Proceedings of the 15th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (2017)

It is our pleasure and privilege to serve as program chairs for ACM MobiSys 2017 -- the 15th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services. We hope you enjoy this technical material behind the conference that attracts a diverse set of attendees from both academia and industry and is a leading venue for publications and idea exchange on mobile systems. ACM MobiSys 2017 has a highly selective, single-track program featuring research related to mobile systems and applications. It is an ideal venue to address research challenges facing the design, development, deployment, use, and fundamental limits of these systems. Notes on the review process: Since its inception in 2003 MobiSys has had a single-blind review policy where the identity of the reviewers is not revealed to the authors but the reviewers know the names, affiliations and contact information of the authors. Beginning 2017, we modified this policy so that the identity of the authors was not revealed to the reviewers during the initial review of the paper. However, once preliminary outcomes were decided, identities of the authors was revealed to enable referees to ask appropriate questions, making it easier to compare the new results with the author(s) previously published work and to ensure that a true advance was being reported. Our paper review process this year was highly selective. Out of 188 submissions, the technical program committee accepted only 34 for publication and presentation as full papers, yielding an acceptance rate around 18%. Submitted papers underwent a rigorous, multi-stage review process. First, we checked all submissions for compliance, general quality, and topic match. We administratively rejected those not meeting our submission criteria. We assigned 3 reviewers to papers that survived this stage from the program committee and the external review committee. At the conclusion of this stage, those papers where none of the reviewers were enthusiastic about acceptance were rejected. We then assigned at least 2 additional reviewers from the program committee to papers that survived, thus totaling at least 5 reviews per paper. An online discussion phase then ensued, resulting in the PC recommending 60 papers for discussion at the PC meeting. The PC meeting was held in person in Sonoma CA, USA, the day after ACM HotMobile 2017. At the conclusion of the PC meeting, we accepted 34 papers to the conference. Several accepted papers were assigned shepherds to help ensure that the authors produce a final manuscript that satisfactorily addresses reviewer comments. The program: Our program this year covers an exciting set of topics including sensing using acoustic, RF, and light signals, novel communication techniques, deep learning on mobiles, mobile performance, security and privacy, and operating systems. It also includes a keynote by Pattie Maes on human augmentation i.e. how systems can actively assist people with memory, learning, decision making, communication and physical skills, a SIGMOBILE Outstanding Contribution Award talk by Norman Abramson, recognized for his pioneering work on the ALOHAnet wireless networking system, five invited talks on trends in deep learning on mobiles, virtual reality, internet of things, biomedical diagnostics using phones, and large-scale wireless testbeds, brief talks by five Test-of-Time award winners, as well as an extensive poster/demo session.