(in conjunction with ICCCN 2021 Conference)
Enabled by the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), edge-fog-cloud computing, and interconnected networks, smart cities are capable of innovative solutions to change the lifestyles of its residents. Unavoidably the potential benefits come along with new challenges and concerns related to information security and privacy. Blockchain technology is a platform that would provide tamper-proof storage for data derived from smart cities and ensure the access to the data is tracked and provided to authorized users. The resultant chain of custody will provide an interoperable platform that would facilitate decisions in smart cities that would impact the communities. The transparency of the platform would provide citizens would go a long way in building trust and ensure that the businesses will held to high standards of accountability.
Scope:
BLESS’2021 will bring researchers and experts together to present and discuss the latest developments and technical solutions concerning various aspects of blockchain technology in the context of smart cities. BLESS’2021 seeks original unpublished papers focusing on theoretical analysis, emerging applications, novel system architecture construction and design, experimental studies, and social impacts of blockchain. Both review/survey papers and technical papers are encouraged. BLESS’2021 also welcomes short papers that summarize speculative breakthroughs, work-in-progress, industry featured projects, open problems, new application challenges, visionary ideas, and preliminary studies.
The topics include but are not limited to:
- Blockchain based cyber physical systems for smart cities
- Blockchain based information hiding/encryption in smart cities
- Blockchain based lightweight algorithms and protocols for IoT
- Blockchain based security and privacy solutions for smart cities
- Blockchain enabled novel applications and services in smart cities
- Smart contract and distributed ledger for smart cities
- Security, privacy and trust of blockchain based decentralized systems
- Blockchain in critical infrastructure resilience (power grid, oil and gas, etc)
- Blockchain for supply chain protection
- Blockchain for networked identity management
- Scalability of Blockchain
- Secure Blockchain based identity management systems
- Interoperable Blockchain systems
- Blockchain infrastructure for public transit management
- Blockchain for social impact
- Blockchain based voting systems for urban and regional planning decisions
- Blockchain for universal data storage
- Keyless signature interfaces
Instructions for Authors:
Submitted manuscripts must be formatted in standard IEEE camera-ready format (double-column, 10-pt font) and must be submitted via Easychair (https://easychair.org/) as PDF files (formatted for 8.5x11-inch paper). The manuscripts should be no longer than 6 pages. Two additional pages are permitted if the authors are willing to pay an over-length charge at the time of publication (manuscripts should not exceed 8 pages). Submitted papers cannot have been previously published in or be under consideration for publication in another journal or conference. The workshop Program Committee reserves the right to not review papers that either exceed the length specification or have been submitted or published elsewhere. Submissions must include a title, abstract, keywords, author(s), and affiliation(s) with postal and e-mail address(es).
Review and Publication of Manuscripts:
Submitted papers will be reviewed by the workshop Program Committee and judged on originality, technical correctness, relevance, and quality of presentation. An accepted paper must be presented at the ICCCN 2021 venue by one of the authors registered at the full registration rate. Each workshop registration covers up to two workshop papers by an author. Accepted and presented papers will be published in the ICCCN proceedings and submitted to IEEE Xplore as well as other Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) databases. IEEE reserves the right to exclude a paper from distribution after the conference, including IEEE Xplore® Digital Library if the paper is not presented by the author at the conference.
Important Dates:
Paper Submission: March 26, 2021
Notification of Acceptance: April 23th, 2021
Camera-Ready Paper due: April 30th, 2021
Workshop Date: July 22th, 2021
Please refer to "Author Information" posted at the conference website for more info on paper submission and related rules/policies.
Workshop Co-Chairs:
Dr. Yu Chen, Binghamton University - SUNY, USA (ychen@binghamton.edu)
Dr. Sachin Shetty, Old Dominion University, USA (sshetty@odu.edu)
Technical Program Committee:
Mike Borowczak - University of Wyoming
Amin Hassanzadeh - Accenture Technology Labs
Chin-Tser Huang - University of South Carolina
Xueping Liang - University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Yaoqing Liu - Fairleigh Dickinson University
Seyed Yahya Nikouei - Kar Global
Sarada Prasad - Old Dominion University
Danda Rawat - Howard University
Ali Tekeoglu - Johns Hopkins University
Deepak Tosh - University of Texas at El Paso
Mohammad Wazid - Graphic Era Deemed to be University
Ronghua Xu - Bingahmton University