W14 – IEEE VTC-Spring 2026: The 3rd Workshop on Synergizing Digital Twins and Pervasive Intelligence for Next-Generation IoT/IoV

Co-organizers:
Trung Q. Duong, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Tom Luan, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Mingzhe Chen, University of Miami, USA

Technical Program Co-chairs:
Qiang (John) Ye, University of Calgary, Canada – Lead
Qihao Li, Jilin University, China
Yuchen Liu, North Carolina State University, USA
Katsuya Suto, University of Electro-Comm, Japan
Mushu Li, Lehigh University, USA Hong Chen, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Haixia Peng, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Yanglong Sun, Jimei University, China

Publicity Co-chairs:
Jie Gao, Carleton University, Canada Nan Chen, University of Ottawa, Canada
Omar Alhussein, Khalifa University, UAE

Program:

Date & Time: June 9, Tuesday (14:00pm-17:30pm)
Venue: Oceanice, Port de Nice, Quai Amiral Infernet, 06300 Nice
Room: Lympia A-2

Program Schedule:
14:00-14:10 – Opening Remarks (Workshop Organizers)
14:10-15:00 – Keynote Speech 1 (40min talk+ 10min Q&A, Prof. Berk Canberk), Session Chair: Prof. Qiang (John) Ye
15:00-15:30 – Technical Session 1 (2 Technical Paper Presentations, 15min each), Session Chair: Prof. Qiang (John) Ye
15:00-15:30 – Coffee Break & Networking
15:30-16:20 – Keynote Speech 2 (40min talk+ 10min Q&A, Prof. Trung Duong), Session Chair: Prof. Hong Chen
16:20-16:50 – Technical Session 2 (2 Technical Paper Presentations, 15min each), Session Chair: Prof. Hong Chen
16:50-17:20 – Coffee Break & Networking
17:20-17:30 – Closing Remarks (Workshop Organizers)

 

Abstract: As the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) evolve toward highly autonomous, hyper-connected, and intelligence-driven ecosystems, future networking, computing, and control infrastructures must support massive connectivity, high mobility, heterogeneous services, and ultra reliable low-latency communications. These requirements span diverse IoT/IoV scenarios, including connected and autonomous vehicles, intelligent transportation systems, roadside and aerial sensing, smart infrastructure, and edge-cloud collaborative environments. However, such systems face fundamental challenges arising from dynamic large-scale topologies, time-varying wireless conditions, intermittent connectivity, spectrum scarcity, ultra-dense deployments, and stringent safety and latency demands for mission-critical applications. Digital twins (DTs) have emerged as a powerful paradigm for managing the complexity of next-generation IoT/IoV systems by providing virtual representations of physical entities, networks, and processes. By continuously reflecting system  states and environmental dynamics, DTs enable real-time monitoring, predictive analysis, and what-if evaluation across physical and virtual domains. Meanwhile, pervasive intelligence powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning introduces adaptive learning, reasoning, and autonomous decision-making capabilities distributed across devices, vehicles, edge nodes, and cloud platforms. The synergy between DTs and AI is particularly transformative. DTs provide rich, context-aware data and models for AI-driven training and inference, while AI enhances DTs through model adaptation, behavior prediction, anomaly detection, and automated control. This tight DT-AI coupling enables proactive and autonomous IoT/IoV operations, including intelligent resource management, context aware routing and scheduling, adaptive network slicing, cooperative perception and control, predictive maintenance, and resilient self-optimization, key enablers for future 6G-enabled IoT/IoV systems.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to explore advanced theories, system designs, and experimental implementations that synergize digital twins and pervasive intelligence for next-generation IoT/IoV. Emphasis will be placed on AI-native architectures, edge–cloud intelligence, 6G-enabled platforms, and practical testbeds, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and accelerating innovation across IoT, IoV, and intelligent transportation ecosystems.

