Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Facilitated by Smart Computing and Emerging Opportunities
Prof. Athula Ginige, Western Sydney University (School of Computing, Engineering and Maths)
Asia-Pacific Regional RCE Meeting 2018
25-27 September, 2018, Parramatta (Sydney), Australia
WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2024 - Economic Growth in Middle-Income Countries.
Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Facilitated by Smart Computing and Emerging Opportunities
1. ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS FACILITATED
BY SMART COMPUTING AND
EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES
P R O F E S S O R A T H U L A G I N I G E
S C H O O L O F C O M P U T I N G , E N G I N E E R I N G A N D M A T H E M A T I C S
W E S T E R N S Y D N E Y U N I V E R S I T Y
A U S T R A L I A
A . G I N I G E @ W E S T E R N S Y D N E Y . E D U . A U
Professor Athula Ginige
School of Computing, Engineering and
Mathematics
Western Sydney University
Australia
a.ginige@westernsydney.edu.au
3. N’Eliya carrot farmers in the
dumps:
Bumper harvest, but prices low
Source: The Sunday Times, April 22, 2012
A Case study: Smart Computing in Action
Troubled farmers erect tomato Pandol for Poson
Source: Ada Derana
Wednesday 15th June 2011
6. Behavioral
component
Overall Information and
Empowerment Flow model
Reorganising
Published
Knowledge
User Query
Action
Taking
Actionable
Information
Aggregation
Context
Filter
Context
Addition
Ontological
SituationalIntrapersonal
component
Competence
Sense of
control
Motivation
Self-Efficacy
Goals
Interactional
component
Understanding users
have about environment
Decision
making
Identify Choices
Autonomy to
choose
Engagement
Communication
Knowledge-base
MBIS
8. Crop Knowledge
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
Market Information
Information on Inputs and Suppliers
Weather Information
Government Incentives
Proposal to SL Government - Closing the Loop
Food Production
Mobile based Information System
Micro Financing
Continuous Monitoring
Dash Board for Agencies
Policy Setting
Aggregated
Production
Captured in
Real Time
Farmer
Decision
Making
Govi Nena
9. Digital Agribusiness Ecosystem
Research
Institutes
Micro
Finance
Input
suppliers
Buyers
Knowledge Reorganisation
Ontological and Situational
Knowledgebase
Mobile System – Context specific
Actionable Information
Farmer Empowerment and Action
Capture and Aggregate action
information
Situational Knowledge
CurrentCrop
Production
Prices and
application
Instructions
Aggregated
Location
base
Demand
Market
Demand
Seed and
Crop
Information
Seed
use
Aggregated
Supply
Credit
Need
Credit
Supply
10. International Collaborative Research
and Development Team
Agriculture Ontology and Information
flow model by University of Colombo
and Ruhuna, Sri Lanka
SRI LANKA
Empowerment Model by Macquarie University
Overall System Architecture and Query Engine
by Western Sydney University, Australia
Information Aggregation by
University of California,
Irwin, USA
Mobile User Interface by
University of Salerno, Italy
Agriculture Crop Knowledge by
Professor Jayasankar Telangana
State Agriculture University , India
14. Current Status
Govi Nena – Sri Lanka Mobile app linked to Digital
Agribusiness Ecosystem is now trialled in Gampaha District.
Soon it will be trialled in few other districts.
Gyan Kisan – Indian Mobile app linked to Digital
Agribusiness Ecosystem is now trialled in Telangana State
among conventional farmers and Karnataka state among
organic farmers.
In total nearly 10,000 farmers are involved in these trials.
Early 2018 a small scale trial was conducted in South
Africa using a modified version of the mobile system
aiming to mitigate “Hidden Hunger” by empowering
local farmers to diversify the crops they grow based on
nutritional value.
We have received funding
to trial the African version
now in Kenya and Nigeria.
We are planning to start
trials in Malawi, Fuji and
Timor in January 2019.
