2023 7th International Conference on
Communication and Network Technology
Plenary Speaker

Professor Mahmoud Shafik
University of Derby, UK
Bio: Professor Mahmoud Shafik is an international scholar
and expert who has made a personal distinction and international leadership
recognition, in the field of Intelligent Mechatronics Systems and Digital
Technology, with more than 20-years industrial applied research experience
in Intelligent Systems, Industrial 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE), Fly, Drive and
Steer-by-wire, 3D Smart Sensors and Actuators for Autonomous Vehicle,
Robotic Systems and Industrial Automation, Machine Vision, Innovation for
Sustainable Engineering, Cancer Treatment using CVD Diamond Radio Therapy
Technology, Information Technology for Blind and Visually Impaired people,
Chronic Diseases ICT Technological Solutions, Assisted Living Technology,
AD-HOC Wireless Technology, TeleHealth, Telecare, Climate Change,
Electro-Rheological Fluid Micro Actuators Technology and Software Tools.
Shafik has also a number of patents in these areas of industrial applied
research and sustainable technology.
Shafik has been chairing and leading
several industrial applied research projects from European Commission, and
UK Research Councils, of a budget of several millions of euros and have made
a great economic and social impact in his area of expertise in across the
world. His research work has brought many innovative outcomes that have been
commercially explored by several Small to Medium (SME’s) and large
enterprise (LE’s) organisations. This includes and not limited to:
Intersurgical Ltd – UK, Veslatec Oy – Finland, Semelab plc. – UK, PTW
Freiburg – Germany, Neotek – France, Kirchmayer Handel & Consulting GmbH –
Austria, Spectrum Telecom Installations Ltd – Ireland, Diamond Materials
GmbH – Germany, Fireworks International Ltd – UK, Pirotecnia Oscense SA –
Spain, Total Motion Systems Ltd –UK, Micromech Limited – UK, Smart
Technology Ltd – UK, Audi -Germany, Ford – UK, Schlumberger – France, Nissan
– Japan and Rolls Royce - UK.
Shafik is the founder of International
Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics-url:
http://ojs.unsysdigital.com/index.php/ijrm, Editor-In-Chief of both Journal
of Traffic and Logistics url: http://www.jtle.net/ and International Journal
of Mechatronics Engineering -
https://www.svedbergopen.com/journals/ijme/about-the-journal/. He is
chairman of the 2022 and 2021 of International Conference On Manufacturing
Research: http://www.icmr.org.uk/). He is serving as a chairman and plenary
speaker of International Conference on Intelligent Traffic and
Transportation (ICITT), http://www.icitt.org/, International Conference in
Communication and Network Technology - http://www.iccnt.org/index.html, and
Co-general Chair of International Conference Mechanical Engineering and
Robotics Research - http://www.icmerr.com/index.html.
Shafik is the
Senior lead academic of College of Science and Engineering - University of
Derby home and international collaboration programs -
http://www.derby.ac.uk/. He has been supervising and external examiners for
several PhD, and MSc research programmes across worldwide. He is a visiting
professor and curriculum consultant for a few universities in EU, Japan,
China, and Middle East. He is also a committee member of The Consortium of
UK University Manufacturing and Engineering (COMEH) for the Engineering
Professors’ Council and is serving as an Assessor and Knowledge Transfer
Expert for the UK Knowledge Transfer Network, EPSRC, Innovate-UK and EC
Research Programmes.
For more information of Professor Shafik profile,
career, achievements and selected publications please visit:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mahmoud-shafik-ph-d/7/237/60 &
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mahmoud_Shafik.
Speech Title: Intelligent Traffic, and Transportation
Challenges: Towards Self-learning Vehicles, is Imitation Learning the Future
of our Industry?!
Abstract: Intelligent Traffic, and
Transportation (ITT) using smart digital tools are developing very rapidly.
As they are the greatest approaches to strengthen transportation network
potentials, enhance mobility, and increase productivity. However, there are
significant technical challenges with intelligent traffic, and
transportation technology, gaps between what the current industrial systems
are offering and industrialist expectations. Industrial applied research
programmes are certainly playing major rules in this interesting area and
there are several ongoing research initiatives these include, self-learning
vehicles using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Imitation Learning (IL),
Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Everything (IoE), Real Time
Interconnection Devices and Deep Integration, Mass Information, Data
Handling and Security, Battery, and Battery Management System (BMS)
technologies …etc. This talk will explore some of the current challenges
with intelligent traffic, and transportation systems, vision of the future
self-learning vehicles solution platform using Artificial Intelligence (AI)
and Imitation Learning (IL), and adaptation of green technology to deal with
the current climate changes challenges and meet the world zero carbon agenda
in 2050. The talk will be concluded with some of the under development
industrial applied research programmes, which present few fresh areas of
industrial applied research for future autonomous vehicles applications in
smart cities.
Keynote Speakers

