Each October, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) serves as a vital reminder of the ever-growing importance of cybersecurity in our daily lives. As technology continues to integrate seamlessly into every aspect of society, safeguarding our digital infrastructure has become a shared responsibility. Established in 2004 through a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance, NCSAM has grown into a global effort to educate individuals, businesses, and institutions about the pressing need to stay secure online.

Cybersecurity is no longer a topic confined to IT professionals or large corporations. With the widespread use of smartphones, smart home devices, online banking, and social media, everyone is a participant in the digital ecosystem. This interconnectedness, while convenient, also makes us vulnerable to cyber threats such as phishing, malware, identity theft, and ransomware attacks. NCSAM aims to equip individuals and organizations with the tools and knowledge needed to defend against these threats and to adopt a security-first mindset.

The theme for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month often evolves to address emerging challenges in the cyber landscape. Common themes include promoting strong password habits, enabling multi-factor authentication, recognizing phishing attempts, and maintaining software updates. The campaign emphasizes simple, actionable steps that anyone can take to bolster their security posture.

For businesses, NCSAM highlights the importance of building a robust cybersecurity culture. This includes training employees on recognizing cyber threats, conducting regular security assessments, and implementing comprehensive cybersecurity policies. Companies that prioritize cybersecurity not only protect their assets but also build trust with customers and stakeholders.

On an individual level, NCSAM encourages people to be proactive in managing their digital footprint. From using secure Wi-Fi networks to backing up important data, these measures can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to cybercrime.

Government agencies, educational institutions, and private organizations often collaborate during NCSAM to host workshops, webinars, and community events. These initiatives aim to demystify cybersecurity, making it accessible and understandable for all.

As we navigate an increasingly digital world, the importance of cybersecurity cannot be overstated. National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a powerful call to action for everyone to play their part in securing our shared digital future. By staying informed, vigilant, and proactive, we can create a safer online environment for all.

During the Unlock CEI some other work of NEMO project was showcased. Our colleague Dr Theodore Zahariadis participated in the panel regarding industrial uptake of the CEI solutions during the Market Paths for UNLOCK-CEI pilots session, in which Dr Zahariadis made a pitch of the NEMO Smart Farming use cases in industrial audience, highlighting the benefits of the NEMO meta-OS towards addressing crucial challenges in the Smart Farming domain.

In particular, the NEMO Smart farming solution for organic olive groves was presented as a viable solution to crop losses due to pests, focussed on organic farming. The NEMO solution provides multi-modal AI analytics for field situational awareness, extracting insights from micro-clima data collected via Synelixis SynField® IoT nodes and real-time video analysis of olive groves through agri drones. The NEMO solution supports informed decisions towards intelligent bait-based biospraying and weed mowing through autonomous robots.

The NEMO Smart Farming use case was voted unanimously as the preferred solution out of 4 competent MetaOS industrial pilots, the rest developed by NEBULOUS, aerOS and ICOS projects.

NEMO project is very busy these days. This week, Dr Theodore Zahariadis, from our partner Synelixis, participated in AIOTI Days 2024 days, representing NEMO. During session 10, Cloud-Edge-IoT technologies at the service of European sustainable Manufacturing Industries, Dr Zahariadis participated in a panel of six experts from the Cloud-Edge-IoT domain and the Manufacturing Industry 4.0. His intervention highlighted the technological solution developed in NEMO and how it can accelerate penetration of industry 5.0 into the European manufacturing domain.

Aiming to create a CEI continuum, where applications will be transparently executed in an optimal way (i.e. Resources, Responsive, Human Centric, Resilience, CO2 reduction), NEMO may foster transition to industry 5.0. Through its transparent network connectivity, AI/FDM as the main decision-making mechanism, secure execution and the meta-Orchestrator, but also with the power of DevZeroOps, the distributed incentives-based monetization mechanism and open source, NEMO addresses industry 5.0 challenges towards smart and on-demand manufacturing, human-centricity, as well as zero-defect & FRANCA capabilities and sustainability goals.

