Danda B. Rawat

Ashish Rauniyar, Desta Haileselassie Hagos, Debesh Jha et al.

With the advent of the IoT, AI, ML, and DL algorithms, the landscape of data-driven medical applications has emerged as a promising avenue for designing robust and scalable diagnostic and prognostic models from medical data. This has gained a lot of attention from both academia and industry, leading to significant improvements in healthcare quality. However, the adoption of AI-driven medical applications still faces tough challenges, including meeting security, privacy, and quality of service (QoS) standards. Recent developments in \ac{FL} have made it possible to train complex machine-learned models in a distributed manner and have become an active research domain, particularly processing the medical data at the edge of the network in a decentralized way to preserve privacy and address security concerns. To this end, in this paper, we explore the present and future of FL technology in medical applications where data sharing is a significant challenge. We delve into the current research trends and their outcomes, unravelling the complexities of designing reliable and scalable \ac{FL} models. Our paper outlines the fundamental statistical issues in FL, tackles device-related problems, addresses security challenges, and navigates the complexity of privacy concerns, all while highlighting its transformative potential in the medical field. Our study primarily focuses on medical applications of \ac{FL}, particularly in the context of global cancer diagnosis. We highlight the potential of FL to enable computer-aided diagnosis tools that address this challenge with greater effectiveness than traditional data-driven methods. We hope that this comprehensive review will serve as a checkpoint for the field, summarizing the current state-of-the-art and identifying open problems and future research directions.

Pushpita Chatterjee, Debashis Das, Danda B Rawat

In recent days, the proliferation of several existing and new cyber-attacks pose an axiomatic threat to the stability of financial services. It is hard to predict the nature of attacks that can trigger a serious financial crisis. The unprecedented digital transformation to financial services has been accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is still ongoing. Attackers are taking advantage of this transformation and pose a new global threat to financial stability and integrity. Many large organizations are switching from centralized finance (CeFi) to decentralized finance (DeFi) because decentralized finance has many advantages. Blockchain can bring big and far-reaching effects on the trustworthiness, safety, accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and openness of the financial sector. The present paper gives an in-depth look at how blockchain and federated learning (FL) are used in financial services. It starts with an overview of recent developments in both use cases. This paper explores and discusses existing financial service vulnerabilities, potential threats, and consequent risks. So, we explain the problems that can be fixed in financial services and how blockchain and FL could help solve them. These problems include data protection, storage optimization, and making more money in financial services. We looked at many blockchain-enabled FL methods and came up with some possible solutions that could be used in financial services to solve several challenges like cost-effectiveness, automation, and security control. Finally, we point out some future directions at the end of this study.

Md. Shirajum Munir, Sachin Shetty, Danda B. Rawat

The rapid growth of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as renewable energy sources, generators, consumers, and prosumers in the smart grid infrastructure, poses significant cybersecurity and trust challenges to the grid controller. Consequently, it is crucial to identify adversarial tactics and measure the strength of the attacker's DER. To enable a trustworthy smart grid controller, this work investigates a trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) mechanism for proactive identification and explanation of the cyber risk caused by the control/status message of DERs. Thus, proposing and developing a trustworthy AI framework to facilitate the deployment of any AI algorithms for detecting potential cyber threats and analyzing root causes based on Shapley value interpretation while dynamically quantifying the risk of an attack based on Ward's minimum variance formula. The experiment with a state-of-the-art dataset establishes the proposed framework as a trustworthy AI by fulfilling the capabilities of reliability, fairness, explainability, transparency, reproducibility, and accountability.

Desta Haileselassie Hagos, Rick Battle, Danda B. Rawat

The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) has marked a new era of Natural Language Processing (NLP), introducing unprecedented capabilities that are revolutionizing various domains. This paper explores the current state of these cutting-edge technologies, demonstrating their remarkable advancements and wide-ranging applications. Our paper contributes to providing a holistic perspective on the technical foundations, practical applications, and emerging challenges within the evolving landscape of Generative AI and LLMs. We believe that understanding the generative capabilities of AI systems and the specific context of LLMs is crucial for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to collaboratively shape the responsible and ethical integration of these technologies into various domains. Furthermore, we identify and address main research gaps, providing valuable insights to guide future research endeavors within the AI research community.

Danda B Rawat, Hassan El alami

The Metaverse is driving the next wave of innovation for new opportunities by replacing the digital world (Internet) with the virtual world through a single, shared, immersive, persistent 3D virtual space. In this paper, we present requirements, architecture, standards, challenges, and solutions for Metaverse. Specifically, we provide Metaverse architecture and requirements, and different standards for Metaverse which serve as the basis for the development and deployment. Moreover, we present recent status, challenges such as integration of AI and Metaverse, security and privacy in Metaverse, etc., and perspectives and solutions.