Prof. Alexey Vinel
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
Bio: Alexey Vinel (1983) has been a
professor with the School of Information Technology, Halmstad,
Halmstad University, Sweden, since 2015. He was professor II at
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway in
2018-2021. He received the Ph.D. degrees from the Tampere University
of Technology, Tampere, Finland, in 2013, and from the Institute for
Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia, in 2007. He is the
Senior Member of IEEE (2012). His areas of interests include wireless
communications, vehicular networking, and cooperative autonomous
driving.
Speech Title:
Autonomous Vehicles: Wireless Networking for Cooperative
Maneuvering
Abstract: Elon Musk twitted some time
ago that he had realized that self-driving cars are a "hard problem".
We believe that enabling communication between the vehicles is an
essential necessary step for cracking this problem in context of fully
autonomous urban driving. We will share some of our recent research
results on autonomous vehicles with a focus on inter-vehicular
networking and respective cooperative driving functionalities. We will
explain the approach of assessing the safety of the cooperative
driving functions by coupling the quality of radio communications to
the likelihood of a rear-end collision.

Prof. Gang-Len Chang
Director, Center for Traffic Safety and Operations
Chief Editor, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, ASCE
Chief
Series Editor, Springer Tracts on Transportation and Traffic
University of Maryland, USA
Bio: Gang-Len Chang (M’13) received the B.Eng.
degree from National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, in 1975, the
M.S. degree from National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in
1979, and the Ph.D. degree in transportation engineering from The
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, in 1985.
He is currently
a Professor with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. His current research
interests include network traffic control, freeway traffic management
and operations, real-time traffic simulation, and dynamic control of
urban systems. Dr. Chang is a member of the American Society of
Engineers. He has served as the Chief Editor for Journal of Urban
Planning and Development (ASCE) over the past 13 years.
Speech Title: A
Low-cost
Intelligent Intersection Design for
Preventing Angled and
Rear-end
Crashes
Abstract: To improve traffic safety at
high-speed signalized intersections, this study has developed a low-cost
but intelligent system to minimize angled crashes with its Dynamic
All-Red Extension (DARE) and prevent rear-end collisions with the
embedded Dynamic Green Extension (DGE). To allow field operators to best
use such an efficient safety-based signal control design, the proposed
system offers the flexibility to function within various field
deployment constraints. By using the special logic gates in the
wide-range radar sensor, the system’s detection module can project the
number of vehicles in the dilemma zone over subsequent green extension
times and use such information to optimize the extension decision. For
those aggressively running over the intersection during the all-red
phase, the system will activate its all-red extension function to hold
back the green phase for the side-street and thus prevent potential
side-angled crashes. The deployment results from two field studies show
that the system has produced a protection rate of 100% for potential
side-angled crashes at a false alarm rate of 7.3%-11.7%. Its DGE module
has achieved the optimal decision rate of 81.3%. The number of vehicles
trapped in the dilemma zone has also been reduced by 17.9 to 18.5%,
respectively, in two subsequent field assessments.

Prof. José Paulo Lousado
Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Portugal
Bio: José Paulo Lousado is a researcher and
currently Coordinating Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu,
Portugal. He holds a PhD in computer engineering from DETI / University of
Aveiro, and a master's degree in science, technology and innovation
management from DEGEI / University of Aveiro. He has a degree in
Mathematics / Informatics from the University of Beira Interior – Covilhã,
Portugal. Since 2002 he has been teaching at the Escola Superior de
Tecnologia e Gestão de Lamego (ESTGL), Instituto Politécnico de Viseu,
Portugal, where he currently teaches courses on systems analysis and
design, computer programming, database management systems. He is currently
the coordinator of the Master in Information Technologies and Automation.
He was the Research Manager of the NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-023623 project
(funded by the European Union). His areas of interest are programming,
systems analysis, ubiquitous and pervasive systems, microcontroller
programming, sensor networks, bioinformatics and e-learning. He is on the
scientific board of several scientific journals and regularly collaborates
as a reviewer in several conferences and scientific journals. He is
currently a member of the DIH Connect5 team, funded by the European
Union). He is an IEEE Senior Member and is also a member of the IEEE SMC
society.
Speech Title: SVBOX: Switch Video
BOX for Monitoring and Protection of the Elderly and their Residences
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown poor
communication between people, especially the elderly living in heavily
deserted and depopulated agricultural regions. This is a reality present in
Portugal and all over the world, where there are technological and physical
barriers that prevent these older adults, the most vulnerable people, from
having easy access to essential goods, food, and medicines, among others,
and are also exposed to risky situations, such as theft and fraudulent
activities. Bearing in mind that the best company for older adults is
television, we propose the development of a system called SVBOX (Switch
Video Box), which includes the design and proof of concept of an electronic
system that allows the integration of various equipment, including video
intercom, designed to be an active surveillance device, with the integration
of the video intercom system with the internal network of sensors in the
home, for monitoring living conditions and security, detecting fire,
flooding, toxic gases, among others, using the television as the main means
of communication and sensors to monitor the vital signs and health status of
older adults. This system has growth potential, with several applications in
real security and protection contexts, namely in security environments and
monitoring of health conditions.