Hot Topics Day

Call for Proposals

As in previous editions of RTSS, RTSS 2025 will feature a Hot Topics Day (HTD). The rationale behind the hot topic day is to offer a forum for emerging research areas and developing trends. The HTD will be a combination of full-day workshops, half-day workshops, special sessions, tutorials, and competitions.

  • Workshops (W) are meant to foster community discussion on given topics.
  • Special sessions (S) present invited talks on visionary and emerging topics (typically 3 invited talks in a 1.5-hour-long session). The selection of speakers and talks is left to the discretion of the organizers but the candidates must be included in the proposal.
  • Tutorials (T) offer attendees specific knowledge and background necessary for understanding technical advances in relevant areas (typically 1.5-hour-long sessions).
  • Competitions (C) bridge researchers and practitioners across communities.

Topics include (but are not limited to):

  • autonomous systems, such as autonomous vehicles and robots,
  • machine learning for real-time systems and in real-time systems,
  • impact of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI in the design process of real-time systems,
  • real-time cloud/edge computing,
  • safety, reliability, and security of learning-based and autonomous systems,
  • industrial automation, smart manufacturing, and industry 4.0,
  • 5G-enabled real-time applications,
  • cyber-physical systems and the Internet-of-Things,
  • explainable real-time systems,
  • optimization of complex real-time systems.

We solicit submissions for events you would like to have hosted at RTSS for all the categories above (workshops, special sessions, and tutorials).

Evaluation of the proposals will consider their general interest to the RTSS attendees, the quality of the proposal, and the expertise of the organizers and contributors.

According to the RTSS conflict-of-interest guidelines, workshop PC chairs and special session chairs are NOT eligible to submit papers to their own events. Competition organizers are generally not allowed to participate in the competition(s) they organize, but exceptions may be made in justified cases upon email request and approval. Workshop PC chairs and special session chairs shall send the list of accepted papers and authors to the RTSS HTD chairs and RTSS program chair prior to sending out the acceptance notification of their events.

Timeline for Workshops (W), Special Sessions (S), Tutorials (T), and Competitions (C)

W, S, T, C → Event proposals due: July 7, 2025

W, S, T, C → Event acceptance notification: July 18, 2025

W, S, T, C → Event preliminary website online (initial CFP if needed): July 28, 2024

W, S, T, C → Deadline for HTD contributions: September 12, 2025 (tentative)

W, C → Notification for HTD contributions: October 10, 2025 (tentative)

W, S, T (, C) → Camera-ready deadline: October 24, 2025 (tentative)

W, S, T, C → Event program finalized on the website: November 1, 2025 (tentative)

W, S, T, C → Hot-Topics Day: December 2, 2025

Proposals should be sent via e-mail as a PDF to the Hot Topics Day Chair, Paolo Gai. The necessary content of the proposals for the different categories of events is listed below.

The event selection committee reserves the right to cancel the workshops, special sessions, or tutorials if too few attendees are registered.

Necessary Information

Please ensure that your proposals include the following necessary details.

Workshop (W) Proposals

  • title
  • abstract
  • rationale and target audience
  • estimated audience size
  • contact information of the organizers
    name, email, affiliation, short biography (for workshop chairs and PC chairs)
  • potential contributors
  • duration (full-day or half-day)
  • proposed format (e.g., keynotes, invited talks, panels, poster sessions)
  • proposed plan for paper selection and publication (if any)
  • information about sponsorship (if any)
  • technical or audio/video needs
  • other relevant information

Special Session (S) Proposals

  • title
  • abstract and target audience
  • estimated audience size
  • contact information of the organizers
    name, email, and affiliation, short biography
  • working title and a brief abstract of the talks
  • presenters’ names and biographies
  • technical or audio/video needs
  • other relevant information

Tutorial (T) Proposals

  • title
  • abstract and target audience
  • estimated audience size
  • contact information of the organizers (name, email, affiliation, short biography)
  • technical or audio/video needs
  • other relevant information, such as the website of the tool

Competition (C) Proposals

  • title
  • abstract (explaining the task and its relevance to the real-time systems community) and target audience
  • detailed competition format, including its duration
  • estimated participation size
  • eligibility criteria and competition categories (if any).
  • draft rules and assessment methods.
  • contact information of the organizers (name, email, affiliation, short biography), and detailing experience in organizing similar events
  • organizing committee facility needs: space area and height, power, networking, audio-visual, etc.
  • for existing competitions: a summary of previous runs, attendee numbers, and improvements. Include links to past competition websites/videos.
  • other relevant information, such as the website of the tool.
  • (Optional) A potential participant list and follow-up dissemination plans post-competition