Applying an Integrated Systems Perspective to the Management of Engineering Projects

Engineering projects can be subject to significant complexity, which may result in a number of issues and challenges that need to be addressed throughout the project life-cycle. Traditionally projects have been viewed according to the so called “iron triangle,” i. e., achievement of project milestones according to schedule, cost and quality targets. While these targets are fundamentally important to the performance of engineering projects, it is possible to view projects on a systemic level in order to allow an adequate focus on all the underpinning factors that have the potential to influence the performance of projects. Consequently, a management framework has been developed that is based on an integrated systems perspective of engineering projects, where the performance of projects is a function of six contributing sub-systems that are: process, technology, resources, knowledge, culture and impact.     

A synthesis approach to distributed supervisory control design for manufacturing systems with Grafcet implementation

In supervisory control, computational complexity and implementation flexibility represent major challenges when a large number of local components compose a target system. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a formal approach to distributed control synthesis and implementation for automated manufacturing systems (AMS). We assume that the system is modelled with automata in a local modular fashion. Local control specifications are defined for each local subsystem by means of logical equations to construct local controllers (LCs). Then, global control specifications, stated as logical implications, are applied to the LCs, which allows synchronisation and cooperative interaction among the subsystems. This paper makes two contributions. First, it outlines a formal method for constructing minimally restrictive and deadlock-free distributed controllers (DCs). Second, it proposes a method for the interpretation of these DCs into Grafcet, which is a graphical modelling formalism widely used to design the controller’s dynamic behaviour for AMS. An experimental manufacturing system illustrates the approach.     

Edge Computing-Based Tasks Offloading and Block Caching for Mobile Blockchain

Internet of Things (IoT) technology is rapidly evolving, but there is no trusted platform to protect user privacy, protect information between different IoT domains, and promote edge processing. Therefore, we integrate the blockchain technology into constructing trusted IoT platforms. However, the application of blockchain in IoT is hampered by the challenges posed by heavy computing processes. To solve the problem, we put forward a blockchain framework based on mobile edge computing, in which the blockchain mining tasks can be offloaded to nearby nodes or the edge computing service providers and the encrypted hashes of blocks can be cached in the edge computing service providers. Moreover, we model the process of offloading and caching to ensure that both edge nodes and edge computing service providers obtain the maximum profit based on game theory and auction theory. Finally, the proposed mechanism is compared with the centralized mode, mode A (all the miners offload their tasks to the edge computing service providers), and mode B (all the miners offload their tasks to a group of neighbor devices). Simulation results show that under our mechanism, mining networks obtain more profits and consume less time on average.     

Kill switches,remote deletion,and intelligent agents: Framing everyday household cybersecurity in the internet of things

Increasing utilizations of kill switches, remote deletion, and intelligent agents as a part of “Internet of Things” (IoT) architectures present emerging cybersecurity and privacy challenges. These issues are compounded in complexity by the frequent updates and other controls instituted by the growing assortment of purveyors of household IoT devices and systems. This paper proposes that aspects of user ownership, awareness, and voice be clarified and in some venues fostered in part to expose as quickly as possible potential technological and social dangers. It addresses rights of household participants to obtain knowledge and control over the intelligent IoT agents operating (and perhaps “quartering”) in their personal and intimate spheres, as well as to be free from inappropriately opportunistic applications associated with IoT systems.     

Recent Advances in Mechanical Vibration Energy Harvesters Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerators

With the development of autonomous/smart technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT), tremendous wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) are of great importance to realize intelligent mechanical engineering, which is significant in the industrial and social fields. However, current power supply methods, cable and battery for instance, face challenges such as layout difficulties, high cost, short life, and environmental pollution. Meanwhile, vibration is ubiquitous in machinery, vehicles, structures, etc., but has been regarded as an unwanted by-product and wasted in most cases. Therefore, it is crucial to harvest mechanical vibration energy to achieve in situ power supply for these WSNs. As a recent energy conversion technology, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is particularly good at harvesting such broadband, weak, and irregular mechanical energy, which provides a feasible scheme for the power supply of WSNs. In this review, recent achievements of mechanical vibration energy harvesting (VEH) related to mechanical engineering based on TENG are systematically reviewed from the perspective of contact–separation (C-S) and freestanding modes. Finally, existing challenges and forthcoming development orientation of the VEH based on TENG are discussed in depth, which will be conducive to the future development of intelligent mechanical engineering in the era of IoT.     

