel detectors;
Hybrid pixel detector readout ASICs;
New trends in interconnection (vertical integration);
Detectors (crystals, readout electronics (ASIC), and detector systems);
Applications (high energy physics, medical (e.g. positron emission tomography), mass spectrometry, LIDAR, biology, quantum applications).

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/readout_electronics

Prof. Dr. David Gascon
Dr. Rafael Ballabriga
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances on Intelligent Multimedia Networks
Submission Date: 2022-03-31

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, multimedia networking applications benefit from the rapid development of encoding techniques for multimedia data sources, effective Quality of Service (QoS) control mechanisms, and Quality of Experience (QoE) criteria for system optimization. Interoperability solutions are also being proposed to integrate wired and wireless heterogeneous networking systems for multimedia communication. Another challenge is ensuring that the multimedia-networked content is fully interoperable, with ease of management and standardized multimedia content adapted for interoperable delivery, as well as intellectual property management and protection (i.e., digital rights management) being successfully incorporated into the system. Meanwhile, multimedia networks can be more secure and intelligent by integrating some type of intelligence. Existing research works still need to find out efficient ways to establish Intelligent Multimedia Networks (IMNs). Intelligent Networks can be applied in several network shapes like edge/Fog/Cloud/p2p networks and even sensor/mesh networks to increase the performance and throughput of such systems as well as providing better QoE to satisfy customers’ experiences.

This Special Issue solicits novel work in terms of solutions and techniques for intelligent multimedia networks. We look forward to creating a forum in which researchers in the domain of intelligent multimedia networks can share their results, techniques, surveys, analyses, and discussions of the problems of intelligent multimedia networks. Topics of interest for this Special Issue are not limited strictly to traditional multimedia networking problems, but also include topics that address related fields over multimedia sensor networks such as (but not limited to):

- Transmission techniques for multimedia information over IMNs
- Scheduling and routing in IMNs
- Effective QoS control mechanisms
- Scalability, reliability, and performance of IMNs
- Network services and applications in IMNs
- Performance evaluation of IMNs
- Anomaly detection in IMNs
- QoS and security support in IMNs
- Multimedia system optimization through QoE criteria/support
- Encoding techniques to improve the end-user’s QoE in IMNs
- Digital rights and digital forensic management in IMNs
- Multimedia security mechanisms to protect content and privacy
- Video optimization in multimedia sensor networks
- Optimization algorithms in IMNs
- IMNs support for Edge Computing
- IMNs for IoT applications
- Network monitoring and analytical modeling in IMNs

Special Issue on Flexible Devices and Optoelectronics Technologies
Submission Date: 2022-03-31

Dear Colleagues,

Realizing materials innovations for function integration of flexible devices and optoelectronic technologies remains a challenge in the next generation of soft implements, which are highly desirable for wearable applications, health monitoring coupled with intelligent life, and smart dimmers as well as light controls. Flexible devices and optoelectronic technologies widely comprise the application of functional materials in terms of mechanics, photology, electricity, and thermology, such as the devices of energy harvesters, sensors, actuators, field-effect transistors, memory devices, batteries, smart windows, light-emitting devices, touch panels, and displays. A variety and soft forms of these devices are naturally emerging, with their extraordinary capabilities endowed by ingenuity in materials, designs, system integration, and smart control. The evolution of flexible devices and optoelectronic technologies aims to build intelligent interfaces between humankind and the environment, which will be capable of achieving enhancement of the perception of people, physiological monitoring, environment regulation, augmented reality, as well as imperceptible camouflage. In this Special Issue, we invite research perspectives which include articles and reviews to address various important topics, aiming to highlight the pivotal roles played by materials innovations and device integration. These will continue to be important in steering the field of flexible devices and optoelectronic technologies to a greater height. We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue and are most grateful for the invaluable support and professional editing from the whole editorial team of Electronics.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Flexible_Optoelectron

Keywords:
- flexible and stretchable devices
- optoelectronic devices
- wearable technologies
- soft robotics
- sensors
- actuators
- nanogenerators
- electroluminescence
- electrochromics
- thermal management

Prof. Dr. Jiaqing Xiong, Innovation Center for Textile Science and Technology, Donghua University, China
Prof. Dr. Jiangxin Wang, School of Mechanical Engineering, Sichuan University, China
Prof. Dr. Haizeng Li, Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, China
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Gallium Nitride HEMTs: Characterization, Modeling and Design Techniques for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Applications
Submission Date: 2022-04-01

Dear Colleagues,

Thirty years after being proposed as a revolutionary technology, gallium nitride-based high electron-mobility transistors are today a well-established reality. Thanks to the superior properties of the material, such as wide bandgap and high electron mobility, HEMTs have been fabricated with a record performance as to breakdown voltages, current densities, and thermal resistances.

On this basis, GaN HEMTs are increasingly attractive in analog front-end circuits capable of delivering, handling, and withstanding remarkable power levels, i.e., high-power amplifiers, switches, and highly survivable low-noise amplifiers. On top of that, all of these key functions can be integrated on what are becoming known as Single-Chip Front Ends. The applications affected by this paradigm shift range from radar to radio communications, in both the commercial and military spheres, and at frequencies which easily reach the V-band. In addition to the terrestrial and air-borne segments, recent years have also seen the first space qualifications of several GaN HEMT processes both by US and European foundries, which testifies to the full maturity of the underlying technology.

The present Special Issue aims at collecting original contributions and reviews reporting the state-of-the-art of gallium nitride HEMT technology, with particular focus on characterization and modeling methods, but also including fabrication and circuit design techniques.

Gallium nitride
Characterization
Modeling
MMIC
HEMT
Microwaves
Millimeter-waves

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/GaN_HEMTs

Dr. Sergio Colangeli
Dr. Walter Ciccognani
Prof. Dr. Ernesto Limiti
Guest Editor

Special Issue on High-Efficiency Power Converters for Electric Vehicles: Battery chargers, Electric Drives, and Control Strategies
Submission Date: 2022-04-01

Dear Colleagues,

Power electronic converters are a primary component of modern electrical equipment and applications. They are used to allow an efficient conversion and control of electrical power from source to load. This is particularly important in electric vehicles (EVs) where taking the most advantage of the batteries implies an increment of the range of the car. Therefore, power converters are a key factor in the proper development of EVs. 

These power converters interconnect many indispensable subsystems such as the batteries, the motor (or motors), and the auxiliary systems. Moreover, they control the power flows between them. For instance, the electric motor of an EV is fed from the batteries system, and the link between them is created through a high voltage DC bus. Therefore, and to begin with, there is a DC/DC power converter between the DC bus and the batteries in order to stabilize it, while between the bus and the motor, an inverter is found. The energy flow is easy to see coming from the batteries and arriving at the motor. However, it is not always like that. During regenerative braking, the energy flows the other way around, from the motor back to the bus. Some system has to absorb that amount of power, and in this case, the batteries are the ones that do the job. In a few words, bidirectional converters are mandatory in EVs. Moreover, they need to be able to switch very fast among different operation modes, handle high currents and voltages, and finally be very efficient. 

There are also more subsystems inside the vehicle, such as the charger. Usually, the EV is charged by means of an internal charger (on-board charger), but this is not the only way. Batteries can be charged from the outside with an external high (or very high) DC power source. 

Additionally, there is a trend to connect the EV to the grid and help to correct deviations and punctual problems in the mains (V2G concept).

As you can see, there are many topics to work on:

Novel topologies of highly efficient power converters;
Battery management systems (BMS);
Equalization circuits to extend the batteries’ lifetime;
Control algorithms for power flows;
Communications with the EV to help to develop the V2G concept;
Original contributions including experimental validation are expected. This Special Issue has the aim of motivating further research on all these topics in order to help to develop new efficient power and control systems for the EV industry. We can all help to reduce climate change.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Converters_for_EV

Dr. Pablo José Quintana-Barcia
Dr. Emilio Lopez Corominas
Prof. Dr. Manuel Rico-Secades
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Electrical Characterization, Modeling and Simulation of CMOS Memory Devices
Submission Date: 2022-04-01

Dear Colleagues,

The memory systems of modern digital devices are increasingly becoming the center of attention for the research community and the semiconductor industry. On one hand, it is necessary to push forward with the development of new technologies for the digital devices of the future, like MRAMs, STT-RAMs and PCRAMs. On the other hand, it is necessary to consolidate the current technology through the search for new materials and architectures compatible with the current CMOS process in order to guarantee the integration of logic and memory in the same chip. In this context, this Special Issue aims to present studies on new materials and architectures for memory devices, conducted using methods of electrical characterization, modeling and device simulation and focused on consolidated themes such as non-volatile NAND flash and discrete-trap memories. Fully compatible technological options for the near future, such as resistive RAM memories, one-transistor (1T) and MIMCAP based DRAMs, will also be considered.

