Computer Engineering Commons^™

A Survey Of Virtual Network Architectures, Lenoy Avidan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

With the storage needs of the world increasing, especially with the growth of cloud computing, data centers are being utilized more than ever. The increasing need of storage has led to more use of virtualization to help intra and inter data center communications. The virtualization of physical networks is used to help achieve this goal, but with the creation of Virtual Networks, systems must be designed to create, manage, and secure them. A Virtual Network Architecture is the system design for creating and maintaining virtual network components and the resulting networks they create. Different companies design different Virtual Network Architectures, …

Automation Of Post-Earthquake Civil Infrastructure Reconnaissance, Jack Bergquist

Architectural Engineering

Traditionally post-earthquake structural engineering reconnaissance consists of a team of experts who are deployed to the field to record and capture earthquake damage data, which is later uploaded into online repositories. Despite many advances to these data archives in recent years, the entries in online repositories often have limited metadata which make it difficult and time consuming to extract specific damage evidence that can be used for meaningful analysis. This report outlines the author’s contributions to overcoming these challenges via the development of a neural network that automatically filters and classifies post-earthquake civil infrastructure damage data after a seismic event. …

Smart Surge Irrigation Using Microcontroller Based Embedded Systems And Internet Of Things, Prashant Dinkar Borhade

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surge Irrigation is a type of furrow irrigation and one of many efficient irrigation techniques. It is one of the economical techniques and requires minimum labor for monitoring it. In surge irrigation, water is applied intermittently to a field to achieve uniform distribution of water along the furrows, which is important while irrigating, as it ensures that there is enough water near the root zone of the crop. The uneven distribution can cause a loss in crop productivity.

Surge irrigation uses a surge valve, which is an electro-mechanical device that irrigates a field. The commercial surge valves available on the …

Amplifying The Prediction Of Team Performance Through Swarm Intelligence And Machine Learning, Erick Michael Harris

Master's Theses

Modern companies are increasingly relying on groups of individuals to reach organizational goals and objectives, however many organizations struggle to cultivate optimal teams that can maximize performance. Fortunately, existing research has established that group personality composition (GPC), across five dimensions of personality, is a promising indicator of team effectiveness. Additionally, recent advances in technology have enabled groups of humans to form real-time, closed-loop systems that are modeled after natural swarms, like flocks of birds and colonies of bees. These Artificial Swarm Intelligences (ASI) have been shown to amplify performance in a wide range of tasks, from forecasting financial markets to …

Increasing Engineering Retention With Mobile Technology: Using Ux/Ui For Us, James H. Cate Jr., Andrey Karnauch, Dakota Sanders, Matt Matto

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Cloudsat: Iot Approach To Small Satellite Ground Infrastructure, Brian Zufelt

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Over the last decade, the cost of space access has dramatically decreased with the creation of the CubeSat standard. The CubeSat standard defines the structural requirements for an on-orbit deployer and satellite to be placed into orbit. The average cost of creating a space mission with the CubeSat standard can range from $200 thousand to over $3 million. This lower cost has allowed many Universities, and small businesses to create their own space programs. However, a significant portion of the investment for any new space asset is the development of the ground system to communicate with the satellite. These costs …

Analyzing And Modeling Users In Multiple Online Social Platforms, Roy Lee Ka Wei

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses the empirical analysis on user-generated data from multiple online social platforms (OSPs) and modeling of latent user factors in multiple OSPs setting.

In the first part of this dissertation, we conducted cross-platform empirical studies to better understand user's social and work activities in multiple OSPs. In particular, we proposed new methodologies to analyze users' friendship maintenance and collaborative activities in multiple OSPs. We also apply the proposed methodologies on real-world OSP datasets, and the findings from our empirical studies have provided us with a better understanding on users' social and work activities which are previously not uncovered …

Bipartite Quantum Interactions: Entangling And Information Processing Abilities, Siddhartha Das

