Imagine this is the year 2035. The cloud has reached its limits; latency, cost, and energy demand have become unsustainable (Of course, thanks to the AI!!). Humanity’s new challenge is to push computation to the edge: closer to users, sensors, and the physical world.

You and your teammates are part of the 3I/Edge Research Division, a global initiative exploring new kinds of operating systems built for this decentralized, power-constrained, latency-critical world.

You’ll face four real-world edge scenarios, each revealing a different kind of challenge; speed, adaptability, energy, and interoperability. Together, your team will decide what the Operating System of the Future should look like.

Phase 0: Form Your Research Team

Goal: Create teams of 3–4.

<aside> 💡

Task #1:

• Pick a team name
• One member created a submission on Gradescope </aside>

Phase 1: Low latency (Real-time edge)

A scenario: A robot arm on a smart factory line must react within 1 ms to avoid a crash. Your OS must handle thousands of sensor events and compute decisions instantly.

Which of these OS ideas would help the robot meet its 1 ms target?

(Pick one or more and explain why.)

• [ ] Give the robot process higher priority
• [ ] Use a polling loop instead of interrupts
• [ ] Reduce context switches
• [ ] Run tasks in user space directly

A follow-up question: “What trade-off might your choice(s) cause?”

Phase 2: Energy Efficiency (Batteryless IoT devices)

A scenario: A network of solar-powered environmental sensors in the 100-acre farm must gather data even when energy is intermittent. [add an edge router] Your OS must make progress despite power loss without losing any data.

Which ideas could help your solar-powered sensor keep working longer?

(Pick one or more and explain.)

• [ ] Schedule heavy tasks only when solar power is strong
• [ ] Put CPU to sleep during idle time