On Wednesday 30th January Dr Sajal Das gave a public lecture on Cyber-Physical and Smart Environments: Challenges and Opportunities at the Nimbus Centre, CIT. Dr. Sajal K. Das is a University Distinguished Scholar Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the founding director of the Center for Research in Wireless Mobility and Networking (CReWMaN) at the University of Texas at Arlington. During 2008-2011 he was a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Computer Networks and Systems. He is currently an SFI funded E.T.S. Walton Visiting Fellow at CIT, Ireland.
Rapid advancements in smartphones, wireless sensors and mobile communications have led to the development of cyber-physical systems, smart environments, and pervasive computing with important applications in environmental, civilian, military, industry, and government sectors. Sensor networks and smartphones play significant roles in this context as they not only act as effective interface between physical and cyber worlds, but also bring in human social aspects. However, increasing scale and heterogeneity at all levels – users, devices, networking and computing technologies, information and services – implies a high degree of uncertainty in distributed control and operations of pervasive and cyber-physical systems, thereby posing significant challenges in providing desired information quality, assurance, and reliability for intelligent decision making. This is particularly important for applications like smart health care, smart energy management, and pervasive security.
The talk examined uncertainty-driven unique challenges and opportunities in cyber-physical systems and smart environments, and their inter-winding relationships with pervasive computing and communications. The talk concluded with provocative thoughts, open issues and future directions of research.