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to advance the theory behind quantum information processing tasks, by deriving fundamental limits on bipartite quantum interactions and dynamics. A bipartite quantum interaction corresponds to an underlying Hamiltonian that governs the physical transformation of a two-body open quantum system. Under such an interaction, the physical transformation of a bipartite quantum system is considered in the presence of a bath, which may be inaccessible to an observer. The goal is to determine entangling abilities of such arbitrary bipartite quantum interactions. Doing so provides fundamental limitations on information processing tasks, including entanglement distillation and secret key …

Implementation Of Secure Dnp3 Architecture Of Scada System For Smart Grids, Uday Bhaskar Boyanapalli

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

With the recent advances in the power grid system connecting to the internet, data sharing, and networking enables space for hackers to maliciously attack them based on their vulnerabilities. Vital stations in the smart grid are the generation, transmission, distribution, and customer substations are connected and controlled remotely by the network. Every substation is controlled by a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system which communicates on DNP3 protocol on Internet/IP which has many security vulnerabilities. This research will focus on Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) communication which is used in the smart grid to communicate between the controller devices. We …

Real-Time Intrusion Detection Using Multidimensional Sequence-To-Sequence Machine Learning And Adaptive Stream Processing, Gobinath Loganathan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A network intrusion is any unauthorized activity on a computer network. There are host-based and network-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS's), of which there are each signature-based and anomaly-based detection methods. An anomalous network behavior can be defined as an intentional violation of the expected sequence of packets. In a real-time network-based IDS, incoming packets are treated as a stream of data. A stream processor takes any stream of data or events and extracts interesting patterns on the fly. This representation allows applying statistical anomaly detection using sequence prediction algorithms as well as using a stream processor to perform signature-based intrusion …

An Iot System For Converting Handwritten Text To Editable Format Via Gesture Recognition, Nidhi Patel

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

Evaluation of traditional classroom has led to electronic classroom i.e. e-learning. Growth of traditional classroom doesn’t stop at e-learning or distance learning. Next step to electronic classroom is a smart classroom. Most popular features of electronic classroom is capturing video/photos of lecture content and extracting handwriting for note-taking. Numerous techniques have been implemented in order to extract handwriting from video/photo of the lecture but still the deficiency of few techniques can be resolved, and which can turn electronic classroom into smart classroom.

In this thesis, we present a real-time IoT system to convert handwritten text into editable format by implementing …

Exploring Offline Friendships On The Social Information Network: Network Characteristics, Information Diffusion, And Tie Strength, Felicia Natali

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The rapid increase in online social networking services over the last decade has pre- sented an unprecedented opportunity to observe users’ behaviour both on a societal and individual level. The insight gained from analysing such data can help foster a deeper understanding of social media users and the flow of information, while also offering valuable business applications. User relationships are among the most studied aspects of online behaviour. These relationships are not homogeneous. Past research has shown that people use social networks to both socialize and source in- formation. Hence, different types of links – used to socialize, gain information, …

Delegation Application, Erik Matthew Phillips

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Delegation is a cross-platform application to provide smart task distribution to users. In a team environment, the assignment of tasks can be tedious and difficult for management or for users needing to discover a starting place for where to begin with accomplishing tasks. Within a specific team, members possess individual skills within different areas of the team’s responsibilities and specialties, and certain members will be better suited to tackle specific tasks. This project provides a solution, consisting of a smart cross-platform application that allows for teams and individuals to quickly coordinate and delegate tasks assigned to them.

Dynamic Video Streaming For Nano Quadcopters, Shane Daniel Kent, Ryan Weideman, Nicholas Kimball

Computer Engineering

The objective of this project was to develop a system that streams real-time video from a Crazyflie 2.0 nano quadcopter. We discuss the motivation behind the project including applications to swarm robotics and computer vision research. We highlight the initial research and design goals that guided the development of the system such as hardware selection and system specifications. We detail the software and hardware subsystems that we implemented including the video-streaming board, firmware, and video-streaming user application. We examine the performance of the final system and discuss the limitations imposed by the hardware. We conclude by describing future work that …

Learning Management Website, Brendan A. Baronia

Computer Engineering

The following system was developed as a basic course management system for use by teachers and students. The project started as an alternative to existing platforms, such as Moodle, though because of a two quarter time constraint the complexity of the system was reduced to a more reasonable level. The resulting system requirements included a simple course creation/enrollment system, with separate sections, topics, and resources including videos, files, and a basic graph problem.

