This open access book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in research and applications of Foundation Models and is intended for readers familiar with basic Natural Language Processing (NLP) concepts.  Over the recent years, a revolutionary new paradigm has been developed for training models for NLP. These models are first pre-trained on large collections of text documents to acquire general syntactic knowledge and semantic information. Then, they are fine-tuned for specific tasks, which they can often solve with superhuman accuracy. When the models are large enough, they can be instructed by prompts to solve new tasks without any fine-tuning. Moreover, they can be applied to a wide range of different media and problem domains, ranging from image and video processing to robot control learning. Because they provide a blueprint for solving many tasks in artificial intelligence, they have been called Foundation Models.  After a brief introduction to basic NLP models the main pre-trained language models BERT, GPT and sequence-to-sequence transformer are described, as well as the concepts of self-attention and context-sensitive embedding. Then, different approaches to improving these models are discussed, such as expanding the pre-training criteria, increasing the length of input texts, or including extra knowledge. An overview of the best-performing models for about twenty application areas is then presented, e.g., question answering, translation, story generation, dialog systems, generating images from text, etc. For each application area, the strengths and weaknesses of current models are discussed, and an outlook on further developments is given. In addition, links are provided to freely available program code. A concluding chapter summarizes the economic opportunities, mitigation of risks, and potential developments of AI.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th Joint International Semantic Technology Conference, JIST 2019, held in Hangzhou, China, in November 2019.The 12 full papers and 12 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The papers present applications of semantic technologies, theoretical results, new algorithms and tools to facilitate the adoption of semantic technologies.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the Second Ibero-American Congress, ICSC-CITIES 2019, held in Soria, Spain, in October 2019. The 22 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 98 submissions. The papers focus on Energy Efficiency and Sustainability; Infrastructures, Energy and the Environment; Mobility and Internet of Things; and Governance and Citizenship.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Data Science, ICDS 2019, held in Ningbo, China, during May 2019. The 64 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 210 submissions. The research papers cover the areas of Advancement of Data Science and Smart City Applications, Theory of Data Science, Data Science of People and Health, Web of Data, Data Science of Trust and Internet of Things.

The three-volume set of LNCS 11953, 11954, and 11955 constitutes the proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICONIP 2019, held in Sydney, Australia, in December 2019. The 173 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 645 submissions. The papers address the emerging topics of theoretical research, empirical studies, and applications of neural information processing techniques across different domains. The first volume, LNCS 11953, is organized in topical sections on adversarial networks and learning; convolutional neural networks; deep neural networks; feature learning and representation; human centred computing; human centred computing and medicine; hybrid models; and artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third Mediterranean Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, MedPRAI 2019, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in December 2019. The 18 revised full papers and one short paper presented were carefully selected from 54 submissions. The papers are covering the topics of recent advancements in different areas of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, such as statistical, structural and syntactic pattern recognition, machine learning, data mining, neural networks, computer vision, multimedia systems, information retrieval, etc.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Andrei P. Ershov Informatics Conference, PSI 2019, held in Novosibirsk, Russia, in July 2019. The 18 full papers and 3 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The papers cover various topics related to the Mathematics of Computing, Information Systems, Formal Languages, dependable and fault-tolerant Systems and Network, Automata Theory, and much more.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Innovations for Community Services, I4CS 2020, held in Bhubaneswar, India, in January, 2020. The 16 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 46 submissions. The papers focus on all aspects of: communities and social networks; information and system security; cloud and network security; communication and networks; and data analytics and e-governance.

The three-volume set of LNCS 11953, 11954, and 11955 constitutes the proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICONIP 2019, held in Sydney, Australia, in December 2019.The 173 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 645 submissions. The papers address the emerging topics of theoretical research, empirical studies, and applications of neural information processing techniques across different domains. The third volume, LNCS 11955, is organized in topical sections on semantic and graph based approaches; spiking neuron and related models; text computing using neural techniques; time-series and related models; and unsupervised neural models.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Information Systems Security, ICISS 2019, held in Hyderabad, India, in December 2019. The 13 revised full papers and 4 short papers presented in this book together with 4 abstracts of invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. The papers cover topics such as: smart contracts; formal techniques; access control; machine learning; distributed systems; cryptography; online social networks; images and cryptography.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Metadata and Semantic Research, MTSR 2019, held in Rome, Italy, in October 2019. The 27 full and 15 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 96 submissions. The papers are organized in the following tracks: metadata and semantics for digital libraries, information retrieval, big, linked, social and open data; metadata and semantics for agriculture, food, and environment; digital humanities and digital curation; cultural collections and applications; european and national projects; metadata, identifiers and semantics in decentralized applications, blockchains and P2P systems.

This two-volume set (CCIS 1137 and CCIS 1138) constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Cyberspace Data and Intelligence, Cyber DI 2019, and the International Conference on Cyber-Living, Cyber-Syndrome, and Cyber-Health, CyberLife 2019, held under the umbrella of the 2019 Cyberspace Congress, held in Beijing, China, in December 2019. The 64 full papers presented together with 18 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 160 submissions. The papers are grouped in the following topics: Cyber Data, Information and Knowledge; Cyber and Cyber-enabled Intelligence; Communication and Computing; Cyber Philosophy, Cyberlogic and Cyber Science; and Cyber Health and Smart Healthcare.

