Bruce McMillin of Univ. Missouri - USA

Fog computing is an attractive model for systems in which people live inside the system with the goal of living smarter. Introduction of new technologies (materials, sensors, wireless communications, controls) without consideration of human behavior, health outcomes or architectural integrity will inevitably lead to failure of the rapidly changing built environment to meet the most fundamental needs: to be healthy, safe, productive and humane. Infrastructures are needed that are holistically designed to be human-centered and adapt to our needs and preferences. Utility and transportation networks must adapt to dynamic usage, traffic conditions or user behavior with minimum carbon footprint. A clean and locally sourced (renewable) energy grid actuates localized energy and power control. Pervasive security detects and prevents potential threats. Technologies are needed for managing living environments that proactively sense behavioral and health risks, and provide situation-aware responses to emergencies or disasters. Such a view embraces a bold vision of smart living that goes well beyond smart homes or even smart cities.

All of the desirable aspects of living require an Internet-of-Things (IoT) environment deeply embedding a wide variety of physical devices with computational elements and networking, working on the local level. Fog computing is just such a system-level horizontal architecture that distributes resources and services of computing, storage, control and networking anywhere along the continuum from Cloud to Things. By extending the cloud to be closer to the things that produce and act on IoT data, Fog enables localized control and decision making at shorter time scales with more resilience.

This talk will discuss how research into a Smart Living Fog encompasses researchers from engineering, computing, networking, social and behavioral sciences and a good understanding of ethical thought to be able to construct a safe and secure environment.

Biography:

Dr.  Bruce McMillin  is currently a Professor of Computer Science and its interim chair, director of the Center for Information Assurance and co-director of the Center for Smart Living at  the  Missouri  University of Science and Technology.  He leads and participates in interdisciplinary teams in formal methods for fault tolerance and security in distributed embedded systems with an eye towards critical infrastructure protection. His current work focuses on protection for advanced power grid control.  His research has been supported by the United States NSF, AFOSR, DOE, NIST and several Missouri Industries.  Dr.  McMillin  has authored over 120 refereed papers in international conferences and journals.    He is a senior member of the IEEE and member of the IFIP WG 11.0 on Critical Infrastructure Protection.  He is a member of the Computing ABET Accreditation Commission, serves as a director of the CSAB accreditation board, and is an IEEE Computer Society distinguished visitor.