Ensuring Cyber-Security in Smart Railway Surveillance with SHIELD

Modern railways feature increasingly complex embedded computing systems for surveillance, that are moving towards fully wireless smart-sensors. Those systems are aimed at monitoring system status from a physical-security viewpoint, in order to detect intrusions and other environmental anomalies. However, the same systems used for physical-security surveillance are vulnerable to cyber-security threats, since they feature distributed hardware and software architectures often interconnected by ‘open networks’, like wireless channels and the Internet. In this paper, we show how the integrated approach to Security, Privacy and Dependability (SPD) in embedded systems provided by the SHIELD framework (developed within the EU funded pSHIELD and nSHIELD research projects) can be applied to railway surveillance systems in order to measure and improve their SPD level. SHIELD implements a layered architecture (node, network, middleware and overlay) and orchestrates SPD mechanisms based on ontology models, appropriate metrics and composability. The results of prototypical application to a real-world demonstrator show the effectiveness of SHIELD and justify its practical applicability in industrial settings

Microservices and Machine Learning Algorithms for Adaptive Green Buildings

In recent years, the use of services for Open Systems development has consolidated and strengthened. Advances in the Service Science and Engineering (SSE) community, promoted by the reinforcement of Web Services and Semantic Web technologies and the presence of new Cloud computing techniques, such as the proliferation of microservices solutions, have allowed software architects to experiment and develop new ways of building open and adaptable computer systems at runtime. Home automation, intelligent buildings, robotics, graphical user interfaces are some of the social atmosphere environments suitable in which to apply certain innovative trends. This paper presents a schema for the adaptation of Dynamic Computer Systems (DCS) using interdisciplinary techniques on model-driven engineering, service engineering and soft computing. The proposal manages an orchestrated microservices schema for adapting component-based software architectural systems at runtime. This schema has been developed as a three-layer adaptive transformation process that is supported on a rule-based decision-making service implemented by means of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The experimental development was implemented in the Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL) applying the proposed microservices schema for adapting home architectural atmosphere systems on Green Buildings

IoT in Building Process: A Literature Review

The pervasive diffusion of digital technologies opened up to new concepts in managing and monitoring the processes occurring in our society. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) become enabling tools to rethink our way of living, consuming and producing goods and services. Among these, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents the disruptive technology that may redefine the stages of the building process to meet renewed environmental challenges. This new technological paradigm imports in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector new and not-tectonic instances. In this context, the paper maps the experiences related to the use of IoT for managing the building process. Through a systematic literature review, the article highlights the potential benefits generable by a widespread integration of IoT in the AEC sector. In particular, the article has three purposes: defining the IoT infrastructure for its proper application in the AEC sector; identifying IoT main application domains; investigating the integration modalities

Proceeding of the Building Surveying and Technology Undergraduate Conference 2013 (BUSTUC 2013): Honouring the Past, Treasuring the Present, Shaping the Future

BUSTUC2013 is the first conference of this kind in which undergraduate students majoring in Building Surveying and Building Technology come forward with a conference paper and present their research findings in this specialized conference. Students undergo no less than fifteen weeks of training in carrying out scientific research and simultaneously choosing their research topics for actual research. Under the guidance of course lecturers and individual research supervisors the undergraduate students embarked on what can be considered their maiden voyage into scientific research activities. This conference event is the manifestation of the effort by not only the students but also their respective supervisors in order to ensure the training and supervision does not go to waste. The conference papers are published according to international and standardized format and for most of the students this will be their first publication to be remembered long into their future. We look forward to work again with all the respected supervisors and their future students; and to carry on the publication annually. We hope, this effort will ensure all graduating students are equipped with the fundamental of scientific research and publication techniques. We would also like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the contributors of these Proceedings and the presenters at the Building Surveying and Technology Undergraduate Conference 2013 making the event a convention of thought-provoking, innovative ideas and memorable one

Platform, or technology project? A spectrum of six strategic ‘plays’ from UK government IT initiatives and their implications for policy

There is a markedly broad range of definitions and illustrative examples of the role played by governments themselves within the literature on government platforms. In response we conduct an inductive and deductive qualitative review of the literature to clarify this landscape and so to develop a typology of six definitions of government platforms, organised within three genres along a spectrum from fully centralised, through to fully decentralised. For each platform definition we offer illustrative 'mini-cases' drawn from the UK government experience as well as further insights and implications for each genre drawn from the broader information systems literature on platforms. A range of benefits, risks, governance challenges, policy recommendations, and suggestions for further research are then identified and discussed