it gives us imm ense pleas ure to welc ome over 150 gues ts and deleg ates from Univ ersit ies, Rese arch Orga nizat ions, Indu stry, Gove rnme nt, and NGO s from over 15 coun tries arou nd the worl d to the Conf eren ce. Also, a very warm welc ome to the beau tiful and Aust ralia n Trop ical Capi tal Brisb ane in a virtu al way. COVI D-19 chan ged man y of our curre nt prac tices in 2021 inclu ding face -to-f ace conf eren ces but we are than kful to all conf eren ce auth ors and deleg ates who supp orted our idea of arran ging this conf eren ce onlin e.CSDE & i-CO STE 2021 rece ived just belo w 386 subm issio ns from 21 coun tries with 810 co-a utho rs acro ss six cont inen ts. Auth ors from Chin a, Aust ralia , Japa n, the Unite d State s, Germ any, India , Bang lades h, Fiji, the Unite d King dom , Kore a, Mala ysia, Sout h Afric a, and Braz il had resp ectiv ely subm itted the high est num ber of pape rs to the Conf eren ce. Each subm issio n was peer -revi ewed by at least two expe rts in the resp ectiv e field s and the acce ptan ce decis ions were base d on at least two cons isten t reco mme ndat ions, ensu ring high quali ty and stan dard of the Conf eren ce and its Proc eedin gs. In total , 150 pape rs from 810 auth ors were final ly acce pted and are inclu ded in the Conf eren ce Proc eedin gs and Prog ram. From thes e auth ors, 120 have one acce pted pape r, 25 have two acce pted pape rs and 5 have 3 or more acce pted pape rs. The acce pted and sche dule d pape rs will be pres ente d in 23 oral sess ions over a 3-da y perio d. A few acce pted pape rs were subm itted to the spec ial sess ions of the Conf eren ce.We are also privi leged to have 5 disti ngui shed keyn ote spea kers, one PhD thes is symp osim . We woul d like to take this oppo rtun ity and than k all disti ngui shed keyn ote spea kers, subje ct track chair s, sess ion chair s, num erou s revie wers and auth ors, and all mem bers of the tech nical and orga nizat ion comm ittee s. We since rely than k the Conf eren ce' s finan cial spon sor IEEE and tech nical co-s pons ors, and all supp ortin g unive rsitie s from seve ral coun tries . With out their grea t supp ort, this conf eren ce could not have been succ essfu l. We wish all of you a very pleas ant and fruit ful onlin e time at the Conf eren ce, and we hope that you could have an oppo rtun ity to Brish bane in a futu re conf eren ce, host ed by us, when the COVI D-19 pand emic is settl ed down . Now offic ially I anno unce the open ing of IEEE CSDE /i-CO STE 2021 . Over to MC.
