University of Leicester

cms

Stephan Reiff-Marganiec: Research

Research Interests

My research considers runtime adaptation of complex networked software systems and approaches and software architectures for modelling, managing (using semantic data integration) and efficiently processing data for data analytics. I have a particular interest in architectures, data management and analytics that can be distributed and allow action close to the source of the data as is needed for smart environments.

I have pursued three related research strands which are now cumulating in solutions for problems in the context of IoT and Smart World solutions.

(1) I have conducted research in various systems that adapt at runtime, ranging from feature interactions in telecommunications, adapting workflows [9] and selecting most appropriate software services [10] and recently cloud and IoT resources [1][5]. Solutions typically evaluating multi criteria decision problems to dynamically decide which of many possible components providing a certain functionality are best for a given situation have been created.

(2) A second strand focuses on data modelling and management; this uses technologies ranging from UML modelling to semantic web solutions to complex event processing (CEP) to capture data in the best possible way and to allow reasoning about the data [4][6][8] – some of my current work is considering the application of AI techniques to such data.

(3) A third, and partly more recent, strand of work is focussing on fast data processing [6]. The achievements in this strand are a platform providing a combined pull-push model for collecting data and accessing information with near zero delay. This platform has been formally modelled using ITL (interval temporal logic) and hence can be formally reasoned about.

Bringing these strands together, I am currently investigating data processing platforms that optimise where data is processed (in device, fog/edge or cloud – or a combination thereof) [3]. This optimisation is driven by numerous factors such as the availability of the data to make decisions, the processing need and device capabilities as well as the speed and precision needed for deriving answers. Initial results exist for providing autonomy to IoT devices, allowing them to work in a peer to peer fashion and processing data locally [7] as well as a hybrid approach for processing data in the cloud and edge/ fog [3]. We have also developed a simulator (FABIoT) to experiment with various data processing setups [2].

[1] E. Martins de Oliveira, J.C. Estrella, A.C.B. Delbem, L.H. Nunes, H.Y. Shishido, S. Reiff-Marganiec. Selection of computational environments for PSP processing on scientific gateways. Heliyon. 2018;4(7). 2018.
[2] M.E. Perez-Hernandez, B. Alturki, S. Reiff-Marganiec. FABIoT: A Flexible Agent-Based Simulation Model for IoT Environments. iThings 2018 (11th IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things 2018). 2018.
[3] B. Alturki, S. Reiff-Marganiec, C. Perera: A hybrid approach for data analytics for internet of things. IOT 2017: 7:1-7:8. 2017
[4] E. Asimadi, S. Reiff-Marganiec, B. Donnelly, J. Baker, D. Fang. Semantic approach to financial data integration for enabling new insights. XBRL-AT. CEUR-Proceedings ISSN 1613-0073. Vol-1890. 2017.
[5] L.H. Nunes, J.C. Estrella, C. Perera, S. Reiff-Marganiec, A.N. Delbem. Multi-criteria IoT Resource Discovery: A Comparative Analysis. Software: Practice and Experience, 47, 1325–1341. 2016.
[6] M. Tilly, S. Reiff-Marganiec. Fast Data Processing for Large-Scale SOA and Event-Based Systems. International Journal of Systems and Service-Oriented Engineering (IJSSOE). Vol 5(4). pp. 54-77. IGI. 2015.
[7] M.E. Perez Hernandez, S. Reiff-Marganiec. Autonomous and self-controlling smart objects for the future internet. Proceedings of FICloud 2015. IEEE. 2015.
[8] K. T. Pathan, S. Reiff-Marganiec, A. A. Shaikh, N. Channa. Reaching Activities by Places in the Context-Aware Environments Using Software Sensors. Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences. ISSN 2079-8407. Vol 2(12). pp 665-673. 2011.
[9] L. Bocchi, S. Gorton and S. Reiff-Marganiec. Engineering Service Oriented Applications: From StPowla Processes to SRML Models. FACS (Formal Aspects of Computing). 2009.
[10] H.Q. Yu and S. Reiff-Marganiec. Automated Context-aware Service Selection for Collaborative Systems. In P. van Eck, J. Gordijn, R. Wieringa (eds.): Advanced Information Systems Engineering CAiSE 2009, LNCS 5565, pp 261-274, 2009.

