IoT-native Software Engineering
Applications are now CLOSED
Overview
The Internet of Things (IoT) is widely recognised as the third technological revolution (after the Industrial and Internet Revolutions) [1] or as part of the fourth industrial revolution (after the Steam, Electricity, and Digital Revolutions) [2]. Particularly, the European Commission places IoT to be at the centre of the digitisation of the world economy [3], and the US National Intelligence Council lists IoT as one of six breakthrough technologies that have significant impacts on the US interests [4].
Considering that software is defining everything and dominating the world [5], software systems play a key role in the IoT revolution and its future evolution. On the other hand, the tremendous challenges of blending the physical and virtual worlds in turn affect the development of supporting software systems to IoT. As such, it has been identified that IoT “is pulling software engineering further and further from the comfort zone of principles and techniques that have prevailed for many decades” [6]. This can be discussed more specifically by using the “4+1” view model of software architecture [7]. For example, IoT software systems encounter a new Physical View. The physical view is concerned with the deployment of software components as well as the physical connections between these components, which can be further distinguished between two perspectives in the context of IoT. From a single software component’s perspective, individual IoT devices generally have limited compute, storage, and network capabilities. From a whole software system’s perspective, IoT involves non-scalable integration of heterogeneous technologies produced by different manufacturers.
Unfortunately, the literature regarding the engineering of IoT software systems is still sparse. Compared to the IoT-native research and practice in the database community [9], the IoT-oriented efforts on software engineering seem to have left behind. Therefore, we promote “IoT-native Software Engineering” to indicate the unique needs and the dedicated development of software engineering in the age of IoT.
This project will mainly focus on the innovation of IoT-native software engineering from the Development View of the “4+1” view model. The development view is concerned with the software implementation, (module) organisation, and management. In fact, it has been identified that dedicated efforts, techniques, and theories are needed for engineering IoT software systems. And there are already some promising research directions pointed out in the community. For example, a just-for-me principle would be worth following to break the monolithic orchestration mechanism of both development methods [1] and software components [8]; mixing and matching various development methods would become an innovative way to deliver suitable IoT solutions [1]; and brand-new protocols for discovering, accessing, and coordinating things and the relevant software components would be crucial and valuable [6]. Please note that the specific research topic of this project will be further discussed and determined based on the student’s interests and knowledge base. So, please feel free to open your mind and identify/propose more specific research problems along this research direction.
References:
[1] I. Jacobson, I. Spence, and P.-W. Ng, “Is there a single method for the Internet of Things? essence can keep software development for the IoT from becoming unwieldy.” Queue, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 25–51, May-June 2017. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1145/3121437.3123501
[2] P. Ross and K. Maynard, “Towards a 4th industrial revolution,” Intelligent Buildings International, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 159–161, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2021.1873625
[3] European Commission, “The next generation Internet of Things,” https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/next-generation-internetthings, 3 January 2023.
[4] US National Intelligence Council, “Disruptive civil technologies: Six technologies with potential impacts on us interests out to 2025,” https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA519715, 1 April 2008.
[5] X. Zhu, B. Song, Y. Ni, Y. Ren, and R. Li, “Software defined anything–from software-defined hardware to software defined anything,” in Business Trends in the Digital Era. Singapore: Springer, June 2016, ch. 5, pp. 83–103.
[6] J. L¨u, D. S. Rosenblum, T. Bultan, V. Issarny, S. Dustdar, M.-A. Storey, and D. Zhang, “Roundtable: The future of software engineering for internet computing,” IEEE Software, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 91–97, Jan.-Feb. 2015.
[7] P. B. Kruchten, “The 4+1 view model of architecture,” IEEE Software, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 42–50, November 1995.
[8] Z. Li and R. Ranjan, “Just enough, just in time, just for “me”’: Fundamental principles for engineering IoT-native software systems,” in Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results (ICSE-NIER 2022). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2022, pp. 56–60. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1145/3510455.3512785
[9] The Apache Software Foundation, “Apache IoTDB: Databse for Internet of Things,” https://iotdb.apache.org/, 2023.
Funding Information
To be eligible for consideration for a Home DfE or EPSRC Studentship (covering tuition fees and maintenance stipend of approx. £19,237 per annum), a candidate must satisfy all the eligibility criteria based on nationality, residency and academic qualifications.
To be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria and the associated residency requirements:
• Be a UK National,
or • Have settled status,
or • Have pre-settled status,
or • Have indefinite leave to remain or enter the UK.
Candidates from ROI may also qualify for Home student funding.
Previous PhD study MAY make you ineligible to be considered for funding.
Please note that other terms and conditions also apply.
Please note that any available PhD studentships will be allocated on a competitive basis across a number of projects currently being advertised by the School.
A small number of international awards will be available for allocation across the School. An international award is not guaranteed to be available for this project, and competition across the School for these awards will be highly competitive.
Academic Requirements:
The minimum academic requirement for admission is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK or ROI Higher Education provider in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University.
Project Summary
Dr Zheng Li
Full-time: 3 or 3.5 years