Offloading for Mobile Device Performance Improvement

Mobile devices are increasingly becoming part of everyday life. These include smart phones, tablets, wearable devices etc. Due to their mobility aspect, they are always constrained in their size and weight, which limits their resource capacity, e.g. processing power, and battery life. One possible solution for augmentation of such resource-constrained devices is through efficient usage of their surrounding resources, i.e. using some offloading technique. This paper studies how offloading of tasks to the surrounding resources affects on both the performance of task execution as well as the battery life of the mobile device. Two mobile phones and two tablets (from two different manufacturers) are studied in the experiments to find out the impact of the device characteristics. Two computationally demanding tasks, namely image processing and encryption/decryption, are used in these experiments. These results are compared to our earlier results on mobile devices of previous generations. We assumed that the increased computing power of new devices would make offloading obsolete. Our results show gains both in energy saving and in computational performance with these mobile devices. The comparison to our earlier results show that the performance increase of newer mobile device generations has not diminished the benefits of offloading. These results are in line with results presented in literature and they show that the offloading could offer a viable approach for resource augmentation of mobile devices towards edge/fog resources emphasized by the new 5G technology

Privacy conscious architecture for personal information transfer from a personal trusted device to an HTTP based service

Modern services request personal information from their customers. The personal information is not needed only for identifying the customer but also for customising the service for each customer. In this paper we first analyse the existing approaches for personal information handling and point out their weaknesses. We desribe an architecture for the delivery of personal information from the customer to the HTTP based service in the Internet. For personal information storing our architecture relies on a mobile device, such as a customer’s mobile phone. The access of the service is conducted with a traditional desktop computer. The information is transmitted to the service on request via a desktop computer that fetches the information from a mobile device over a wireless link. The goal of our approach is to simplify the use of services by helping the customer to provide the required personal information. Furthermore our approach is designed so that existing services require only minor changes. We introduce methods for the customer to control his own privacy by providing notation to define the required security measures for automated data transfer. Finally we discuss the possible security risks of our architecture

Software Engineers in Transition: Self-Role Attribution and Awareness for Sustainability

Context: The Software Engineering process can be seen as a socio-technical activity that involves fulfilling one's role as part of a team. Accordingly, software products and services are the result of a specific collaboration between employees (and other stakeholders). In recent years, sustainability, which Requirements Engineers often paraphrase as the ability of a system to endure, is becoming part of the process and thus the responsibility of Software Engineers (SE) as well. Objectives: This study shines the spotlight on the role of the SE: their self-attribution and their awareness for sustainability. We interviewed 13 SEs to figure out how they perceive their own role and to which extent they implement the topic of sustainability in their daily work. By visualizing these two sides, it is possible to debate changes and their possible paths to benefit the Software Engineering process including sustainability design. Results: A discrepancy between the current role and the ideal role of SEs becomes visible. It is characterized in particular by dwelling on their “classic” or time-honored tasks as an executive force, such as coding. At the same time, they point out the still missing necessity of an interdisciplinary, from communication coined working method. According to our interviewees SEs are inefficiently involved in the design process. They do not sufficiently assume their responsibility for the software and its sustainability impacts

Security In The Internet Of Things - A Systematic Mapping Study

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is emerging and evolving rapidly. Various technical solutions for multiple purposes have been proposed for its implementation. The rapid evolution and utilization of IoT technologies has raised security concerns and created a feeling of uncertainty among IoT adopters. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current research trends related to security concerns of the IoT concept and provide a detailed understanding of the topic. We thus applied systematic mapping study as the methodological approach. Based on the chosen search strategy, 38 articles (of close to 3500 articles in the field) were selected for a closer examination. Out of these articles, the concerns, solutions and research gaps for the security in the IoT concept were extracted. The mapping study identifies nine main concerns and 11 solutions. However, the findings also reveal challenges, such as secure privacy management and cloud integration that still require efficient solutions

Sustainability for Artificial Intelligence Products and Services – Initial How-to for IT Practitioners

