Augmented Human Machine Intelligence for Distributed Inference

With the advent of the internet of things (IoT) era and the extensive deployment of smart devices and wireless sensor networks (WSNs), interactions of humans and machine data are everywhere. In numerous applications, humans are essential parts in the decision making process, where they may either serve as information sources or act as the final decision makers. For various tasks including detection and classification of targets, detection of outliers, generation of surveillance patterns and interactions between entities, seamless integration of the human and the machine expertise is required where they simultaneously work within the same modeling environment to understand and solve problems. Efficient fusion of information from both human and sensor sources is expected to improve system performance and enhance situational awareness. Such human-machine inference networks seek to build an interactive human-machine symbiosis by merging the best of the human with the best of the machine and to achieve higher performance than either humans or machines by themselves. In this dissertation, we consider that people often have a number of biases and rely on heuristics when exposed to different kinds of uncertainties, e.g., limited information versus unreliable information. We develop novel theoretical frameworks for collaborative decision making in complex environments when the observers may include both humans and physics-based sensors. We address fundamental concerns such as uncertainties, cognitive biases in human decision making and derive human decision rules in binary decision making. We model the decision-making by generic humans working in complex networked environments that feature uncertainties, and develop new approaches and frameworks facilitating collaborative human decision making and cognitive multi-modal fusion. The first part of this dissertation exploits the behavioral economics concept Prospect Theory to study the behavior of human binary decision making under cognitive biases. Several decision making systems involving humans\u27 participation are discussed, and we show the impact of human cognitive biases on the decision making performance. We analyze how heterogeneity could affect the performance of collaborative human decision making in the presence of complex correlation relationships among the behavior of humans and design the human selection strategy at the population level. Next, we employ Prospect Theory to model the rationality of humans and accurately characterize their behaviors in answering binary questions. We design a weighted majority voting rule to solve classification problems via crowdsourcing while considering that the crowd may include some spammers. We also propose a novel sequential task ordering algorithm to improve system performance for classification in crowdsourcing composed of unreliable human workers. In the second part of the dissertation, we study the behavior of cognitive memory limited humans in binary decision making and develop efficient approaches to help memory constrained humans make better decisions. We show that the order in which information is presented to the humans impacts their decision making performance. Next, we consider the selfish behavior of humans and construct a unified incentive mechanism for IoT based inference systems while addressing the selfish concerns of the participants. We derive the optimal amount of energy that a selfish sensor involved in the signal detection task must spend in order to maximize a certain utility function, in the presence of buyers who value the result of signal detection carried out by the sensor. Finally, we design a human-machine collaboration framework that blends both machine observations and human expertise to solve binary hypothesis testing problems semi-autonomously. In networks featuring human-machine teaming/collaboration, it is critical to coordinate and synthesize the operations of the humans and machines (e.g., robots and physical sensors). Machine measurements affect human behaviors, actions, and decisions. Human behavior defines the optimal decision-making algorithm for human-machine networks. In today\u27s era of artificial intelligence, we not only aim to exploit augmented human-machine intelligence to ensure accurate decision making; but also expand intelligent systems so as to assist and improve such intelligence

Design and optimisation of a low cost Cognitive Mesh Network

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have been touted as the most promising wireless technology in providing high-bandwidth Internet access to rural, remote and under-served areas, with relatively lower investment cost as compared to traditional access networks. WMNs structurally comprise of mesh routers and mesh clients. Furthermore, WMNs have an envisaged ability to provide a heterogeneous network system that integrates wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.22 WRAN, IEEE 802.16 WiMAX, IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi, Blue-tooth etc. The recent proliferation of new devices on the market such as smart phones and, tablets, and the growing number of resource hungry applications has placed a serious strain on spectrum availability which gives rise to the spectrum scarcity problem. The spectrum scarcity problem essentially results in increased spectrum prices that hamper the growth and efficient performance of WMNs as well as subsequent transformation of WMN into the envisaged next generation networks. Recent developments in TV white space communications technology and the emergence of Cognitive radio devices that facilitate Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) have provided an opportunity to mitigate the spectrum scarcity problem. To solve the scarcity problem, this thesis reconsiders the classical Network Engineering (NE) and Traffic Engineering (TE) problems to objectively design a low cost Cognitive Mesh network that promotes efficient resources utilization and thereby achieve better Quality of Service (QoS) levels

D13.2 Techniques and performance analysis on energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications and networking

Deliverable D13.2 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the status of the research work of the various Joint Research Activities (JRA) in WP1.3 and the results that were developed up to the second year of the project. For each activity there is a description, an illustration of the adherence to and relevance with the identified fundamental open issues, a short presentation of the main results, and a roadmap for the future joint research. In the Annex, for each JRA, the main technical details on specific scientific activities are described in detail.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Debt, consumption and freedom:social scientific representations of consumer credit in Anglo-America