Desta Haileselassie Hagos, Danda B. Rawat

Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in enhancing the capabilities of defense systems, revolutionizing strategic decision-making, and shaping the future landscape of military operations. Neuro-Symbolic AI is an emerging approach that leverages and augments the strengths of neural networks and symbolic reasoning. These systems have the potential to be more impactful and flexible than traditional AI systems, making them well-suited for military applications. This paper comprehensively explores the diverse dimensions and capabilities of Neuro-Symbolic AI, aiming to shed light on its potential applications in military contexts. We investigate its capacity to improve decision-making, automate complex intelligence analysis, and strengthen autonomous systems. We further explore its potential to solve complex tasks in various domains, in addition to its applications in military contexts. Through this exploration, we address ethical, strategic, and technical considerations crucial to the development and deployment of Neuro-Symbolic AI in military and civilian applications. Contributing to the growing body of research, this study represents a comprehensive exploration of the extensive possibilities offered by Neuro-Symbolic AI.

Hassan El Alami, Danda B. Rawat

The development of satellite constellation applications is rapidly advancing due to increasing user demands, reduced operational costs, and technological advancements. However, a significant gap in the existing literature concerns reconfiguration and retasking issues within satellite constellations, which is the primary focus of our research. In this work, we critically assess the impact of satellite failures on constellation performance and the associated task requirements. To facilitate this analysis, we introduce a system modeling approach for GPS satellite constellations, enabling an investigation into performance dynamics and task distribution strategies, particularly in scenarios where satellite failures occur during mission-critical operations. Additionally, we introduce reinforcement learning (RL) techniques, specifically Q-learning, Policy Gradient, Deep Q-Network (DQN), and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), for managing satellite constellations, addressing the challenges posed by reconfiguration and retasking following satellite failures. Our results demonstrate that DQN and PPO achieve effective outcomes in terms of average rewards, task completion rates, and response times.

Danda B. Rawat, Hassan El alami, Desta Haileselassie Hagos

In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of the metaverse, envisioned as a transformative dimension of next-generation Internet technologies. This study not only outlines the structural components of our survey but also makes a substantial scientific contribution by elucidating the foundational concepts underlying the emergence of the metaverse. We analyze its architecture by defining key characteristics and requirements, thereby illuminating the nascent reality set to revolutionize digital interactions. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of collaborative efforts in developing metaverse standards, thereby fostering a unified understanding among industry stakeholders, organizations, and regulatory bodies. We extend our scrutiny to critical technologies integral to the metaverse, including interactive experiences, communication technologies, ubiquitous computing, digital twins, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity measures. For each technological domain, we rigorously assess current contributions, principal techniques, and representative use cases, providing a nuanced perspective on their potential impacts. Furthermore, we delve into the metaverse's diverse applications across education, healthcare, business, social interactions, industrial sectors, defense, and mission-critical operations, highlighting its extensive utility. Each application is thoroughly analyzed, demonstrating its value and addressing associated challenges. The survey concludes with an overview of persistent challenges and future directions, offering insights into essential considerations and strategies necessary to harness the full potential of the metaverse. Through this detailed investigation, our goal is to articulate the scientific contributions of this survey paper, transcending a mere structural overview to highlight the transformative implications of the metaverse.

Majumder Haider, Imtiaz Ahmed, Zoheb Hassan et al.

This paper investigates the significance of designing a reliable, intelligent, and true physical environment-aware precoding scheme by leveraging an accurately designed channel twin model to obtain realistic channel state information (CSI) for cellular communication systems. Specifically, we propose a fine-tuned multi-step channel twin design process that can render CSI very close to the CSI of the actual environment. After generating a precise CSI, we execute precoding using the obtained CSI at the transmitter end. We demonstrate a two-step parameters' tuning approach to design channel twin by ray tracing (RT) emulation, then further fine-tuning of CSI by employing an artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithm can significantly reduce the gap between actual CSI and the fine-tuned digital twin (DT) rendered CSI. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed novel approach in designing a true physical environment-aware channel twin model.

Desta Haileselassie Hagos, Hassan El Alami, Danda B. Rawat

Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, particularly machine learning techniques, are rapidly transforming tactical operations by augmenting human decision-making capabilities. This paper explores AI-driven Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) as a transformative approach, focusing on how it empowers human decision-making in complex environments. While trust and explainability continue to pose significant challenges, our exploration focuses on the potential of AI-driven HAT to transform tactical operations. By improving situational awareness and supporting more informed decision-making, AI-driven HAT can enhance the effectiveness and safety of such operations. To this end, we propose a comprehensive framework that addresses the key components of AI-driven HAT, including trust and transparency, optimal function allocation between humans and AI, situational awareness, and ethical considerations. The proposed framework can serve as a foundation for future research and development in the field. By identifying and discussing critical research challenges and knowledge gaps in this framework, our work aims to guide the advancement of AI-driven HAT for optimizing tactical operations. We emphasize the importance of developing scalable and ethical AI-driven HAT systems that ensure seamless human-machine collaboration, prioritize ethical considerations, enhance model transparency through Explainable AI (XAI) techniques, and effectively manage the cognitive load of human operators.

