Computer Engineering Commons^™

Emoji Use In Social Media Posts: Relationships With Personality Traits And Word Usage, Shelia Kennison, Kameryn Fritz, Maria Andrea Hurtado Morales, Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Prior research has demonstrated relationships between personality traits of social media users and the language used in their posts. Few studies have examined whether there are relationships between personality traits of users and how they use emojis in their social media posts. Emojis are digital pictographs used to express ideas and emotions. There are thousands of emojis, which depict faces with expressions, objects, animals, and activities. We conducted a study with two samples (n = 76 and n = 245) in which we examined how emoji use on X (formerly Twitter) related to users’ personality traits and language use …

Finding Approximate Pythagorean Triples (And Applications To Lego Robot Building), Ronald I. Greenberg, Matthew Fahrenbacher, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This assignment combines programming and data analysis to determine good combinations of side lengths that approximately satisfy the Pythagorean Theorem for right triangles. This can be a standalone exercise using a wide variety of programming languages, but the results are useful for determining good ways to assemble LEGO pieces in robot construction, so the exercise can serve to integrate three different units of the Exploring Computer Science high school curriculum: "Programming", "Computing and Data Analysis", and "Robotics". Sample assignment handouts are provided for both Scratch and Java programmers. Ideas for several variants of the assignment are also provided.

Image Provenance Analysis, Daniel Moreira, William Theisen, Walter Scheirer, Aparna Bharati, Joel Brogan, Anderson Rocha

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The literature of multimedia forensics is mainly dedicated to the analysis of single assets (such as sole image or video files), aiming at individually assessing their authenticity. Different from this, image provenance analysis is devoted to the joint examination of multiple assets, intending to ascertain their history of edits, by evaluating pairwise relationships. Each relationship, thus, expresses the probability of one asset giving rise to the other, through either global or local operations, such as data compression, resizing, color-space modifications, content blurring, and content splicing. The principled combination of these relationships unveils the provenance of the assets, also constituting an …

Requirements Metrics - A Working List, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A working set of metrics for review of requirements materials including documents.

Camera Placement Meeting Restrictions Of Computer Vision, Sara Aghajanzadeh, Roopasree Naidu, Shuo-Han Chen, Caleb Tung, Abhinav Goel, Yung-Hsiang Lu, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the blooming era of smart edge devices, surveillance cam- eras have been deployed in many locations. Surveillance cam- eras are most useful when they are spaced out to maximize coverage of an area. However, deciding where to place cam- eras is an NP-hard problem and researchers have proposed heuristic solutions. Existing work does not consider a signifi- cant restriction of computer vision: in order to track a moving object, the object must occupy enough pixels. The number of pixels depends on many factors (how far away is the object? What is the camera resolution? What is the focal length?). …

A Real-Time Feature Indexing System On Live Video Streams, Aditya Chakraborty, Akshay Pawar, Hojoung Jang, Shunqiao Huang, Sripath Mishra, Shuo-Han Chen, Yuan-Hao Chang, George K. Thiruvathukal, Yung-Hsiang Lu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Most of the existing video storage systems rely on offline processing to support the feature-based indexing on video streams. The feature-based indexing technique provides an effec- tive way for users to search video content through visual features, such as object categories (e.g., cars and persons). However, due to the reliance on offline processing, video streams along with their captured features cannot be searchable immediately after video streams are recorded. According to our investigation, buffering and storing live video steams are more time-consuming than the YOLO v3 object detector. Such observation motivates us to propose a real-time feature indexing (RTFI) system …

Exercises Integrating High School Mathematics With Robot Motion Planning, Ronald I. Greenberg, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper presents progress in developing exercises for high school students incorporating level-appropriate mathematics into robotics activities. We assume mathematical foundations ranging from algebra to precalculus, whereas most prior work on integrating mathematics into robotics uses only very elementary mathematical reasoning or, at the other extreme, is comprised of technical papers or books using calculus and other advanced mathematics. The exercises suggested are relevant to any differerential-drive robot, which is an appropriate model for many different varieties of educational robots. They guide students towards comparing a variety of natural navigational strategies making use of typical movement primitives. The exercises align …

Mathematics And Programming Exercises For Educational Robot Navigation, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper points students towards ideas they can use towards developing a convenient library for robot navigation, with examples based on Botball primitives, and points educators towards mathematics and programming exercises they can suggest to students, especially advanced high school students.

Integrating Mathematics And Educational Robotics: Simple Motion Planning, Ronald I. Greenberg, George K. Thiruvathukal, Sara T. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper shows how students can be guided to integrate elementary mathematical analyses with motion planning for typical educational robots. Rather than using calculus as in comprehensive works on motion planning, we show students can achieve interesting results using just simple linear regression tools and trigonometric analyses. Experiments with one robotics platform show that use of these tools can lead to passable navigation through dead reckoning even if students have limited experience with use of sensors, programming, and mathematics.

Motion Planning For Simple Two-Wheeled Robots, Ronald I. Greenberg, Jeffery M. Karp

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper considers various simple ways of navigating in a 2-dimensianal territory with a two-wheeled robot of a type typical in educational robotics. We determine shortest paths under various modes of operation and compare.

Pythagorean Approximations For Lego: Merging Educational Robot Construction With Programming And Data Analysis, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Abstract. This paper can be used in two ways. It can provide reference information for incorporating diagonal elements (for bracing or gear meshing) in educational robots built from standard LEGO kits. Alternatively, it can be used as the basis for an assignment for high school or college students to recreate this information; in the process, students will exercise skills in both computer programming and data analysis. Using the paper in the second way can be an excellent integrative experience to add to an existing course; for example, the Exploring Computer Science high school curriculum concludes with the units “Introduction to …

Pythagorean Combinations For Lego Robot Building., Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper provides tips for LEGO robot construction involving bracing or gear meshing along a diagonal using standard Botball kits.

Metrics, Software Engineering, Small Systems – The Future Of Systems Development, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this talk I will introduce the importance of metrics, or measures, and the role they play in the development of high quality computer systems. I will review some key mega trends in computer science over the last three decades and then explain why I believe the trend to small networked systems, along with metrics and software engineering will define the future of high technology computer based systems.

I first learned about metrics at the Bell System where everything was measured. Metrics can be understood easily if you think of them as measures, for example of calories or salt in …

An Example Of Atomic Requirements - Login Screen, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A simple example of what an atomic or individual or singular requirement statement should be. Using the example of the familiar login screen, shows the evolution from a low quality initial attempt at requirements to a complete atomic requirement statement. Introduces the idea of a system glossary to support the atomic requirement.

Atomic Requirements Quick Notes, William L. Honig, Shingo Takada

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Working paper on atomic requirements for systems development and the importance of singular, cohesive, individual requirements statements. Covers possible definitions of atomic requirements, and their characteristics. Atomic requirements improve many parts of the development process from requirements to testing and contracting.

Introduction To Atomic Requirements, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

An introduction to requirements and the importance of making single atomic requirements statements. Atomic requirements have advantages and improve the requirements process, support requirement verification and validation, enable traceability, support testability of systems, and provide management advantages.

Why has there been so little emphasis on atomic requirements?

Requirements Metrics - Definitions Of A Working List Of Possible Metrics For Requirements Quality, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A work in progress to define a metrics set for requirements. Metrics are defined that apply to either the entire requirements set (requirements document as a whole) or individual atomic (or singular, individual) requirements statements. Requirements are identified with standard names and a identification scheme and include both subjective and objective measures.

An example metric for the full set of requirements: Rd2 - Requirements Consistency, Is the set of atomic requirements internally consistent, with no contradictions, no duplication between individual requirements? An example of a metric for a single requirement: Ra4 - Requirement Verifiability, How adequately can this requirement be …

Requirements Quick Notes, William L. Honig, Shingo Takada

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A short introduction to requirements and their role in system development. Includes industry definition of requirements, overview of basic requirements process including numbering of requirements, ties to testing, and traceability. An introduction to requirements quality attributes (correct, unambiguous, etc.) Includes references to requirements process, numbering, and quality papers.

Software Metrics And Dashboard, Shilpika Shilpika, George K. Thiruvathukal, Saulo Aguiar, Konstantin Läufer, Nicholas J. Hayward

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Software metrics are a critical tool which provide continuous insight to products and processes and help build reliable software in mission critical environments. Using software metrics we can perform calculations that help assess the effectiveness of the underlying software or process. The two types of metrics relevant to our work is complexity metrics and in-process metrics. Complexity metrics tend to focus on intrinsic code properties like code complexity. In-process metrics focus on a higher-level view of software quality, measuring information that can provide insight into the underlying software development process.

Our aim is to develop and evaluate a metrics dashboard …

Naked Object File System (Nofs): A Framework To Expose An Object-Oriented Domain Model As A File System, Joseph P. Kaylor, Konstantin Läufer, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We present Naked Objects File System (NOFS), a novel framework that allows a developer to expose a domain model as a file system by leveraging the Naked Objects design principle. NOFS allows a developer to construct a file system without having to understand or implement all details related to normal file systems development. In this paper we explore file systems frameworks and object-oriented frameworks in a historical context and present an example domain model using the framework. This paper is based on a fully-functional implementation that is distributed as free/open source software, including virtual machine images to demonstrate and study …

The Hydra Filesystem: A Distrbuted Storage Famework, Benjamin Gonzalez, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Hydra File System (HFS) is an experimental framework for constructing parallel and distributed filesystems. While parallel and distributed applications requiring scalable and flexible access to storage and retrieval are becoming more commonplace, parallel and distributed filesystems remain difficult to deploy easily and configure for different needs. HFS aims to be different by being true to the tradition of high-performance computing while employing modern design patterns to allow various policies to be configured on a per instance basis (e.g. storage, communication, security, and indexing schemes). We describe a working prototype (available for public download) that has been implemented in the Python …

