The Earth is a water planet: over 70% of the planet surface is covered by water. Therefore, the advances of the underwater communication, networking, and system technology can make significant impacts to the planet Earth. Consequently, there is a rapid growing interests of this research area from both academia and industry.

WUWNet is the premier venue for sharing the state-of-the-art research and development of underwater networks and systems, as it brings together leading scientists and entrepreneurs from all over the world.This year, we are delighted to announce that WUWNET 2018 will be held in Shenzhen, Guangdong, December 3-5. Shenzhen is one of the most vibrant and fast growing cities in China. Conveniently located near Hongkong,Shenzhen is the world hub of electronics manufacturing. Also, Shenzhen is recognized by the Chinese National Development and Reform Committee (NDRC) and State Oceanic Administration (SOA) as a global leading maritime city, which makes it an ideal location for this year edition of WUWNET.

The conference will span three days, including presentations of keynote speeches, plenary talks, panel discussions, technical papers, and posters/demos sessions. We invite academia and industry participants from a broad range of backgrounds relevant to underwater sensing, communications, networking, robotics, systems, and applications to participate in the conference. Specific topics include, but are not limited to:

• Underwater network and system architectures
• Underwater communications (including acoustic, optical, RF, and wired), with techniques from the physical layer to the application layer
• Underwater acoustic modeling and signal processing
• Cooperative underwater communications, including, PHY, MAC, routing, and data transfer
• Networked underwater robotics and systems, such as localization, navigation, security, communication and coordination, or human operator interaction.
• Coordinated energy-harvesting systems and power systems for underwater networks and systems
• Energy-efficient algorithms and protocol design for underwater networks as well as signal/image processing and communication systems
• Operating system and middleware support for underwater networks and systems
• Applications that broadly address underwater networks and systems, including coordinated underwater vehicles
• Modeling, simulation, and testbeds for underwater systems and platforms
• Experimental results from underwater networking, signal/image processing and communications field trials
• Application requirements for underwater networks, signal/image processing and communication systems presented by end users
• Interaction and integration of underwater networked systems with terrestrial and aerial networking