The 11th International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC 07) was held in June 2007 in Washington, DC, USA. This special issue is a compendium of selected papers based on the technology presented at that meeting. ISEC, held on a biennial basis, traditionally rotates from Japan to Europe to the United States. The single exception to this rotation has been the 2003 conference which was held in Australia. This conference brings together the world's experts in superconductive electronics in a forum which is conducive to interaction among the participants with maximal interchange between the various topics. The conference this year was truly an international event with participation from 13 countries over six continents. The quality of presentations was also high. The conference witnessed the continued maturation of both digital/mixed signal electronics and SQUID-based instrumentation along with a number of novel devices. Of particular note was the transition of superconducting quantum computing research from a novel abstract concept to a broad-based research activity. The organizing committee was able to gather an exemplary group of invited speakers to share their results and visions for future progress. These presentations spanned both the subtopics of superconductor electronics and the history of the field. As I reflect on the efforts which went into making this conference a success, I must express my appreciation to many individuals and organizations, in no particular order. I would like to thank Northrop Grumman for their support for my activities as chair of the conference, both in terms of making my time available and for direct financial considerations. Centennial Conferences, as the conference organizer, provided invaluable guidance and administrative support. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the IEEE Council on Superconductivity, in particular in the persons of Moises Levy and John Spargo. I would be remiss if I did not thank John Przybysz, both for his influence in my assuming the chairmanship of the conference and for his continued advice throughout the planning process. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fred Wellstood and the rest of the program committee. The amount of work and dedication that went towards the coherent and stimulating program that they provided is nothing short of amazing to me. And finally, I would like to thank each and every participant at ISEC 07. Without your work and your willingness to share the fruits of your labors with the rest of us, this conference could never have happened. Donald L Miller, Chairman ISEC 07
The 11th International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC 07) was held in June 2007 in Washington, DC, USA. This special issue is a compendium of selected papers based on the technology presented at that meeting. ISEC, held on a biennial basis, traditionally rotates from Japan to Europe to the United States. The single exception to this rotation has been the 2003 conference which was held in Australia. This conference brings together the world's experts in superconductive electronics in a forum which is conducive to interaction among the participants with maximal interchange between the various topics. The conference this year was truly an international event with participation from 13 countries over six continents. The quality of presentations was also high. The conference witnessed the continued maturation of both digital/mixed signal electronics and SQUID-based instrumentation along with a number of novel devices. Of particular note was the transition of superconducting quantum computing research from a novel abstract concept to a broad-based research activity. The organizing committee was able to gather an exemplary group of invited speakers to share their results and visions for future progress. These presentations spanned both the subtopics of superconductor electronics and the history of the field. As I reflect on the efforts which went into making this conference a success, I must express my appreciation to many individuals and organizations, in no particular order. I would like to thank Northrop Grumman for their support for my activities as chair of the conference, both in terms of making my time available and for direct financial considerations. Centennial Conferences, as the conference organizer, provided invaluable guidance and administrative support. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the IEEE Council on Superconductivity, in particular in the persons of Moises Levy and John Spargo. I would be remiss if I did not thank John Przybysz, both for his influence in my assuming the chairmanship of the conference and for his continued advice throughout the planning process. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fred Wellstood and the rest of the program committee. The amount of work and dedication that went towards the coherent and stimulating program that they provided is nothing short of amazing to me. And finally, I would like to thank each and every participant at ISEC 07. Without your work and your willingness to share the fruits of your labors with the rest of us, this conference could never have happened. Donald L Miller, Chairman ISEC 07
The 12th International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC 09) was held in June 2009 in Fukuoka, Japan. The conference was very successful, with 253 participants from 17 countries. This special issue is a compendium of selected papers based on the technology presented at that meeting. ISEC has established itself as the leading meeting specializing in superconductor-based electronics and has been organized every two years since 1987. This conference provides an opportunity to present the latest developments in superconductive electronics research, and to interact among the world's experts with maximal interchange between the various topics. The main theme at ISEC 09 was developments in superconductive devices and electronics systems for advanced sensing, medical, communication and information technologies. Technical topics covered at ISEC 09 include: Digital/mixed signal processing RF electronics SQUIDs and their applications Mixers and detectors Thin film materials, junctions and novel devices. Among the 210 presentations, including plenary, oral and poster, only very high quality presentations have been selected for this special issue. Since the success of the conference depends on many invaluable contributions, I must express my appreciation to many individuals and organizations, in no particular order. I would like to thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 146 Committee for co-organization of the conference. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Akira Fujimaki and the rest of the program committee members for the stimulating conference program. Catherine Foley and Hideo Itozaki both played a prominent part in arranging the special issue as Guest Editors. I would also like to acknowledge the support of JSPS, The Fukuoka Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Murata Science Foundation, Tateisi Science and Technology Foundation, and Kyushu University. Finally, I would like to thank each and every participant at ISEC 09 for making a worthwhile contribution. Your work and your willingness to make this conference a success are indispensable.