Arm Mke1xf Mcu Replatform, Nathan Hong, Derek Lung, Japsimran Singh, Bevin Tang

Computer Engineering

After Cal Poly Racing’s electrical team began to hit the technical limits of the ADC and other I/O features of the current 8-bit Atmel AT90 microcontroller unit, it became clear that an upgrade was due. This replatforming project takes the functionalities of the old, 8-bit architecture, and aims to provide a 32-bit version using the ARM MKE1xF MCU. With the idea of having a working PCB as a stretch goal, the scope of the library development was limited to enable base functionality. Thus, the only libraries developed were for the Timer, ADC, SPI, UART, and CAN. Additionally, this document discusses …

A Survey Of Security Attacks And Defenses In Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, Pierson Yieh

Computer Science and Software Engineering

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Routing And Network Monitoring For The Polywog Protocol, Ryan Lawrence, Josh Pfeffer

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This document analyzes the implementation of dynamic routing for router nodes in a mesh network. It examines the algorithm used to populate both the minimum-distance and the routing tables. Furthermore, it describes the node configurations used for testing and applications for mesh networks.

Additionally, this document describes the implementation and testing of network monitoring in a mesh network. It discusses the steps used to forward active nodes in the network between router nodes, a gateway node, and a network monitor.

Lastly, this paper details our future plans for implementing additional features for a network monitor.

Vehicle Pseudonym Association Attack Model, Pierson Yieh

Master's Theses

With recent advances in technology, Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) have grown in application. One of these areas of application is Vehicle Safety Communication (VSC) technology. VSC technology allows for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications that enhance vehicle safety and driving experience. However, these newly developing technologies bring with them a concern for the vehicular privacy of drivers. Vehicles already employ the use of pseudonyms, unique identifiers used with signal messages for a limited period of time, to prevent long term tracking. But can attackers still attack vehicular privacy even when vehicles employ a pseudonym change strategy? The major contribution …

The Design, Building, And Testing Of A Constant On Discreet Jammer For The Ieee 802.15.4/Zigbee Wireless Communication Protocol, Alexandre J. Marette

Master's Theses

As wireless protocols become easier to implement, more products come with wireless connectivity. This latest push for wireless connectivity has left a gap in the development of the security and the reliability of some protocols. These wireless protocols can be used in the growing field of IoT where wireless sensors are used to share information throughout a network. IoT is being implemented in homes, agriculture, manufactory, and in the medical field. Disrupting a wireless device from proper communication could potentially result in production loss, security issues, and bodily harm. The 802.15.4/ZigBee protocol is used in low power, low data rate, …

Inter Process Communication Between Two Servers Using Mpich, Nagabhavana Narla

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The main aim of the project is to launch multiple processes and have those processes communicate with each other using peer to peer communication to eliminate the problems of multiple processes running on a single server, and multiple processes running on inhomogeneous servers as well as the problems of scalability. This entire process is done using MPICH which is a high performance and portable implementation of Message Passing Interface standard.

The project involves setting up the passwordless authentication between two local servers with the help of SSH connection. By establishing a peer to peer communication and by using a unique …

Remote Monitoring Of Cherry Wetness Using A Leaf Wetness Sensor And A Wireless Sensor Network, Shyla Clark

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

To get the best prices, sweet cherry growers must supply blemish-free fruit. Unfortunately, mature cherries have a fragile composition, rendering them susceptible to damage from heat, wind, birds, and rain. Rain is particularly devastating, because cherries split when they absorb too much water. Since rainstorms are common in the otherwise arid regions where most cherries are grown, growers must have a system for quickly deploying rain removal methods. The current industry solution relies on human observation and implementation, which is error-prone and costly. This project proposes an automated cherry wetness system using a Decagon Devices leaf wetness sensor (LWS) and …

Wifi Gate Guard: A Captive Portal Implementation For Home Networks, Ben Blumenberg