CMOS memory devices
modeling and numerical simulation
electrical material and devices characterization
device fabrication
bi-dimensional materials
One Transistor (1T) DRAMs
Metal-Insulator-Metal Capacitors (MIMCAPs)
Resistive Memories (Re-RAMs)
NAND Flash Memories
discrete traps memories

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/CMOS_Memory

Prof. Dr. Gino Giusi
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Wearable Antennas for 5G, IoT, and Medical Applications
Submission Date: 2022-04-01

Dear Colleagues,

Due to progress in the development of communication systems, it is now possible to develop low-cost wearable communication systems. Wearable antennas are antennas incorporated into clothing or worn close to the body. Wearable antennas are used for communication, IoT, 5G, and medical applications, which include tracking and navigation, mobile computing, and public health and safety. Examples include smartwatches (with integrated Bluetooth antennas), glasses (such as Google Glass with Wi-Fi and GPS antennas), GoPro action cameras (with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas), and sensors to monitor patient health. Wearable antennas are increasingly common in consumer electronics and for healthcare and medical applications. However, the development of compact, efficient wearable antennas is one of the major challenges in the development of wearable communication and medical systems. Wearable medical sensors can monitor and check on patients. Continuous analysis of measured medical data of a large number of patients may result in a better online low-cost medical treatment. Technologies such as printed compact antennas, metamaterial antennas, fractal antennas, and miniaturization techniques have been developed to create efficient small wearable antennas, and they are the main topic of this Special Issue.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/wearable_antenna

Dr. Albert Sabban
Dr. Ping Jack Soh
Dr. Sema Dumanli Oktar
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advanced Control, Applications, and Optimization for WSN and the IoT
Submission Date: 2022-04-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Control_WSN_IoT


Dear Colleagues,

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a popular field of research, with great prospects. Numerous researchers are continuously working on Internet of Things systems and trying to enhance its applicability. The backbone of IoT systems consists of sensors, embedded devices, networks of smart things, etc. Established communication among devices embedded with wireless sensor networks (WSN) and IoT networks improves our quality of life and represents a significant step forward toward automatic systems. WSN and IoT systems are already deployed in various areas, such as smart cities, smart homes, healthcare systems, etc.

The collaborative processes of sensors or embedded devices faces many complex challenges which will differ from environment to environment. The efficiency and effectiveness of systems depends on physical environment issues, services, system requirements, privacy, heterogeneity, etc. Based on each situation, the networks of sensors or embedded devices need to tackle many different challenges and issues which can be improved, such as quality of services, network dynamic adaptions, network protocols, etc.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to compile original and high-quality research works related to innovative solutions in the field of “Advanced Control, Applications, and Optimization for WSN and IoT”.

Dr. Mohit Mittal
Prof. Dr. Rocío Pérez de Prado
Prof. Dr. Valentina E. Balas
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Control Systems Engineering in Autonomous Vehicles: Adaptive, Robust and Fault Tolerant Control
Submission Date: 2022-04-30

Dear Colleagues,

Control Systems Engineering is increasingly crucial for the development and ongoing improvement of autonomous vehicles. Land-based, marine and aerial operations are becoming more demanding and complex, requiring more effective and flexible control strategies to enable vehicles to perform tasks autonomously, with higher accuracy, availability, and reliability and to safely operate in uncertain conditions. Adaptive, robust, and fault-tolerant control systems are considered a potential and emerging solution to address all these ambitious requirements and, for this, recent global research is oriented towards their design and real application. 

This Special Issue aims to bring together research experts and practitioners in the field of control theory applied to autonomous vehicles, with a common interest in adaptive control, robust control, and fault tolerant control developments. The Special Issue will present the key challenges associated with autonomous vehicle control and propose methodologies, techniques, and new insights to address such open research questions. We invite and encourage original contributions, as well as review papers in this research area. 

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control
Fault detection, isolation, and reconfigurable system design
Active disturbance rejection control
Disturbance observer-based control
Model-reference and model identification adaptive control
Direct, indirect and hybrid adaptive control
Iterative learning control
Fuzzy neural control
Variable structure control

with applications to:
Automotive
Aircrafts
Ships
Mobile robots
Underwater vehicles
Unmanned vehicles

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Vehicles_Control

Prof. Dr. Andrea Monteriù
Dr. Alessandro Freddi
Dr. Francesco Ferracuti
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Reconfigurable Computing and Real-Time Embedded Systems
Submission Date: 2022-04-30

Special issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/reconfigurable_computing_embedded_systems

Dear Colleagues,

Modern embedded real-time systems are characterized by an always-increasing demand for processing capabilities to serve computationally intensive workloads. For many tasks, hardware accelerators are an essential means to achieve the required level of performance, as in the case of future-generation workloads due to artificial intelligence. As a result, embedded platforms used in real-time systems are considerably more complex than in the past. For example, many challenges are introduced due to the contention produced by multiple cores and hardware accelerators when accessing the main memory or I/O devices, the scheduling policies implemented by the accelerator itself, and the network-based communication. These challenges call for solutions that allow guaranteeing the timing requirements of real-time applications – both from an analysis perspective, where the increased hardware complexity must be correctly captured to guarantee provably safe response time and latency bounds – and from a practical perspective, where suitable hardware and software mechanisms can be devised to arbitrate contention, allowing to increase the overall system’s predictability and performance.

Many application domains share these goals, including cyber-physical systems, IoT devices, future-generation autonomous-driving applications, robotics, Industry 4.0, smart-buildings, edge computing, and more.

Particular interest is attributed to emerging hardware accelerators based on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, especially to those embedded platforms that offer the possibility to dynamically - and partially -reconfigure the FPGA at runtime. Dynamic-partial reconfiguration provides a powerful and flexible way to dynamically deploy multiple accelerators, thus overcoming FPGA area constraints that would possibly not allow allocating all of them statically. Furthermore, FPGA-based accelerators offer the chance to analyze their timing behavior with a clock-level timing precision, thus resulting in a great fit for real-time systems.

In this Special Issue, we aim to collect high-quality submissions that include the theoretical, engineering, and application aspects of real-time embedded systems and reconfigurable systems.

The Special Issue will focus on (but is not limited to) the following topics:

    Real-time computing architectures
    Real-time network protocols
    Reconfigurable systems
    Dynamic partial reconfiguration
    Predictable access to shared memories, I/O devices, and accelerators
    Real-time virtualization
    Real-time robotics systems
    Resource scheduling and allocation in embedded real-time systems
    Optimization in real-time embedded and reconfigurable systems
    Hardware acceleration
    Predictable and efficient parallel applications
    Energy-and-power-aware allocation and scheduling
    Spatial and temporal isolation
    Floorplanning in FPGA
    Timing predictability for artificial intelligence
    Worst-case and probabilistic real-time guarantees

Prof. Dr. Alessandro Biondi
Dr. Daniel Casini
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advances in Machine Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis
Submission Date: 2022-04-30

Special issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/machine_condition_monitoring_fault_diagnosis

Dear Colleagues,

Condition monitoring and fault diagnosis have demonstrated its effectiveness in improving the operation, maintenance, availability and therefore economic return of machines. They will play a more vital role in the future industrial production process with the rapid development of modern machinery industry. That requests the condition monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques to be more reliable and efficient in practical use. However, this is challenged by the fact that modern machines are becoming more complex in structure, larger in size, and operate under harsher loading and operational conditions. This Special Issue will provide an open platform for reporting and sharing the latest advances in this field. The topics of interest for publication in this Special issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Machine condition monitoring
    Structural health condition monitoring
    Signal processing
    Data analysis
    Image processing
    Fault diagnosis
    Non-destructive testing
    Non-destructive evaluation
    Mathematical models for health monitoring
    Data mining
    Artificial intelligence

Dr. Wenxian Yang
Prof. Dr. Radoslaw Zimroz
Dr. Mayorkinos Papaelias
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advanced Machine Learning for Intelligent Robotics
Submission Date: 2022-04-30

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, machine learning represented by deep learning has developed rapidly and has been successfully applied to various fields, including computer vision, natural language processing, and decision making. Intelligent robotics is one of the promising applications of machine learning, because intelligent robots need not only robot hardware design and control but also robot vision, robot sensor fusion, robot navigation, decision making, and human-robot interaction. This may seem similar to applying machine learning to traditional fields such as computer vision and to intelligent robots, but there are notable differences because we need to consider the characteristics of robots. Therefore, this Special Issue focuses on research into applying machine learning to robotics. The scope of this Special Issue covers machine-learning-based robot control, robot navigation, robot vision, robot sensor fusion, decision making, and human-robot interaction, among others.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/intell_rob

Keywords:
- robot control
- robot navigation
- robot vision
- robot sensor fusion
- robot decision making
- human-robot interaction
- other intelligent robotics applications based on machine learning

Prof. Dr. Ji-Hyeong Han
Prof. Dr. Inbae Jeong
Prof. Dr. Ki-baek Lee
Guest Editors

Special Issue on AI & IoT Assisted Emerging Cutting-Edge Research Areas for Industry 4.0 & Industry 5.0 Sustainability
Submission Date: 2022-04-30

Dear Colleagues,

Industry 5.0 is not a continuation of Industry 4.0, nor is it a replacement for it. It is a different way of looking at the digital industrial revolution. Its goal is to shift the focus away from a solely technological process to change existing sectors and toward using technology to address the human and environmental concerns that the twenty-first century presents. For efficient industrial production, Industry 4.0 entails the technical integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. The goal of the shift is to enable interaction and connection between humans and machines, as well as between machines. Industry 5.0 is defined by a shift away from the profit-driven production of goods and services. It changes the emphasis from shareholder value to stakeholder value, reaffirming industry's role and contribution to society.

