Dramatic advancement in digital technologies have transformed many sectors of the industry and society with significant economic impacts. With more automation implementations that are in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the working and living environments are often neglected and even sacrificed to minimise costs. However, high profitability does not justify the reduction in human-centric facilities and the need for a better physical and mental wellbeing at the work and living environment. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for more spacious public facilities to encourage physical and social distancing as well as the higher utilization of smart systems.

This keynote paper highlights that there is now, a higher awareness in the need to improve liveability whereby the conditions and rights of all inhabitants and users of public facilities are given more emphasis. Liveability is based on the principle of purpose, sustainability, smartness, user experience and sensitivity to nature and the protection of its physical, social and cultural resources. Smart systems and technologies that are more human-centric, are now deployed to provide such conditions. The current intelligent or smart digital systems have made many smart liveability projects implementable. An example of such a system, is a new human centric model of an airport smart security system that provides a better passenger experience. Such human-centric smart systems and technologies should improve efficiency, reduce cost, and make our life experience more meaningful, convenient and pleasant.

Keywords: human-centric, smart systems, digital technology, liveability.

Teddy Mantoro is a Professor (1050) in Computer Science based in Jakarta, Indonesia. His research interest is in the area of Information Security, Computational Intelligence, Pervasive Computing, Wireless Sensor Networks, and Intelligent Environment. 

He spent more than 20 years working overseas in various areas of Computer Science/Computer Engineering and visiting scholars in various centers of excellence in emerging technologies, including Media Lab – MIT, USA; DFKI-Saarland, Germany; Philip lab – Eidhoven, Nederland; SNAP Lab, UNSW, Sydney Australia, and DGI, Cambridge University, UK. 

Previously he was a lecturer in Advance Informatics School, Univesiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) (2 years) and Dept of Computer Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) (4.5 years) and also an adjunct Professor in Taylor’s University-Malaysia, Universitas Sumatra Utara (USU), and Universitas Diponegoro. Previously he was a system analyst at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand (4.5 years), IT manager and a lecturer at the Dept of Computer Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (10 years), and EDP Manager of Microsoft Indonesia (2.5 years).

He was the Associate Regional Contest Director, Asia site and the chief judge and the problem setter coordinator for AlKhawarizmi - Programming Contest - ACM ICPC Malaysia National level 2010-2014 (5 years) and as for Asia Regional Programming Contest, he was the chief judge and the problem setter coordinator in Kuala Lumpur site and  an honorary judge in Jakarta site for many years.

He was a judge for Pilmapres at the National level and LLDIKTI-3 for many years and is presently an assessor Jafung/PAK/PJAD at DIKTI and LLDIKTI-3 as well as a BKD assessor in Indonesia.

He has extensive experience in roadmap developments, including chairing the road-map development team for the Roadmap Defence Industry 2022-2045, Indonesian Defense Industry Policy Committee (KKIP.go.id), The Roadmap of Indonesia Human Resources in ICT 2016-2020, Kemkominfo and BSSN Roadmap 2019-2045: Towards World Class Cyber Sovereignty in Indonesia, and others. 

He has received 20+ research grants to date. He is a Senior Member of IEEE (2013). From 2009 – to date, he has received 5 Gold, 9 Silver, and 11 Bronze Medals from International IT Innovation Competitions. He has published 230+ conference/journal papers (216 papers in Scopus, h-index=15). In Malaysia, he has filed 4 (four) patents in credit to his name. 

He obtained a PhD, an MSc, and a BSc, all in Computer Science/Computer Engineering, and his Ph.D. was from the School of Computer Science, the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia. 

Dr Mahathir is currently working with the Commanwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Energy, Australia as Senior Research Software Engineer. Mahathir is focused on well-engineered, well-researched and practical solutions within the renewable energy domain. He has a background in research and software/data engineering, and gained strong experienced in product/patent development during previous tenures at IBM Research, SEeing Machines and CSIRO's Data61. 

Prior work includes traffic simulators, machine-vision, deep-learning and anti-phishing techniques. At RMIT Universit, his Ph.D thesis was on enabling peer-to-peer virtual environment. More recent focus has been on the capture, analysis and visualisation of large-scale datasets, and applying advanced machine learning techniques for projects supporting the net-zero energy transition.