16. Thesis Completed
L. N. C. De Silva, Holistic Information Flow Model to Enhance Livelihood
Activities of Sri Lankan Farmers, PhD, 2016, University of Colombo
Tamara Ginige, An Empowerment Framework for Developing Mobile-based
Applications: Empowering Sri Lankan farmers in their Livelihood Activities,
PhD, 2017, Macquarie University
W.A.Indika, User Centered Ontology for Sri Lankan Farmers, PhD, 2017,
University of Colombo
Pasquale Di Giovanni, Enhancing Ubiquitous Computing Environments
Through Composition of Heterogeneous Services, PhD, 2015, University
College Dublin
Maneesh Mathai, Context Based Content Aggregation For Social Life
Networks, Masters of Computer Science (Honours), 2013, Western Sydney
University
17. Published Papers from the Project
Overall System
◦ Ginige A, Walisadeera A, Ginige T, De Silva L, Di Giovanni P, Mathai M, Goonetillake J, Wikramanayake G, Vitiello G, Sebillo
M, Tortora G, Richards D, Jain R, 2016, Digital knowledge ecosystem for achieving sustainable agriculture production : a
case study from Sri Lanka, International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics, pp 602-611.
◦ Ginige A, 2016, Digital knowledge ecosystems : empowering users through context specific actionable information, Multi
Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, pp 57-65.
◦ Digital Knowledge Ecosystem to Reduce Uncertainty and Coordination Failure in Agricultural Markets-Study of “Govi Nena”
Mobile-Based Information System L Sugathadasa, A Ginige, G Wikramanayake, J Goonetillake, L De Silva, Agribusiness and
Information Management 8 (1), 11-16
◦ Ginige, A., Silva, L. D., Ginige, T., Giovanni, P. D., Walisadeera, A. I., Mathai, M., . . . Jain, R. (2014, 29 September - 2 October
2014). Towards an Agriculture Knowledge Ecosystem: A Social Life Network for Farmers in Sri Lanka. Paper presented at the
9th Conference of the Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture - 2014, Perth, Australia.
◦ Architecture for social life network to empower people at the middle of the pyramid, A Ginige, T Ginige, D Richards -
International United Information Systems Conference, 2012
Context Modelling
◦ Mathai, M., & Ginige, A. (2014). Task Oriented Context Models for Social Life Networks Software Technologies (pp. 306-
321): Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
◦ Mathai, M., & Ginige, A. (2013). Context based Content Aggregation for Social Life Networks. Paper presented at the 8th
International Conference on Software Paradigm Trends (ICSOFT-PT 2013), Reykjavik, Iceland.
User Empowerment
◦ Ginige, T., Richards, D., & Hitchens, M. (2014). Cultivation planning application to enhance decision making among Sri
Lankan farmers Knowledge Management and Acquisition for Smart Systems and Services (pp. 180-194): Springer.
◦ Ginige, T., & Richards, D. (2013). Design and Evaluation of a Mobile-based Cultivation Planning Application for empowering
Sri Lankan Farmers. Paper presented at the 24th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Melbourne, Australia.
◦ Ginige., T., & Richards., D. (2012). A model for Enhancing Empowerment in Farming using Mobile based Information
System. Paper presented at the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2012), Geelong.
18. Published Papers from the Project Cont
Information Flow Model
◦ De Silva, L., Goonetillake, J., Wikramanayake, G., & Ginige, A. (2014, 8th - 10th December,). Towards an Agriculture Information
Ecosystem. Paper presented at the 25th Australasian Conference on Information Systems,.
◦ De Silva, L. N. C., Goonetillake, J. S., Wikramanayake, G. N., & Ginige, A. (2013). Farmer Response towards the Initial Agriculture
Information Dissemination Mobile Prototype. In B. Murgante, S. Misra, M. Carlini, C. Torre, H.-Q. Nguyen, D. Taniar, B. Apduhan, & O.
