Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Despite the large deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) in many sectors, users are still concerned with fundamental issues regarding IoT technology. These issues include IoT affordability, IoT security, heterogeneity of IoT devices, complex deployment, and complicated access to IoT data. This is mainly because IoT industries, in general, do not integrate end users in the design process. This has affected IoT adoption in many sectors (such as smart homes and patient care) and for several categories of our society (such as people with no or little knowledge of the technology, people with disabilities, and elderly people). This research program aims at enabling IoT to be a personalized and inclusive technology that endorses the evolving user needs by involving them in the IoT design and operation processes. Since the availability of resources and their allocation represent a fundamental factor in enabling personalized IoT, my focus will be on joint IoT resource optimization, including energy, bandwidth, security resources, sensing resources, data computing and storage, and financial resources. This research will target 3 short-term goals. First, I aim at developing dynamic profiles for IoT users and their corresponding resources. Second, I will create innovative techniques based on artificial intelligence (AI) for user-in-the-loop resource optimization. These techniques will include machine learning (ML), network virtualization, and deep reinforcement learning. Third, I will build a flexible and adaptive user-in-the-loop IoT experimental testing framework. The proposed experimental framework will be implemented on the state-of the-art Carleton-Cisco IoT testbed. It will be used to test and evaluate the proposed algorithms and tools, and for future research projects. This research program will offer advanced training to 17 HQP. In addition to theoretical modelling, system analysis and algorithm design, HQP will receive hands-on training and practical experience through the opportunities offered by the Carleton-Cisco IoT testbed, with potential involvement of my industry partners in training. In Canada, current policies do not require engaging end users in the IoT design process. My research program will pave the way for policy innovation in IoT design and deployment that involve end users. Establishing such policies will certainly break barriers and make the IoT technology more accessible for people. Moreover, this research will provide evidence-based design methodologies for establishing IoT as an accessible and inclusive technology, and thus promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in this sector. Through this long-term vision, many categories of our society will be able to benefit from the IoT technology, such as people with disabilities, elderly people, and people with no or little knowledge of the technology.