BodyCloud: a SaaS approach for community body sensor networks

Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) have been recently introduced for the remote monitoring of human activities in a broad range of application domains, such as health care, emergency management, fitness and behaviour surveillance. BSNs can be deployed in a community of people and can generate large amounts of contextual data that require a scalable approach for storage, processing and analysis. Cloud computing can provide a flexible storage and processing infrastructure to perform both online and offline analysis of data streams generated in BSNs. This paper proposes BodyCloud, a SaaS approach for community BSNs that supports the development and deployment of Cloud-assisted BSN applications. BodyCloud is a multi-tier application-level architecture that integrates a Cloud computing platform and BSN data streams middleware. BodyCloud provides programming abstractions that allow the rapid development of community BSN applications. This work describes the general architecture of the proposed approach and presents a case study for the real-time monitoring and analysis of cardiac data streams of many individuals

Innovation through design thinking. Sefici case

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Direcció d'Empreses / Master in Management. Codi: SRO011. Curs acadèmic 2016-201

Service Prototyping Lab Report - 2017 (Y2)

The annual activity report of the Service Prototyping Lab at Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Research trends and initiatives, research projects, transfer to education and local industry, academic community involvement, qualification and scientific development over the period of one year are among the covered topics

A review of cloud-based bim technology in the construction sector

Cloud computing technology is regarded as a major transformational force that is causing unprecedented change across the communication and business disciplines. In the architecture, engineering and construction sector, cloud-BIM integration is considered to be the second generation of building information management (BIM) development, and is expected to produce another wave of change across the construction industry. Despite this, few studies to date have attempted to summarise the research literature on cloud-BIM. This paper explores the literature to identify the substantive work on cloud-BIM, particularly regarding building life cycle management, to provide valuable insight for practitioners and to propose avenues for further research. Thirty academic sources, including refereed journal articles and conference papers, were retrieved and analysed in terms of their research focus and nature of application. The review revealed that most cloud-BIM research has focused on the building planning/design and construction stages. The findings suggest that more research should be directed towards operation, maintenance and facility management, energy efficiency and the demolition and deconstruction stages of building life cycle management. Further empirical research on organisational and legal issues, including security, responsibility, liability and model ownership, of the cloud-BIM model is also needed

Cloud-assisted body area networks: state-of-the-art and future challenges

Body area networks (BANs) are emerging as enabling technology for many human-centered application domains such as health-care, sport, fitness, wellness, ergonomics, emergency, safety, security, and sociality. A BAN, which basically consists of wireless wearable sensor nodes usually coordinated by a static or mobile device, is mainly exploited to monitor single assisted livings. Data generated by a BAN can be processed in real-time by the BAN coordinator and/or transmitted to a server-side for online/offline processing and long-term storing. A network of BANs worn by a community of people produces large amount of contextual data that require a scalable and efficient approach for elaboration and storage. Cloud computing can provide a flexible storage and processing infrastructure to perform both online and offline analysis of body sensor data streams. In this paper, we motivate the introduction of Cloud-assisted BANs along with the main challenges that need to be addressed for their development and management. The current state-of-the-art is overviewed and framed according to the main requirements for effective Cloud-assisted BAN architectures. Finally, relevant open research issues in terms of efficiency, scalability, security, interoperability, prototyping, dynamic deployment and management, are discussed