Mikel K. Ngueajio, Flor Miriam Plaza-del-Arco, Yi-Ling Chung et al.

Automated counter-narratives (CN) offer a promising strategy for mitigating online hate speech, yet concerns about their affective tone, accessibility, and ethical risks remain. We propose a framework for evaluating Large Language Model (LLM)-generated CNs across four dimensions: persona framing, verbosity and readability, affective tone, and ethical robustness. Using GPT-4o-Mini, Cohere's CommandR-7B, and Meta's LLaMA 3.1-70B, we assess three prompting strategies on the MT-Conan and HatEval datasets. Our findings reveal that LLM-generated CNs are often verbose and adapted for people with college-level literacy, limiting their accessibility. While emotionally guided prompts yield more empathetic and readable responses, there remain concerns surrounding safety and effectiveness.

Pranav Kumar Singh, Sukumar Nandi, Sunit K. Nandi et al.

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is flourishing and offers various applications relating to road safety, traffic and fuel efficiency, and infotainment. Dealing with security and privacy threats and managing the trust (detecting malicious and misbehaving peers) in IoV remains the most significant concern. Artificial Intelligence is one of the most revolutionizing technologies, and the predictive power of its machine learning models can help detect intrusions and misbehaviors. Similarly, empowering the state-of-the-art IoV security framework with blockchain can make it secure and resilient. This article discusses joint AI and blockchain for security, privacy and trust-related risks in IoV. This paper also presents problems, challenges, requirements and solutions using ML and blockchain to address aforementioned issues in IoV.

Aashma Uprety, Danda B. Rawat

The number of connected smart devices has been increasing exponentially for different Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. Security has been a long run challenge in the IoT systems which has many attack vectors, security flaws and vulnerabilities. Securing billions of B connected devices in IoT is a must task to realize the full potential of IoT applications. Recently, researchers have proposed many security solutions for IoT. Machine learning has been proposed as one of the emerging solutions for IoT security and Reinforcement learning is gaining more popularity for securing IoT systems. Reinforcement learning, unlike other machine learning techniques, can learn the environment by having minimum information about the parameters to be learned. It solves the optimization problem by interacting with the environment adapting the parameters on the fly. In this paper, we present an comprehensive survey of different types of cyber-attacks against different IoT systems and then we present reinforcement learning and deep reinforcement learning based security solutions to combat those different types of attacks in different IoT systems. Furthermore, we present the Reinforcement learning for securing CPS systems (i.e., IoT with feedback and control) such as smart grid and smart transportation system. The recent important attacks and countermeasures using reinforcement learning B in IoT are also summarized in the form of tables. With this paper, readers can have a more thorough understanding of IoT security attacks and countermeasures using Reinforcement Learning, as well as research trends in this area.

Halgurd S. Maghdid, Kayhan Zrar Ghafoor, Ali Safaa Sadiq et al.

Coronaviruses are a famous family of viruses that cause illness in both humans and animals. The new type of coronavirus COVID-19 was firstly discovered in Wuhan, China. However, recently, the virus has widely spread in most of the world and causing a pandemic according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Further, nowadays, all the world countries are striving to control the COVID-19. There are many mechanisms to detect coronavirus including clinical analysis of chest CT scan images and blood test results. The confirmed COVID-19 patient manifests as fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Particularly, several techniques can be used to detect the initial results of the virus such as medical detection Kits. However, such devices are incurring huge cost, taking time to install them and use. Therefore, in this paper, a new framework is proposed to detect COVID-19 using built-in smartphone sensors. The proposal provides a low-cost solution, since most of radiologists have already held smartphones for different daily-purposes. Not only that but also ordinary people can use the framework on their smartphones for the virus detection purposes. Nowadays Smartphones are powerful with existing computation-rich processors, memory space, and large number of sensors including cameras, microphone, temperature sensor, inertial sensors, proximity, colour-sensor, humidity-sensor, and wireless chipsets/sensors. The designed Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled framework reads the smartphone sensors signal measurements to predict the grade of severity of the pneumonia as well as predicting the result of the disease.

Danda B. Rawat, Vijay Chaudhary, Ronald Doku

Blockchain also known as a distributed ledger technology stores different transactions/operations in a chain of blocks in a distributed manner without needing a trusted third-party. Blockchain is proven to be immutable which helps for integrity and accountability, and, to some extent, confidentiality through a pair of public and private keys. Blockchain has been in the spotlight after successful boom of the Bitcoin. There have been efforts to leverage salient features of Blockchain for different applications and use cases. This paper present a comprehensive survey of applications and use cases of Blockchain technology. Specifically, readers of this paper can have thorough understanding of applications and user cases of Blockchain technology.