Two Approaches to Research in Sciences

Simulations and Virtual Laboratories – A solution for research science with Covid-19 restrictions?

The proliferation of IoT applications in the context of Smart Cities is exponential in such way that, it is hard to identify all the diversity of technologies, communication protocols and applications (Islam, Kwak, Kabir, Hossain, & Kwak, 2015; Rizwan, Suresh, & Rajasekhara Babu, 2017; Zanella, Bui, Castellani, Vangelista, & Zorzi, 2014). Traditionally, all systems such as: software, technologies are stressed to the ready to market which aren’t security information friendly. In the case of IoT as we expected that isn’t different. In the top of this we can see on surveying the Internet that any person even if don’t have programming skills could develop IoT applications and this aspect is new in the context of Security Information, thus, how can we assess the security information of IoT applications and consequently the smart cities? In this research we use the IoT Health Applications focus as mean in the form of case study to address this problem. The reason is very simple in the health care context we can’t think first on market we have to look safety first without misread that security and privacy cannot ruin the use of the IoT application. The method that drives this research is the digital transformation in Health Care and the major goal is to assess the security information of the IoT Applications.

The security of information treatment complies a set of tasks (ISO/IEC, 2016), such as: identification of principal vulnerabilities of IoT systems, the impact analysis on health care, definition and application and security treatments and the prevention measures. In order to comply this in the research process, we will set up a non-intrusive IoT system of monitoring vital signs in a care home with a wireless sensor network and body area networks. This system will allow us to model the real context by the development of an IoT Health Simulator based in the real context, in order to perform attacks and evaluation of its impacts. Thus, we can define and develop security treatments and prevention mechanisms to apply again in the real context. The research method used will be Design Science in the context of information systems (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010) since that are expected a set of outputs from this research of different types, such as: simulator prototype of monitoring vital signs, security model of Health IoT and Security Treatment and prevention of Health IoT systems. The research and development team will be multidisciplinary: information systems researchers, biology researchers and health staff from the care home. This research team composition, it's essential in order to assess and define the accuracy of non-intrusive vital signs sensors and the health care staff to help in the viability of the system.

Expert Systems – Are they acceptable?

Currently, my research is about Expert Systems Acceptance in the perspective of Medical Students. The context of my research is Health Care, because Expert Systems are relevant in response time and costs reduction, although, there are aspects to preserve patient privacy and medical confidentiality, especially if the process is supported by information technologies and is Medical staff prepared to accept an Expert System as partner? Recently, I have developed a Decision Support System prototype that includes Information Extraction, Machine Learning Algorithms, Ontology Engineering, Data Mining, among others. Is it worth the effort of evolving a Decision Support System to an Expert System in health care context, it will be accepted by the medical staff?

TIAGO C. PEREIRA was born in 1974, Guimarães, Portugal and went to the Higher Institute of Maia, where he studied Informatics of Management and obtained his degree in 1997. He worked for a couple of years for the Higher Institute of Maia as Senior Programmer before going in 2003 to the University of Minho where he obtained the master’s degree in information systems and PhD Degree in Information Systems and Technology. He has been a collaborator of the Research Centre ALGORITMI of the University of Minho and presently, is a full Professor at School of Technologies, Institute of Superior Studies of Fafe and is an Invited Professor from Information Systems Department of the School of Engineering at University of Minho.