Externally Funded Research Activities

I am (joint) principle investigator on the following projects:

  • Leicester Innovation Accelerator in the Leicester Innovation Hub.
    Grant Reference: ESIF PA1.
    Duration April 2018 - March 2021.

  • EPSRC iCASE with Airbus: High Assurance Runtime Monitoring of Industrial Control Systems/SCADA
    Grant Reference: EP/N509255/1
    Duration: February 2016 - January 2020
    The objective of the research is to develop a low-cost, easy deployable monitoring infrastructure for existing, vulnerable SCADA systems that is passive with respect to the monitored components and thus does not directly influence the behaviour of the control system.
  • KTP with Synapse Information Ltd
    Grant Reference: KTP 009972
    Duration: October 2015 - September 2017
    The aim of the KTP is to develop innovative products for integrating financial data using semantic technology capable of automatically integrating data from multiple companies to create consolidated accounts and enable complex multinational financial analysis.
  • SME Support to Growth
    Funding: European Regional Development Fund
    Duration: January 2013 - June 2015
    This project aims at supporting local (Leicester City) based businesses to enhance their export potential through collaborations with the University of Leicester.
    For further details see the project webiste
  • sKTP with Comtec Translations Ltd
    Grant Reference: sKTP 1000106
    Duration: January 2010 - May 2010
    This project is inspired by some work from the inContext project and investigates the processes and ranking models in the translations industry in order to prepare for better software support for the existing processes.
  • Ad-hoc Web Applications.
    Nuffield Grant Reference: NAL/00795/G
    Duration: May 2004 - November 2006
    This project investigates ad-hoc composition of services driven by policies that end-users can formulate. The project will establish a framework for a full-scale research initiative. It will develop a prototype language for defining policies and reasoning about their interactions.
  • DSTL as Formal Semantics for the Policy Language Appel
    Royal Society International Outgoing Short Visit 2006/R2
    Duration: October 2006
  • International Conference on Feature Interaction in Telecommunications and Software Systems
    EPSRC Grant Reference: EP/D000122/1
    Duration: May 2005 - October 2005
    The International Conference on Feature Interactions in Telecommunications and Software Systems (ICFI) has evolved out of the Feature Interaction Workshop, which has been the primary international forum for discussion and reporting on research in the feature interaction problem in telecommunications and software systems since 1992.

I am co-investigator in the following projects:

  • BEHAPI (Behavioural Application Program Interfaces).
    Grant Reference: MSCA-RISE 778233.
    Duration March 2018 - February 2022.

  • British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS) 2008-20010
    Grant Reference: EPSRC EP/F057164/1
    Duration: Mar 2008 - June 2010
  • SENSORIA: Software Engineering for Service-Oriented Overlay Computers
    Grant Reference: IST-2005-16004
    Duration: September 2005 - August 2009
    For further details please see the grant website: http://sensoria.fast.de/
  • inContext: Interaction and Context Based Technologies for Collaborative Teams
    Grant Reference: IST-2006-034718
    Duration: May 2006 - October 2008
    For further details please see the grant website: http://www.in-context.eu/
  • Leg2Net: From Legacy Systems to Services in the Net
    Grant Reference: Marie-Curie TOK-IAP 3160
    Duration: June 2004 - May 2008
    For further details please see the grant website: http://www.cs.le.ac.uk/SoftSD/Leg2Net/
  • British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS) 2005-2007
    Grant Reference: EPSRC EP/C00745X/1
    Duration: Mar 2005 - June 2007
  • British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS) 2004
    Grant Reference: EPSRC GR/S82145/01
    Duration: April 2004 - May 2004

I am holder of the following Conference Support Grants:

  • LMS Computer Science Committee Grant (BCTCS 2015)
    Funding: LMS
    Duration: Sep - Dec 2015
  • LMS Computer Science Committee Grant (BCTCS 2014)
    Funding: LMS
    Duration: Mar - July 2014
  • LMS Computer Science Committee Grant (BCTCS 2013)
    Funding: LMS
    Duration: Mar - July 2013

Current PhD Students

  • Bbadraddin Alturki: February 2016 -
    The deatils of Bbadraddin's work will emerge over the next few month, but the work will be in the context of Internet of Things.
  • Fola-Dami Etiyemi: October 2017 -
    The deatils of Fola-Dami's work will emerge over the next few month, but the work will be in the context of Microservices.

Past PhD Students

  • Hong Qing Yu: 2005 - 2009 [some of this was part-time]
    Hong Qing (Harry) worked on methods for automatic service selection. His thesis is entitled "Context Aware Automatic Service Selection".
    Harry graduated with his PhD in January 2010 and is now working at KMi.
  • Stephen Gorton: 2005 - 2011 [some of this was part-time]
    Stephen was working on policies for service oriented computing. His thesis is entitled "Policy-driven Reconfiguration of Service-targeted Business Processes".
    Stephen graduated with his PhD in January 2012.
  • Noor Jehan Rajper: 2007 - 2012
    Noor is developing a formal modelling language for Virtual Organistions. Her thesis is entitled "VOML: Virtual Organization Modelling Language".
    Noor has graduated with her PhD in July 2012.
  • Zohra Adnan Khowaja: 2008 - 2012
    Zohra is investigating structured domain specialisations for Policy Languages in the area of Service Oriented Computing and their use for policy conflict detection. Her thesis is entitled "Structural Domain Modelling for Policy Language Specialization with Conflict Analysis".
    Zohra has graduated with her PhD in July 2012.
  • Manar Ali: 2006 - 2013 (part-time)
    Manar has considering long-running business transactions for service oriented computing.
    Her thesis is entitled "Maintaining Transactional Integrity in Long Running Workflow Services: A Policy-Driven Framework".
    Manar has graduated with her PhD in January 2014.
  • Kamran Pathan: 2008 - 2013
    Kamran has investigated Software Sensors as a mechanism to gather activity information through users' web service usage. His thesis is entitled "Activity Awareness in Context-aware Systems using Software Sensors".
    Kamran has graduated with his PhD in January 2014.
  • Marcel Tilly: 2009 - 2015
    Marcel is a part-time student, working for EMIC in Aachen when not studying. His interest is in Web 2.0+ technologies, combining the social element with service selection mechanisms. His thesis is entitled "Fast Data Processing in Hyper Scale Systems".
    Marcel has graduated with his PhD in January 2016.
  • Yi Hong: 2009 - 2015
    Yi is a part-time student, working as research fellow on the Sensoria project and the "Tracing Networks" grant. His interests are in application modelling and reasoning about domain data using semantic web technologies.
    Yi has graduated with his PhD in January 2017.
  • Marco Perez Hernandez: October 2013 - October 2017
    Marco is working on software architectures for the Internet of Things, allowing for easier development and use of Smart Objects.
    Marco has graduated with his PhD in July 2018.
  • Budoor Allehyani: October 2013 - October 2017
    Budoor's work is considering techniques to ensure that overall goals of workflows are preserved in the context of runtime changes to workflow instances.
    Budoor has graduated with her PhD in July 2018.

Editorial Boards

Activities

Past Research Positions

  • Research Assistant on the HFIG project (1998-2001).
    HFIG was addressing the problems of detecting and resolving feature interactions between telecommunications services. In particular the development of a hybrid (i.e. off-line and on-line) and adaptive approach to detecting and resolving feature interactions was investigated. The work on the project ranged from formal modelling and reasoning to the development of software for managing interactions between new and legacy services. The research was conducted in partnership with Citel Technologies Ltd and Mitel Telecomms.
  • Research Fellow on the ACCENT project (2001-2003).
    ACCENT investigates the use of policies in a call control context. Policies are used in systems managament for example for access control, but they have not been used much for call control. The ACCENT project is in colaboration with Mitel Telecoms Ltd and the Universities of Ottawa and Waterloo in Canada. Details of the collaborators can be found on the COMPASS website.

Professional Bodies

  • I am a fellow of the BCS, chartered status (FBCS CITP CSci).
  • I am professional member of the ACM and a member of IEEE.

Author: Stephan Reiff-Marganiec (srm13@le.ac.uk), T: +44 (0) 116 252 2603.
© University of Leicester 31-May-2005. Last modified: 7th February 2019, 10:40:38
CMS Web Maintainer. Any opinions expressed on this page are those of the author.