Due to the alarming rate of climate change, fuel consumption and emission estimates are critical in determining the effects of materials and stringent emission control strategies. In this research, an analytical and predictive study has been conducted using the Government of Canada dataset, containing 4973 light-duty vehicles observed from 2017 to 2021, delivering a comparative view of different brands and vehicle models by their fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Based on the findings of the statistical data analysis, this study makes evidence-based recommendations to both vehicle users and producers to reduce their environmental impacts. Additionally, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and various regression models have been built to estimate fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for future vehicle designs. This study reveals that the Univariate Polynomial Regression model is the best model for predictions from one vehicle feature input, with up to 98.6% accuracy. Multiple Linear Regression and Multivariate Polynomial Regression are good models for predictions from multiple vehicle feature inputs, with approximately 75% accuracy. Convolutional Neural Network is also a promising method for prediction because of its stable and high accuracy of around 70%. The results contribute to the quantifying process of energy cost and air pollution caused by transportation, followed by proposing relevant recommendations for both vehicle users and producers. Future research should aim towards developing higher performance models and larger datasets for building APIs and applications.

Internet of Things (IoT) coupled with big data analytics is emerging as the core of smart and sustainable systems which bolsters economic, environmental and social sustainability. Cloud-based data centers provide high performance computing power to analyze voluminous IoT data to provide invaluable insights to support decision making. However, multifarious servers in data centers appear to be the black hole of superfluous energy consumption that contributes to 23% of the global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry. IoT-related energy research focuses on low-power sensors and enhanced machine-to-machine communication performance. To date, cloud-based data centers still face energy–related challenges which are detrimental to the environment. Virtual machine (VM) consolidation is a well-known approach to affect energy-efficient cloud infrastructures. Although several research works demonstrate positive results for VM consolidation in simulated environments, there is a gap for investigations on real, physical cloud infrastructure for big data workloads. This research work addresses the gap of conducting real physical cloud infrastructure-based experiments. The primary goal of setting up a real physical cloud infrastructure is for the evaluation of dynamic VM consolidation approaches which include integrated algorithms from existing relevant research. An open source VM consolidation framework, Openstack NEAT is adopted and experiments are conducted on a Multi-node Openstack Cloud with Apache Spark as the big data platform. Open sourced Openstack has been deployed because it enables rapid innovation, and boosts scalability as well as resource utilization. Additionally, this research work investigates the performance based on service level agreement (SLA) metrics and energy usage of compute hosts. Relevant results concerning the best performing combination of algorithms are presented and discussed.

Big Data applications have become increasingly popular with the emergence of cloud computing and the explosion of artificial intelligence. The increasing adoption of data-intensive machines and services is driving the need for more power to keep the data centers of the world running. It has become crucial for large IT companies to monitor the energy efficiency of their data-center facilities and to take actions on the optimization of these heavy electricity consumers. This paper proposes a Belief Rule-Based Expert System (BRBES)-based predictive model to predict the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of a data center. The uniqueness of this model consists of the integration of a novel learning mechanism consisting of parameter and structure optimization by using BRBES-based adaptive Differential Evolution (BRBaDE), significantly improving the accuracy of PUE prediction. This model has been evaluated by using real-world data collected from a Facebook data center located in Luleå, Sweden. In addition, to prove the robustness of the predictive model, it has been compared with other machine learning techniques, such as an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and an Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), where it showed a better result. Further, due to the flexibility of the BRBES-based predictive model, it can be used to capture the nonlinear dependencies of many variables of a data center, allowing the prediction of PUE with much accuracy. Consequently, this plays an important role to make data centers more energy-efficient.

The energy efficiency of Data Center (DC) operations heavily relies on a DC ambient temperature as well as its IT and cooling systems performance. A reliable and efficient cooling system is necessary to produce a persistent flow of cold air to cool servers that are subjected to constantly increasing computational load due to the advent of smart cloud-based applications. Consequently, the increased demand for computing power will inadvertently increase server waste heat creation in data centers. To improve a DC thermal profile which could undeniably influence energy efficiency and reliability of IT equipment, it is imperative to explore the thermal characteristics analysis of an IT room. This work encompasses the employment of an unsupervised machine learning technique for uncovering weaknesses of a DC cooling system based on real DC monitoring thermal data. The findings of the analysis result in the identification of areas for thermal management and cooling improvement that further feeds into DC recommendations. With the aim to identify overheated zones in a DC IT room and corresponding servers, we applied analyzed thermal characteristics of the IT room. Experimental dataset includes measurements of ambient air temperature in the hot aisle of the IT room in ENEA Portici research center hosting the CRESCO6 computing cluster. We use machine learning clustering techniques to identify overheated locations and categorize computing nodes based on surrounding air temperature ranges abstracted from the data. This work employs the principles and approaches replicable for the analysis of thermal characteristics of any DC, thereby fostering transferability. This paper demonstrates how best practices and guidelines could be applied for thermal analysis and profiling of a commercial DC based on real thermal monitoring data.

The main goal of this proposed project is to harness the emerging IoT technology to empower elderly population to self-manage their own health, stay active, healthy, and independent as long as possible within a smart and secured living environment. An integrated open-sourced IoT ecosystem will be developed. It will encompass the entire data lifecycle which involves the following processes: data acquisition, data transportation; data integration, processing, manipulation and computation; visualisation; data intelligence and exploitation; data sharing; data storage. This innovative cloud-based IoT ecosystem will provide a one-stop shop for integrated smart IoT-enabled services to support older people (greater or equal to 65 years old) who live alone at home (or care homes). Another innovation of this system is the design and implementation of an integrated IoT gateway for wellbeing wearable and home automation system sensors with varying communication protocols. The SMART-ITEM system and services will appropriately address the following (i) smart health and care; (ii) smart quality of life; (iii) SMART-ITEM social community. The development of the system will be based on the User Centred Design methodology so as to ensure active user engagement throughout the entire project lifecycle and necessary standards as well as compliances will be adhered to (e.g. security, trust and privacy) in order to enhance user acceptance.