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Since December 2015, this Newsletter has presented and discussed some emerging topics related to the TCCN areas of interest. More specifically, it has covered a broad range of applications and techniques, for instance, non-orthogonal multiple access, ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), millimeter wave communications, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications, and massive machine-type communications (mMTC). We have interviewed over a dozen experts in these fields, included several interesting position papers, and provided state-of-the-art reviews. My sincere thanks to all the previous directors for their
contributions and help which have made this Newsletter a great success.

From my side, I have contributed in two previous TCCN Newsletter editions as Feature Editor, and this TCCN Newsletter issue is the first one that I am acting as Director. It has been a great pleasure and honor for me, and I am excited to cover two areas that will likely have impact in 5G and beyond: a) Blockchain and b) Internet of Things (IoT). In the Blockchain area, we have interviewed Prof. Dusit Niyato, from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Dr. Bhaskar Krichnamachari, from USC, who are leading experts in this area. We have also had the pleasure to get a position paper from Dr. BhaskarKrichnamachari. Within the context of IoT, we have interviewed Prof. Luiz A. da Silva, from Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Samir Perlaza, from INRIA, France, and Prof. Sergey Andreev, fromTampere University, Finland, who provided uswith their outlook on the opportunities and challenges of IoT. Finally, Prof. Giancarlo Fortino and Dr. Claudio Savaglio, from Università della Calabria, Italy, provided a position paper that presents ACOSO-Meth (Agent-based Cooperating Smart Objects Methodology), the first agent-based methodology that specifically and seamlessly supports the main phases of engineering of IoT ecosystems and related services.

Finally, I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Prof. Walid Saad, from Virginia Tech – USA, and Prof. Pedro H. J. Nardelli, from Lappeenranta University of Technology – Finland, for their efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Yue Gao and all TCCN officers. If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me at: danielbcosta@ieee.org. We hope that you enjoy the material of this Newsletter!

Daniel Benevides da Costa
Director, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Newsletter
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil