Computational Engineering Commons^™

Whitespace Exploration, Jason Lloyd Daniel

Master's Theses

As engineering systems grow in complexity so too must the design tools that we use evolve and allow for decision makers to efficiently ask questions of their model and obtain meaningful answers. The process of whitespace exploration has recently been developed to aid in engineering design and provide insight into a design space where traditional design exploration methods may fail. In an effort to further the research and development of whitespace exploration algorithms, a software package called Thalia has been created to allow for automated data collection and experimentation with the whitespace exploration methodology.

In this work, whitespace exploration is …

Iota: Internet Of Things Assistant, Brandon M. Okumura

Master's Theses

The Internet of Things is the networking of electronic devices, or “Things”, that enables them to collect and share data, as well as interact with their physical surround- ings. Analyzing this collected data allows us to make smarter economic decisions. These interconnected networks are usually driven by low-powered micro-controllers or cheap CPUs that are designed to function optimally with very little hardware. As scale and computational requirements increase, these micro-controllers are unable to grow without being physically replaced.

This thesis proposes a system, IoTA, that assists the Internet of Things by pro- viding a shared computational resource for endpoint devices. …

Complementary Companion Behavior In Video Games, Gavin Scott

Master's Theses

Companion characters in are present in many video games across genres, serving the role of the player's partner. Their goal is to support the player's strategy and to immerse the player by providing a believable companion. These companions often only perform rigidly scripted actions and fail to adapt to an individual player's play-style, detracting from their usefulness. Behavior like this can also become frustrating to the player if the companions become more of a hindrance than they are a benefit. Other work, including this project's precursor, focused on building companions that mimic the player. These strategies customize the companion's actions …

On The Impact Of Android Api Evolution On Education Materials, Kennedy Owen

Master's Theses

The recent growing popularity of mobile devices has led to the establishment of several popular mobile platforms such as the Android operating system. To foster growth in this evolving market, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) were created to enable developers to create mobile device applications that utilize mobile device features and functionality for personal or widespread commercial use. However, as a result of excessive device and API evolution, mobile development faces increasingly complex issues, including an alarmingly rapid decay of development resources.

This thesis conducts a case study around one such resource: a series of Android app development lab …

Corgi: Compute Oriented Recumbent Generation Infrastructure, Christopher Allen Hunt

Master's Theses

Creating a bicycle with a rideable geometry is more complicated than it may appear, with today’s mainstay designs having evolved through years of iteration. This slow evolution coupled with the bicycle’s intricate mechanical system has lead most builders to base their new geometries off of previous work rather than expand into new design spaces. This crutch can lead to slow bicycle iteration rates, often causing bicycles to all look about the same. To combat this, several bicycle design models have been created over the years, with each attempting to define a bicycle’s handling characteristics given its physical geometry. However, these …