Computer Science and Software Engineering

WiFi Gate Guard aims to improve the user experience for authentication on home wireless networks, by alleviating some of the hardships causes by passwords and by offering a platform on which further security enhancements could be built. It accomplishes this by using captive portal technology, making it extremely easy for guests to authenticate without needing to ask for a password. Home network administrators can approve or deny access using a simple iOS app. WiFi Gate Guard is built to run on basic home routers, with minimal other hardware requirements. Once it’s up and running, passwords never need to be used …

Designing A Distributed Network Of Air Quality Sensors, Kaylee Rauso

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The deterioration of human and environmental health due to worsening outdoor air quality is a serious global threat. A step towards improving the current state of ambient air worldwide is the increased collection of data for government policy, research, and general public use. Currently, reliable data is only collected at a handful of sites in the state of Arkansas and sparsely across the country. The purpose of this project was to design an inexpensive air quality sensor to saturate entire cities with nodes which transmit air data to a sensor for a web application to display. The prototype node was …

Building Data Visualization Applications To Facilitate Vehicular Networking Research, Noah Carter

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A web app was developed which allows any internet-connected device to remotely monitor a roadway intersection’s state over HTTP. A mapping simulation was enhanced to allow researchers to retroactively track the location and the ad-hoc connectivity of vehicle clusters. A performance analysis was conducted on the utilized network partitioning algorithm. This work was completed under and for the utility of ETSU’s Vehicular Networking Lab. It can serve as a basis for further development in the field of wireless automobile connectivity.

Dynamic 3d Network Data Visualization, Brok Stafford

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Monitoring network traffic has always been an arduous and tedious task because of the complexity and sheer volume of network data that is being consistently generated. In addition, network growth and new technologies are rapidly increasing these levels of complexity and volume. An effective technique in understanding and managing a large dataset, such as network traffic, is data visualization. There are several tools that attempt to turn network traffic into visual stimuli. Many of these do so in 2D space and those that are 3D lack the ability to display network patterns effectively. Existing 3D network visualization tools lack user …

Strategic Implications Of Blockchain, William R. Adams

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis introduces blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and discusses how best to conceptualize it relative to other technologies. Following an explanation of the fundamentals of blockchain, also known as the distributed ledger, I identify the characteristics of the technology. Building upon blockchain’s inherent strengths and limitations, I explore potential business applications of blockchain. Finally, I recommend that leaders continue to track the development and adoption of blockchain technology, even if they decide that implementing it does not align with their organization’s strategy at present.

To Relive The Web: A Framework For The Transformation And Archival Replay Of Web Pages, John Andrew Berlin

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

When replaying an archived web page (known as a memento), the fundamental expectation is that the page should be viewable and function exactly as it did at archival time. However, this expectation requires web archives to modify the page and its embedded resources, so that they no longer reference (link to) the original server(s) they were archived from but back to the archive. Although these modifications necessarily change the state of the representation, it is understood that without them the replay of mementos from the archive would not be possible. Unfortunately, because the replay of mementos and the modifications made …

Estimating Defensive Cyber Operator Decision Confidence, Markus M. Borneman

Theses and Dissertations

As technology continues to advance the domain of cyber defense, signature and heuristic detection mechanisms continue to require human operators to make judgements about the correctness of machine decisions. Human cyber defense operators rely on their experience, expertise, and understanding of network security, when conducting cyber-based investigations, in order to detect and respond to cyber alerts. Ever growing quantities of cyber alerts and network traffic, coupled with systemic manpower issues, mean no one has the time to review or change decisions made by operators. Since these cyber alert decisions ultimately do not get reviewed again, an inaccurate decision could cause …

Assessing The Competing Characteristics Of Privacy And Safety Within Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, Jacob W. Connors

Theses and Dissertations

The introduction of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication has the promise of decreasing vehicle collisions, congestion, and emissions. However, this technology places safety and privacy at odds; an increase of safety applications will likely result in the decrease of consumer privacy. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed the Security Credential Management System (SCMS) as the back end infrastructure for maintaining, distributing, and revoking vehicle certificates attached to every Basic Safety Message (BSM). This Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme is designed around the philosophy of maintaining user privacy through the separation of functions to prevent any one subcomponent from identifying …