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A ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Leicester (²ÝÁñÊÓƵ) academic has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship.

Dr Lipika Deka, Associate Professor of Computer Science, will spend the next year studying the effects of software architecture erosion, a phenomenon which is like an ageing process for smart devices.

It is a side effect of increasingly frequent software updates, which also makes those updates less effective over time. And, as people buy new devices to replace them, means more e-waste is being created, harming the environment.

Dr Deka’s project, called PRESERVE – PREventing Software Architecture Erosion as Internet of things evolve – was announced in , one of the most prestigious and fiercely competitive funding programmes in the UK.

Through her research, she aims to deepen understanding about preventing software architecture erosion and ensure devices work correctly for longer, reducing e-waste.

She said: “This year alone, software updates will be applied to some 83 billion connected Internet of Things (smart) devices. These updates are necessary to keep the devices cyber resilient and fit for purpose. However, updates can also be a bane as they often result in architecture erosion, leading to software quality degradation, failures and the ultimate inability to evolve, enforcing premature retirement.”

Research Fellowships are open to experienced researchers in the areas of Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, particularly those who are or have been prevented by routine duties from completing a piece of research.

The Leverhulme Trust, established in 1925, is a large national grant-making foundation in the UK where its resources are used to support scholarships for the purposes of research and education.