
„From Mathability to Learnability”
Prof. Katarzyna Chmielewska
Kazimierz Wielki University, Poland
The notion of Mathability introduced by P. Baranyi and A. Gilanyi in 2013 has evolved though the years and broadened the range of its meaning. Taking technical revolution and skills demanded by the labor market into consideration, learnability of the young generation is described as a natural extension of those procedural ways of learning which were worked out by problem solving, data processing, programming etc. Namely, mathematical abilities and cognitive infocommunication templates are presented as necessary tools and foundation for life-long learning.
Curriculum Vitae
Prof. Katarzyna Chmielewska is an experienced scientist, university lecturer, school teacher as well as a certified and active coach, tutor and business trainer. She works at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland, carries out research on Mathematics and constructive methods of learning . Her
article Mathability and computer aided mathematical education was awarded for the best paper during 2015 6th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive InfoCommunications. She has been a leader of 8 university research projects in Mathematics, Education, and, lately, in Mathability. For her overall educational performance she won EduInspirator award provided by the National Agency of Erasmus in Poland (2014).
Moreover, since 2008 she has coordinated LLP Erasmus and Erasmus+ programs at Kazimierz Wielki University. She was an author and coordinator of an Erasmus intensive programme ACAMiMM (Analytical and Computer Assisted Methods in Mathematical Models, 2011 – 2013). Currently, she
takes part in the municipal project School Open and Tolerant carried out in Bydgoszcz. Till September 2019 she performed a function of the Vice-Dean for Education at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Technical Science.

„From Modeling to Implementation of Cognitive and Wearable Computing Systems based on Body Sensor Networks: the SPINE project”
Prof. Giancarlo Fortino
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 livings), 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 such as sensor nodes (e.g. to measure heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen, etc), common life objects (e.g. watch, belt, etc), 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 design methods based on effective and efficient programming frameworks. In this keynote, we will introduce programming approaches and methods to effectively develop (model, implement and deploy) efficient BSN systems/applications. From the practical viewpoint, the keynote will be based on the SPINE project (http://spine.deis.unical.it), currently led by Prof. Fortino’s research group. Finally, the keynote will present some really prototyped SPINE-based cognitive and wearable computing systems (e.g. activity recognition systems, fall detection systems, mobile ECG processing systems, elbow/knee rehabilitation systems, etc.)
Curriculum Vitae
Giancarlo Fortino (SM’12) is 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 High-end Foreign Expert of 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 at Shenzhen (2019-2021), 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 in the list of Top Italian Scientists (TIS) by VIA-academy, with h-index=44 and 7200+ citations according to GS. He is the director of the SPEME (Smart, Pervasive and Mobile Systems Engineering) Lab at DIMES, Unical and co-director of two joint-labs on IoT technologies established with Wuhan University of Technology and Shanghai Maritime University, respectively. His main research interests include Internet of Things computing and technology, agent-based computing, body area networks, human-machine systems, wireless sensor networks, pervasive and cloud computing, multimedia networks, and mobile health systems. He participated to many local, national and international research projects and was the deputy coordinator and scientific & technical project manager of the EU-funded (8Meuro) H2020 INTER-IoT project. He authored about 400 publications in journals, conferences and books. He chaired about 100 Int’l conferences/workshops as co-chair (he is currently the general chair of IEEE International Conference on Human-Machine Systems 2020 in Rome, Apr. 6-8, 2020), organized about 50 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 Affective Computing, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, IEEE IoT Journal, IEEE Sensors Journal, IEEE Access, IEEE SMC Magazine, Journal of Networks and Computer Applications, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Information Fusion, and others. He is the recipient of the 2014 Andrew P. Sage SMC Transactions Paper award. He is co-founder and CEO of SenSysCal S.r.l., a spin-off of Unical, developing innovative IoT-based systems for e-health and domotics. 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”.