This Special Issue focuses on current advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as how effective these technologies are in attaining truly sustainable solutions. This Special Issue will also serve as a valuable resource for developing sustainable engineering solutions to a variety of global social and technological concerns.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/AI_IoT_Industry

Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

- Concepts and principles of AI and IoT applied in today's industry 4.0/5.0.
- Sustainable engineering solutions using AI and IoT.
- Issues in various computing methodologies as well as opportunities in engineering design for IoT/AI and smart cities.
- Waste minimization, remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling technologies using IoT/AI.
- Intelligent and smart grid systems.
- Energy saving through technology and robotic process automation.
- AI and IoT in sustainable development applications.
- Significant cuts to unplanned downtime through better-designed products.
- AI-based and green-based supply chains.
- Applications of IoT for tracking production across entire processes and supply chain.
- Advances in AI technologies for enhancing industry 5.0 and the connectivity of any components for smart cities.
- AI in healthcare technologies.
- Hybrid meta-heuristic algorithms with AI technologies for enhancing industry 5.0 and the connectivity of any components for smart cities.
- Operations and supply chain management using AI and IoT.
- Advances in AI technologies for terrorist pattern recognition.
- Suspicious persons face recognition using neural networks and other advanced, AI-based techniques.

Keywords
- industry 4.0
- industry 5.0
- artificial intelligence
- Internet of Things
- sustainable development
- smart city
- green-based supply chains
- AI in healthcare technologies
- hybrid meta-heuristic algorithms with AI

Dr. Mukesh Prasad
Dr. Piyush Kumar Shukla
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Design Tools and Architectures for Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Computing
Submission Date: 2022-05-01

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging applications are pushing the limits of computing platforms. The scalability of integrated circuit technology has slowed down because of the power wall and the cost wall. Performance is no longer the main metric driving the design of computing platforms, being replaced by energy efficiency and cost. On the other side, emergent applications have a fast-evolving cycle, which reduces the lifecycle of application-specific integrated circuits, increasing their cost.

Reconfigurable computing offers good tradeoffs between cost, energy efficiency, and performance, compared to other computing platforms (GPP, GPU, DSP, etc.). Field-programmable gate arrays are the most used reconfigurable devices. Their fine granularity offers a very flexible hardware device but they are difficult to program and high-density FPGAs are expensive. ASICs have a high non-recurring engineering (NRE) cost that is difficult to support with the new emergent applications with a short lifecycle.

Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs) offer performance and energy efficiency close to those of ASICs and a programmability level closer to application software, offering a good trade-off between NRE and device cost. However, CGRAs have not yet been widely adopted because of a lack of mature architectures and programming tools.

The objective of this Special Issue is to bring together the latest advances in coarse-grained reconfigurable computing (CGRC), including design tools, architectures, and applications.

CGRC topics include, but are not limited to:

Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures;
Fine-grained versus coarse-grained computing;
Spatial and temporal computation in CGRA;
Run-time reconfiguration/adaptation of CGRA;
Models of computation for CGRA;
Programming tools and compilers for CGRA;
Energy-aware compilation for CGRA;
Simulation tools for CGRA;
CGRA for domain-specific applications (image processing, deep-learning, network processing, etc.);
Edge computing and high-performance computing with CGRA.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Reconfigurable_Computing

Prof. Dr. Mário Véstias
Prof. Dr. José Teixeira de Sousa
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Strength and Stability of Renewable Energy Systems: Challenges and Solutions
Submission Date: 2022-05-01

Dear Colleagues,

Renewable energy sources, such as wind farms and solar systems, are increasingly integrated onto electricity grids via grid-connected power electronic devices. The asynchronous nature and low inertia of power electronics tend to weaken the energy systems, which brings new system stability issues and, in the worst-case scenarios, could lead to cascading failure and blackout events in response to disturbances. This Special Issue focuses on the technical challenges in system strength and stability and encourages innovative and breakthrough technologies to strengthen renewable energy systems. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Technical challenges in weak grids with high power electronic penetration
System strength modelling and assessment
Non-network system strength enhancement
Power system stability analysis and control
Power electronics operation and control
Integration of renewable energy into electricity grids
Control and coordination of renewable energy sources
Energy storage optimization and control
Review of technologies for system strength analysis and enhancement

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Renewable_RES

Dr. Yuchen Zhang
Prof. Dr. Zhao-Yang Dong
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Theory and Applications in Digital Signal Processing
Submission Date: 2022-05-01

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue (SI) encourages to present research achievement of new theories and methods of signal processing the researchers develop. Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The application of digital computation to signal processing allows for many advantages over analog processing in many applications, such as error detection and correction in transmission as well as data compression. However, most of the challenges arising from digital signal processing in still need to be researched regardless of the application, because many research questions remain. Many limitations exist in various application environments, and the latest research to solve these problems is being studied by many researchers. We look forward to the latest research findings that suggest theories and practical solutions for various application based on Digital Signal Processing (DSP).

Authors are encouraged to submit contributions in any of the following or related areas for DSP:

Information theory based on DSP;
Algorithms based on DSP;
Real-time computing based on DSP;
Applications based on DSP;
Image & video processing;
Display technology based on DSP;
Machine learning based on DSP;
Data hiding & Watermarking;
Pattern recognition;
Learning mechanism.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Theory_and_Applications_in_Digital_Signal_Processing

Prof. Dr. Cheonshik Kim
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Circuits and Optoelectronics for Point-of-Care Medical Devices
Submission Date: 2022-05-22

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in integrated circuits, optoelectronic devices, and wireless communications are rapidly paving the way for the development of portable and low-cost biomedical devices that can be applied for medical diagnostics at the point of care (POC). This Special Issue, entitled Circuits and Optoelectronics for Point-of-Care Medical Devices, welcomes original research papers that focus on the design, modeling, and implementation of new sensors, optoelectronic devices, and circuits for POC. The scope of this Special Issue also includes systems used to test POC devices. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

- Biomedical sensors and interfacing circuits for POC applications;
- Low-power analog signal conditioning for medical devices;
- Patient simulator circuits and devices;
- Photodetectors and circuits for optical biosensing;
- Biomedical data transmission using visible-light communication (VLC).

For further information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/poc_med_devices

Review papers are also welcomed. They should provide an unbiased up-to-date overview of the state-of-the-art supported with the latest contributions from leading research groups.

We look forward to your participation in this Special Issue.

Keywords:
- point-of-care
- optoelectronics
- analog-front-end
- visible-light communication
- patient simulators.

Prof. Dr. João Costa
Prof. Dr. Paula Louro
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in Biometric Security in IoT Based on Machine Learning
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Biometric_Security_IoT_ML


Dear Colleagues,

Internet of Things (IoT) applications has been deployed in a wide variety of critical infrastructure and applications ranging from transportation, healthcare, and supply chain. While IoT brings a number of benefits including convenience and efficiency, it also introduces a number of emerging threats. With the emergence of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), there is a growing need for access control and data protection. Biometric-based authentication is promising for IoT due to its convenient nature and lower susceptibility to attacks. Additionally, machine learning and deep learning techniques are delivering a promising solution to biometric systems and to increase the accuracy and plays a decisive role for presentation attack detection.

The goal of this special issue is to solicit high quality contributions on: (i) investigating the usage of deep learning and biometric systems in the context of IoT applications; (ii) novel techniques in biometric deep fakes and digital data forensics, particularly by exploiting, but not limited to, deep learning approaches.

Prof. Dr. Nima Karimian
Prof. Dr. Tempestt Neal
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems and Automated Vehicles in Smart Cities
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Special Issue Website link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Intelligent_Transportation_Automated_Vehicle


Dear Colleagues,

As the core of modern society, cities play an increasingly vital role through the rapid progress of urbanization and civilization. We are dreaming of smart cities that will provide a highly efficient, comfortable, economically sound, and quality life to everyone by integrating advanced technologies in transportation systems. The emerging intelligent transportation system (ITS) and automated vehicle technologies can revolutionize the way people commute in smart cities. With the help of an ITS, communities can decrease traffic congestion, improve energy distribution and even improve air quality. This Special Issue focuses on the most recent and relevant developments towards realizing such intelligent future transportation systems.

