Trusted-Edge and Semantic-based Approach for Dependable IoT and Smart Systems

The integration of sensors and embedded devices for the purpose of data acquisition to support human activity recognition, management of living challenges, and behavioural patterns for the purpose of proactive decision making has continue to open more direction of research in smart home applications such as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). The monitoring and predictive activities is made possible through use of wearable IoT (WIoT) devices, which are connected to human body in order to collect real-time data, analyse, and assists the user with daily tasks or for predictions.

Furthermore the WIoT has recently changed the paradigm of pervasive and personal computing. They are now finding the way into the field of medical diagnosis for certain types of diseases and send data/information remotely to healthcare professional in near real-time for safety-critical situation. Therefore, it is highly significance for any innovative wearable IoT technology to guarantee the end-user trust to achieve its full adoption.

However, most WIoT devices have been known to be confronted with trust related issues. This is because these devices need to work together close to each other and be able to analyse and transfer data across the network. Most trust issues are often related to the quality of data (Consistency and Completeness) and output that these devices are producing at the computing edge, the timeliness of the data for real-time requirement, security and privacy, device and data availability, Interoperability issues, and reliability of service.

The edge computing with the cloud computing research domain has been seen to be successful in the management of IoT data processing and elastic storage management. It will still be possible to consider the integration of semantic technologies and fault tolerance management to guarantee high degree of interoperability and availability of device and data.

In this PhD project, a successful candidate will explore the current state of the wearable IoT technologies, cloud and the edge computing to develop a novel adaptive trust management approach and relevant frameworks to improve the quality of service and adoption of wearable IoT devices.

The objective of the project is as follows:

• Develop a large Sematic-based Knowledge graph model to support IoT data and devices modelling and reasoning for interoperability
• Develop a scalable cloud-based fault recovery approach for sensor stream processing.
• A prototype framework for self-adaptive trusted-edge approach

Academic qualifications

A first-class honours degree, or a distinction at master level, or equivalent achievements ideally in Computer Science/Computing, Mathematics, any other numerate discipline. 

English language requirement

If your first language is not English, comply with the University requirements for research degree programmes in terms of English language.

Application process

Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the supervisor, Dr Oluwaseun Bamgboye (O.Bamgboye@napier.ac.uk) to discuss the content of the project and the fit with their qualifications and skills before preparing an application. 

The application must include: 

Research project outline of 2 pages (list of references excluded). The outline may provide details about

• Background and motivation, explaining the importance of the project, should be supported also by relevant literature. You can also discuss the applications you expect for the project results.
• Research questions or
• Methodology: types of data to be used, approach to data collection, and data analysis methods.
• List of references

The outline must be created solely by the applicant. Supervisors can only offer general discussions about the project idea without providing any additional support.

• Statement no longer than 1 page describing your motivations and fit with the project.
• Recent and complete curriculum vitae. The curriculum must include a declaration regarding the English language qualifications of the candidate.
• Supporting documents will have to be submitted by successful candidates.
• Two academic references (but if you have been out of education for more than three years, you may submit one academic and one professional reference), on the form can be downloaded here.

Applications can be submitted here.

Download a copy of the project details here.