„How robots develop (and use) cognitive skills? Could they have ‘consciousness’?”
Prof. Santo Di Nuovo
University of Catania, Italy
After presenting the main principles of developmental robotics, the talk will report evidence regarding how robots can acquire an increasingly complex set of sensorimotor and mental skills, in a continuous brain-body-environment interaction.
The basic cognitive skills to be learned in the human-like development will be presented, i. e. perception, attention, memory, mental representation, reasoning, communication and linguistics, appraisal of emotions, planning and monitoring movements. Some experimental examples will be reported.
Can robots achieve these cognitive skills in an autonomous way, showing an intrinsic motivation to learn?
Can robots develop something similar to human consciousness, i.e. the awareness of own skills and emotions, and of their use in the relationships with other artificial agents and with humans? In the recent literature, the possibility of awareness of conscious experiences in robots is questioned, while a cognitive consciousness is proposed.
Finally, some technical, but also ethical questions about controlling robots will be raised.
Curriculum Vitae
Santo Di Nuovo graduated in Philosophy at the University of Catania in 1972 and in Psychology at the University of Padua in 1976.
He is Full Professor of Psychology at the University of Catania, Italy, and President of the Italian Psychological Association.
His research is focused on methodological and psychometric issues across a variety of topics in experimental and applied psychology.
In the field of cognitive neuroscience, he collaborates with the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, University of Plymouth (UK), the Manchester and Hallam University at Sheffield (UK), and other Italian and foreign research institutions, with main applications in assistive robotics and applied psychology.
Prof. Di Nuovo is a member of the scientific committee of numerous scientific journals, coeditor of Life Span and Disability, and editorial director of Series in Psychology.
Prof. Di Nuovo is also member of the scientific committee of various inter-university and inter-department research centers. He has over 350 publications, including 35 books. Many of his works are published in international scientific journals or volumes.

„How are we going to work in the future? The role of virtual reality, simulation and serious games in our everyday work”
Prof. Ilona Heldal
Western Norway University
Virtual Reality, Simulation, and Serious Games (SSG) technologies and applications have made significant progress in the last centuries for different work purposes. For example, engineers and architects design virtual prototypes to experience and test out their suggestions, teachers use simulations to illustrate complex processes, and their pupils use games to get more involved in learning. While the number, diversity, and realism of representations of SSG technologies and applications get improved, and the excitement to apply them is increasing, the value of them for practical use by many users, especially for collaborative work, is often missing.
This talk focuses on using SSG technologies and applications for collaboration. These are sensitive to human cognitive states and relations, and many of them are used to develop competencies, skills, and abilities. I will present barriers to overcome and current challenges for SSG development, introduction, and adoption. These barriers and challenges are from the fields of innovation, user experience studies, human cognition, and presence. Empirical examples come from collaborative projects with organizations engaged in developing and using SSG for health, learning or emergency training. Let’s talk about visions for the future by looking back to the history of SSG in the past decades.
Curriculum Vitae
Ilona Heldal, Ph.D. is Professor of Informatics, Interactive Systems at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). She has a broad research interest spanning from human-computer-interaction to innovation and knowledge management. She is involved in evaluating concrete technologies for user experiences in specific contexts. Most of her research is empirical and conducted in close collaboration with industry partners in Sweden, UK, Hungary, Romania. She has a Ph.D. from Chalmers University of Technology 2004 within developing usability evaluation methods for Collaborative Virtual Environments, worked as Associated Professor at Uppsala University and as Professor at the University of Skövde. At HVL, she is leading the group Collaboration, Innovation and Graphics with research interests in interdisciplinary projects on the following topics: visualization, simulation, and serious games, computer-supported collaborative work, introducing information technology (IT) systems for co-work, innovation, knowledge transfer, and IT adoption in organizations. Her current research projects are from the application domains health informatics and emergency management training. She is Editor of the Springer Journal of Virtual Reality and member in the board of directors of the Information Systems for Crisis and Response Management (ISCRAM) group.