This Special Issue covers the most recent ITS techniques in various fields, such as big traffic data analysis, connected and autonomous vehicles, intelligent infrastructure, advanced traffic management and control, and smart transportation electrification. Both academic research and practical deployment of ITSs are welcomed. 

Dr. Yuankai Wu
Prof. Dr. Yi Lin
Dr. Yang Zhou
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advanced Applications of Power Conversion Systems and Power Generation
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Power_Conversion_Generations


Dear Colleagues,

With increasing regulatory ambition (e.g., EU green deal) and voluntary (e.g., corporate) commitments for decarbonization, sustainability and low-carbon energy transition have become a major worldwide priority.

Building a renewable-based green power system would be critical to achieving low-carbon energy transition, due to the rapidly increasing electrification taking place across sectors (such as EVs, industrial heat pumps and buildings electric boilers). Power will become the new fuel powering all demand sectors directly or indirectly (e.g., electrolysis-based hydrogen production).

Given this context, this work aims to investigate the ecosystem of new power systems to accommodate high penetration of renewables and integrate distributed energy resources from micro-grids, focusing on how to improve the reliability, efficiency and economics for such a system through optimizing and developing new power electronics solutions.

This Special Issue intends to seek high-quality submissions that present emerging applications and recent breakthroughs in power conversion systems and power generation. The topics covered in this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

    Advanced power conversion systems and power generation for renewable energies (e.g., solar, wind, and hydrogen);
    Advanced power conversion systems and power generation for electric vehicles;
    Advanced power conversion systems and power generation for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles;
    Advanced power conversion systems for energy storage systems (ESSs);
    Advanced power conversion systems for biomedical applications;
    Advanced power conversion systems for smart DC and AC distribution systems;
    Advanced power conversion systems for smart microgrids;
    Advanced power conversion systems for electrical drives;
    Advanced power conversion systems for lighting systems.

Dr. Dong Liu
Prof. Dr. Zhe Chen
Dr. Xinan Zhang
Dr. Yanbo Wang
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advanced Technologies and Applications of Smart Computing and Cyber Security
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Smart_Computing_Cyber_Security


Dear Colleagues,

Today, smart computing has become a part of our daily life, where advanced computational methodologies and technologies both become too complex and sophisticated. Smart computing, combined with a technical approach, creates systems, applications, and new service implementations that meet the needs of societies and cover many different application areas, including big data and cloud services, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Internet of Things, health, energy, transport systems, environment, industrial systems, information retrieval, and creativity. The explosive growth of smart computing and the various technological advancements create many scientific and engineering challenges that call for ingenious research efforts from both academia and industry. In all these areas, innovation requires both conceiving of new applications and services and improving the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of existing ones. In the digital era, cybersecurity is a part of our day-to-day life to protect systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. Innumerable organizations and companies frequently experience damage due to data breaches and the inability to execute their operations due to cyberattacks. Public services and research institutions are also constantly affected by the same issues. We are inviting submissions that explore the defensive tools and mechanisms that deal with cybersecurity and at the same time assess exposure to cyberattacks and that promote a tradeoff between security, costs, and usability that is more aligned with the public interest. Both theoretical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as case studies, papers dealing with the systematization of knowledge, and survey papers. This Special Issue is to bring together scholars, professors, researchers, engineers, and administrators resorting to state-of-the-art technologies and ideas to significantly improve the field of smart computing and cybersecurity, including but not limited to the following: 

    Smart computing;
    IoT applications in healthcare, wearables, smart cities, agriculture;
    Big data and cloud computing;
    Artificial intelligence and machine learning;
    Computational intelligence methodologies;
    Mobile and wireless security;
    Network security;
    cybersecurity data analytics;
    cybersecurity applications;
    Blockchain applications in cybersecurity.

Dr. Satyabrata Aich
Prof. Dr. Madhusanka Liyanage
Dr. Bruce Ndibanje
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Applications of Neural Networks for Speech and Language Processing
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Neural_Speech_Language_Processing


Dear Colleagues,

Speech and language processing are key elements for natural interaction with devices and services. Current deep-learning systems (e.g., end-to-end approaches) reveal and use intrinsic knowledge hidden in a record of human communication in acoustic, visual, or textual form. Advances in the research have blurred the line between algorithms and methods. Machine translation and speech recognition can apply a similar-looking neural network to transcribe the input data into comprehensible output. This convergence of methods brings new possibilities, but also new challenges. This Special Issue provides an opportunity to discuss the current applications, trends, and directions in the processing of human interaction using neural networks.

We welcome contributions reporting applications or enhancements of neural networks in the following areas (topics include, but are not limited to):

 • Speech processing, recognition, and synthesis:              

    Automatic speech recognition;              
    Text to speech synthesis;              
    Speaker recognition and verification;              
    Speech pre-processing and enhancement;              
    Paralinguistic and COVID-19 cough/speech processing.

• Natural language processing:              

    Language modeling and generation;              
    Multilingual and cross-lingual systems;              
    Dialog modeling;              
    Machine translation;              
    Machine comprehension and information retrieval.

• Multimodal processing:              

    Speech processing supported by biometrics;              
    Multimodal analysis of user behavior, including the exploration of relations between visual and acoustic speech features;              
    Personal traits detection and classification;              
    Paralinguistic effects;              
    Advances in dialogue systems and virtual assistants.

Dr. Daniel Hládek
Prof. Dr. Matúš Pleva
Prof. Dr. Piotr Szczuko
Dr. Andrej Zgank
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advances in Data Mining and Machine Learning for Location Analytics
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Special issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/location_analytics

Dear Colleagues,

Location information is becoming highly essential for many urban applications such as location-based services, smart routing, emergency response and urban planning. Location data types vary and have different characteristics.

This special issue will focus on the “analysis”, where special attention is given to innovative analysis, advances, methods and applications for location data mining and machine learning. The special Issue is open for contributions related but not limited to the following topics:

Location data management

Geographic information system for spatial and temporal data

Indoor location data analysis

Artificial intelligence for big geospatial data

Urban planning and data analysis

Emergency location technology

Urban and indoor location based service

Dr. Suining He
Dr. Bo Zhang
Dr. Qun Niu
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in Microelectronics Devices and Integrated Circuit
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Dear Colleagues,

Computationally intelligent devices are becoming the mainstream due to the emerging technology around Artificial Intelligence, which is particularly deep-learning-driven. AI is everywhere now and accelerating all the technologies in microelectronics and related Integrated circuits, such as direct memory, processing unit, display/motor driver, sensor interface, parallel computing, etc. Cryptography is also triggering the fast growth of quantum computing devices and circuits. Advanced microelectronics and integrated circuits have enabled the long-waited practical implementation of Artificial Intelligence in a reasonable computation speed.

Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers and review articles that focus on novel methodological developments in the field of advanced microelectronics and the design of the related integrated circuits. Work that explores how technologies can be incorporated with AI methods to identify novel design directions and improve devices, circuits, system performance, as well as processes is sought after. Additionally, research which identifies and evaluates the limitations of applying AI to certain problems and specific domains, in advanced microelectronics and integrated circuits, is also welcome.

Moreover, this SI is cooperated by the IEEE 14th International Symposium on Embedded Multicore/Manycore Systems-on-Chip: MCSoC 2021, it will be held in Singapore, 20–23 December 2021. Selected papers from MCSoC 2021 and all the external contributions in this field are welcome in this Special Issue.

For detailed information, please visit:
Special Issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/microelectron_devices_integr_circuits
MCSoC 2021: https://www.mcsoc-forum.org/

Dr. Teo Tee Hui
Prof. Dr. I-Chyn Wey
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Metastructures and Antennas with Enhanced Properties for Modern Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Applications
Submission Date: 2022-05-31

Dear Colleagues, 

Recent advances in telecommunications demand higher data rates, spectral bandwidth, and lower latency. For that reason, higher frequency ranges are being explored leading to new challenges in design and manufacturing. Modern devices require better accuracy in fabrication, greater compactness, and improved efficiency. Metamaterials are artificial structures that allow tailoring the propagation, scattering, and radiation of electromagnetic waves and have emerged as a candidate to fulfill the aforementioned requirements. They have also been and are still being widely used in the microwave and antenna community for the realization of multiple functionalities, such as absorption, filtering, reconfigurability, scattering control and polarization handling.

The improvement of fabrication techniques during the last decade has allowed for the development of metastructures based on more complex designs. These new types of metastructures usually gain accuracy, exploit the third spatial dimension (3D devices) as well as the temporal dimension (4D devices) or comprise cells with exotic shapes. They are expected to guide a novel generation of devices for the functionalities mentioned above.

