International Workshop on Virtual Reality Based Educational Systems (Biz4Fun Project)

Educational Environments that are based on virtual reality (VR) technologies have opened up new horizons in education and have the potential to offer innovative and efficient learning activities and training procedures. They are gradually becoming an important part of the educational technology landscape and enable learning and teaching experiences that were not previously available. This workshop aims to (a) present and discuss the objectives and results of the Biz4Fun Erasmus+ KA2 project (b) provide an opportunity for attracting high quality research and development articles on use of virtual reality technologies in education. The participants of the workshop are expected to increase their knowledge and understanding of the ways that virtual reality technologies can enhance education, both theoretically and practically.

Authors are called to submit papers related (but not limited) to the following topics:

• Use of Virtual Worlds in educational systems
• Virtual pedagogical agents and Learning companions
  
• User Modelling in Virtual Reality Environments
  
• 3D Visualizations and Simulations
  
• Virtual Laboratories and experimentation
  
• Artificial Intelligence in Virtual Reality Environments
  
• Virtual classrooms and blend-learning educational procedures
  
• Game-based methods and approaches
  
• Personalized learning in Virtual Reality Environments

We encourage the submission of project-based papers.

For more details look at: http://aigroup.ceid.upatras.gr/vres20

Submission: Through the IISA2020 submission system: Template | Paper Submission

Workshop: Mobile Hypermedia Applications for Culture

Nowadays, the technological advancement in mobile devices has made possible the development of hypermedia applications that exploit their features. A potential application domain for mobile devices is applications for culture and related fields. Such applications may be shared, commented and further reused under other circumstances through the spatial interface environment of mobile devices. Various mobile devices may be exploited ranging from small smartphones to large tablets in combination with large displays or other projectors. Applications’ scope may regard the management and preparation of cultural content and processes including museum management, archaeological excavations and cultural events and its dissemination in archaeological sites, museums, cultural organizations and sites via augmented reality, navigation, voice commands and other related features. Furthermore, secure mechanisms for the distribution and commercial exploitation of multimedia cultural content in mobile devices should be taken into consideration along with the exploitation of web 2.0 applications and social media in general. Finally, educational multimedia applications and games may further present and disseminate multimedia cultural content through mobile devices inside and outside of classroom.

Topics

The paper may focus on mobile hypermedia applications targeted for culture, ranging from management to dissemination.

The topics include but are not limited to:

• Mobile hypermedia applications for cultural content management and processes
• Mobile hypermedia educational applications and games – cultural education
• VR, AR, MR in Mobile Applications for Culture and Games.
• Distributed mobile hypermedia cultural applications
• Digital rights management for hypermedia cultural content in mobile devices
• Interoperability in mobile hypermedia cultural applications
• Accessibility and adaptability in mobile hypermedia cultural applications
• IoT and Big Cultural Data applications for culture in mobile devices
• Services and Mobile Applications and Digital Cultural Aggregators
• Technologies and applications for disseminating cultural content in mobile devices
• Mobile cultural routes Maps and GIS
• Mobile Applications, Benefits , Societal Impact and New Cultural Policies.

Organizers

Georgios Styliaras
Associate Professor
Department of Cultural Heritage Management and New Technologies
University of Patras, Greece

Dimitrios Tsolis
Assistant Professor
Department of Cultural Heritage Management and New Technologies
University of Patras, Greece

Committee Members

• Evangelia Kavakli, University of the Aegean, Greece
• Dimitrios Koukopoulos, University of Patras, Greece
• George Koutromanos, University of Athens, Greece
• Enric Mayol, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
• Alessandro Piva, University of Florence, Italy
• Alfredo Ronchi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• Spyros Sioutas, Ionian University, Greece
• Krzysztof Walczak, Poznan University of Economics, Poland
• Panayotis Zaphiris, Cyprus University of Technology

Submission: Through the IISA2020 submission system: Template | Paper Submission

Special Session: Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Energy Planning and Investing

Background and Goals:

The European Union (EU) faces unprecedented challenges stemming from the increased dependence on energy imports and insufficient energy resources, as well as from the need to reduce climate change, towards transitioning to a sustainable and climate-resilient energy sector. Increasing energy efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions are the keys to addressing these future challenges, with the main axis of the European energy policy being a firm commitment to these needs.

Although sustainability is a concept that has been generated and structured “top-down”, is interwoven with a “bottom-up” model. The latter encompasses complex decision-making processes where multiple points of view must be taken into account before reaching a meaningful solution, since they include several “beneficiaries” (e.g. citizens, customers, workers, businesses, etc.) and a smaller number of “decision-makers” (managers of public and private organisations, etc.).

New methodologies and tools are necessary for the facilitation of the “co-creation” of interventions by all the stakeholders involved.

In this context, this Special Session will focus on highlighting innovative applications and systems for the decision support of local and regional authorities, utilities, energy suppliers, investors and financiers, towards sustainable energy planning and assessment / development of innovative schemes that trigger investments in energy efficiency / renewable energy.

Topics of Interest:

• Methodologies and tools for assessment of the energy status (e.g. identification of energy poor households).
• Decision support systems in energy planning and scheduling, using crowd-sourcing techniques, modelling / simulation of complex systems and open data sources.
• Standardised tools to effectively assess sustainable energy investments.
• ICT-based systems for the development of innovative schemes that trigger investments in energy efficiency / renewable energy
• Innovative applications in real-life environments.

Chairs:

Dr. Haris Doukas, Associate Professor, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Dr. Vangelis Marinakis, Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy, the Netherlands

Program Committee:

Dr. Haris Doukas, Associate Professor, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Dr. Vangelis Marinakis, Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy, the Netherlands

Deadline: 10/05/2020

Submission: Through the IISA2020 submission system: Template | Paper Submission