Welcome to the twentieth edition of the International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications - HotMobile 2019. This is a special year for HotMobile as it is the 25th anniversary: in 1994, the first workshop in this series was held in Santa Cruz, CA. In the past 25 years, Mobile Computing has profoundly changed the world and our life. By 1994, Personal Computing had recently emerged as the giant of the computing industry; Microsoft was still working toward Bill Gates' dream of a computer on every desk and in every home; GSM, the second generation (2G) of cellular data networks, was being deployed. People had to wait for two more years for the first Nokia Communicator, arguably the first smartphone. A lot of people were working on wireless local-area network but the first 802.11 protocol would be released only three years later. Today, Mobile Computing is Personal Computing. We carry around mobile devices in various form factors that are more powerful by orders of magnitude than the PCs of that era; and our mobile devices are connected with wireless broadband faster than best home and office Internet back then by orders of magnitude.
HotMobile 2019 provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the fascinating progression of mobile computing over the past quarter century, and to look forward to the next 25 years. In addition to the usual HotMobile program, HotMobile 2019 features a number of activities that exploit this opportunity. We are delighted that the Program Chair of the first HotMobile, Professor Mahadev Satyanarayanan, has invited many of the 1994 workshop participants to join us this year. HotMobile 2019 returns to the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, CA, where it started in 1994.
Our technical program features a keynote talk by Dr. Edmund Nightingale from Microsoft, 26 technical papers, a Pioneer's Panel organized by Professor Satyanarayanan as well as a Demo & Poster session. The Program Committee of 17 scholars selected the 26 papers out of 57 submissions. All submissions received at least three and usually four reviews. After online discussion, the PC met at Rice University for a whole day to make the final decisions. Due to the time constraints of the workshop, 6 of the 26 accepted papers are given shorter time for oral presentation. Nevertheless, all 26 papers are excellent and are included in the proceedings in the same way. Along with the posters and demos, these technical papers cover a broad scope of Mobile Computing with varied boldness and maturity.