Report on SMC 2019 in Bari, Italy

About nine hundred experts, scientists and industrialists from all over the world, met in Bari to take part in the IEEE 2019 International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

For the first time, the conference has arrived in Italy, thanks to the work done for years by the company IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics by the undersigned and by the research group of the Automatic Control laboratory of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information at the Polytechnic of Bari.

This year the conference was dedicated to the theme ‘Industry 4.0’, the fourth industrial revolution that is influencing the new trends in automation, information technology, telecommunications and cybernetics. We discussed both scientific progress in the field of new technologies, such as big data, augmented reality, 3D printing, robotics, and their ability to revolutionize not only industry but also transport, logistics, transmission and production of energy, smart cities, smart home up to medical applications.

To carry out the conference an international editorial committee, composed of about 1000 researchers and scientists, examined more than 1200 works from all over the world and only 700 of these were chosen to be presented during three days of the conference in 145 sessions and then published in the conference proceedings. The results presented highlighted how the enabling technologies of the fourth industrial revolution can be applied in different fields not only in the computer science and automation areas but also in management, mechanical and civil engineering.

In order to disseminate the new frontiers of the fourth industrial revolution to students and young researchers, during the conference 11 workshops were organized, 10 sessions dedicated to tutoring in current research topics and a hackathon.

The hackathon was a two-day marathon and designed to be a learning experience for developers, technicians, engineers, students, artists, and scientists to build brain-computer interface applications. Among the participants in the marathon, 5 very young students of which 4 from a high school in Bari won the $ 1000 prize.

Therefore, we can say that the conference was a great success from the scientific and technological point of views, but participants from all over the world were able to enjoy the mild climate, the excellent cuisine, the typical dances such as the Pizzica during the gala dinner and the friendly atmosphere of the Apulia region.