In Memoriam: Prof. Ioan Dzitac Editorial In 2021, the International Journal for Computers, Communications and Control (IJCCC) en- tered its 16th year of existence. The first issue of the sixteenth volume of IJCCC was planned to be a special one dedicated to pay a tribute to the exceptional work and results of Lotfi Zadech, a great scientist born in 1921, who influenced an immense number of the scholars all over the world. That special issue was thought and organized by Ioan Dzitac who wrote the Editorial [1]. Several outstanding scholars were invited and accepted to publish in the intended special issue. It was Ioan Dzitac’s last paper. Unfortunately, on 6th February, when the special issue was almost ready to be published, the heart of Ioan Dzitac suddenly stopped beating. Now, it is our sad duty of honour to propose to collaborators and readers of our journal a special issue meant to commemorate and pay a tribute to Ioan Dzitac, an honest and generous person, a talented and hardworking scientist and professor, an effective and empathic manager, a close and dear colleague and friend. The life and work of Ioan Dzitac were briefly presented in the Obituary published in the second number of the 16th volume of IJCCC [2]. In this special issue, I will focus on Ioan Dzitac’s contribution to the birth and evolution of the journal and its associated scientific event, the biannual International Conference on Computers, Communications and Control (ICCCC). The story of IJCCC started in 2005, after my first visit to Agora University, when Ioan Dzitac proposed to set up together a new scientific publication in the domain of I&CT (Information and Communications Technology ), based on the experience gained with the journal named Studies in Informatics and Control-SIC (http://sic.ici.ro ). During several months that followed, we worked hard together to design the new publication which was initially meant to host papers that describe integration of the three technologies: computing, control, and communications. Several highly reputed scholars from various countries enthusiastically joined the new undertaking as members of the Editorial Team (http://univagora.ro/jour/index. php/ijccc/about/editorialTeam) of the journal, which became, from the very beginning, an international one and it was accepted in the JCR list of journals. Over the years, new members have been invited and joined the editorial team. The high quality contributions of authors and the hard work of the members of team have led to alternatively positioning IJCCCC and SIC, since 2006, on the first two places according to their JIF (Journal Impact Factor ) in the list of I&CT journals published in Romania. As in any other dynamic undertaking, it has been necessary to adapt the journal to the per- ceived evolving scientific trends and landscape. So, besides integrated systems, other two main domains of interest have become core topics of our publication, namely soft computing (with main emphasis on fuzzy approach), and computer supported decision-making. A particular http://sic.ici.ro http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/about/editorialTeam http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/about/editorialTeam influence on IJCCC adaptation has been exerted by the participants to ICCCC, the associ- ated conference, the first edition of which was also organized in 2006. Ioan Dzitac, Mişu Jan Manolescu, and Florin Gheorghe Filip, the conference founders, have played, since then, the roles of Conference General chair, Organizing Committee chair and IPC (International Pro- gramme Committee) chair, respectively. Recently, Simona Dzitac and Domnica Dzitac have joined the conference management team. The ninth edition of ICCCC will be held in 2022 and it will be also dedicated to Ioan Dzitac (http://univagora.ro/en/icccc2022/). Simona Dzitac will be the General Chair, Janisz Kacprzyk and Horea Oros will be the Publication co-chairs. In April 2021, Simona Dzitac and myself decided to invite several close colleagues and authors who have been active participants to the previous editions of ICCCC to contribute to a special issue of the seventeen volume of IJCCC meant to commemorate Ioan Dzitac. Most of them accepted the invitation and a series of papers are included in the journal as follows: • Zeshui Xu and Yiying Wang, both from Sichuan University (China) and F. G. Filip of the Romanian Academy propose a methodology for facility selection and reliable transporta- tion for emergency rescue by using a bicriteria model meant to minimize total service distance and maximize the network reliability. • Zenonas Turskis, Romualdas Bausys, Giruta Kazakeviciute-Januskeviciene, and Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, all from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania), to- gether with Florentin Smarandache of University of New Mexico (USA) propose a novel MCDM (Multicriteria Decision-making ) methodology based on m-generalized and q- neutrosophis approach and describe an application in the civil engineering milieu. • Dan Tufiş of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of the Romanian Academy (ICIA/RACAI), reviews in his paper several of the most important results obtained, over the last decades, in the institute in the domain of language technology with particu- lar emphases on the Romanian language in the context of EC (European Commission) initiatives and projects. • Yong Deng of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, proposes, in his article, a new kind of set, named random permutation set, and a data fusion algorithm meant to be applied in threat assessment. • Bogdan Musat from Transilvania University of Brasov (Romania) and Razvan Andonie from Central Washington University (USA) propose a semiotic approach relating to in- formation bottleneck in deep learning. • Gang Kou, of Business School of Chengdu University, together with Yu Zhou, Mengdie Zhang and Yiming Li, all from Inner Mongolia University (China) offer the results of processing a very large data set made with a view to study the users’ preferences in a public bicycle system. • Radu Emil Precup and his colleagues R.-C. Roman, E.-L. Hedrea, C.-A. Bojan-Dragos, M.-M. Damian, and M.-L. Nedelcea of Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania) address in their paper the problem of improving the performance of three SISO (Single Input, Single Output ) fuzzy control system in the setting of a tower crane and propose an effective low-cost solution. http://univagora.ro/en/icccc2022/ • Ilana Segall and Alfred M. Bruckstein of Tehnion Institute of Technology, Haifa (Israel) model, in their paper, the behaviour of a group of identical mobile agents that are con- trolled through an exogenous broadcast signal. • Attila Simo of Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania), Simona Dzitac of Uni- versity of Oradea (Romania), and Domnica Dzitac of New York University, Abu Dhabi (UAE) describe a solution designed to improve decision-making in disaster situations through an integrated workflow of the people involved in rescue operations. • Horia-Nicolai Teodorescu from Technical University of Iasi (Romania) analyses in his paper several limits and possible errors in the design of FLS (fuzzy logic systems ), and discusses several simple rules to be used in order to avoid the problems. • Prof. Yong Shi of the research centres of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Academy university (UCAS), Beijing (P.R. China) and University of Nebraska at Omaha (USA) and his colleagues Xue X., Xue J., and Qu Y. of the same Chinese university and research centres propose a two-stage fault detection methodology based on deep learning based image classification to be used in nuclear power plants. Prof. Ioan Dzitac will forever live in the hearts of those who knew him. His legacy lives on! F.G. Filip January 2022 References [1] Dzitac, Ioan. Zadeh’s Centenary. International Journal of Computers Communications & Control, [S.l.], v. 16, n. 1, jan. 2021. ISSN 1841-9844. Available at: http://univagora. ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/4102. Date accessed: 16 jan. 2022; [2] Dzitac, Simona et al. Obituary. International Journal of Computers Communications & Control, [S.l.], v. 16, n. 2, mar. 2021. ISSN 1841-9844. Available at: http://univagora. ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/4216. Date accessed: 16 jan. 2022. http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/4102 http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/4102 http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/4216 http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/ijccc/article/view/4216 Photo Ioan Dziţac (14.02.1953 – 06.02.2021)