These reflections are based on the wrap-up talk given at the ISEC 2003 meeting. They are both subjective and selective, but without any intended value judgement. Superconducting qubits and π-shift devices are highlighted as examples of new directions. Some of the presented studies on materials and their characterization, Josephson junctions, analogue devices and systems, digital electronics and cryopackaging are briefly commented on. Overall, the progress in superconducting electronics has been good, but incremental and limited by insufficient funding. The challenge of other developing technologies, some much better funded, is emphasized.
It is our great pleasure to have a Special Section entitled "Superconducting Electronics for Quantum Information Technologies" in IEICE Transactions on Electronics. The quantum information technology is strongly expected to develop in the fields of quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum measurement. The superconducting electronics plays a number of important roles in these fields. In this Special Section, four invited papers, which describe superconducting quantum computers, digital electronics for controlling the quantum computers, and the quantum information processing by superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and superconducting transition edge sensors, explained current states and future prospects in their fields. We hope the Special Section enhances the progress of related research fields and opens a new academic research area. Finally, I would like to appreciate this opportunity to the secretary and the guest associate editors for their dedicated activities to complete the Special Section.
Special Section on Progress & Trend of Superconductor-based ComputersIt is our great pleasure to have a Special Section entitled "Progress & Trend of Superconductor-based Computers" in IEICE Transactions on Electronics.Superconducting devices based on Josephson junctions exhibit low power consumption and fast switching.Superconducting transmission lines are free of dispersion up to several hundred GHz.Unique logic circuits such as fast single flux quantum (SFQ) circuits and ultralow power adiabatic quantum-flux parametron (AQFP) logic circuits were proposed and have been improved.These circuits have been well developed based on not only their theoretical advantage but also reliable design and fabrication technology of superconducting integrated circuits.Recently, strong interest on quantum computing motivates the development of superconducting quantum-bits, control and readout circuits, and their integration.In this Special Section, seven invited papers and a contributed one describe these topics: two papers for SFQ, four for AQFP, and two for key devices for quantum circuits.Finally, I would like to appreciate activities of all authors, reviewers, and members in editorial committee for completing this special section.
This Special Issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics brings together contributions of various researchers working on theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum optics and quantum entanglement. The physics of quantum entangled states, an interdisciplinary field of research involving quantum optics, physics of quantum information and foundations of quantum theory, has been intensively exploited over the last decade in connection with quantum information processing, quantum communication and quantum computing. It was shown that the use of entangled states opens new horizons in such practical fields as cryptography, computing, information transmission, quantum imaging and precision measurements. Essential progress has also been achieved in the area of photon squeezing, generation of nonclassical states, including Schrödinger cats, trapped ions, Bose–Einstein condensates, cavity quantum electrodynamics, the Casimir effect, etc. These results have initiated applications in quantum information and communication, quantum imaging and quantum computing. This special issue is published in connection with the International Conference on Quantum Electronics (IQEC 2002) held on 26 June–1 July 2002, in Moscow, Russia, where the topics of quantum optics, generation and characterization of the entangled states and their applications were discussed in the framework of regular sections on quantum optics, quantum information and quantum computing, and during the special symposium on entangled states. We would like to express our gratitude to both authors and reviewers, for their efforts in preparing and ensuring the high scientific quality of the papers in this special issue. While the issue was in preparation for publication, one of the guest editors, Professor Anatoly Oraevski, suddenly passed away. He was a great scientist, recognized worldwide for his numerous important contributions to nonlinear and quantum optics, and to laser physics. Anatoly was always an enthusiastic advisor, mentor and collaborator. All of us remember numerous positive interactions with him, not only while organizing IQEC 2002 in Moscow last summer, but also throughout the years. He will be missed both for his scientific insight and because he was a good, kind and gentle man. Editing this special issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics together with Professor Oraevski was our last joint effort and we would like to pay a tribute to him by dedicating this issue to his memory.
This book contains the proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence. This year, ICAART is held in Porto, Portugal, on February 23-25, 2025. As usual it is sponsored by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC). ICAART 2025 was also organized in cooperation with other members of our AI family. We mention the ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Associação Portuguesa de Reconhecimento de Padrões, the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence, the IberoAmerican Society of Artificial Intelligence and the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology. The purpose of the International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the theory and applications in the areas of Agents and Artificial Intelligence, covering both applications and current (advanced) research work. On one side it focuses on Agents, Multi-Agent Systems and Software Platforms, and also Distributed Problem Solving. On the other side it focuses on Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation, Planning, Learning, Scheduling, Perception. Applications are in both areas. They are using Natural Language Processing (NLP), Large Language Models (LLMs), Legal Technologies and Quantum Computing. In the last four years the research emphasis has shifted towards Explainable AI and Interpretable AI with a focus on trustworthiness, fairness, privacy, safety, security and ethical issues. A substantial amount of research work is ongoing in these knowledge areas, in an attempt to discover appropriate theories and paradigms for use in real-world applications. ICAART 2025 received 472 paper submissions from 53 countries of which 23.09% were accepted and published as full papers. A double-blind paper review was performed for each submission by at least 2 but usually 3 or more members of the International Program Committee, which is composed of established researchers and domain experts. The high quality of the ICAART 2025 program is enhanced by the keynote lecture delivered by distinguished speakers who are renowned experts in their fields: Inge Bryan (Chair of the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure, Netherlands), Pavan Duggal (Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Chairman, International Commission on Cyber Security Law India, and Chief Executive, Artificial Intelligence Law Hub, India) and Paul Nemitz (Principal Adviser European Commission, Belgium). The conference is complemented by one workshop, two special sessions and one tutorial. They are: a Workshop on Quantum Artificial Intelligence and Optimization, chaired by Michael Kölle, a Special Session on Interpretable Artificial Intelligence Through Glass-Box Models, chaired by Mattias Wahde and a Special Session on Emotions and Affective Agents, chaired by Joaquin Taverner and Emilio Vivancos. Furthermore, a Tutorial on Self-Governing Systems will be given by Jeremy Pitt and Asimina Mertzani. All presented papers will be available at the SCITEPRESS Digital Library and will be submitted for evaluation for indexing by SCOPUS, Google Scholar, The DBLP Computer Science Bibliography, Semantic Scholar, Engineering Index and Web of Science / Conference Proceedings Citation Index. As recognition for the best contributions, several awards based on the combined marks of paper reviewing, as assessed by the Program Committee, and the quality of the presentation, as assessed by session chairs at the conference venue, are conferred at the closing session of the conference. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended versions for inclusion in a forthcoming book of ICAART Selected Papers to be published by Springer, as part of the LNAI Series. Some papers will also be selected for publication of extended and revised versions in the special issue of the Springer Nature Computer Science Journal. The program for this conference required the dedicated effort of many people. Firstly, we must thank the authors, whose research efforts are herewith recorded. Next, we thank the members of the Program Committee and the auxiliary reviewers for their diligent and professional reviewing. We would also like to deeply thank the invited speakers for their invaluable contribution and for taking the time to prepare their talks. Finally, a word of appreciation for the hard work of the INSTICC team; organizing a conference of this level is a task that can only be achieved by the collaborative effort of a dedicated and highly competent team. We wish you all an exciting and inspiring conference. We hope to have contributed to the development of our research community, and we look forward to having additional research results presented at the next edition of ICAART, details of which are available at https://icaart.scitevents.org.