The article explores a range of social scientific representations of credit and debt in the United States and Britain and how these have been organized around the problem of freedom. On the one hand, credit is projected as productive, embodying and securing liberal values of individual autonomy and self-determination. On the other, debt is portrayed as consumptive, ensnaring the individual, subverting her or his will and undermining the capacity for self-determination. The classic cultural injunction against consumer borrowing is captured under the rubric of the Puritan ethic which portrays indebtedness as contrary to the values of individual freedom and autonomy; however, it is shown here how the meanings attached to credit and debt have always been ambiguous in practice. Over the 20th century, and continuing today, a number of economic writers have attempted to legitimize the development of consumer credit by demonstrating how it contributes towards freedom and security. However, it is shown how these accounts shift in response to changing economic discourses as well as credit’s growing pervasiveness. In contrast, sociological writers have tended to criticize the accumulation of debt as damaging to both individual autonomy and societal welfare. Again, these accounts also manifest a notable change in emphasis over time in response to shifting constructions of the problem of social change. Finally, recent empirical work is drawn upon to demonstrate the ways in which freedom itself can be a contingent and contextual element in the production of consumer credit

Telecommunications Market in Morocco: development, liberalization, and competition

Programa de Doctorado en Economía (DEcIDE)El desarrollo y la expansión de los servicios de telecomunicaciones son cruciales para el crecimiento económico sostenido, especialmente para los países en desarrollo como los africanos. En efecto, para mantener el ritmo de crecimiento de los países desarrollados, los países africanos deben aumentar la competencia en su mercado. Además, deben adoptar los nuevos avances tecnológicos en el sector industrial, así como en el sector de las telecomunicaciones a un ritmo más rápido para mejorar la calidad de los servicios ofrecidos y reducir los costes. En lo que respecta al sector de las telecomunicaciones, la privatización de la empresa estatal (el incumbente), junto con una liberalización eficiente del sector bajo normas reguladoras claras, son medidas necesarias para lograr un crecimiento económico sostenido

Dimensionnement et optimisation des réseaux de collecte sans fil

The main work of this thesis focuses on the wireless backhaul networks. We studied different optimization problems in such networks that represent real challenges for industrial sector.The first issue addressed focuses on the capacity allocation on the links at minimum cost. It was solved by a linear programming approach with column generation. Our method solves the problems on large size networks. We then studied the problem of network infrastructure sharing between virtual operators. The objective is to maximize the revenue of the operator of the physical infrastructure while satisfying the quality of service constraints of virtual operators customers of the network. In this context, we proposed a robust model using mixed integer linear programming. In the following problem, we proposed a robust energy-aware routing solution for the network operators to reduce their energy consumption. Our solution was formulated using a mixed integer linear program. We also proposed heuristics to find efficient solutions for large networks. The last work of this thesis focuses on cognitive radio networks and more specifi- cally on the problem of bandwidth sharing. We formalized it using a linear program with a different approach to robust optimization. We based our solution on the 2-stage linear robust method.L’essentiel des travaux de cette thèse porte sur les réseaux de collectes de données sans fil. Nous avons étudié différents problèmes d’optimisation dans ces réseaux qui représentent de vrais challenges pour les industriels du secteur. Le premier problème porte sur l’allocation de capacités sur les liens à coût minimum. Il a été résolu par une approche de programmation linéaire avec génération de colonnes. Notre modèle permet de résoudre des problèmes de grandes tailles. Nous avons ensuite étudié le problème du partage d’infrastructure réseau entre opérateurs virtuels avec comme objectif de maximiser les revenus de l’opérateur de l’infrastructure physique tout en satisfaisant les demandes et les contraintes de qualité de service des opérateurs virtuels clients du réseau. Dans ce contexte, nous avons proposé une formulation robuste du problème en programmation linéaire en nombres entiers mixte. Un autre point de dépenses dans ce type de réseau est la consommation d’énergie. Nous avons proposé une solution robuste, de routage basée sur la consommation d’énergie du réseau. Notre solution a été formulée en utilisant un programme linéaire en nombre entiers mixte. Nous avons aussi proposé des heuristiques afin de trouver assez rapidement des solutions pour de grandes instances. Le dernier travail de cette thèse porte sur les réseaux radio cognitifs et plus précisément sur le problème de partage de bande passante. Nous l’avons formalisé en utilisant un programme linéaire mais avec une autre approche d’optimisation robuste. Nous utilisons la méthode d'optimisation robuste à 2 niveaux pour le résoudre