This Special Issue is focused on, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. Modern communication systems and devices for microwave and mm-wave frequencies;
2. Metamaterials and frequency selective surfaces (FSS) with enhanced properties. Inclusion of higher symmetries and temporal modulations;
3. Antennas: phased arrays, microwave lenses, leaky-wave antennas, etc.;
4. Novel manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing (3D printing and inkjet printing) and micromachining;
5. Analytical and computational methods applied to the analysis of antennas and periodic structures (MoM, equivalent circuits, mode matching, conformal transformations, etc.).

Keywords:
- Metamaterials
- FSS
- Antennas
- Plasmonics and topological materials
- Manufacturing techniques
- Analytical and computational methods
- Reconfigurable materials and components
- Printed electronics
- Higher symmetries

For further information, please visit：
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/metastructures_antennas

Prof. Dr. Pablo Padilla de la Torre
Prof. Dr. Juan F. Valenzuela-Valdés
Dr. Carlos Molero Jiménez
Dr. Antonio Alex-Amor
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Electronic Systems with Dynamic Chaos: Design and Applications
Submission Date: 2022-06-01

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Electronic_Systems_Dynamic_Chaos


Dear Colleagues,

Dynamic chaos is a widespread nonlinear phenomenon that has long been recognized as an important area of scientific research. Such properties of chaotic signals, such as a high sensitivity to initial conditions, a continuous power spectrum, wideband or ultrawideband oscillations, and a narrow autocorrelation function, make such systems unique and draw attention to the widespread application of these properties.

Immediately after the discovery of dynamic chaos, great interest was shown in its implementation and application in electronic circuits and the related technologies.

Notable milestones in the development of this area were the Special Issues of the Proceedings of IEEE in 1987 and 2002 devoted to various aspects of the design and application of chaotic systems in electronics and information technology.

Over the past decade, a significant amount of work has been carried out to introduce technologies using dynamic chaos in various high-tech areas: electronics, optoelectronics and lasers, information technology and telecommunications, control theory, cryptography, robotics, etc.

The purpose of this issue is to highlight the current progress in the development and investigation of electronic circuits and systems with chaotic dynamics in electronic and information engineering and discuss the current trends and challenges in the use of such systems in various application areas. Finally, this Special Issue welcomes both original papers and review articles concerning different aspects of nonlinear dynamics, the design and investigation of nonlinear electronic circuits and systems and their applications in the wide-ranging area of modern information technologies and engineering.

The topics of interest include but are not limited:

    Nonlinear dynamics of electronic systems;
    Design of analog and digital chaotic circuits;
    Generation of chaotic signals;
    Integrated chaos generators;
    Memristor-based chaotic systems;
    Synchronization of chaotic systems;
    Chaotic communication systems;
    Chaotic radiolocation;
    Chaos theory in cryptography;
    Chaos control techniques;
    Nonlinear signal processing;
    Nonlinear dynamics on networks;
    Neuromorphic systems;
    Chaotic circuits for the IoT;
    Nonlinear circuits and systems with applications in AI.

Dr. Elena V. Efremova
Prof. Dr. Alexander S. Dmitriev
Dr. Stavros G. Stavrinides
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advanced Applications of UAV Flight Dynamics Modeling and Simulation
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/UAV_Dynamics_Modeling_Simulation


Dear Colleagues,

The rapid advancement, technology maturation, and reliability improvement in UAV systems have led to the recent widespread use of commercial drones in many industries. One of the key technology enablers is the use of UAV flight dynamics modeling and simulation tools that significantly reduce the cost and time taken for UAV development, deployment, and operation. With a rapid increase in demand for more complex UAV mission tasks, there is a strong need for advanced applications in the domain of UAV flight dynamics modeling and simulation to better support UAV design and development, operation training, and real-time prognostics.

This Special Issue seeks submissions on Recent Advanced Applications of UAV Flight Dynamics Modeling and Simulation. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    Applications in UAV training simulators and virtual or augmented reality flight testing;
    Applications in real-time prognostics, predictive maintenance, or Digital Twins;
    Applications in hardware-in-the-loop testing and validation, reliability testing, payload testing, or system safety assessment;
    Applications with data-driven, physics-based, or hybrid flight dynamics modeling and simulation.

Dr. Yew Chai PAW
Dr. Balint Vanek
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in Next-generation Wireless Communications and Networks
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Next_Generation_WCN


Dear Colleagues,

Wireless communications and networking are expected to continue their development over future generations due to the continuing explosive growth of mobile applications in terms of traffic amount and heterogeneity, with new user services including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), holographic telepresence, industry 4.0, and robotics that require massive user connectivity, support of heterogeneous data traffic, extremely high bandwidth efficiency, and ultralow latency. In order to fully support the aforementioned services and applications, next-generation wireless communications and networking have to be equipped with novel system designs and schemes throughout layers and components in the most effective manner possible. Moreover, recent advances in machine learning enable novel approaches to tackle challenges in next-generation wireless communications and networking, making it more efficient with lower operational expenses. However, fully satisfying its stringent requirements in practical communication scenarios is challenging, and there are still many important open research problems. This Special Issue seeks to explore system designs and schemes for next-generation wireless communications and networking and invites novel contributions from researchers and practitioners.

Prof. Dr. Ji-Hoon Yun
Prof. Dr. Katsuhiro Naito
Prof. Dr. Jae-Han Lim
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in MIMO and Array Antennas
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/MIMO_Array_Antennas


Dear Colleagues,

Modern communication devices need specialized components and equipment to operate at full efficiency. An antenna is a vital part of any wireless communication system, and it directly affects the efficiency and performance of the system. Due to the introduction of 5G and beyond 5G, traditional antenna designs are becoming outdated, and thus, a need for intelligent antenna systems has emerged. Multiple-antenna technologies have now outperformed single-antenna technologies. Multiple-antenna technologies include array antennas and multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antennas. Array antennas have the capability to provide a high gain while maintaining a wide bandwidth, whereas MIMO antennas have the capability to provide more communication links within the same channel without the need for additional bandwidth or transmission power. Array and MIMO antennas are the most important types of antennas which are mandatory for achieving a high data rate multimedia communication through indoor wireless routers or simply on-the-go. The application of such antennas is not limited to cellular communication, and it includes many other areas, such as smart cars, e-health, autonomous vehicles, smart grids and implantable electronics, etc.

This Special Issue, titled “Recent Advances in Multiple-Input–Multiple-Output and Array Antennas”, focuses on publishing work on new MIMO and array antennas. The aim of this issue is to promote modern and novel antenna designs to meet the requirements of compact and high-performance wireless terminals. This issue focuses on applications that involve antennas for implantable and portable electronics. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    Antennas for millimeter wave communication;
    Antennas for 5G communication;
    Antennas for future 6G communication;
    Antennas for terahertz communication;
    Antennas for vehicle-to-vehicle communication;
    Antennas for autonomous cars;
    Antennas for implantable sensors;
    Antennas for biomedical applications;
    Antennas for 5G mobile handsets and other portable terminals;
    Adaptive beamforming antennas;
    Phased array antennas;
    Liquid antennas;
    Reconfigurable antennas

Dr. Sultan Shoaib
Dr. Masood Ur Rehman
Dr. Djuradj Budimir
Dr. Akram Alomainy
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advanced Applications of Bio-Integrated Electronics and Sensors
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Bio_Electronics_Sensors


Dear Colleagues,

The past decade has brought a significant increase in the capabilities of miniaturized, low power sensing technologies’ integration with the human body. Advancements in the power efficiency and computing architectures of small system-on-chip integrated circuits, miniaturization of sensing components, efficiency improvements in wireless communication hardware and protocols, and mechanical and material innovations towards electronics integration with the human body have combined to bring new opportunities for bio-integrated sensing systems.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight cutting-edge technology advancements and applications of the next generation of bio-integrated sensing. Example topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    Wearable sensing;
    New on-body sensing technologies or applications, including electrophysiological, physical, and biochemical sensing;
    Flexible and/or stretchable electronics integration with soft tissues;
    Wireless power and data transmission from wearable sensors;
    Techniques for fabrication of flexible and/or stretchable electronics, including high throughput techniques;
    Techniques for integrating rigid electronic components in flexible and/or stretchable systems;
    Techniques for wearable microfluidic systems.

Dr. R. Chad Webb
Prof. Dr. John A. Rogers
Prof. Dr. Cunjiang Yu
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advanced Applications of Virtual Industrial Informatics and Robotics
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Virtual_Industrial_Informatics_Robotics


Dear Colleagues,

We respectfully invite you to contribute original papers and/or review papers to the journal Electronics for the Special Issue entitled “Recent Advanced Applications of Virtual Industrial Informatics and Robotics”.

