Giancarl of University of Calabria, Italy

Wearable computing is a relatively new area of research and development that aims at supporting people in different application domains: health-care (monitoring assisted living), fitness (monitoring athletes), social interactions (enabling multi-user activity recognition, e.g. handshake), videogames (enabling joystick-less interactions), factory (monitoring employees in their activity), etc. Wearable computing is based on wearable computing devices/interfaces such as sensor nodes (e.g. to measure heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen, etc), common life objects (e.g. watch, belt, etc), and smartphones/PDA. Wearable computing has been recently boosted by the introduction of body sensor networks (BSNs), i.e. networks of wireless wearable sensor nodes coordinated by more capable coordinators (smartphones, tablets, PCs). Although the basic elements (sensors, protocols, coordinators) of a BSN are available (already from a commercial point of view), developing BSN systems/applications is a complex task that requires suitable design methods based on effective and efficient programming frameworks. In this DL, we will first discuss the state-of-the-art of currently available wearable computing systems based on BSNs. Then, we will focus on the main results achieved in the SPINE project (http://spine.deis.unical.it), currently led by Prof. Fortino’s research group, in terms of defined models, methodology, algorithms, and real prototypes (e.g. activity/gesture recognition systems, fall detection systems, mobile ECG processing systems, elbow/knee rehabilitation systems, emotion recognition systems, etc.). Based on SPINE, we also developed C-SPINE to support the development of collaborative systems based on BSNs and able to detect/classify multi-user activity. Examples will be given in the area of COVID-19 tracing and support platforms. Finally, the DL will enumerate and discuss future research challenges along with possible solutions in such exciting research domains. Learning points: • Body sensor networks: sensors (physiological sensors, inertial sensors, pressure sensors), architectures and communications patterns/protocols • Body sensor networks programming and management issues • The SPINE (Signal Processing In-Node Environment) framework: basic concepts (sensors hardware adaptation, drivers addition, sensors programming, data collection, in-node data processing) • SPINE wearable sensor-based prototypes: from Human Activity recognition to Cardiac Defense Response detection and Limb Rehabilitation. • C-SPINE for the Development of Collaborative BSNs and its application for humans’ tracing/distancing platforms • Future research challenges in BSNs: from wearable stretchable sensors to autonomic sensor platforms.

Biography:

Giancarlo Fortino (SM’12) is a Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the Dept. of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems (DIMES) of the University of Calabria (Unical), Rende (CS), Italy. He has a Ph. D. degree and Laurea (MSc+BSc) degree in Computer Engineering from Unical. He is a High-end Foreign Expert in China (term 2015-2018), Adjunct and Guest Professor at the Wuhan University of Technology (China), High-end Expert of HUST (China), CAS PIFI Visiting Scientist in Shenzhen (2019-2021), Distinguished Professor of Huazhong Agricultural University (China) and Associated Senior Research Fellow at the Italian National Research Council - ICAR Institute. He has been also Visiting Researcher and Professor at the International Computer Science Institute (Berkeley, USA, 97-99) and at the Queensland University of Technology (Australia, 2009), respectively. He is on the list of Top Italian Scientists (TIS) by VIA-academy and Guide2Research, with h-index=52 and 10000+ citations according to GS. According to the SciVal tool based on the Scopus database, in the last 5 years (2015-19), he is ranked N. 39 in the Computer Science field in the ranking of Top 500 authors, by Scholarly Output in the World, based on the FWCI index, is N. 1 in the Research Area “Hardware and Architecture” and N. 1 in the topic “Body Sensor Network; Smart Object; Interoperability”. According to WoS, he has currently 12 highly cited papers and has been recently nominated candidate for Highly Cited Researcher 2020. He is the director of the SPEME (Smart, Pervasive and Mobile Systems Engineering) Lab at DIMES, Unical, and co-director of three joint labs on Smart IoT technologies established with Wuhan University of Technology, Shanghai Maritime University, and Huazhong Agricultural University, respectively. He is also the director of the postgraduate master's in “INTER-IoT: Integrator of Internet of Things Systems” and the Rector’s delegate to international relations at Unical. His main research interests include Human-Machine Systems, Wearable Computing, Internet of Things computing and technology, agent-based computing, body area networks, wireless sensor networks, pervasive and cloud computing, multimedia networks, and mobile health systems. He participated in many local, national, and international research projects and was also the deputy coordinator and scientific & technical project manager of the EU-funded (8M) H2020 INTER-IoT project. He authored 450+ publications in journals (200+ in ISI-impacted journals), conferences, and books. He chaired 100+ Int'l conferences/workshops (he is the general chair of the 1st edition of the 2020 IEEE Human-Machine Systems conference), organized 60+ special issues in well-known ISI-impacted Int'l Journals, and participated in the TPC of about 500 conferences. He is the founding editor in chief of the IEEE Book Series on “Human-Machine Systems” and of the Springer Book Series on "Internet of Things: Technology, Communications, and Computing”, and currently serves (as associate editor) in the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, IEEE IoT Journal, IEEE Sensors Journal, IEEE SMC Magazine, IEEE Access, Information Fusion, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Networks and Computer Applications and others. He is the recipient of the 2014 Andrew P. Sage SMC Best Transactions Paper Award. He is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Sensors Council for the period 2021- 2023. He is the Chair of the IEEE SMC Italian Chapter, Member-at-large of the IEEE SMCS BoG, Member of the IEEE Press Board of Directors, and founding chair of the IEEE SMC Technical Committee on “Interactive and Wearable Computing and Devices”. He is co-founder and CEO of SenSysCal S.r.l., a spin-off of Unical, developing innovative human-oriented IoT-based systems for e-health and domotics.

Address:Calabria, Texas, United States