Special Issue on Wireless Sensing for IoT: A Word from the Editor-in-Chief

For an academic journal, a special issue is by definition special. However, this ACM TIOT issue is special along multiple dimensions.

The first one is expected, that is, its papers do not cover the wide gamut of topics germane to the Internet of Things, rather they revolve around a narrower research theme, in this case wireless sensing. This new approach pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved via untethered technologies that were often not designed with sensing in mind, as with WiFi and other RF-based. This research area has surged in recent years, fueled by ingenious solutions and the novel and disruptive applications they enable. The papers in this issue are a very good selection both for researchers already working in this field as well as for those who want to gain an at-a-glance perspective on it.

Two other “special” dimensions are less obvious and concern directly ACM TIOT and its future. On one hand, this is the first special issue we have ever published. This is not to say that we do not have enough proposals; we regularly receive many. However, since journal inception, the policy has been to decline these proposals. For this special issue, we instead solicited proposals from the members of our Editorial Board. This first “experiment” received a healthy number of high-quality paper submissions, more than we could accommodate within the time and publication constraints a special issue requires.

Moreover, we simultaneously attempted a much more daring experiment, going beyond the mere publication of accepted papers. It is well known that one limitation of the archival publication model is the lack of a venue where authors can concisely present their results and receive feedback from peers, an element built into the conference publication model. To mitigate this problem, we previously spearheaded a modality in which the authors of papers accepted for publication in TIOT can apply to present them at the prestigious ACM SenSys conference. This hybrid modality, first introduced in 2021, has been received very well by the community and has now reached its third year. Nevertheless, we wanted to further explore the dual modality: creating an event around a set of TIOT papers. This is precisely what we did with this special issue, whose authors were invited to present their paper in a public workshop held online. The special issue is a natural choice for this experiment and the new practice of hosting virtual events via videoconference tools, the norm during the pandemic, provides a reliable mechanism to implement the idea. I am happy to report that, at the time of writing, we have 500+ people registered, well beyond our expectations.

Given that these two “experiments” appear to have been quite successful, I trust they will be repeated, refined, and ultimately become an established practice beyond my term as EiC.

The above could not have been possible without the help of several people who deserve public recognition. First and foremost, we are deeply grateful to all the authors who submitted their best work to this special issue and entrusted us with the necessary adaptations to the usual review process. The special issue and its novel modality was defined and planned together with my founding co-EiC, Schahram Dustdar, whose enthusiasm about the virtual event was contagious. The members of the Editorial Board who took up the challenge (Yuan He, Mo Li, Huadong Ma), along with the other Guest Editors (Neal Patwari, Stephan Sigg) were the true driving force behind the special issue organization. I am grateful to all of them for their help, expertise, and dedication; in particular, Yuan He did an excellent job as the liaison between the special issue team and the ACM team, including myself. In this respect, a crucial role was also played by Gita Delsing, our ACM administrative assistant, whose proactive attitude and impeccable work ensures the smooth operation of the journal at large. I am once more grateful to her and to ACM in general, who supported the first-of-its-kind virtual event initiative and immediately agreed to provide public access to it at no fee.

This special issue has been in the making for nearly one year, and it is gratifying to see it become a reality. I hope it will inspire many of you, and I look forward to seeing you soon at the virtual event!

Gian Pietro Picco