Special sessions are included in the main Conference and follow the same reviewing process. When submitting on the website, please indicate the name of the special session.
Ramon Vilanova & Sebastián Madrigal
Departament de Telecomunicació i d'Enginyeria de Sistemes, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
This special session explores the transformative role of Community Energy Systems (CES) in addressing some of the most urgent societal challenges of our time, including decarbonization, energy justice, and grid resilience. With the accelerating shift toward decentralized, participatory energy models, Energy Communities (ECs) have emerged as vital frameworks for empowering citizens, promoting collective self-consumption, and integrating distributed renewable energy sources into the wider energy system.
To fully unlock the potential of CES, significant advancements are needed at the intersection of technological innovation, system optimization, and human-centered design. This includes the development of intelligent control architectures, data-driven decision-making frameworks, and equitable operational strategies that reflect both technical constraints and social values.
This session invites contributions that investigate how emerging technologies, optimization techniques, and socio-technical approaches can work in synergy to create smart, inclusive, and sustainable energy-sharing systems. Interdisciplinary work and applications across urban, peri-urban, and rural contexts are particularly welcome.
Izabela Jonek-Kowalska, Agnieszka Kowalska-Styczeń, Aneta Michalak, Katarzyna Sienkiewicz-Małyjurek, Radosław Wolniak
Faculty of Organization and Management, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
This special session explores the data-driven transformation of cities aimed at creating urban environments that are healthier, safer, more inclusive, and environmentally responsible. The growing availability of urban data—ranging from mobility traces and sensor networks to administrative records and citizen-generated inputs—enables advanced analytics and decision-support systems capable of improving quality of life (QoL) while promoting sustainability, resilience, inclusiveness, and trust in city governance.
However, the promise of data-driven urbanism relies on robust analytical methods, responsible digital technologies, and viable governance and financing models that align technological innovation with societal needs and long-term stewardship. Addressing these challenges remains a key concern for both research and real-world implementation.
This session invites contributions demonstrating how computing, electrical, and industrial systems—combined with urban policy and management perspectives—can transform smart city functions such as mobility, energy, environment, public services, finance, and safety into measurable improvements in residents' quality of life. Empirical studies, methodological advances, prototypes, and case analyses across European and global contexts are particularly welcome.
Dr Shenbagaraj Ramachandran, Prof. J. Hemalatha, Dr. Sekar
India
The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents unprecedented opportunities to address global sustainability challenges, particularly in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This special session focuses on the integration of AI technologies within Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) to foster sustainable development. As environmental, social, and economic pressures mount, AI-driven innovations in areas such as energy-efficient computing, smart resource management, and ethical data systems can significantly contribute to goals such as SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
The session will explore cutting-edge research and applications, including AI for environmental monitoring, predictive analytics in agriculture and healthcare, green computing algorithms to minimize carbon footprints, sustainable IoT ecosystems, and bias-mitigated AI for equitable growth. Emphasis will be placed on challenges such as algorithmic energy consumption, ethical AI deployment in resource-limited settings, and interdisciplinary approaches to ensure that AI contributes positively without exacerbating inequalities or environmental harm.