Co-organizer’s Bios:

Trung Q. Duong:

Trung Q. Duong (Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of EIC, Fellow of IET, Fellow of CAE, Fellow of AAIA) is a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) and a Full Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. He has received the two prestigious awards from the UK Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) including: 1) RAEng Research Chair and 2) RAEng Research Fellow. In 2017, he was awarded the Newton Prize from the UK government. He is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of IEEE Communications Survey & Tutorials (IF=46.7 and CiteScore=86.2). He is an IEEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer. He has delivered more than 50 keynote speeches and more than 100 invited lectures, talks worldwide. His current research interests include quantum machine learning and quantum optimization, wireless communications and networks, physical layer security and privacy, machine learning and real-time optimization, disaster management, smart agriculture, healthcare, air-quality, finance, climate change, and pharmacy.

Tom Luan:

Tom H. Luan (Fellow, IEEE) received his B.E. degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, his M.S. degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Waterloo, Canada, all in Electrical and Computer Engineering. From 2013 to 2017, he served as a Lecturer in Mobile and Apps at Deakin University, Australia. From 2017 to 2022, he was a Professor in the School of Cyber Engineering at Xidian University. Since 2022, he has been a Professor in the School of Cyber Science and Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. Dr. Luan’s research interests include the optimization and protocol design of the Metaverse, digital twin  networks, AI-agent networks, as well as the security and performance evaluation of vehicular networks and edge computing systems. He has authored over 270 peer-reviewed papers in top journals and conferences, such as IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON), IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), IEEE Transactions on Multimedia (TMM), IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (TVT), and IEEE INFOCOM. He received the IEEE VTS Best Land Transportation Paper Award in 2017 and the Best Paper Award at IEEE VTC 2023 fall.

Mingzhe Chen:

Mingzhe Chen (Senior Member, IEEE) is currently an assistant professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the knight foundation chair in Data Science and AI in the Frost Institute of Data Science and Computing with the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA. His research interests include federated learning, reinforcement learning, virtual reality, unmanned aerial vehicles, and Internet of Things. He was the recipient of the four IEEE Communication  Society journal paper awards including IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications in 2023, Young Author Best Paper Award in 2021 and 2023, and Fred W. Ellersick Prize Award in 2022, and four conference best paper awards with ICCCN in 2023, IEEE WCNC in 2021, IEEE ICC in 2020, and IEEE GLOBECOM in 2020. He is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, and IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking.

TPC Co-Chair Bios:

Lead – Qiang (John) Ye:

Qiang (John) Ye received the PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, ON, Canada, in 2016. Since Sept. 2023, he has been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, AB, Canada. Before joining UCalgary, he worked as an Assistant Professor with the Memorial University of Newfoundland, NL, Canada from Sept. 2021 to Aug. 2023 and with the Minnesota State University, Mankato, USA, from Sept. 2019 to Aug. 2021, respectively. He was with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then a Research Associate from Dec. 2016 to Sept. 2019. He has published over 90 research articles on top-ranked journals and conference proceedings. He is/was the General, Publication, Program Co-chairs for different reputable international conferences and workshops, e.g., IEEE ICCC’23, CANAI’23, IEEE VTC’22, IEEE INFOCOM’22, and IEEE IPCCC’21. He serves/served as Associate Editors of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications, ACM/Wireless Networks, and International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. He also serves/served as the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Region 7 Chapter Coordinator (2024) and the Regions 1-7 Chapters Coordinator (2022-2023), and the IEEE Communications Society Southern Alberta Chapter Vice Chair (2024). Dr. Ye has been selected as an IEEE Communication Society Distinguished Lecturer for the class of 2025-2026. He received the Best Paper Award in the IEEE/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC) in 2024, the Early Career Research Excellence Award, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, in 2024, the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS) Exemplary Editor Award in 2025, and the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking (TCCN) Exemplary Editor Award in 2023. He has been named among the World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2021-2025 (by Stanford Elsevier). Dr. Ye is a Senior Member of IEEE.

For additional information: VTC-2026SpringCFP

For additional information: https://icons-research-group.github.io/VTC2026-Spring-DTPI/

Paper submission deadline Extended: 8 February 2026
Acceptance notification: 18 March 2026
Final paper submission deadline Extended: 7 April 2026

Submission requirements: 5-page paper (without overlength charge) and up to 2 additional pages are allowed with the purchase of additional page charges in the amount of $100 USD per additional page at the time of registration and final paper submission.

Paper submission can be located here: https://vtc2026s-rr-wks.trackchair.com/