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1. Smart routing of electric vehicles for load balancing in smart grids

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2020.109148  

   Etesami, S. Rasoul ; Saad, Walid ; Mandayam, Narayan B. ; Poor, H. Vincent ( October 2020 , Automatica)

   null (Ed.)
2. Aging in Smart Environments for Independence

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ISTAS50296.2020.9462211  

   Miller, Jordan ; McDaniel, Troy ; Bernstein, Michael J. ( January 2020 , 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS))

   null (Ed.)

   This paper highlights current technological limitations and offers recommendations for scientists and engineers when designing devices to support aging in place. Existing technology for older adults to support independent living is examined as well as the implications of contextual factors, namely, location, on how people live and age based on the location in which they reside. This is the first review to investigate how challenges of aging change relative to location of residence and, subsequently, how such variation may inform technological solutions. To date, few devices consider the environment in which older individuals age. Places examined include aging: at home; assisted living facilities; nursing homes; and family housing. Challenges found in common across these locations were financial strain and isolation. In addition, each setting was found to have its own unique hurdles. Understanding these barriers is essential to developing technology that enables older adults to successfully age in place. 

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3. Smart Use of Smart Devices in Your Home: A Smart Home Security and Privacy Workshop for the General Public

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630925  

   Jois, Tushar M ; Pavlovich, Tina ; McCarron, Brigid M ; Kotz, David ; Pierson, Timothy J ( March 2024 , ACM)

   With 'smart' technology becoming more prevalent in homes, computing is increasingly embedded into everyday life. The benefits are well-advertised, but the risks associated with these technologies are not as clearly articulated. We aim to address this gap by educating community members on some of these risks, and providing actionable advice to mitigate risks. To this end, we describe our efforts to design and implement a hands-on workshop for the public on smart-home security and privacy. Our workshop curriculum centers on the smart-home device lifecycle: obtaining, installing, using, and removing devices in a home. For each phase of the lifecycle, we present possible vulnerabilities along with preventative measures relevant to a general audience. We integrate a hands-on activity for participants to put best-practices into action throughout the presentation. We ran our workshop at a science museum in June 2023, and we used participant surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum. Prior to the workshop, 38.8% of survey responses did not meet learning objectives, 22.4% partially met them, and 38.8% fully met them. After the workshop, only 9.2% of responses did not meet learning objectives, while 29.6% partially met them and 61.2% fully met them. Our experience shows that consumer-focused workshops can aid in bridging information gaps and are a promising form of outreach. 

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4. Security Vulnerabilities of Smart Meters in Smart Grid

   https://doi.org/10.1109/IECON.2019.8926992  

   Gui, Yutian ; Siddiqui, Ali Shuja ; Tamore, Suyash Mohan ; Saqib, Fareena ( October 2019 , Security Vulnerabilities of Smart Meters in Smart Grid)

   Integration of complex and high-speed electronic components in the state of art electric power system enhances the need for improved security infrastructure and resilience against invasive and non-invasive attacks on the smart grid. A modern smart grid system integrates a variety of instruments and standards to achieve cost-effective and time-effective energy measurement and management. As the fundamental component in the smart grid, the smart meter supports real-time monitoring, automatic control, and high-speed communication along with power consumption recording. However, the wide use of smart meters also increases privacy and security concerns. In this paper, we demonstrate the vulnerability of side-channel attacks on secure communication in smart grids for software-based and hardware-based implementations. 

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5. Urban Science: Putting the “Smart” in Smart Cities

   https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci2040094  

   Shutters, Shade ( December 2018 , Urban Science)

   Increased use of sensors and social data collection methods have provided cites with unprecedented amounts of data. Yet, data alone is no guarantee that cities will make smarter decisions and many of what we call smart cities would be more accurately described as data-driven cities. Parallel advances in theory are needed to make sense of those novel data streams and computationally intensive decision support models are needed to guide decision makers through the avalanche of new data. Fortunately, extraordinary increases in computational ability and data availability in the last two decades have led to revolutionary advances in the simulation and modeling of complex systems. Techniques, such as agent-based modeling and systems dynamic modeling, have taken advantage of these advances to make major contributions to diverse disciplines such as personalized medicine, computational chemistry, social dynamics, or behavioral economics. Urban systems, with dynamic webs of interacting human, institutional, environmental, and physical systems, are particularly suited to the application of these advanced modeling and simulation techniques. Contributions to this special issue highlight the use of such techniques and are particularly timely as an emerging science of cities begins to crystallize. 

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