In recent years, efforts have been made to develop and transform the way industrial production works, by integrating digital technologies, leading to the new industrial revolution called Industry 4.0. In the new industrial age, technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR), Internet of Things (IoT), automation, robotics, and much more have a significant role.

Industrial informatics, as a border field between informatics and manufacturing technologies, offers the possibility of developing complex systems for planning and controlling manufacturing systems. In addition, human-machine interaction and virtual technologies open up possibilities for improving industrial processes through collaboration between the human operator and automated systems or robots. Immersive technologies (e.g., VR) allow users to transcend into virtual environments, AR technologies facilitate the self-learning and training of human operators, while mobile robots are becoming more and more collaborative and able to work in teams with humans.

This Special Issue focuses on manufacturing technologies that include the use of modern methods, tools, and technologies aimed at using informatics, VR technologies, and robotic solutions to develop innovative applications that can bring more benefits to current industrial processes.

Dr. Răzvan Gabriel Boboc
Dr. Radu Godina
Dr. Albert Smalcerz
Prof. Dr. Dimitris Mourtzis
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Applications of Object Detection, Tracking, and Abnormal Detection Based on AI
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Object_Detection_Tracking


Dear Colleagues,

Modern AI techniques have been dramatically developed in recent decades and widely applied in a variety of application areas, permeating every aspect of a person’s daily life. One important application area of modern AI techniques is object detection, tracking, and abnormal detection. A variety of signal processing and machine learning—especially deep learning—technologies have been developed for object detection and the tracking and detection of abnormalities based on different sensor modality recordings (including but not limited to vision sensors, acoustic sensors, accelerometers/gyroscope sensors, etc.) in different areas (such as healthcare, agriculture, robotics, energy, surveillance, and so on).

The main aim of this Special Issue is to seek high-quality submissions that highlight emerging applications and address recent breakthroughs in modern signal processing, machine learning, and deep learning techniques for object detection/tracking and abnormal detection. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    ML/DL algorithm development and applications for object detection/tracking and abnormal detection in healthcare/robotics/agriculture/surveillance/energy;
    Multimodal information fusion for object detection/tracking and abnormal detection;
    Signal processing algorithms for object tracking;
    Combining application specific domain knowledge and data-driven approaches for object detection/tracking and abnormal detection;
    Uncertainty estimations for object detection/tracking and abnormal detection algorithms;
    Multiple-sensor-based object detection/tracking and abnormal detection.

Dr. Miao Yu
Prof. Dr. Stefanos Kollias
Prof. Dr. Xujiong Ye
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Recent Advances in Complex Dynamical Systems via Intelligent Control Approach
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Complex_Dynamical_Control


Dear Colleagues,

Many realistic systems can be modeled using dynamical equations. Increasing system performance requirements need to deal with the increasingly complicated dynamical systems used to simulate reality in control system analysis and design. Nonlinearity, uncertainty, time delay, system singularity, stochastic effects, the presence of linkages, and other factors contribute to the complexity. Technological and control theory advancements have made it possible to analyze complicated dynamical systems. Complex systems research is becoming increasingly essential, providing an additional push for the development of novel approaches and abilities for complex control systems. It has been applied widely in many complex fields, for example in missile guidance systems, active vehicle suspension systems, automobile control systems, etc. Due to their theoretical and practical significance, complex dynamical systems have long been and will continue to be one of the most active research areas. Although there have been many interesting publications on complex dynamical systems in recent years, there remain many challenging open issues. This provides the motivation for this Special Issue.

One of the main goals of this Special Issue is to bring together the latest innovative knowledge, analysis, and modeling techniques of control problems in dynamical networks. We accept both original research and review articles, and papers must contain unique theory or design material. The Special Issue focuses on recent achievements and applications in the field of complex system control and analysis, with particular emphasis on how to solve various control and observer design problems for nonlinear and interconnected systems. The systems under consideration typically have at least two functions: nonlinearity, faults, time delays, disturbance/uncertainty, interconnections between subsystems, stochastic processes, system singularities, and comparisons between simulations and experiments. The Special Issue focuses on the results of theoretical research and practical applications, with a focus on new methodologies for analysis, design, synthesis, and/or applications. Interconnected/networked systems, variable structure control, singular system control, time delay systems, fuzzy control and impulsive control, robust observer design and parameter identification, fault detection and fault-tolerant control, analysis and control of stochastic systems, and applications of advanced control systems are among the topics covered in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Nallappan Gunasekaran
Prof. Dr. R. Vadivel
Dr. Yongbao Wu
Dr. Bing Yan
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advanced Device, Circuit, and Control Techniques for Energy Harvesting System Design
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is proposed to encourage further research and development in energy harvesting systems. The energy harvesting systems need to be designed to meet the power requirement of the various applications such as wake-up radios, self-powered sensors, and solar power generation. The design of energy harvesting systems is quite challenging and requires a multidisciplinary design approach. This Special Issue welcomes the submission of original contributions for advanced device, circuit, and control techniques applied to energy harvesting system design.

The topics of interests include, but are not limited to the following:

 Power devices using Si and WBG technologies;
PV devices for high-efficiency energy harvesters;
High-efficiency transducers for harvesting energy;
Circuit design for high-efficient RF to DC conversion;
Power management circuits and energy storage elements;
Micro-inverters for solar power generation and distribution;
Power converters for energy harvesting and energy management;
Micro-controllers, FPGAs, and SoCs for energy harvesting systems;
Applications of digital control techniques to energy harvesting systems;
Design methodology and system configuration of energy harvesting systems.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Energy_Harvesting_System

Prof. Dr. Woo-Young Choi
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power Systems and Smart Grids
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Special issue link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Power_Grids

Dear Colleagues,

Power systems is one of the major engineering accomplishments. Existing power systems as well as the smart grids utilize a number of advanced computing, networking and measurement technologies. As these technologies become more populated, power systems and smart grids are rapidly growing in scale, interconnectivity, and complexity. Driven by these facts, it is apparent that the power sector faces important operating challenges in the next years. The objective of this Special Issue is to identify, address, and disseminate state-of-the-art research focusing on recent developments and emerging trends in power systems and smart grids. Submitted works should be original research papers and reviews with a substantial novel contribution towards the scope. 

The topics covered by the issue include (but are not limited to):

    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Distribution systems,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in High Voltage,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Microgrids,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power system control,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power system monitoring,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power system optimization,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Power system protection,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Transmission systems,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Smart grid cybersecurity,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Smart metering,
    Recent Developments and Emerging Trends in Synchrophasor technology

Prof. Nikolaos M. Manousakis
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Design and Validation of Advanced Quantum Computing
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Dear Colleagues,

Quantum computation is a rapidly developing field and forward leaps forward have been accomplished during recent years. Quantum calculation is evolving from an emerging topic in science into an established field in science and design. With the expanding size of quantum processors, sub-modules that comprise the processor equipment will become too large to precisely reproduce on an old-style PC. Thus, in the near future each new crude plan and boundary decision will require tedious coordination between planning, manufacturing, and test approval. Here, we can show how we can plan and test the exhibition of cutting-edge quantum equipment by utilizing existing quantum PCs. Zeroing in on superconducting transmon processors at the noticeable equipment stage, we can calculate the static and dynamic properties of individual and coupled transmons. We can show how the energy spectra of transmons can be acquired by variational cross-breed, quantum, old-style calculations that are appropriate for close term loud quantum PCs. Furthermore, single-and two-qubit gate simulations are elucidated by means of Suzuki–Trotter decomposition. The strategies clear a promising way towards planning competitor quantum processors when the requirements for ascertaining sub-module properties surpass the abilities of old-style registering assets.

In this SI, editors encourage topics related to hypothetical and fundamental research on the potential and restrictions of quantum innovation, quantum design, and validation, and the investigation of how to accomplish a new advance quantum design. The scope of utilization is suited to the new consolidating innovation; for example, cloud mobile/ubiquitous computing, Internet of Things, big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and distributed records innovation.

For further information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/quantum_comput

Original contributions are solicited in relevant areas, including, but not limited to:

- Quantum measures and benchmarks; quantum volume and devotion
- Connectivity and topology; entrapment-based remote sensing utilizing AI
- Quantum PCs and designing; qubit plan and control
- Quantum data science utilizing AI
- Quantum advantages; algorithms and complexity
- Hypothetical and empirical algorithm analysis
- Quantum programming improvement; quantum work processes for application stacks
- HPC integration; quantum assurance, testing, validation, and verification
- Photonic quantum computing and simulation
- AI and decision-making using quantum computing
- Optimization problems —planning, transportation, store network, and coordinations
- Interchanges hypothesis; quantum organizing; quantum web; quantum correspondence advances
- Design of quantum computing using micro-architectures

Dr. Awais Ahmad
Dr. Gwanggil Jeon
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advanced Control Strategies with Applications to Biomedical and Biological Systems
Submission Date: 2022-06-30

Dear colleagues,

Process control has gained a lot of attention over the last two decades. Moreover, it has had a major impact on process economics by increasing process efficiency and improving product quality and process safety. In recent decades, the problem of control system synthesis has gained increasing importance and maturity, both determined by the increased complexity of the controlled processes and by the quality control specifications that are becoming increasingly stricter. A complex area in that respect that has been receiving a lot of attention lately is the area of biomedical and biological processes. This is a field that has great growth potential with interesting and challenging problems and is critical to the health of millions of people worldwide.

This Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers and review articles that focus on novel developments in the field of advanced control strategies with applications to biomedical and biological systems. The primary objective is to create a forum for researchers to exchange their latest results, analyses, methodologies, techniques, and discussions regarding the control of biomedical and biological systems and to identify critical issues and challenges for future investigation. The submitted papers are expected to discuss original ideas and potential contributions for theory and applications.

Keywords:
- biomedical and biological systems
- drug delivery systems
- pharmaceutical
- process modeling
- process identification
- process dynamics
- nonlinear systems
- advanced control strategies
- model-based predictive control
- robust/hybrid control

Please visit the special issue website at:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/biomed_biol_processes

Dr. Ioana Nascu
Guest Editor

Special Issue on Special Issue "Applications of Embedded Systems, Volume II"
Submission Date: 2022-07-31

Dear Colleagues,

Miniaturization and cost reduction have brought embedded systems to the core of the modern technological society, making them ubiquitous in almost every domain. The design, engineering, programming, deployment, and management of applications based on embedded systems require a broad range of approaches, methodologies, and techniques, which are often characteristics of each specific application domain. Embedded system applications are required to cope with limited resources (processing power, memory, energy), communication, and networking, both wired and wireless, interfacing with sensors and actuators, specific programming paradigms, and methodologies, which makes the development of an embedded application a challenging task.

The scope of this Special Issue encompasses the full stack of technologies behind modern embedded applications: design of embedded devices, development of software, integration within a larger system, deployment, and management.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions on novel and inspiring applications of embedded systems, including, but not limited to, the following domains:

    Industrial Automation, Manufacturing
    Robotics
    Automotive
    Appliance Automation (Household, Entertainment)
    Healthcare
    Wearable Systems
    Energy Systems, Smart Grid, Home and Building Automation
    Security, Surveillance
    Smart Cities

Dr. Tullio Facchinetti
Guest Editor

Special Issue on "On the Use of Deep Learning for Image/Video Coding and Visual Quality Assessment"
Submission Date: 2022-07-31

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/DL_Image_Video


Dear Colleagues,

With the development of imaging and display technologies, ultra-high-definition, high dynamic range, high frame rate and immersive 360-degree content have emerged in our lives. However, the increase in resolution and dimensionality involves a large amount of data, making its storage or transmission not plausible over existing bandwidth-limited infrastructure. In order to address these challenges, it is desirable to design efficient image/video compression algorithms. Moreover, since there is quality loss during the image/video compression and transmission processes, it is important to have an effective tool to reliably assess, control and ensure high quality.

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is widely used in academia and industry. Deep learning, and especially convolutional neural networks (CNN),  is regarded as one of the important AI technologies that have been successfully applied in areas such as image processing, computer vision, and pattern recognition. Currently, the traditional video compression and visual quality assessment methods face a lot of challenges, including high computational complexity, limited coding efficiency, and low prediction accuracy. Deep learning provides a new way to solve these problems.

This Special Issue is intended for researchers and practitioners from academia as well as industry who are interested in issues that arise from using deep learning for video data compression and visual quality assessment.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Deep learning for image/video compression;
    Deep learning for rate control and bit allocation optimizations;
    Deep learning for filtering algorithms;
    Deep learning for low-complexity video coding algorithms;
    Deep learning for coding efficiency optimization;
    Deep learning for Versatile Video Coding (VVC) optimization;
    Deep learning for 3D/HDR/360-degree video coding;
    Deep learning for frame interpolation;
    Deep learning for image/video quality assessment.

Dr. Kamel Belloulata
Dr. Shiping Zhu
Dr. Hamidouche Wassim
Dr. Sid Ahmed Fezza
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Wearable Sensors and Technologies in Ergonomics, and Occupational Safety & Health
Submission Date: 2022-08-31

Special Issue Website link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Wearable_Sensors_Ergonomics


Dear Colleagues,

Wearable devices have been used in several domains including medical, sports, fitness, rehabilitation, fashion, military, gaming, and entertainment. However, the use of wearable devices for enhanced occupational health, safety, and ergonomics continue to capture the attention of scientists and engineers. Indeed, many researchers are developing these types of innovative medical devices, several of which are reaching the commercial market.  The main aim of this Special Issue is to seek high-quality research studies that highlight the recent developments and applications, and address the challenges of wearable sensors/technologies at the workplace. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    The development, assessment, and application of wearable sensors/technologies in ergonomics.
    The development, assessment, and application of wearable sensors/technologies in occupational safety and health.
    The application of wearable sensors for measuring physiological parameters in the workplace.
    The application of wearable sensors for measuring physical parameters in the workplace.
    The role of wearable sensors and technologies in decreasing musculoskeletal disorders.
    The development and applications of exoskeletons in ergonomics.
    Usability studies related to the application of wearable sensors and technologies in the workplace.
    Smart personal protective equipment (PPE) in the workplace.
    Concerns and challenges with using wearable sensors and technologies in the workplace.
    The market and acceptability of wearable devices in the workplace.

Dr. Mohammad Iman Mokhlespour Esfahani
Dr. Sol Lim
Dr. Reza Akhavian
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Machine Learning: System and Application Perspective
Submission Date: 2022-08-31

Dear Colleagues,

Machine learning techniques are widely used in many types of computing problems. For example, many types of problems related to computer vision, natural language processing, big data analysis, etc., are solved using machine learning techniques. There are many challenging issues associated with machine learning technologies. As machine learning technologies are based on massive datasets and require a lot of computing resources, they need to be designed from a systems perspective. There are also many new machine learning applications such as VR/AR applications and virtual humans.

In this Special Issue, we invite original research articles and review articles dealing with machine learning from a systems or application perspective. A new system architecture for machine learning applications will be addressed from a systems perspective. In particular, how to perform machine learning algorithms in limited resource environments such as cell phones is a challenging problem. From an application point of view, it can cover many types of new applications. For example, a virtual human or virtual robot can become intelligent based on machine learning technology.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following: 

Machine learning systems;
New machine learning applications;
VR/AR applications using machine learning;
System support for machine learning applications;
Performance analysis for machine learning systems;
Natural language processing based on machine learning;
Speech recognition systems based on machine learning;
Intelligent virtual human/robot systems.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/ML_System_Perspective

Prof. Dr. Tae-Sun Chung
Guest Editor

Special Issue on "Security and Privacy in IoT Enabled Modern Applications Using Deep/Machine Learning and Blockchain Technology"
Submission Date: 2022-09-30

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Security_IoT_MLBC

Dear Colleagues,

The security and privacy of users have become significant concerns due to the involvement of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices in numerous applications. Cyber threats are growing at an explosive pace, making the existing security and privacy measures inadequate. Hence, everyone on the Internet is a potential victim of hackers. Consequently, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are used to produce accurate outputs from large complex databases. The generated results can be used to predict and detect vulnerabilities in IoT-based systems.

Furthermore, Blockchain (BC) techniques are becoming popular in modern IoT applications to solve security and privacy issues. Several studies have been conducted on either ML algorithms or BC techniques. However, these studies target either security or privacy issues using ML algorithms or BC techniques, thus posing a need for a combined survey on recent years' efforts to address both security and privacy issues in vulnerable IoT devices using ML algorithms and BC techniques.

In this Special Issue proposal, we have summarized the research areas to focus on and the title related to cutting-edge topics, addressing security and privacy issues using ML algorithms and BC techniques in the IoT domain. The Special Issue emphasizes the operational elements of the IoT using machine learning techniques that facilitate intelligence in security and privacy challenges in the real world and in cyberspace. Additionally, we will invite authors to submit case studies based on categorizing various security and privacy threats reported in the past few years (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic) in the IoT domain, along with original research papers as well as survey papers.

Dr. Piyush Kumar Shukla
Dr. Manoj Kumar
Dr. Xiaochun Cheng
Dr. Prashant Kumar Shukla
Guest Editors

Special Issue on "Recent Advances in Integrated Photovoltaics Systems: Materials, Devices and Applications"
Submission Date: 2022-09-30

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Integrated_PV

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, the rapidly growing demand for energy has observed a paradigm shift towards the development of eco-friendly renewable energy sources to replace exhaustible fossil fuels that have a detrimental impact on the environment. Among various renewable technologies, an integrated photovoltaic (PV) system has shown strong potential as a sustainable and economical energy source. Based on advancements in material synthesis, device engineering, and theoretical examination, efficient and stable photovoltaic systems have been developed.

