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Engineering Adaptive IoT-based Software for Food Security

Topic Description

Food waste is a scourge of modern society. One third of the world’s food is wasted somewhere along the food supply chain – from initial production through to final household consumption. Today’s technological advances can help consumers plan their diet, meals, and grocery shopping. They can also help connect producers and consumers, encouraging nutritious food consumption for individuals, as well as efficient food distribution. We defined an exemplar ‘Feed Me, Feed Me’ [http://sead1.open.ac.uk/fmfm/] which takes advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT) to reduce food waste in our society. In this exemplar Smart devices worn by individuals will analyse their activities and provide nutrient-intake recommendations; this will speak to smart home appliances, such as fridges, which will be able to plan meals; retailers will gather real-time data about the grocery needs of the family to manage their stock efficiently; and food manufacturers will then be able to accurately predict stock requirements.

The IoT presents a major new opportunity for research in adaptive software engineering. The IoT promises a future where devices and people interact seamlessly with one another, and with their environment, to access targeted, optimised, and adaptive services, due to changes in needs, desires, and context. Realising the IoT requires addressing many challenges, including the support for software adaptation. The aim of this PhD project is to explore the challenges and requirements of modern IoT systems. The purpose of the exemplar is to capture a variety of requirements for engineering adaptive software for the IoT in the domain of Food Security.

Skills Required:

Background in software development

Willingness to work and play with Internet of Things devices, eventually using simulations

Background in distributed systems and middleware technologies

Background Reading:

Bennaceur, A., McCormick, C., García-Galán, J., Perera, C., Smith, A., Zisman, A., & Nuseibeh, B. (2016). Feed me, feed me: An exemplar for engineering adaptive software. In Software Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems (SEAMS), 2016 IEEE/ACM 11th International Symposium on (pp. 89-95). IEEE.

Bennaceur, A., & Issarny, V. (2015). Automated synthesis of mediators to support component interoperability. Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, 41(3), 221-240.

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