Prof Xiaodong Liu
Edinburgh Napier University,
Intelligence-Driven IoT and Smart Systems Research Group

Title: Challenges in the Next Generation IoT and Context-Active Resilience in Cyber Physical Systems
Abstract:
Cyber-physical systems (CPS) refer to novel hardware and software compositions creating smart, autonomously acting devices, enabling efficient end-to-end workflows and new forms of user-machine interaction. Based on an intensive review of the latest IoT advances, we will first envision the key features and challenges of the next generation IoT and discuss how to achieve them. We will take resilient CPS as a focused application area of the next generation IoT. A resilient CPS system is one that maintains state awareness and an accepted level of operational normalcy in response to disturbances, including threats of an unexpected and malicious nature. Due to its interdisciplinary and sophisticated nature, although resilience is critically desired in CPS, existing approaches and tools are only able to support limited resilience in a non-dynamic manner, i.e., fail to consider and respond to a comprehensive profile of the current states and needs of the devices and human users, which are always dynamically changing during the running of a CPS. We define such a profile as the context of a CPS, and advocate that a CPS should adapt itself actively and even proactively for the optimal functions and Quality of Services (QoS) according to this dynamic context. This is a new level of resilience, which has not been aimed at by previous work, and we define it as “Context-Active Resilience (CAR)”. We aim to develop a novel approach to context-active resilience in CPS, which ensures the best matching and optimal functions and QoS of the CPS in real-time during the running of the CPS. 
Biography:
Prof Xiaodong Liu has been very active in the research in AI-driven software engineering, focusing on pervasive systems (Internet of Things), service-oriented architecture, evolution of cloud services, and intelligence-driven smart systems. He has won 12 external grants and successfully led or leading these externally funded projects with the role of principal investigator. Currently Prof Liu leads the Intelligence-Driven IoT and Smart Systems Research Group. He is the founder a spin out company, FlexiCAGE Ltd. He has published 160 papers in refereed international journals and conferences and 5 book chapters. He is the inventor of 1 patent in Generative Component Adaptation registered in UK, USA and at International Level (PCT). He has been the chair, co-chair or PC member of a number of IEEE and IASTED International Conferences. He is the associate editor of 2 international journals and the editorial board member of 3 international journals. He is the chief editor of 3 IGI Global Research Handbooks. He is the regular reviewer of other 6 international journals. He is a senior member of IEEE Computer Society, and a member of British Computer Society.