Publication: January/February 2025
In order to remain competitive, organizations across several industries must respond with efficient use of energy and resources and short production cycles. Digitalization contributes to addressing such responses by attaining unparalleled automation levels across diverse sectors and has become relevant for Smart Ecosystems. Smart Ecosystems represent decentralized and flexible sociotechnical systems characterized by self-organization, scalability, and sustainability. Ecosystems today remain dynamic and demand the orchestration of a plethora of technologies (such as IoT, Big Data, additive manufacturing, digital twins, simulation, elastic computing, robotics, and machine learning) with the aim of elevating quality standards in several domains, such as automotive, military, citizen infrastructure, energy, building, among others.
Currently, in the military realm, NATO and the EU are implementing digital strategies, while the energy sector is investing in IoT, connectivity, and data hubs. Similarly, the building and construction industry emphasizes technology adoption for enhanced productivity and the automation of its processes and excelling of building information modeling (BIM). This trend also extends to the automotive domain, with IoT and cloud integration reshaping vehicles, and to the smart cities, where data-driven approaches refine urban living for better sustainability and resource management. Today, smart ecosystems aim to improve time-to-market and cost reductions but also to reduce carbon emissions from operations while bolstering sustainability efforts.
Nowadays, the challenge of building Smart Ecosystems requires the integration of various technologies that make it possible to automate production processes to the fullest. Hence, Smart Ecosystems behave with varying degrees of autonomy, forming what has been called smart digital ecosystems. These collaborative ecosystems require a holistic approach where partnerships between multiple businesses and organizations work together to solve issues and build integrated solutions.
Nevertheless, the diversity of digital actors involved in these different industrial sectors requires bespoke solutions where no single ecosystem serves. As the nature of industries is different, digitalizing the production processes in some of them turns hard and complex, and the solutions used in certain domains are hardly transferable to others. The diversity of application domains and technologies brings a broad range of requirements that must be met to achieve business goals. Additionally, the plethora of technologies required in the construction of smart digital ecosystems demand a high level of interoperability and integration of different technologies. In this light, the aim of this special issue is to shed light to clarify the techniques and technologies that make possible the development of digital ecosystems to solve industrial challenges.
We invite article submissions covering all aspects of digitization of smart ecosystems including, but not limited to:
Manuscripts must not exceed 4,200 words, including figures and tables, which count for 250 words each. Submissions in excess of these limits may be rejected without refereeing. The articles we deem within the theme and scope will be peer reviewed and are subject to editing for magazine style, clarity, organization, and space. Be sure to include the name of the theme you’re submitting for. Articles should have a practical orientation and be written in a style accessible to practitioners. Overly complex, purely research-oriented, or highly theoretical aren’t appropriate, however articles providing scientific evidence are welcome if they focus on practical and industrial contexts. IEEE Software doesn’t republish material published previously in other venues, including other periodicals and formal conference or workshop proceedings, whether previous publication was in print or electronic form.
Contact the guest editors at sw1-25@computer.org
