ENABLING IOT AUTHENTICATION, PRIVACY AND SECURITY VIA BLOCKCHAIN

Although low-power and Internet-connected gadgets and sensors are increasingly integrated into our lives, the optimal design of these systems remains an issue. In particular, authentication, privacy, security, and performance are critical success factors. Furthermore, with emerging research areas such as autonomous cars, advanced manufacturing, smart cities, and building, usage of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices is expected to skyrocket. A single compromised node can be turned into a malicious one that brings down whole systems or causes disasters in safety-critical applications. This dissertation addresses the critical problems of (i) device management, (ii) data management, and (iii) service management in IoT systems. In particular, we propose an integrated platform solution for IoT device authentication, data privacy, and service security via blockchain-based smart contracts. We ensure IoT device authentication by blockchain-based IC traceability system, from its fabrication to its end-of-life, allowing both the supplier and a potential customer to verify an IC’s provenance. Results show that our proposed consortium blockchain framework implementation in Hyperledger Fabric for IC traceability achieves a throughput of 35 transactions per second (tps). To corroborate the blockchain information, we authenticate the IC securely and uniquely with an embedded Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). For reliable Weak PUF-based authentication, our proposed accelerated aging technique reduces the cumulative burn-in cost by ∼ 56%. We also propose a blockchain-based solution to integrate the privacy of data generated from the IoT devices by giving users control of their privacy. The smart contract controlled trust-base ensures that the users have private access to their IoT devices and data. We then propose a remote configuration of IC features via smart contracts, where an IC can be programmed repeatedly and securely. This programmability will enable users to upgrade IC features or rent upgraded IC features for a fixed period after users have purchased the IC. We tailor the hardware to meet the blockchain performance. Our on-die hardware module design enforces the hardware configuration’s secure execution and uses only 2,844 slices in the Xilinx Zedboard Zynq Evaluation board. The blockchain framework facilitates decentralized IoT, where interacting devices are empowered to execute digital contracts autonomously

Vision 2021: The Needs for Women Entrepreneurship, Their Prospects and Constraints in Bangladesh

Development of women entrepreneurship offers excellent opportunities for development of one half of the population and for overall socio-economic progress of the country. This paper examines issues like why women entrepreneurship is needed in Bangladesh to achieve the target set for Vision 2021. What factors influence the strategic growth of women-owned businesses in Bangladesh? What are the characteristics of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs and their businesses? What have been the greatest obstacles and challenges for women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh? The study shows that the constraints of innovative women entrepreneurship are traditional views and stereotypes about women, lack of science and innovation, lack of substantial investment and women being seen less credible financially than men, lack of access to technical scientific and general business networks, lack of business training, role models and entrepreneurship skills

MOOC Based Teaching-Learning Initiatives in Bangladesh

Purpose: The study\u27s goal is to learn more about how MOOC-based teaching and learning are evolving in Bangladesh. The difficulties of MOOC-based activities were also investigated in the context of Bangladesh. Methodology: The current research is based on an examination of secondary literature, which includes journal articles, web documents, newspaper stories, book chapters, and other sources. Findings: The market for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is expected to reach USD 67.18 billion by 2027, up from USD 7.34 billion in 2020, with a CAGR of 37.2 percent from 2021 to 2027. Bangladesh is still in the early stages of MOOC-based teaching-learning activities, despite the fact that a few projects, such as 10-minute school and BYLCx, are very commendable. Bangladesh\u27s government also uses the MOOC platform to teach migrant candidates and government-designated officers, which contributes to the country\u27s digital transformation. Despite these great efforts, the reliability and acceptance of MOOCs in Bangladesh have been questioned owing to a number of challenges, including language limitations, a lack of self-motivation, and disorientation of the ICT environment. Originality/value: This paper encapsulates the general scenario of the MOOC-based teaching-learning environment of Bangladesh

Corporate Governance: A Preliminary Study on Current Situation in Bangladeshi Companies and the Need for Corporate Governance

Corporate governance has become an important topic in transition economies in recent years. Directors, owners and corporate managers have started to realize that there are benefits that can accrue from having a good corporate governance structure. Good corporate governance helps to increase share price and makes it easier to obtain capital. International investors are hesitant to lend money or buy shares in a corporation that does not subscribe to good corporate governance principles. Transparency, independent directors and a separate audit committee are especially important. Some international investors will not seriously consider investing in accompany that does not have these things. Several organizations have popped up in recent years to help adopt and implement good corporate governance principles. This Research paper begins with an overview of some basic corporate governance mechanism  the regulation and enforcement relies on the development of an inter-related web of public and private institutions, regulations and rights that underpin the four basic values of corporate governance – transparency, accountability, fairness, and responsibility. Without the guarantee of these institutions, the market-building benefits of good internal corporate governance become tenuous. However, if functioning well, their benefits have far-reaching impact, increasing investor confidence and providing business the legal basis needed to take risk and to grow. Keywords: Board Composition, Management , Ownership Structure, Corporate Governance, Board of Director

Effects on natural frequency of a plate due to distributed and positional concentrated mass

The concentrated masses attached rigidly to the plate due to different kinds of loading for the installation of the machineries on that plate may play a vital role to shift the bare plate natural frequencies. This paper presents the effect of natural frequencies when the amount of concentrated masses, the position of the concentrated masses and the distribution of a specific amount of concentrated masses into different positions, which is practically possible when installing the machineries, are introduced. The investigations have been done numerically through ANSYS and also carried out to observe the change of mode shapes due to the concentrated masses. A typical single concentrated mass applied at the middle of the plate is validated by the analytical approach found in the literature

A LED-based Functional Light Source for the Characterization of Thin Film Solar Cells

A light source of selective functionalities of wavelengths, illumination periods, and intensities is desirable for investigating performance parameters as well as the quality of different layers and interfaces of solar cells. Conventional light sources used for these types of research are expensive, space-consuming, cumbersome to work with, and have limited functionalities. We have developed a light source with variable wavelength, intensity, and illumination period to address these issues using an illumination period control unit, voltage regulator, neutral density filter, alterable light emitting diodes, etc. As a proof-of-concept, we employed our constructed light source to investigate the intensity, wavelength, illumination period modulated photovoltaic, and impedance properties of inorganic thin film solar cells such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) using lights of wavelength 410, 520, and 635 nm. We hope to use this light source for photophysical and photochemical studies of metal oxide materials used for renewable energy research.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure