Journey of a PhD is very much similar to an expedition the unknown. It begins with energy and excitement, continues with fear of rejection/ failure, and culminates with incredible delight. I am fortunate to have been encompassed by loads of good people who have been helping me conquer this fear and finish this journey with a joy. I like to pay my gratitude to every one of them for their benevolent help and support.
I am heartily thankful to my research supervisor, Dr. Udai Pratap Rao, whose encouragement, guidance, and support from the initial level which enabled me to develop an understanding of the topic. I am thankful to Head of Computer Engineering Department for providing me all the required facilities for my work. I am also grateful to my credit seminar evaluation committee members, Dr. S. Kumar and Dr. M. A. Zaveri as well as my research progress seminar committee members, Prof. P. L. Patel, Prof. Sanjay Garg, Prof. D. C. Jinwala, Prof. M. M. Vegad, and Dr. S. J. Patel for providing valuable feedback, which are very useful in improving my work. I am also thankful to my thesis reviewers Dr. George Trawick, National Defense University, USA and Prof. S. Nickolas, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli who spend their valuable time to review my thesis and provided suggestion which further improve the quality of my thesis.
I would like to dedicate this work to my daughter Brisha who is as old as my PhD. I am grateful to my wife Shweta who support me in all my decisions. I am also thankful to my parents for their continuous encouragement from childhood to this stage of life.
When I decided to go for PhD research, I was in a desperate search of a topic which can have significant impact on society as well as currently in trend. One of my postgraduate student Mr. Mikin Dagli came to me with his dissertation topic on big data which I find very interesting. I further studied some papers related to it which motivated me for the work present in this thesis. Therefore, I would like to thank Mr. Mikin Dagli for motivating me.
During my journey of PhD at CoED, SVNIT, many people helped me in one way or another. The faculty members who were not part of my credit seminar or RPS committee but help and encourage me, Prof. Dhiren Patel, Dr. Rupa Mehta, Dr. Dipti Rana, Dr. Bhavesh Gohil, and Mr. Satish Raj Goyal. My friends (seniors and juniors) Mr. Himanshu Patel, Mrs. Ruchika Gupta, Mr. Bhavesh Borisaniya, Mr. Nishant Doshi, Mr. Chirag Modi, Mr. Dipen Contractor, Mr. Kamal Macwan, Mr. Shivanshu Mehta, Mr. Kirit Siddhapara, Mr. Jagdish Vanara, Mr. Nikhil Kumar, and Mr. Sravan Gadekula with whom I discuss my work and receive feedbacks which help me a lot to get further direction. I am very much thankful to all of you.
I am also thankful to Prof. Naveen Choudhary, Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur for providing me all the necessary facility for my work. I am also thankful to my colleagues Mrs. Kalpana Jain, Ms. Diksha Goyal, Mr. Manoj Ashara, Mr. Praveen Sharma, Mr. Sanjay Patel, and Mr. Deep Manwar for the help and support they provide me during my tenure at CTAE.
I am also grateful to all the anonymous reviewers who spend their valuable time to review my papers submitted in various conferences and journals. I am thankful to all the persons who help me in anyways and I mistakenly forget their name to mention here. Without help and support of you guys I may not be able to reach at this stage.
Thank you!
Mehta Brijesh Balvantray
