The 5th International Workshop on
"Digitization and E-Inclusion in Mathematics and Science 2024" (DEIMS2024)

15 - 17 February 2024, at Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan

DEIMS2024 will be held as a hybrid (in-person and online) event. You can participate in your convenient way!

Proceedings

The proceedings of DEIMS2024 is available, here.

Overview

A significant number of online journals and e-textbooks, as well as other forms of academic/educational information are now digitized for various purposes. Computerized processing of such information is also being actively studied. So-called, "Digital Transformation" (DX) is certainly a keyword in contemporary society, for which "Knowledge" forms its foundation.

Fortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has almost gone away. As you know, through this rare crisis in modern history, DX has also provided us many powerful tools to get past this serious situation. For instance, digitized content was actively used in online/distance education during the pandemic. Even in the post COVID-19, online classes are still widely given.

No matter whether education is face-to-face or distance, digitized documents that are given to all pupils/students should be available in an accessible format. However, digitization of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) content and its applications have challenges not present in a non-technical field. For example, while many online educational materials are provided in PDF (Acrobat Portable Document Format), the semantic information in mathematical formulas cannot easily be extracted. Formulas are depicted visually as a set of characters/symbols in a two-dimensional layout or an image. Thus, in many cases, it is hard for print-disabled people to read/author those contents although their accessibility is definitely important to achieve a truly inclusive society even in the post-crisis phase.

If a non-technical document is inaccessible, it can usually be converted easily into an accessible representation with standard tools such as OCR (optical character recognition) technology. STEM content cannot be so easily converted. Since a STEM document includes many technical characters, symbols and notations such as mathematical expressions, chemical formulas, figures, tables, etc., its conversion into accessible format such as MathML is quite beyond the capabilities of standard tools. STEM-accessibility in education also requires accessible authoring tools and players, learning management systems (LMS), digital libraries and other accessible facilities, not just information conversion tools.

The 5th International Workshop on "Digitization and E-Inclusion in Mathematics and Science 2024" (DEIMS2024) will bring together many experts throughout the world to discuss state-of-the-art technologies (research and development), novel activities and future perspectives in this field.

Similar workshops were held in Fukuoka, December 2009, in Tokyo, February 2012, in Kanagawa, February 2016 and online, February 2021. DEIMS2024 is planned to be the fifth one of this series of international workshops. For about 25 years, the Infty Project, (The primary organizers of this workshop) has been also organizing a series of annual domestic workshops on scientific-information processing and its accessibility. DEIMS2024 is also regarded as one of this series. To view information on the previous international workshops in this series, please visit the DEIMS2021 home page:

the DEIMS2021 home page.

the main topics of the workshop will include, but not be limited to,

  • Digitizing and processing printed documents in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics): technology / practice,
  • Digital libraries for STEM,
  • Accessibility of STEM documents, accessible PDF (e.g. PDF/UA) for STEM documents,
  • Accessibility of tables and figures,
  • E-learning and online services in scientific fields,
  • Accessibility in online STEM education,
  • Accessibility in a learning management system (LMS) or other groupware,
  • Assistive tools for disabled people,
  • Services and technologies for an inclusive environment,
  • Higher education for disabled students,
  • Other related topics.

We believe that your experiences and practical trials through the coronavirus pandemic should have great potential to bring about marked progress in these fields.

Keynote Lecture:

  • Dr. Georgios Kouroupetroglou, Emeritus Professor at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens will give a keynote lecture entitled "Modeling Content Accessibility Service Provision in Higher Education."
  • Dr. Masakazu Suzuki, Emeritus Professor at Kyushu University will give a keynote lecture entitled "New Accessibility Platform 'Chatty Library.'"

Call for Participation:

To participate in DEIMS2024 in person or online, please see here.
The deadline of participant registration is 15 January 2024 (in person) or 1 February 2024 (online).

Call for papers:

The submission of extended abstract has been already closed.
To submit the camera-ready version of your paper, please see here.

Key Dates:

  • 16 October 2023 - Submission deadline of extended abstracts,
  • 13 November 2023 - Notification of acceptance,
  • 01 January 2024 - Deadline of camera-ready versions.
  • 15 January 2024 - Deadline of registration (in-person participants),
  • 01 February 2024 - Deadline of registration (online participants).

If you have any questions, please contact Katsuhito Yamaguchi at
E-mail: deims2024-office "@" mail.sciaccess.net
(please remove quotation marks included in the above address)

2023 DEIMS2024 All Rights Reserved.

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