Current status and prospects of reliability systems engineering in China

This study provides a systematic overview of the advent and evolution of reliability systems engineering (RSE) in China, and the latest RSE development, that is, model-based RSE (MBRSE), is emphatically introduced. The establishment of the system architecture and conceptual models of MBRSE is first described. The fundamental theory and methodology of MBRSE are then elaborated, with a V-model as the core of this approach. The development of various MBRSE platforms and the effectiveness of their implementation over the past 30 years are presented. The prospective trends in the development of RSE in China are outlined.     

航天工程管理的系统观点与方法

航天工程管理是复杂性管理,系统科学的观点和方法贯穿于航天工程管理的全部内容和各个环节。笔者从航天工程管理中的技术管理、型号管理和组织机构管理三个基本层次论述了系统观点与方法的应用。     

An End-to-End Authentication Scheme for Healthcare IoT Systems Using WMSN

The healthcare internet of things (IoT) system has dramatically reshaped this important industry sector. This system employs the latest technology of IoT and wireless medical sensor networks to support the reliable connection of patients and healthcare providers. The goal is the remote monitoring of a patient’s physiological data by physicians. Moreover, this system can reduce the number and expenses of healthcare centers, make up for the shortage of healthcare centers in remote areas, enable consultation with expert physicians around the world, and increase the health awareness of communities. The major challenges that affect the rapid deployment and widespread acceptance of such a system are the weaknesses in the authentication process, which should maintain the privacy of patients, and the integrity of remote medical instructions. Current research results indicate the need of a flexible authentication scheme. This study proposes a scheme with enhanced security for healthcare IoT systems, called an end-to-end authentication scheme for healthcare IoT systems, that is, an E2EA. The proposed scheme supports security services such as a strong and flexible authentication process, simultaneous anonymity of the patient and physician, and perfect forward secrecy services. A security analysis based on formal and informal methods demonstrates that the proposed scheme can resist numerous security-related attacks. A comparison with related authentication schemes shows that the proposed scheme is efficient in terms of communication, computation, and storage, and therefore cannot only offer attractive security services but can reasonably be applied to healthcare IoT systems.     

Realizing Cancer Precision Medicine by Integrating Systems Biology and Nanomaterial Engineering

Many clinical trials for cancer precision medicine have yielded unsatisfactory results due to challenges such as drug resistance and low efficacy. Drug resistance is often caused by the complex compensatory regulation within the biomolecular network in a cancer cell. Recently, systems biological studies have modeled and simulated such complex networks to unravel the hidden mechanisms of drug resistance and identify promising new drug targets or combinatorial or sequential treatments for overcoming resistance to anticancer drugs. However, many of the identified targets or treatments present major difficulties for drug development and clinical application. Nanocarriers represent a path forward for developing therapies with these “undruggable” targets or those that require precise combinatorial or sequential application, for which conventional drug delivery mechanisms are unsuitable. Conversely, a challenge in nanomedicine has been low efficacy due to heterogeneity of cancers in patients. This problem can also be resolved through systems biological approaches by identifying personalized targets for individual patients or promoting the drug responses. Therefore, integration of systems biology and nanomaterial engineering will enable the clinical application of cancer precision medicine to overcome both drug resistance of conventional treatments and low efficacy of nanomedicine due to patient heterogeneity.     

Intelligent Manufacturing in the Context of Industry 4.0: A Review

Our next generation of industry—Industry 4.0—holds the promise of increased flexibility in manufacturing, along with mass customization, better quality, and improved productivity. It thus enables companies to cope with the challenges of producing increasingly individualized products with a short lead-time to market and higher quality. Intelligent manufacturing plays an important role in Industry 4.0. Typical resources are converted into intelligent objects so that they are able to sense, act, and behave within a smart environment. In order to fully understand intelligent manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0, this paper provides a comprehensive review of associated topics such as intelligent manufacturing, Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled manufacturing, and cloud manufacturing. Similarities and differences in these topics are highlighted based on our analysis. We also review key technologies such as the IoT, cyber-physical systems (CPSs), cloud computing, big data analytics (BDA), and information and communications technology (ICT) that are used to enable intelligent manufacturing. Next, we describe worldwide movements in intelligent manufacturing, including governmental strategic plans from different countries and strategic plans from major international companies in the European Union, United States, Japan, and China. Finally, we present current challenges and future research directions. The concepts discussed in this paper will spark new ideas in the effort to realize the much-anticipated Fourth Industrial Revolution.     