Year after year, software engineers celebrate new achievements in the field of AI. At the same time, the question about the impacts of AI on society remains insufficiently answered in terms of a comprehensive technology assessment. This article aims to provide software practitioners with a theoretically grounded and practically tested approach that enables an initial understanding of the potential multidimensional impacts. Subsequently, the results form the basis for discussions on AI software requirements. The approach is based on the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF) and Participatory Design. We conducted three workshops on different AI topics: 1. Autonomous Driving, 2. Music Composition, and 3. Memory Avatars. Based on the results of the workshops we conclude that a two-level approach should be adopted: First, a broad one that includes a diverse selection of stakeholders and overall impact analysis. Then, in a second step, specific approaches narrowing down the stakeholders and focusing on one or few impact areas

Sosiaalinen verkostoanalyysi opetuksessa – verkkoympäristöstä luokkahuoneeseen

Group and peer learning can be studied with social network analysis. This enables the automatic quantitative analysis of student collaboration in digital learning environments. However, there are significant challenges in data collection and analysis of classroom environments. The article gives first brief overview of the theory of social network analysis and data collection methods, and then presents concepts of how to apply the future possibilities of Internet of Things and smart devices in data collection. Additionally, a case study of applying social network analysis in the analysis of student collaboration is presented.Ryhmätyö- ja vertaisopiskelua voi tutkia sosiaalisella verkostoanalyysillä. Tämä mahdollistaa opiskelijoiden ryhmätoiminnan automaattisen kvantitatiivisen analyysin digitaalisissa oppimisympäristöissä, mutta luokkahuoneympäristössä tapahtuvan opiskelun analysoinnissa ja tiedonkeruussa on huomattavia haasteita. Artikkelissa luodaan katsaus verkostoanalyysin taustalla olevaan teoriaan ja tiedonkeruumenetelmiin sekä pohditaan esineiden internetin ja älylaitteiden mahdollisuuksia tulevaisuuden tiedonkeräyksessä. Artikkelissa esitetään lisäksi esimerkkitapaus verkostoanalyysin soveltamisesta opiskelijoiden yhteistoiminnan analyysiin.&nbsp

Code camps and hackathons in education - literature review and lessons learned

Motivation: Code camps and hackathons been used in education for almost two decades. These approaches are usually intensive and for most times quite practical events for solving some real-world problems with various educational objectives. The objectives and structures of these events differ depending on the role of the event in curricula. Problem statement: Both code camps and hackathons been implemented in various ways, with varying success levels. As expected the implementation of the event varies considerably depending on the objectives set for the event, but that then leads to the difficulty and problem setting to understand what organizing of these events actually mean. For educational context, curricula have also its role in defining the targeted skills and competencies the events has to consider too. Approach: We applied a systematic literature review (SLR) to look at the various definitions and modes of these events. Whether it is called “code camp”, or “hackathon”, or anything else with the same basic meaning, we want to find out what skills and competencies these events emphasize, how they are used in Computer Science (CS) and Software Engineering (SE) education and what are the general structures of the actual arranged events. Contribution: It is aim of this SLR to i) identify various possible ways of implementing these intensive events, and ii) reflect the results to the lessons we have learned of almost two decades of various intensive code camps and hackathons we have been organizing building and participating into. Based on the results, we claim that there is tremendous potential of using these events in education and in the curriculum than how it has been applied so far

Blueprint and Evaluation Instruments for a Course on Software Engineering for Sustainability

We report on a summer school course on Software Engineering for Sustainability (SE4S). We provide a detailed blueprint of the contents taught and its evaluation with the instruments that were used

Transforming our World through Software – Mapping the Sustainability Awareness Framework to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations focus on key issues for the transformation of our world towards sustainability. We argue for stronger integration of the SDGs into requirements and software engineering and for the creation of methods and tools that support the analysis of potential effects of software systems on sustainability in general and on SDGs in particular. To demonstrate one way of undertaking this integration, we report on how the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF -- a tool developed by the authors of this paper) can be mapped to the SDGs, allowing the identification of potential effects of software systems on sustainability and on the SDGs. This mapping exercise demonstrates that it is possible for requirements engineers working on a specific system to consider that system's impact with respect to SDGs