This book presents a guide to navigating the complicated issues of quality and process improvement in enterprise software implementation, and the effect these have on the software development life cycle (SDLC). Offering an integrated approach that includes important management and decision practices, the text explains how to create successful automated solutions that fit user and customer needs, by mixing different SDLC methodologies. With an emphasis on the realities of practice, the book offers essential advice on defining business requirements, and managing change. This revised and expanded second edition includes new content on such areas as cybersecurity, big data, and digital transformation. Features: presents examples, case studies, and chapter-ending problems and exercises; concentrates on the skills needed to distinguish successful software implementations; considers the political and cultural realities in organizations; suggests many alternatives for how to manage and model a system.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2019, held in Madrid, Spain, in November 2019.The 69 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 92 submissions. The theme of the 2018 conference is: Friendly Robotics.The papers focus on the following topics: perceptions and expectations of social robots; cognition and social values for social robots; verbal interaction with social robots; social cues and design of social robots; emotional and expressive interaction with social robots; collaborative SR and SR at the workplace; game approaches and applications to HRI; applications in health domain; robots at home and at public spaces; robots in education; technical innovations in social robotics; and privacy and safety of the social robots.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Innovative Technologies and Learning, ICITL 2019, held in Tromso, Norway, in December 2019. The 85 full papers presented together with 4 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 189 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: application and design of innovative learning software; artificial intelligence and data mining in education; augmented and virtual reality in education; computational thinking in education; design and framework of learning systems; educational data analytics techniques and adaptive learning applications; evaluation, assessment and test; innovative learning in education; mobile learning; new perspectives in education; online course and web-based environment; pedagogies to innovative technologies; social media learning; technologies enhanced language learning; and technology and engineering education.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Advances in Web-Based Learning, ICWL 2019, held in Magdeburg, Germany, in September 2019. The 15 full, 15 short, and 7 poster papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 68 submissions. The contributions were organized in topical sections named: Semantic Web for E-Learning, Learning Analytics, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, Assessment and Pedagogical Issues, E-learning Platforms and Tools, Mobile Learning, and Poster Papers.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th CCF Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, ChineseCSCW 2019, held in Kunming, China, in August 2019. The 52 revised full papers and 10 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 169 submissions. The papers of this volume are organized in topical sections on: collaborative models, approaches, algorithms, and systems; social computing (online communities, crowdsourcing, recommendation, sentiment analysis, etc.); AI for CSCW and social computing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First IFIP TC 14 Joint International Conference on Entertainment Computing and Serious Games, ICEC-JCSG 2019, held in Arequipa, Peru, in November 2019. The 26 full papers, 5 short papers, and 16 poster, demonstration, and workshop papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 88 submissions. They cover a large range of topics at the multidisciplinary intersection of design, art, entertainment, interaction, computing, psychology, and numerous serious application domains. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: mixed reality; virtual reality; entertainment algorithms; game design and development; interaction technologies; measurement and effects; and serious game applications.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Technologies and Innovation, CITI 2019, held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in December 2019. The 14 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. They are organized in topical sections named: ICT in agronomy; knowledge-based systems and pattern recognition; internet of things and computer architecture.

The three-volume set of LNCS 11953, 11954, and 11955 constitutes the proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICONIP 2019, held in Sydney, Australia, in December 2019. The 173 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 645 submissions. The papers address the emerging topics of theoretical research, empirical studies, and applications of neural information processing techniques across different domains. The second volume, LNCS 11954, is organized in topical sections on image processing by neural techniques; learning from incomplete data; model compression and optimisation; neural learning models; neural network applications; and social network computing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Ambient Intelligence, AmI 2019, held in Rome, Italy, in November 2019. The 20 full papers presented together with 10 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. The papers cover topics such as embedded devices that can merge unobtrusively and in natural ways using information and intelligence hidden in the network connecting these devices (e.g., the Internet of Things). The main topic of AmI 2019 was "Data-driven Ambient Intelligence," which follows the vision of Calm Technology, where technology is useful but does not demand our full attention or interfere with our usual behavior and activities.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 5th Russian Supercomputing Days, RuSCDays 2019, held in Moscow, Russia, in September 2019. The 60 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 127 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: parallel algorithms; supercomputer simulation; HPC, BigData, AI: architectures, technologies, tools; and distributed and cloud computing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Dependability in Sensor, Cloud, and Big Data Systems and Applications, DependSys, held in Guangzhou, China, in November 2019. The volume presents 39 full papers, which were carefully reviewed and selected from 112 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on dependability and security fundamentals and technologies; dependable and secure systems; dependable and secure applications; dependability and security measures and assessments; explainable artificial inteligence for cyberspace.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 18th Mexican Conference on Artificial Intelligence, MICAI 2019, held in Xalapa, Mexico, in October/November 2019. The 59 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 148 submissions. They cover topics such as: machine learning; optimization and planning; fuzzy systems, reasoning and intelligent applications; and vision and robotics.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Model-Based Safety and Assessment, IMBSA 2019, held inThessaloniki, Greece, in October 2019. The 24 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 46 initial submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on safety models and languages; dependability analysis process; safety assessment; safety assessment in automotive industry; AI in safety assessment.