This week Unlock CEI event took place in Brussels and it was called “Towards deployment of Cloud-Edge-IoT solutions across the computing continuum from market pathways to large scale pilots”.

To realise the green and digital transition, Europe needs to step up its investments in IoT and connectivity, facilitate data access and data services across key industrial sectors like automotive, energy, buildings, agriculture etc., in particular invest in energy-efficient edge nodes and increase the capacity of its data infrastructure at cloud and at edge level. IoT and edge computing will play a significant role in the future of our businesses, economy and society, especially while keeping data at the edge and taking decisions at a local level. This gives us an advantage in global emergencies like the energy crisis, or natural disasters caused by climate change.

During this event our colleague, Dimitrios Christopoulos from FHW participated during session 2: Supply-demand dialogue. The leader of trial 5.5 presented the Smart Media City Pilot project that was selected by the event organisers and the NEMO partners as a success project.

One of the significant aspects about NEMO is that is standing apart from the other meta-Os projects because it also features pilots on untouched niches of media, entertainment and XR-VR.

This enables NEMO to have pilots in traditional areas such as industry but also for culture, media and entertainment.

EUCEI Success Story NEMO

NEMO project is advancing quicKly and meeting its milestones. Every semester all partners gather together with the aim of exchanging impressions and sumarizing how the project is developing.

One of these gatherings took place in September. Our 6th General Meeting was celebrated in Bologna, Italy. At this point of the project we needed to make sure everything is on track and discuss what next steps need to be taken.

Some interesting insights were addressed mostly about the technical part of the project but also about communication issues. Also a very thorough summary of our last Open Calls was put on the table and discussed. Also some Use Case videos were kindly shared with the rest of the partners.

We came out convinced that all together we can find the way to make NEMO a success story.

Another publication was made by NEMO Partners regarding Olive Tree Segmentation.

This paper addresses the challenge of olive tree segmentation using drone imagery, which is crucial for precision agriculture applications. We tackle the data scarcity issue by augmenting existing detection datasets. Additionally, lightweight model variations of state-of-the-art models like YOLOv8n, RepViT-SAM, and EdgeSAM are combined into two proposed pipelines to meet computational constraints while maintaining segmentation accuracy. Our multifaceted approach successfully achieves an equilibrium among model size, inference time, and accuracy, thereby facilitating efficient olive tree segmentation in precision agriculture scenarios with constrained datasets. Following comprehensive evaluations, YOLOv8n appears to surpass the other models in terms of inference time and accuracy, albeit necessitating a more intricate fine-tuning procedure. Conversely, SAM-based pipelines provide a significantly more streamlined fine-tuning process, compatible with existing detection datasets for olive trees. However, this convenience incurs the disadvantages of a more elaborate inference architecture that relies on dual models, consequently yielding lower performance metrics and prolonged inference durations.

Read more here: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/8/8/408

NEMO second open call for proposals is live! NEMO will host a webinar on July 18, 2024, where you will have the chance to get information about the NEMO project with the view of joining us through the Open Call 2 projects. The webinar will provide insights on the NEMO project and the 2nd Open Call. Questions related to NEMO metaOS and use cases will be answered.

AGENDA

11:00-11:25  NEMO Project presentation

11:25-11:40  OC2 topic and procedure

11:40-12:00  Q&A

WHY PARTICIPATE?

Explore opportunities to get funded through the NEMO Open Call #2.

Gain insights on the unique NEMO approach to delivering the meta-OS for next-generation integrated IoT, edge and cloud computing.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

SMEs with experience in and targeting applications and services involving IoT systems and/or edge/cloud computing are welcome to join this event.

REGISTER NOW!

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

DETAILS

Date: July 18, 2024

Time: 11:00 – 12:00 CEST

Venue: Online

Join us and learn more about the NEMO project towards your opportunity to get funded!