The IoT Rapid-Proto Labs Value Proposition for Start-ups and SMEs

The objective of the study is to identify and suggest relevant elements of value on which the IoT Rapid-Proto Labs will focus to correctly structure, define and create a value proposition for the start-ups and SME’s segments. Hence, the study develops on the idea of value creation in the context of university-industry cooperation and explores further on the concept of value proposition. Hence, a theoretical tool called “The Value Proposition Canvas” is used for mapping the elements of value which are essential for the start-ups and SMEs market segments. The study uses an inductive research method, and primary qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with start-ups and SMEs. The aim of these semi-structured interviews was to understand their interpretation of the value enhancing elements. Additionally, the secondary data were gathered through Internet searches, as saved time and resources. During the data collection and analysis of the research findings only the start-ups and SMEs perspectives were considered. The viewpoints of the HEIs and staff involved in the IoT Rapid-Proto Labs were excluded as they are not considered relevant for the identification of the needs and sources of anxieties of the start-ups and SMEs customer segments. Hence, the study exemplifies an outsider’s viewpoint which provides an impartial analysis and assessment of these results. The research interviews with start-ups and SMEs revealed that many types of jobs, pains and gains include concerns around activities such as funding, scalability, lack of operational capital, access to technical knowledge and other day-to day activities on which firms engage in order to generate revenue and eventually profit. Subsequently, interviewees highlighted that HEIs have different working pace compared to the private commercial consultancy firms. Hence, rapid-prototyping and rapid MVP deployment for commercialisation is a requirement sought from potential HEIs partners. In conclusion, this study recommends to create of a new value proposition based on interviewees suggestions, which includes two different components: cost effective rapid-prototyping and co-creation of MVP, rapid deployment for commercialisation. Moreover, the current four IoT Rapid Proto Labs value propositions were included as product and services within the value proposition canvas aiming to build an improved value proposition

Creating Tailored and Adaptive Network Services with the Open Orchestration C-RAN Framework

Next generation wireless communications networks will leverage software-defined radio and networking technologies, combined with cloud and fog computing. A pool of resources can then be dynamically allocated to create personalized network services (NSs). The enabling technologies are abstraction, virtualization and consolidation of resources, automatization of processes, and programmatic provisioning and orchestration. ETSI's network functions virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration (MANO) framework provides the architecture and specifications of the management layers. We introduce OOCRAN, an open-source software framework and testbed that extends existing NFV management solutions by incorporating the radio communications layers. This paper presents OOCRAN and illustrates how it monitors and manages the pool of resources for creating tailored NSs. OOCRAN can automate NS reconfiguration, but also facilitates user control. We demonstrate the dynamic deployment of cellular NSs and discuss the challenges of dynamically creating and managing tailored NSs on shared infrastructure.Comment: IEEE 5G World Forum 201

Collaborative technologies for mobile workers and virtual project teams

Information Technology is advancing at a frightening pace. Cloud computing and its subset, Software as a Service (SaaS), are rapidly challenging traditional thinking for enterprise-level application and infrastructure provision. The project-centric nature of the construction industry provides an environment where the utilisation of SaaS is commercially appropriate, given its ability to provide rapid set-up and predictable costs at the outset. Using project extranets, the construction industry has been - unusually for it as an industry sector - early-adopters of this cloud computing model. However, findings from the research highlight that there is a gap in the information and documents that pass from the construction phase into the operational phase of a building. This research considers examples of the SaaS IT model and how it has been used within a construction and facilities management industry context. A prototype system was developed to address the requirements of facilities management work order logging and tracking process. These requirements were gathered during detailed case studies of organisations within both the construction and facilities management sectors with a view to continue the use of building-specific information through its full life-cycle. The thesis includes a summary of the lessons learnt through system implementation within the construction-contracting organisation Taylor Woodrow, and it concludes with an IT strategy proposal that was developed based on a cloud computing model

Mobile and cloud based systems proposal for a centralized management of educational institutions

The computational technological efforts towards a centralized data storage and processing have contributed to provide more sustainable solutions under the environmental, administrative and business perspectives. However, it is not yet worldwide adopted by public institutions, specially, in the Brazilian educational systems, where these technological models are still under constant discussions and development. In this sense, this work presents a brief survey about cloud and mobile integrated technologies and their possible contributions to support a centralized data management in educational systems, relating improvements in governance, data security, mobility, economic viability and environmental impact. Therefore, this work also present a list of already free and private technologies and their advantages and disadvantages in the Brazilian scenario. In this sense, the herein technological aspects considers the integration between cloud and mobile technologies as essential alternative to suppress the online requirements, which a limitation for a large number of public institutions that have problems to be effectively connected on the Internet