Strategic Project Management to Use the Grand Challenge Scholars Program to Address Urban Infrastructure

Throughout the world, infrastructure to support cities is critical to support sustainable and responsible economic development. This can include new infrastructure projects in the case of growing areas. It can also include the renewal and upgrading of existing infrastructure in areas that have been inhabited and already developed. Infrastructure includes roads, bridges and transportation systems; power grids and energy service; internet and telecommunications; and water and sewer services. This development can be part of a system of systems, in which government, industries, and universities can contribute knowledge, skills, and abilities. This paper will investigate the strategic project management taken by one university to provide an academic experience that will prepare engineering students to address several of the Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century, as identified by the US National Academy of Engineering. The challenges relating to energy, water, information, and urban infrastructure can be approached using the functions of teaching, research, and service. By approaching the challenges strategically, resources of faculty time, student effort and laboratory facilities can be leveraged to achieve greater results. This case study will describe the efforts and results to date and identify opportunities for future growth.     

Research and Practice on the Engineering Management Method of Financial Informatization Project

From the perspective of systems engineering, this paper analyzes the characteristics of China’s bank card industry, including its accessibility, scale, and complexity. The author proposes a series of management methods for the financial informatization project by researching the general requirements of the financial information system and the characteristics and implementation of informatization in the bank card services. The paper concludes with an outlook on the future development of China’s bank card industry.     

Managing distributed manufacturing knowledge through multi-perspective modelling for semantic web applications

The development and maintenance of semantic web (SW) means that collaborative manufacturing systems are faced with increasing challenges caused by the growing difficulty in managing distributed manufacturing knowledge. This paper presents a multi-perspective modelling approach to systematically manage distributed manufacturing knowledge on the SW. Considering knowledge engineering as a cyclic and constructive modelling process, a multi-perspective knowledge modelling process is proposed to evolve along knowledge elicitation, engineering modelling, UML-based object modelling, OWL-based ontology modelling, knowledge formalisation and OWL-QL assisted knowledge verification activities. The proposed approach is viewed as a promising knowledge management method that facilitates the implementation of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) in distributed manufacturing for SW applications by integrating the industrial, UML enabled software engineering techniques into recent ontology-based knowledge engineering process. The feasibility of knowledge management through multi-perspective modelling is manifested using the manufacturing ontology for manufacturing electronic connectors.     

设计集成管理系统

考察了管理方法的演变并建议进行集成管理系统垢研究和设计。第一部分讨论了各种管理方法的繁衍并强调了将行之有效的方法组合在一起以适应特殊环境的重要生。第二部分介绍了一种用以研究管理方法的组织原则：管理的机械模型通过生物醛以社会模型的演变。还描绘了弈和复杂性的压力,这些压力推动和支持管理模型的演变。部分他全面质量管理（ＴＱＭ）是迄今为止支持组织从机械和生物模型转变为社会模型的最全面的系统,尽管它出有不足     

设计集成管理系统（Ⅱ）

考察了管理方法的演变并建议进行集成管理系统的研究和设计。第一部分讨论了各种管理方法的繁衍并强调了将行之有效的方法组合在一起以适应特殊环境的重要性。第二部分介绍了一种用以研究管理方法的组织原则：管理的机械模型通过生物模型到社会模型的演变。还描绘了一些变革和复杂性的压力这些压力推动和支持管理模型的演变。第三部分讨论了全面质量管理（ＴＱＭ）是迄今为止支持组织从机械和生物模型转变为社会模型的最全面的系统,     

Managing ethical requirements elicitation of complex socio-technical systems with critical systems thinking: A case of course-timetabling project

Complex socio-technical systems pose considerable challenges to requirements elicitation due to dynamic boundary conditions and conflicting perspectives. Traditional requirements engineering is criticized for its failure in providing a systemic view, overlooking ethical concerns and marginalized social perspectives. It is argued that educational institutions as a part of society need to ethically develop and manage their academic processes and consider such perspectives for emancipation. This critical qualitative research applies the emancipatory systemic methodology of critical systems thinking (CST) for the requirements elicitation of a complex and dynamic university course-timetables management problem. Firstly, the problem is ethically formulated to mitigate Type III errors. Secondly, multiple viewpoints are sought for boundary judgments using a CST-based ethical inquiry of boundary critique to reveal the normative content of the project design, explore imbalances amongst the socio-technical design components, and unveil the underlying ethical issues. The dynamic stakeholder network captures the system's emergence through stakeholder interconnectedness and boundary liquidity by sweeping-in relevant stakeholders through the continuum of various states of the project. This work enlightens requirements engineering by coupling systemic and socio-technical lenses for the elicitation of ethical requirements and the emancipation of marginalized perspectives in complex and dynamic information systems projects in general and timetabling problems, in particular.     

