Society 5.0 2023: Editor's Preface

Dear authors and readers,

It is with great pleasure that we write this foreword to the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Society 5.0 held from 5 to 6 June 2023 in Pretoria. The Society 5.0 Conference 2023 is hosted by the Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria, South Africa. This multi- and interdisciplinary conference is continuing to grow into a premier international conference series and is jointly organized by the University of Pretoria (South Africa), the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, the University of Camerino (Italy), the Universidad EAFIT (Colombia), the Business School of the Shenzhen Technology University (China), the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (Malaysia), and Putra Business School (Malaysia).

Following an era of fast-paced evolution of digital technologies, digital disruption and digital transformation, Society 5.0 refers to "A human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space." As the cyber-physical space consists of interconnected systems and devices, collecting and sending data, the role of people in these systems are often passive. This may result in the exclusion of the human all-together when considering applications and interactions in the cyber-physical space.

The 3rd edition of the Society 5.0 conference with the theme Human-centeredness in a cyber-physical society therefore focuses on all aspects of interconnectedness and interaction where physical systems and enabling cyber technologies are applied to achieve a certain goal. The role of – and impact on – the human in this potentially complex interaction must be investigated and considered through the application of different lenses and interdisciplinary fields. The aim of this enquiry is to design and develop technological products that not only meet human needs, but that also considers the human experience when engaging in the cyber-physical space. The Society 5.0 conference series plan to include the entire range of high-quality research about these socio-technical opportunities and challenges, as well as showcase solutions.

For the 2023 Society 5.0 conference we encouraged contributions from experienced and young researchers and practitioners from industry, and look forward to meeting old and new friends in June 2023.

We sincerely thank all organizers, partners, authors and reviewers without whom this conference would not have been realised.

Technical Information

This Society 5.0 Conference 2023 open access online proceedings are published to support our annual Society 5.0 conference series. The proceedings contain the revised research papers that were accepted for the 2023 Society 5.0 Conference after a rigorous review process.

We are thankful that our second annual Society 5.0 Conference again solicited the support it did. We received 32 research submissions, which were sent out for review to our Society 5.0 programme committee. The programme committee comprised more than 43 members from 12 different countries across the world. Each paper was reviewed by at least three members of the programme committee in a rigorous review process where criteria such as the following were taken into consideration: Relevance to Society 5.0, Significance, Technical Quality, Scholarship, and Presentation that included quality and clarity of writing.

For this Society 5.0 proceedings, 20 full research papers were selected for publication in our EPiC volume after careful consideration of the reviews by the program chairs, which translates to an acceptance rate of 62%. Thank you to all the authors and programme committee members, and congratulations to the authors whose research was accepted for publication in these proceedings. We wish our readers a fruitful reading experience with these proceedings!

 

Committees

General Chair

  • Hanlie Smuts, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Technical and Program Chairs

  • Knut Hinkelmann, FHNW, Switzerland
  • Aurona Gerber, University of The Western Cape and Center for AI Research, South Africa

Program Committee

  • Abdul Latiff, Ahmad Shaharudin - Putra Business School, Malaysia
  • Aeschbacher, Marc - University of Applied Sciences North-west Switzerland, Switzerland
  • Aguilar-Barrientos, Sara - Universidad EAFIT, Colombia
  • Alvarez Sabucedo, Luis - Universidade de Vigo. Depto. of Telematics, Spain
  • Anido Rifon, Luis - Universidade de Vigo, atlanTTic, Spain
  • Apostolou, Dimitris - University of Piraeus, Greece
  • Ardila-López, Carolina - Universidad EAFIT, Colombia
  • Bork, Dominik - TU Wien, Austria
  • Cacciagrano, Diletta Romana - University of Camerino, Italy
  • Che Nawi, Noorshella - UMK, Malaysia
  • Corradini, Flavio - University of Camerino, Italy
  • Ding, Zhuoqi - SZTU, China
  • Eisenbart, Barbara - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Eybers, Sunet - University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa
  • Fill, Hans-Georg - University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Hattingh, Marie - University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Indrawan, Dikky - School of Business IPB University, Indonesia
  • Jüngling, Stephan - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Kaufmann, Michael Alexander - Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland
  • Kierans, Gordana - MGT OPEN j.d.o.o., China
  • Laurenzi, Emanuele - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Martin, Andreas - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Matthee, Machdel - University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Maus, Heiko - German Research Center for AI (DFKI), Germany
  • Morichetta, Andrea - University of Camerino, Italy
  • Mostarda, Leonardo - University of Camerino, Italy
  • Muhammad, Mohd Zulkifli - Universiti Malaysia Kelantan,  Malaysia
  • Naidoo, Rennie - University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Permarupan, Yukthamarani - Malaysian Graduate School of Entreprenuership dan Business, Malaysia
  • Polini, Andrea - University of Camerino, Italy
  • Reimer, Ulrich - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
  • Schlick, Sandra - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Telesko, Rainer - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Thoenssen, Barbara - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Turpin, Marita - University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Van Elst, Ludger - DFKI, Germany
  • Van der Merwe, Alta - University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Wache, Holger - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Wan Yusoff, Wan Fadzilah - Putra Business School, Malaysia
  • Waterstraat, Silke - FHNW, Switzerland
  • Weilbach, Lizette - University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Witschel, Hans Friedrich - Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Switzerland
  • Zainol, Noor Raihani - Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia

 


Aurona Gerber
Knut Hinkelmann
May 19, 2023
Pretoria, South Africa