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Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected all aspects of human life. The pandemic has become an issue of serious global concern in both developing and developed countries, with impacts including rapidly changing health and demographic conditions, threatened food security, declining quality of education at all levels, declining clean water access and availability, declining trade, economic, and industrial sectors, and a lack of efficient energy sources to secure communities.These challenges necessitate swift responses to provide alternative solutions for global transformation toward sustainable development and improved living conditions at the local and global levels. The active role of universities in addressing these challenges is significant, as they allow researchers to propose advanced and applied technologies, as well as create efficient processes and innovative products. Triggering change, universities are leading institutions in transforming policy into concrete action. In addition, the collaborative study and research among universities and research centers, experts, industry, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and policymakers fosters and strengthens their collective ability to provide a higher quality of life and a more sustainable society around the world. Research on how to raise sustainability awareness and enhance regional collaboration to create a more sustainable society is also an important issue. Societal transformation through the application of digital technology, nurturing economic development, controlling rapid urban population growth, and building more intelligent cities (e.g., intelligenttransportation systems) while considering environmental aspects are essential for future sustainable urban development. This sustainability awareness is crucial in preventing environmental destruction, enhancing social participation, and improving the economic impacts of reusing certain technologies.To address the above issues, the 17th International Conference on Quality in Research (QiR) was virtually held October 13–15, 2021, in conjunction with the 6th International Tropical Renewable Energy Conference (i-TREC) and the 2th CSID AUN-SCUD International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure and Urban Development (CAIC-SIUD). The QiR and i-TREC conferences focus on resiliency and adaptability in a post-pandemic world, exploring technology for a greener environment. The theme of the AUN-SCUD conference was shaping resiliency and sustainable futures through digitalization, technologies, and added value in developing sustainable infrastructure and resilient smart cities. Furthermore, the conference highlighted the role of digital technology in transforming cities and fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, as driven by the three-pronged principles of Industry 4.0, Nature 5.0, and Society 5.0

The COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting many aspects of human life. Many efforts have been carried out by many parties in the fields of health and demographics, food security, secure and clean water, green and efficient energy sources, climate change, quality education and secure communities. The response of many scientists and technologists during this pandemic have successfully facilitated progress in many areas, such as effective vaccines to prevent further spreading of the pandemic and medical devices needed by many patients affected by COVID-19. In another domain, the policy responses of governments to the COVID-19 crisis have demonstrated that many major economies are capable of unprecedented and drastic action when it is called for. Responding to these many challenges requires engagement, specifically in the research domain, at any level, locally and globally. The 17th International Conference on Quality in Research (QiR) 2021 was held to address these issues. Due to the global pandemic situation, the QiR 2021 was held online. Presenting the theme of “Resilience and Adaptability for a Post-Pandemic World: Exploring Technology for Our Green Environment,” the QiR 2021 brought many research papers discussing the role of the science and technology during the pandemic. In this edition of the International Journal of Technology, we are proudly presenting 20 articles selected from the QiR 2021 and make them available to readers worldwide by highlighting research and development in various fields during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current need to reduce dependence on non-renewable fuels has contributed a lot to the rapid growth of renewable energy systems and electric vehicles. One of the exciting sources of energy storage is the battery. The development of lithium-based batteries is an exciting trend and is continuously being developed for long life and high-level battery quality. Batteries are considered a primary energy storage source. They are essential materials for many applications such as vehicles and electronic devices, including laptops, mobile phones, watches, etc. With the increasing demand and use of batteries globally for many applications, much research on advanced batteries has been interested in improving their performance, significantly to extend their safety and prolong their service life. The type of batteries and some external parameters, including voltage, current, and temperature, are essential to further exploration. Research on how to minimize the pollution from after-used batteries is also needed since electronic waste cannot be disposed into nature without prior treatment. This is important in preventing environmental destruction and supporting environmental sustainability, in addition to the economic impact of reusing certain technologies. Furthermore, with the advancement of civilization and technology, everything related to engineering and sciences can be developed according to its functions and humans' need. To address the above issues, the 5th International Tropical Renewable Energy Conference (i-TREC) was held on October 29-30, 2020, via online conference. The i-TREC is an annual event organized by the Tropical Research Energy Center, Faculty of Engineering Universitas Indonesia (TREC FTUI). The theme of this conference is the role of renewable and clean energy in supporting sustainable development goals. From the papers presented there, 18 paper have been selected for publication in IJTech. These 18 papers are summarized below.

Today, drugs and vaccines for treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are being developed in Russia, China, the USA, Canada, Turkey, Germany, the UK, and Indonesia. Not all drugs for treating COVID-19 have the same functions or target the same aspects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of COVID-19. Very recently, some vaccines have been reported to effectively protect against COVID-19. Clinical vaccine trials are in phase 3 in several countries, including Indonesia, Turkey, Chile and Brazil. A virus is an intracellular parasite with a very simple structure. Viruses lack their own metabolism and thus require a host to replicate. That is why washing one’s hands with soap is the first step in preventing the spread of viruses with a lipid membrane, such as SARS-CoV-2. Soap effectively destroys such viruses because they are self-assembled structures. However, soap cannot be used to destroy the virus within a host because the same process that destroys the virus also destroys human cells. At the moment, much research in the area of nanotechnology is ongoing. Quantum dots (QDs) have been incorporated in many nanotechnological treatments, including drug delivery, bioimaging of cancer cells, and cancer diagnosis and treatment. Many researchers are investigating the use of new materials to treat COVID-19; possible therapies employ modified graphenes and QDs, among others. QDs are multifunctional crystalline semiconductors on a nanometer scale. Based on our studies, this QDs has fewer coordinating molecules on the surface. Nanometer-sized QDs are thermodynamically unstable but can be kept in a colloidal form to maintain stability. Due to their unique optical properties, QDs have significant potential for biomedical applications, including biomedical imaging, biosensors, drug delivery, clinical diagnosis, photodynamic therapy, DNA hybridization, and RNA profiling. Very recently, the potential of QDs for targeting virus cells has received attention. This function could be used to inhibit the activity of COVID-19. The use of QDs to treat COVID-19 still needs more evaluation and investigation. QDscan be functioned and coated with other molecules to improve their drug delivery profile. The chemical functionality of the surface of a QD can also be controlled by a capping agent such as Schiff base compound, which provides colloidal stability, prevents agglomeration and uncontrolled growth, increases solubility, and extends the exciton lifetime of QDs.The development of QDs and of nanostructured semiconductor crystals (which are usually under 10 nm in size) has opened new horizons in nanoscience and nanotechnology. QDs have been used in a wide range of applications in various fields, including biochemistry, physical chemistry, biomedicine, medicine, pharmaceuticals, microscopy, and engineering. QDs are also a powerful imaging probe for diagnostics and prognostics. The development and manufacture of bioengineering and medical equipment and devices has become more efficient, and computational modelling and simulations are now used to gather insights into new products.