Review of operational management in intelligent agriculture based on the Internet of Things

This review aims to gain insight into the current research and application of operational management in the area of intelligent agriculture based on the Internet of Things (IoT), and consequently, identify existing shortcomings and potential issues. First, we use the Java application CiteSpace to analyze co-citation networks in the literature related to the operational management of IoT-based intelligent agriculture. From the literature analysis results, we identify three major fields: (1) the development of agricultural IoT (Agri-IoT) technology, (2) the precision management of agricultural production, and (3) the traceability management of agricultural products. Second, we review research in the three fields separately in detail. Third, on the basis of the research gaps identified in the review and from the perspective of integrating and upgrading the entire agricultural industry chain, additional research directions are recommended from the following aspects: The operational management of agricultural production, product processing, and product sale and after-sale service based on Agri-IoT. The theoretical research and practical application of combining operational management theories and IoT-based intelligent agriculture will provide informed decision support for stakeholders and drive the further development of the entire agriculture industry chain.     

A reverse engineering algorithm for mining a causal system model from system data

Although having structural system models which determine system behaviours is critical to plan, control and manage many complex systems (e.g. manufacturing and production systems), we often do not have pre-defined structural system models. We need to perform reverse engineering which is to collect and mine observable system data in order to discover structural system models. This paper presents a reverse engineering algorithm that can be used to discover a causal system model which is one kind of structural system model and represents causal relations of system factors. In a causal relation, the presence of one system factor causes the presence of another system factor. The paper also shows the computational complexity of the algorithm. The paper presents the application and performance of the reverse engineering algorithms to data in two application fields.     

Intelligent construction technology of railway engineering in China

Intelligent construction technology has been widely used in the field of railway engineering. This work first analyzes the connotation, function, and characteristics of intelligent construction of railway engineering (ICRE) and establishes its system structure from three dimensions, namely, life cycle, layers of management, and intelligent function, to deeply understand the development situation of intelligent railway construction in China. Second, seven key technical support systems of ICRE, which include building information modeling (BIM) standard system for China’s railway sector, technology management platform and life cycle management based on BIM+GIS (geography information system), ubiquitous intelligent perception system, intelligent Internet-of-Things (IoT) commu-nication system based on mobile interconnection, construction management platform based on cloud computing and big data, unmanned operation system based on artificial intelligence, intelligent machinery and robot, and intelligent operation and maintenance system based on BIM and PHM (prediction and health management), are established. Third, ICRE is divided into three development stages: primary (perception), intermediate (substitution), and advanced (intelligence). The evaluation index system of each stage is provided from the aspects of technology and function. Finally, this work summarizes and analyzes the application situation of ICRE in the entire railway sector of China, represented by Beijing–Zhangjiakou and Beijing–Xiong’an high-speed railways. Result shows that the technical support systems of the ICRE have emerged in China and are still in the process of deepening basic technology research and preliminary application. In the future, the ICRE of China’s railway sector will develop toward a higher stage.     

Novel Architecture of OneM2M-Based Convergence Platform for Mixed Reality and IoT

There have been numerous works proposed to merge augmented reality/mixed reality (AR/MR) and Internet of Things (IoT) in various ways. However, they have focused on their specific target applications and have limitations on interoperability or reusability when utilizing them to different domains or adding other devices to the system. This paper proposes a novel architecture of a convergence platform for AR/MR and IoT systems and services. The proposed architecture adopts the oneM2M IoT standard as the basic framework that converges AR/MR and IoT systems and enables the development of application services used in general-purpose environments without being subordinate to specific systems, domains, and device manufacturers. We implement the proposed architecture utilizing the open-source oneM2M-based IoT server and device platforms released by the open alliance for IoT standards (OCEAN) and Microsoft HoloLens as an MR device platform. We also suggest and demonstrate the practical use cases and discuss the advantages of the proposed architecture.