Gervasi (Eds.), Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2013 (Vol. 7971, pp. 264-278): Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
◦ L. De Silva, J. S. Goonethilake, G.N. Wickramanayake, & A. Ginige. (2012). Towards using ICT to Enhance Flow of Information to aid
Farmer Sustainability in Sri Lanka. Paper presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Geelong Australia.
Ontology Development
◦ Walisadeera, A. I., Ginige, A., & Wikramanayake, G. N. (2014). User centered ontology for Sri Lankan farmers. Ecological Informatics,
26, 140-150. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.07.008
◦ Walisadeera, A. I., Ginige, A., & Wikramanayake, G. N. (2014). Conceptualizing Crop Life Cycle Events to Create a User Centered
Ontology for Farmers. Paper presented at the International Conference on Computational Science and its Applications (ICCSA 2014),
Poroto, Portugal.
◦ Walisadeera, A. I., Wikramanayake, G. N., & Ginige, A. (2013). Designing a Farmer Centred Ontology for Social Life Network. Paper
presented at the 2nd International Conference on Data Management Technologies and Applications (DATA 2013), Reykjavík, Iceland.
◦ Walisadeera, A. I., Ginige, A., and Wikramanayake, G. N. 2017. "Design Approaches Emerging in Developing an Agricultural Ontology
for Sri Lankan Farmers," International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications: Springer, pp. 743-758.
◦ Walisadeera, A., Ginige, A., Wikramanayake, G., Pamuditha Madushanka, A. L., and Shanika Udeshini, A. A. 2015. "A Framework for
End-to-End Ontology Management System," in Computational Science and Its Applications -- Iccsa 2015, O. Gervasi, B. Murgante, S.
Misra, M.L. Gavrilova, A.M.A.C. Rocha, C. Torre, D. Taniar and B.O. Apduhan (eds.). Springer International Publishing, pp. 529-544.
◦ Walisadeera, A. I., Wikramanayake, G. N., and Ginige, A. 2013. "An Ontological Approach to Meet Information Needs of Farmers in Sri
Lanka," in: 1st International Workshop on Agricultural and Environmental Information and Decision Support Systems (AEIDSS 2013).
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.: Springer.
19. Published Papers from the Project Cont
User Interface Design and User Response
◦ Silva, L. D., Goonetillake, J., Wikramanayake, G., Ginige, A., Ginige, T., Giovanni, P. D., . . . Tortora, G. (2014, August 25, 2014). Design
Science Research Based Blended Approach for Usability Driven Requirements Gathering and Application Development. Paper
presented at the Second International Workshop on Usability and Accessibility focused Requirements Engineering, Karlskrona,
Sweden.
◦ Giovanni, P. D., Romano, M., Sebillo, M., Tortora, G., Vitiello, G., Ginige, T., . . . Ginige, A. (2013). Building Social Life Networks through
Mobile Interfaces‒ the Case Study of Sri Lanka Farmers Organizational Change and Information Systems (pp. 399 - 408): Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
◦ Di Giovanni, P., Romano, M., Sebillo, M., Tortora, G., Vitiello, G., Ginige, T., . . . Ginige, A. (2012). User centered scenario based
approach for developing mobile interfaces for Social Life Networks. Paper presented at the Usability and Accessibility Focused
Requirements Engineering (UsARE), 2012 First International Workshop on.
◦ Harnessing Mobile Pervasive Computing to Enhance Livelihood Processes: Farmer Response to a Mobile Agriculture Information
System, LNC De Silva, JS Goonetillake, GN Wikramanayake, A Ginige, International Conference on Green, Pervasive, and Cloud
Computing, 641-655
Nutrition Monitoring
◦ Javadi, B., Calheiros, R.N., Matawie, K.M., Ginige, A., and Cook, A.: ‘Smart Nutrition Monitoring System Using Heterogeneous Internet
of Things Platform’. Proc. 4th Asia-Pacific World Congress on Computer Science and Engineering 2017 (APWC on CSE 2017), Fiji 11-
13th December 2017