Scalable Implementations Of Mpi Atomicity For Concurrent Overlapping I/O, Wei-Keng Liao, Alok Choudhary, Kenin Coloma, George K. Thiruvathukal, Lee Ward, Eric Russell, Neil Pundit

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

For concurrent I/O operations, atomicity defines the results in the overlapping file regions simultaneously read/written by requesting processes. Atomicity has been well studied at the file system level, such as POSIX standard. In this paper, we investigate the problems arising from the implementation of MPI atomicity for concurrent overlapping write access and provide a few programming solutions. Since the MPI definition of atomicity differs from the POSIX one, an implementation that simply relies on the POSIX file systems does not guarantee correct MPI semantics. To have a correct implementation of atomic I/O in MPI, we examine the efficiency of three …

Modeling And Comparison Of Wormhole Routed Mesh And Torus Networks, Ronald I. Greenberg, Lee Guan

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

2D-mesh and torus networks have often been proposed as the interconnection pattern for parallel computers. In addition, wormhole routing has increasingly been advocated as a method of reducing latency. Most analysis of wormhole routed networks, however, has focused on the torus and the broader class of k-ary n-cubes to which it belongs. This paper presents a performance model for the wormhole routed mesh, and it compares the performance of the mesh and torus based on theoretical and empirical analyses.

An Improved Analytical Model For Wormhole Routed Networks With Application To Butterfly Fat-Trees, Ronald I. Greenberg, Lee Guan

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A performance model for wormhole routed interconnection networks is presented and applied to the butterfly fat-tree network. Experimental results agree very closely over a wide range of load rate. Novel aspects of the model, leading to accurate and simple performance predictions, include (1) use of multiple-server queues, and (2) a general method of correcting queuing results based on Poisson arrivals to apply to wormhole routing. These ideas can also be applied to other networks.

An Empirical Comparison Of Networks And Routing Strategies For Parallel Computation, Ronald I. Greenberg, Lee Guan

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper compares message routing capabilities of important networks proposed for general-purpose parallel computing. All the networks have been proven to have some type of universality property, i.e., an ability to simulate other networks of comparable cost with modest slowdown, using appropriate cost and communication models. But in this paper we seek an empirical comparison of communication capability under typical direct use rather than an analysis of worst-case results for simulating message traffic of another network.

An Empirical Comparison Of Area-Universal And Other Parallel Computing Networks, Ronald I. Greenberg, Lee Guan

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper provides empirical comparison of the communication capabilities of two area-universal networks, the fat-tree and the fat-pyramid, to the popular mesh and hypercube networks for parallel computation. While area-universal networks have been proven capable of simulating, with modest slowdown, any computation of any other network of comparable area, prior work has generally left open the question of how area-universal networks compare to other networks in practice. Comparisons are performed using techniques of throughput and latency analysis that have previously been applied to k-ary n-cube networks and using various existing models to equate the hardware cost of the networks being …

A Systolic Simulation And Transformation System, Ronald I. Greenberg, H.-C. Oh

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper presents a CAD tool, SystSim, to ease the design of systolic systems. Given a high-level, functional description of processors, and a high-level description of their interconnection, SystSim will perform simulations and provide graphical output. SystSim will also perform transformations such as retiming, which eases use of the methodology of Leiserson and Saxe of designing a system with broadcasting and then obtaining a systolic system through retiming.

Packet Routing In Networks With Long Wires, Ronald I. Greenberg, H.-C. Oh

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper, we examine the packet routing problem for networks with wires of differing length. We consider this problem in a network independent context, in which routing time is expressed in terms of “congestion” and “dilation” measures for a set of packet paths. We give, for any constant ε > 0, a randomized on-line algorithm for routing any set of N packets in O((Clg^ε(Nd)+Dlg(Nd))/lglg(Nd)) time, where C is the maximum congestion and D is the length of the longest path, both taking wire delays into account, and d is the longest path in terms of number of wires. We also …

The Fat-Pyramid: A Robust Network For Parallel Computation, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper shows that a fat-pyramid of area Theta(A) built from processors of size lg A requires only O(lg^2 A) slowdown in bit-times to simulate any network of area A under very general conditions. Specifically, there is no restriction on processor size (amount of attached memory) or number of processors in the competing network, nor is the assumption of unit wire delay required. This paper also derives upper bounds on the slowdown required by a fat-pyramid to simulate a network of larger area in the case of unit wire delay.

Randomized Routing On Fat-Trees, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Fat-trees are a class of routing networks for hardware-efficient parallel computation. This paper presents a randomized algorithm for routing messages on a fat-tree. The quality of the algorithm is measured in terms of the load factor of a set of messages to be routed, which is a lower bound on the time required to deliver the messages. We show that if a set of messages has load factor lambda on a fat-tree with n processors, the number of delivery cycles (routing attempts) that the algorithm requires is O(lambda+lgnlglgn) with probability 1-O(1/ …