This Special Issue intends to bring together high-quality papers focused on the recent developments in renewable energy devices. We believe that your contribution in the form of regular articles or comprehensive reviews would be a perfect addition to this Special Issue.

This Special Issue will accommodate the following potential topics (but is not limited to them):

    Photovoltaic systems;
    Development and fabrication of semiconductors for photovoltaic systems;
    Modeling and simulation of integrated photovoltaic applications;
    Material synthesis for photovoltaic devices;
    Monitoring and smart planning of photovoltaic systems;
    Photonic devices integrated with PVs;
    Theoretical and experimental approaches for photovoltaic applications;
    Large-scale fabrication of photovoltaic devices;
    Advancements in building integrated photovoltaic systems;
    Integration of energy storage systems with photovoltaic devices;
    Analysis of charge generation and transport in solar cells;
    Smart monitoring of PV devices;
    Metamaterials and metasurfaces for photovoltaic applications;
    UV-Vis-NIR-IR absorbers ;
    Green energy and photovoltaics;
    Optimization techniques for photovoltaic systems;
    Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning for photovoltaic systems and applications.

Dr. Muhammad Ahsan Saeed
Dr. Muhammad Mahmood Ali
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Design and Implementation of RF Front-Ends for Next Generation Communication Systems
Submission Date: 2022-10-31

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid increase in the demands of data transmission rates driven by emerging applications has imposed stringent requirements in the operation frequency and bandwidth for next-generation wireless communication systems. To accommodate the requirements of modern communication systems, new design and implementation technologies for front-end subsystems are necessary. New technologies that lead to compact size, ease of integration, and performance improvement are critical at microwave/millimeter-wave frequencies. This Special Issue is thus devoted to the presentation of the latest developments in passive and active components and circuits in the front ends for the next generation of communication systems. All researchers in the field are invited to contribute their original unpublished works. Both research and review papers are welcome.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- Device technologies for microwave/millimeter-wave applications;
- Power-combining techniques;
- Low-noise amplifier circuits;
- Power amplifier circuits;
- Switches;
- Antennas;
- Antenna arrays;
- Filters;
- Passive components;
- Materials for microwave/millimeter-wave applications.

For further information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/rf_front_end

Prof. Dr. Heng-Tung Hsu
Prof. Dr. Jeng-Han Tsai
Dr. Kuniyuki Kakushima
Guest Editors

Special Issue on "Recent Advanced Applications of Rehabilitation and Medical Robotics"
Submission Date: 2022-10-31

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Rehabilit_Medical_Robotics

Dear Colleagues,

Robotic technologies are able to provide precise and accurate sensing and movement capabilities. Recently, advances in the applications of rehabilitation and medical robots have led to powerful insights about the nature of understanding and augmenting rehabilitation and medical treatments. However, new and challenging theoretical and technological problems are being posed. One can apply state-of-the-art robotic technologies in different ways, including robot-assisted surgery, upper and lower limb rehabilitation, cognitive computation, behavioural intelligence and statistics. Such convergence of interests is encouraging, but few researchers in this active area communicate across disciplinary boundaries, and even fewer are skilled in the ‘language’ and techniques of more than one approach. With this new era of rehabilitation and medical robotics, much research is needed in order to continue to advance the field and also to evaluate the multidisciplinary concerns of the existing robotics and learning techniques.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to seek high-quality submissions that highlight emerging applications and address recent breakthroughs in medical and rehabilitation robotics. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Robot-assisted surgery;
    Upper and lower limb rehabilitation;
    Medical image analysis;
    EEG/sEMG data analytics;
    Stroke rehabilitation;
    Brain-computer interfaces;
    Haptic sensing;
    Neuro-imaging based diagnosis;
    Neural image captioning;
    Cognitive computation for healthcare;
    Targeted neuroplasticity;
    Human activity recognition;
    Extraction and optimisation techniques;
    Human-machine interfaces/integrations;
    Humanoid service robotics;
    Teleoperation/ telerobotics;
    Medical devices and instrumentation;
    Mobile healthcare;
    Rehabilitation games.

Prof. Dr. Pengcheng Liu
Prof. Dr. Guibin Bian
Dr. Anwar P.P. Abdul Majeed
Prof. Dr. Ahmad Athif
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Advances on Ceramic Microsystems
Submission Date: 2022-12-31

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, ceramic technologies have experienced a renaissance. The growing interest can be observed in the field of developing ceramic-based materials, as well as in the area of their application, such as microwave devices, chemical and biological sensors, integrated circuits, etc. Ceramic-based materials are mostly characterized by the relative simplicity of forming diverse structures, high resistance to harsh environmental conditions and the possibility of integrating such structures with components fabricated by various microelectronic technologies at low cost. Due to the aforementioned advantages, topics well-suited to this paper include, but are not limited to:

1. new trends and achievements in ceramic-based materials;
2. novel microelectronics applications of ceramics;
3. ceramic materials adjusted to microwave applications;
4. microelectronic ceramic sensors;
5. hybrid ceramic-based devices;
6. theoretical and empirical studies of designing, developing and fabricating the ceramic-based microelectronic modules.

Keywords:
- ceramic microsystems
- ceramic fabrication
- LTCC
- ceramic sensors
- Lab-on-Chip
- glass-ceramics
- Integrated ceramic-based modules
- thick-film sensors

For further information, please visit:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/ceram_microsys

Prof. Dr. Karol Malecha
Dr. Laura Jasinska
Guest Editors

Special Issue on "Recent Advances in AI-Enabled Internet of Things Security and Privacy"
Submission Date: 2022-12-31

Special Issue link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/AI_Iot_Security

Dear Colleagues,

We are experiencing explosive growth in digital data and connected devices today based on the successful realization of the Internet of Things (IoT). The application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is prevalent in a wide range of fields. In recent years, AI and ML techniques have been gaining importance as tools to provide intelligence to the IoT. With increased intelligence, the goal of AI-enabled IoT is to provide better heterogeneous connectivity, ubiquitous coverage, reduced network and device complexity, enhanced power savings, and enhanced resource management.

However, due to the deployment of AI-based intelligence for IoT applications, a new set of problems, challenges, risks, and vulnerabilities have been introduced. Thus, it is important to address the challenges provided by intelligent cyberattacks that are targeted towards AI-based IoT.

Prospective authors are invited to submit original manuscripts on topics including, but not limited to:

    Security and privacy issues in intelligent industrial IoT
    Security and privacy issues in intelligent medical IoT
    Security and privacy issues in intelligent smart city IoT
    Security and privacy issues in vehicular IoT
    Security and privacy issues of blockchain technologies for AI-enabled IoT
    Security and privacy issues in intelligent edge network
    Attack models for AI-enabled IoT systems
    Adversarial learning in AI-enabled IoT systems
    AI-based intrusion detection in IoT systems
    Federated learning-based security techniques in intelligent IoT systems
    Experimental testbeds for testing security in AI-enabled IoT systems

Prof. Dr. Insoo Sohn
Prof. Dr. Huaping Liu
Prof. Dr. Tae (Tom) Oh
Guest Editors

Special Issue on Reliable Industry 4.0 Based on Machine Learning and IoT
Submission Date: 2023-01-31

Dear Colleagues,

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, can provide and integrate many advanced technologies for automation so as to contribute to the operational efficiency and effectiveness of production processes, particularly, the process of combining smart machines and systems. The key technologies of Industry 4.0 are cyber-physical systems, Internet of things (IoT), big data analytics, cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, visualization, virtual reality, and autonomous robots towards practical applications in many industrial areas. To enhance the reliability of Industry 4.0, researchers from many fields and industries have to work together applying the new technologies in practical applications to provide secure online monitoring and control. This special issue aims to encourage scholars and researchers to present research achievements of state-of-the-art technologies with respect to reliable Industry 4.0 based on machine learning and IoT.

Authors are encouraged to submit papers in any of the following potential topics or related areas of Industry 4.0.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/Industry_Machine_Learning_IoT

Keywords:
    Cyber-physical systems
    Industrial Internet-of-Things (I-IoT)
    Advanced robotics (collaborative and adaptive robots)
    Additive manufacturing, hybrid manufacturing, and 3D printing
    Smart manufacturing
    Autonomous vehicles and drones
    Industrial big data and data analytics
    Machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    Cloud computing for Industry 4.0
    Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies
    Distributed manufacturing
    Planning and scheduling in Industry 4.0
    Energy in Industry 4.0

Dr. Mahmoud Elsisi
Dr. Minh-Quang Tran