IS485 IS Project Experience (Research)- Fintech project examples

Project deliverable:

1. A research report covering 2-3 research questions
2. A working prototype
3. Presentation slides

Research Problems:

• Approach the faculty advisor
• Project selection should be mutually agreed

Item	Research Problem	Research Questions	Research Method
1	Microservices Architecture in Banking - In recent years, there is much written about microservices architecture. Even so, there is very little written about how microservices are used in the banking industry. I study is needed to understand microservices implementation in banking. Faculty Advisor: Prof Alan Megargel	Research Question 1: How do banks decide on the boundary context and granularity of microservices? Research Question 2: What kind of tool sets do banks use for building, testing, and deploying microservices? Research Question 3: What strategies to banks employ for migrating from monolithic systems to microservices?	Research Method: Data collection through surveys and interviews of bank staff, and existing case studies. Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected. Results and Conclusions. Integrated Report: Write up an integrated report covering all 3 research questions. Integrated Demo: Demonstrate a fully functional microservice for a banking context, using the techniques and tools discovered.
2	Data Replication Across Microservice Instances - In a microservices architecture, as the demand (# of invocations) for a microservice increases, management tools elastically create replicate instances of the microservice. A study is needed to understand mechanisms for replicating the data underlying multiple instances of a microservice. Faculty Advisor: Prof Alan Megargel	Research Question 1: Can an in-memory-data-grid be used instead of a relational database, underlying replicated instances of a microservice? What is the feasibility of each, in a banking context? Research Question 2: What are the performance characteristics (eg; response time, replication time) of an in-memory-data-grid as compare to a relational database, as invoked across microservice instances? Research Question 3: How is transaction management done using an in-memory-data-grid as compared to a relational database, in order to avoid concurrency issues across microservice instances?	Research Method: Develop a microservice (banking context) which requires transaction management. Configure a microservice management tool to replicate instances of the microservice. Load test instances of the microservice across heavy loads, to generate data. Do the load testing for; a) in-memory-data-grid, and b) relational database. Analyse the data generated from load testing. Results and Conclusions. Integrated Report: Write up an integrated report covering all 3 research questions. Relate each question within a banking context. Integrated Demo: Demonstrate a fully functional microservice for a banking context, using the techniques and tools discovered. Run the demo using; a) in-memory-data-grid, and b) relational database.
3	Maintaining Data Privacy Across Connected Blockchains - With an increasing number of commercial private blockchains being used on different platforms there is a problem on how to connect the blockchains and maintain data privacy. Faculty Advisor: Prof Paul Griffen	Research Question 1: How can current homogeneous blockchain interoperability platforms such as PolkaDot maintain data privacy be expanded for heterogeneous blockchain interoperability? Research Question 2: What are the key features for designing a heterogeneous blockchain interoperability platform? Research Question 3: What is the most efficient and effective protocol for a heterogeneous blockchain interoperability platform? A good starting point is zero-knowledge proofs such as zk-SNARKS and zkSTARKS.	Research Method: Review current homogeneous blockchain interoperability platforms such as PolkaDot. Interview industry partners (OneConnect) for the key features necessary for a heterogeneous blockchain interoperability platform. Analyze the gaps in the homogeneous blockchain interoperability platforms for the business needs for heterogeneous blockchain interoperability platform and propose a data exchange protocol. Results and Conclusions. Integrated Report: Write up an integrated report covering all 3 research questions. Integrated Demo: Demonstrate a proof-of-concept of the new heterogeneous interoperability protocol.