Welcome to the Seventh International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN2016) and to Alcalá de Henares, a historic town near Madrid. The town of Alcalá de Henares and, principally, the University of Alcalá have earned recognition as a World Heritage Site. Furthermore, the most important award for writers in the Spanish speaking world, the Cervantes Award, is presented annually by the King of Spain in the Paraninfo (Great Hall) of the University of Alcalá in honor of the famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes who was born in Alcalá de Henares and who was the author of Don Quixote.
Since the first edition, IPIN 2010, held in Zurich (Switzerland) with about 450 participants from academia and industry, this Conference has been an excellent forum to bring together researchers, developers and service providers in positioning and indoor navigation. Subsequent editions, held in Guimarães (Portugal), Sydney (Australia), Montbéliard (France), Busan (Korea) and Banff (Canada), also have shown that there is a large and active community working in this sector.
The IPIN2016 Technical Program Committee (TPC) decided to ask for two types of submissions: Regular Papers (limited to 8 double-column pages, preferably for oral presentation) and Work-in-Progress (limited to 4 double-column pages, preferably for poster presentation). 217 contributions were received (151 Regular Papers and 66 Work-in-Progress). Both types of manuscripts followed a peer review process wherein the TPC selected 110 contributions for oral presentation and 61 for poster presentation. The IPIN2016 Technical Program consists of 22 oral sessions and one poster session, covering a broad range of indoor positioning and navigation topics. The Regular Papers presented at the Conference will be submitted to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, and the authors of both type of papers will have the opportunity to send technically extended versions of conference papers to IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. Best papers will be awarded during the Conference.
In addition, IPIN2016 has its own competition, divided into 4 tracks, with an average of 6 teams per track, with two special sessions dedicated to presentations for competitors. Furthermore, there will be three Plenary Sessions: two keynote speakers, Professor Moe Win (MIT, USA) and Dr. Thomas Burgess (Indoo.rs, Austria); and one Industry Panel, including representatives from seven leading companies in the conference topics (Sonitor Technologies, FAA Airport Engineering Division, ABB Corporate Research, Samsung Electronics R&D Center, Decawave, Bespoon and HERE Tampere).
Without the help of a number of individuals and public and private institutions, this event would never be possible. We are particularly indebted to the University of Alcalá (Departments of International Relations and Research and Innovation, School of Engineering, Department of Electronics) for the facilities and support provided. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the support of our Technical Sponsors (IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society and IEEE Sección España) and our Competition Sponsors (ETRI, KICS, ASTI and Tecnalia).
The members of the TPC have done a remarkable job in reviewing the papers submitted to the Conference in such a short space of time. Furthermore, IPIN2016 has been made possible thanks to the hard work of the members of the Organizing Committees and the Competition Chairs, to whom we are very grateful.
Finally, we wish to thank you for coming to IPIN2016 - the success of this event will depend on the contribution you make. We hope you will enjoy our Conference and the beautiful town of Alcalá de Henares.
October 2016
Prof. Jesus Ureña and Prof. Kyle O'Keefe
Conference Co-Chairs