Tishk International University and Erbil Polytechnic University hosted the 6th International Engineering Conference (IEC2020) on February 26-27, 2020. IEC2020 is technically sponsored by IEEE and IEEE Iraq Section. The conference aimed to disseminate research findings and provide a platform for scholars to debate and exchange ideas on developments in the field of engineering. IEEE Xplore Digital Library Database will index the accepted papers. Furthermore, the conference provides our graduate students a chance to establish communication with experienced researchers to discuss their current work as well as to be engaged in future research topics, and new opportunities.

The program committee members comprised of 41 members, out of which 78.5% of them hold Ph.D. in various fields of engineering, relevant to one or more conference topics mentioned above. The Conference adhered to the international conference standards in accordance with the guidelines agreed upon with our IEEE technical partners and in-line with the regulations laid out by the Kurdistan ministry of higher education. All paper submissions were double-blind peer-reviewed by at least two program committee members to ensure that submissions conform to specific quality measures. The quality measures included several criteria such as Relevance and Timeliness, Novelty and Originality, Technical Content and Correctness, Quality of Presentation, References used in the paper, Written Language, Reviewer Expertise, Overall Recommendation.

This year, the total number of submitted manuscripts stood at 78, with authors participating from several countries, including Turkey, Russia, Iran, United Kingdom, Iraq, Malaysia, Afghanistan, South Africa, and the USA. Seven tracks were created at the beginning, which was later collapsed into four tracks (1. Computer Engineering & Information Technology, 2. General Engineering Applications, 3. Digital & Wireless Communication, and 4. Civil Engineering) to engage more experts in the review and evaluation processes. The Computer Engineering & Information Technology received a total of 37 papers out of which 24 got accepted. In General Engineering Applications, 19 submissions were recorded, and seven papers got accepted. Elsewhere in Digital & wireless Communication 9 papers were submitted, and four were accepted. Lastly, the Civil Engineering track received nine papers, out of which eight papers were accepted. Some papers were either rejected after the review process or withdrawn due to the inability of the paper to pass basic pre-review checks, e.g., plagiarism, outside of conference scope, and so on.

The rate of acceptance was 65.38%, while 51 papers accepted and presented. Erbil Polytechnic and Tishk International University are grateful to all prospective presenters for their valuable contributions that will bring new perspectives on the developments in the Civil and Computer Engineering to Kurdistan Region.

This year, the conference has hosted two distinguished keynote speakers;

1. Asst. Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Poprawa (Assistant Professor, Silesian University of Technology, Poland), who gave a keynote speech on the topic “Static and Dynamic Load Testing in a Lifecycle of a Bridge Infrastructure.”

2. The second keynote speaker was Prof. Dr. Sattar (the University of Babylon, IT College, Iraq), whose topic was “Cognitive Security.”

In other veins, two workshops were organized to stimulate academic engagements and exchange of ideas in frontiers of research.

The first workshop was “The mineral wealth in Kurdistan region,” chaired by Panel Chair: Professor, Dr. Hamed M. Jassim (TIU, Department of Petroleum & Mining Engineering). The co-panelist was Mr. Varoujan K. Sissakian (Department of Natural Resources Engineering and Management, University of Kurdistan Hewler, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, Expert & Consultant Geologist).

The second workshop was titled “Blockchain in Education,” presented by Dr. Alyaa Al-Barrak (The University of Baghdad- College Science- Computer Department).

We are grateful to our sponsor: KNE Escalators & Elevators | Shindler Distributor.