Alok Kumar

Bio: Alok Kumar is an academic researcher from Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. The author has contributed to research in topics: Slum. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 20 citations.

Towards a framework for technology design based on ecosystem processes in slum communities

Abstract: This study aims at defining a framework for collecting and providing real-time information from/to underserved end-users on a real-time basis through learning healthcare systems. We start by capturing information about the day-to-day life of the target population from one family, classified under seven categories according to defined ecosystem processes, namely housing, nutrition, healthcare, job, education, finance, and communication. The ecosystem in this study is a slum community in Ahmadabad, India. Key factors defining the complex life of slum dwellers are identified and verified through surveys of sample families. We then interconnect all processes and underlying factors with business process models,

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Abstract: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Jackson, TN: PublicAffairs, 2011. 320 pp. ISBN: 978-1-58648-798-0 (hbk.). US$26.99. Po...

The application of internet of things in healthcare: a systematic literature review and classification

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an ecosystem that integrates physical objects, software and hardware to interact with each other. Aging of population, shortage of healthcare resources, and rising medical costs make IoT-based technologies necessary to be tailored to address these challenges in healthcare. This systematic literature review has been conducted to determine the main application area of IoT in healthcare, components of IoT architecture in healthcare, most important technologies in IoT, characteristics of cloud-based architecture, security and interoperability issues in IoT architecture and effects, and challenges of IoT in healthcare. Sixty relevant papers, published between 2000 and 2016, were reviewed and analyzed. This analysis revealed that home healthcare service was one of the main application areas of IoT in healthcare. Cloud-based architecture, by providing great flexibility and scalability, has been deployed in most of the reviewed studies. Communication technologies including wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, radio-frequency identification (RFID), ZigBee, and Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (LoWPAN) were frequently used in different IoT models. The studies regarding the security and interoperability issues in IoT architecture in health are still low in number. With respect to the most important effects of IoT in healthcare, these included ability of information exchange, decreasing stay of hospitalization and healthcare costs. The main challenges of IoT in healthcare were security and privacy issues.

TinyML-Enabled Frugal Smart Objects: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: The TinyML paradigm proposes to integrate Machine Learning (ML)-based mechanisms within small objects powered by Microcontroller Units (MCUs) This paves the way for the development of novel applications and services that do not need the omnipresent processing support from the cloud, which is power consuming and involves data security and privacy risks In this work, a comprehensive review of the novel TinyML ecosystem is provided The related challenges and opportunities are identified and the potential services that will be enabled by the development of truly smart frugal objects are discussed As a main contribution of this paper, a detailed survey of the available TinyML frameworks for integrating ML algorithms within MCUs is provided Besides, aiming at illustrating the given discussion, a real case study is presented Concretely, we propose a multi-Radio Access Network (RAT) architecture for smart frugal objects The issue of selecting the most adequate communication interface for sending sporadic messages considering both the status of the device and the characteristics of the data to be sent is addressed To this end, several TinyML frameworks are evaluated and the performances of a number of ML algorithms embedded in an Arduino Uno board are analyzed The attained results reveal the validity of the TinyML approach, which successfully enables the integration of techniques such as Neural Networks (NNs), Support Vector Machine (SVM), decision trees, or Random Forest (RF) in frugal objects with constrained hardware resources The outcomes also show promising results in terms of algorithm's accuracy and computation performance

Adoption of internet of things (IoT) in the agriculture industry deploying the BRT framework

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) in the agriculture industry by the farmers' in India using the theoretical lens of the behavioral reasoning theory (BRT).,A survey on farmers was conducted to examine the adoption of IoT in agriculture industry (IoT-A) using BRT. The data analysis of the primary survey was done by applying the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique.,The ‘reasons for’ adoption of IoT-A were as follows: Relative advantage, social influence, perceived convenience, and perceived usefulness. The ‘reasons against’ adoption were as follows: Image barrier, technological anxiety, perceived price and perceived risk. The BRT theory provides the platform to discuss the psychological processing of acceptance of IoT in agriculture industry by the farmers.,This research has unique implications as it studies the rural consumers’ behavior of innovation adoption namely IoT in agriculture. It provides the specific reasons ‘for’ and ‘against’ IoT adoption in agriculture, which will give directions to the marketers of IoT technology to develop suitable marketing strategies to improve the adoption in rural areas.,This research takes the first step in the direction toward deliberation of the adoption of IoT-A by farmers in an emerging Indian economy using the BRT theory, which discusses the ‘reasons for’ and ‘reasons against’ adoption in a proposed model.

Exploratory Analysis of Internet of Things (IoT) in Healthcare: A Topic Modelling & Co-citation Approaches

Abstract: Internet of Things (IoT) have made a significant impact in healthcare domain. The purpose of this study is to unravel key themes latent in the academic literature on IoT applications in healthcare....