It was quite an experience as the local organising committee chair of this prestigious conference in its 17th edition. What was initially going to be a face-to-face conference was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it would have been fantastic to host an in-person conference in Dubai, this decision also brought about exciting changes to the conference experience, with possibility of many more events unique to the online format.
The Virtual 17th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE2021) took place between 21st and 24th June 2021 and was hosted by Middlesex University Dubai in partnership with a consortium of global universities. Focusing on how communication and sensing technologies can enhance human interactions with the physical environments around them, the conference brought together international researchers from academia and speakers from private sector organisations such as EPSON and Amazon for four days of keynote lectures, collaborative workshops and tutorials.
The main conference programme was led by two fascinating keynote lectures. The first was delivered by Professor Lee and explored technological and human co-evolution. Professor Lee argued that that both humans and technological artefacts have unique and complementary characteristics, and humans should harness and combine these strengths and weaknesses in a co-beneficial relationship. “Computers have surpassed human brains since the 1950s. They do many things much more reliably than us. Unless we give AIs human bodies, they won’t match our capabilities. They will develop different processes. There will be things the AIs do that humans can’t, and vice versa,” Professor Lee said. “In fact, humans are the dangerous partner in our relationship, and we should educate students in the ethics of artificial intelligence.”
The second keynote speech was delivered by Bharathan Balaji, Research Scientist at Amazon. Balaji discussed how data-driven decision making can be leveraged to measure the energy efficiency of buildings and make them more sustainable. Emphasising that 39% of global carbon emissions come from buildings, Balaji argues that it would take too long to install renewable energy solutions to meet current demands and any solution needs to be scalable and easily implemented in existing structures.
Using the everyday challenge of a human-controlled thermostat in an office as a case study, Balaji suggested that wireless sensors detecting human occupancy could be one solution to redirecting energy flows, but that a smart thermostat which could be manually adjusted provides the best user experience. “Once we have the software and code, we can develop applications that enhance the user experience and allow occupants to control their environment while also reducing energy efficiency,” Balaji explained.
Through a series of accompanying workshops and tutorials, attendees debated how technology can provide real-life solutions to challenges in sectors such as physical and mental healthcare, tourism, agriculture and environmental services. Participants also explored the moral dilemmas concerning self-driving cars and the accountability of AI, which poses an important question as the technology develops and becomes increasingly integrated into daily life.
During the Closing Ceremony, awards were given to the most groundbreaking papers presented throughout the conference. The Best Short Paper was awarded to a research team from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands for their presentation “Experimenting a Healthy Ageing Community in Immersive Virtual Reality Environment: The Case of World’s Longest-lived Populations”, which provided insight into how VR can be used in the design of urban environments to enhance the livability of older people. The Best Full Paper, “GRETA: Pervasive and AR interfaces for Controlling Intelligent Greenhouses”, was won by a team from the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) in Crete, Greece.