Computer Engineering Commons^™

Online Auction-Based Relay Selection For Cooperative Communication In Cr Networks, Tao Jing, Fan Zhang, Wei Cheng, Yan Huo, Xiuzhen Cheng

Computer Science Publications

Cognitive radio and cooperative communication are two new network technologies. So, the combination of these two new technologies is a novel solution to solve the problem of spectrum scarcity. Two main challenges exist in the integration of cognitive radio and cooperative communication. First, there is a lack of incentives for the participating wireless devices to serve as relay nodes. Second, there is not an effective relay selection policy. In this paper, we propose an online auction-based relay selection scheme for cooperative communication in cognitive radio (CR) networks. Specifically, we design an auction scheme through adopting stopping theory. The proposed scheme …

Recdroid: A Resource Access Permission Control Portal And Recommendation Service For Smartphone Users, Gerrit Bond, Steven Jackson, Marcus Pare

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The rapid growth of the smartphone applications market raises security concerns regarding untrusted applications. Studies have shown that most apps in markets request to collect data irrelevant to the main functions of the apps. Traditional Android permission control design based on one-time decisions on installation has been proven to be ineffective in protecting users’ privacy and poorly utilizes scarce mobile resources (e.g. battery). RecDroid is designed to help protect user data in a market where unauthorized data collection is prevalent in most applications. With RecDroid’s recommendation feature, which is based on expert analysis, the user will be able to avoid …

Rams Onboard: Improving Employment Process, De-Shunda White, Yamil Boo Irizarry, Samuel Brazil

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In order for the Virginia Commonwealth University Engineering Human Resources department to provide seamless new hire integration, they need to upgrade their current post-hire information gathering techniques. Currently the HR department continues to provide paper forms and packets to new hires to fill out and return for review. This method requires over $30,000 in cost for materials and labor. The main goal of our project is to establish a way for newly hired employees to complete their new hire forms electronically through the VCU server.

By successfully executing our project we are moving VCU’s onboarding process to a completely paperless …

Grid Game: Developing A Java/Android Version For Increased Accessibility And Usability, Sean Amos, Patrick Sivils, Aidan Collins

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Objective: Idaho University has implemented a power grid simulator game as a teaching aid for students enrolled in their Resilient Control Systems course. The game was created in LabView and requires the user to download the LabView client, as well as install the Grid Game on their machine in order to play. Our goal is to recreate the Grid Game in a Java based web-browser format so that the game is more accessible and easy to use. By recreating the Grid Game in a format that can be played in browser, other universities, companies, and individuals will easily be able …

Virtual Bus Simulation: Driver And Fuel Efficiency, James Freund, Ivan Grinkevich, Justin Boswell

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: VCU will be putting together state of the art 3D curved screen driving simulator. This simulator will mimic fleets of vehicles behavior and will be networked with INL and Univ. of Idaho simulators. The project will entail putting the simulator together and improving existing simulator software.

Rationale: Conduct research in the areas of important behaviors to increase driver efficiency, how simulation training can encourage good driving habits, Psychology of driver habits and distractions, and benefits of audio and visual cues to assist drivers. Approach: Identify the most optimal 3d engine and develop simulation environment using the chosen engine. …

Smart Grid Network Simulation, Morgan Waser, Brandon Perkins, Benjamin Koppier

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem: In the coming years the United States is working to move towards a smarter electric grid. One that is more versatile and can adjust to different situations. To move forward with these from our current electric grid to the Smart Grid, simulations are needed to understand how the new grid is likely to behave in different situations.

Rationale: The importance of creating these simulations is to try and predict which topological set-ups are best for different kinds of scenarios as well as how the grid might behave under different circumstances. Once different situations are simulated, Smart Grid developers can …

Scientifically Defensible And Measurable Anti-Phishing Training, Josh Rymer, Chris Neville, Robert Hodges

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem: How can the effectiveness of a phishing attack be quantified and/or measured?

Applications: This project will provide a resource for Idaho National Labs to quantitavely evaluate the effectiveness of their security awareness program in regards to phishing attacks. In turn, it will aid them in hardening the human element of security at the research facility.

Approach: Our approach is to construct a fully functional phishing system where we can craft phishing emails, send emails, and place links that point to our web application. We hope to use this system to conduct an anonymous and non-malicious experiment. This data will …

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities In The Smart Grid & Thermodynamical Properties Database Software, Abderrahmen Chouat, Shiyoon Joo, Jacob Holcombe

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Project Scope: Smart grid stability and issues/ challenges associated with coupling nuclear and renewable energy source will be researched. The changes we can expect in grid technology so the robustness and resilience could be further improved will be addressed. This projects will entail literature surveys and may involve running some simulation software and comparisons. Another aspect of the project will be focus on nuclear plant as part of the future smart grid stability challenge. Specifically, this part of the project will entail CFD modeling of zig-zag Printed Circuit compact heat exchanger and modeling it in MATLAB and seeing the difference …

Text Analytic System: Document Similarity, Ryan Murphy, James Cecil, Joseph Contarino

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Knowledge discovery is a critical function of infrastructure protection in the U.S. By analyzing key text documents, we can gain insight into the interwoven and interdependent infrastructure system of the U.S., and better understand the security aspects of the system as a whole. Massive amounts of relevant data resides in text documents, which must be gathered and parsed to be analyzed on a large scale. Our algorithm collects web-based text embedded in HTML pages and analyzes it in various ways to decipher similarities. It will be a needed component of the larger system being developed by the Idaho National Laboratory, …

Clover Care: Website And E-Marketing Development, Parker Bryant, Amber Elliott, Weston Kingery, Ervin Ramos

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Clover Care is a geographically diverse company with both caregivers and clients spread across multiple counties. Efficient resource management and communication is critical for such a broadly distributed company. Clover Care also expects to continue expanding its geographical service area, making a solution even more critical. Clover Care was interested in updating and expanding their existing website to address this need. The centralization provided by using a website allows caregivers, clients and their families, and managers a way to quickly and effectively communicate.

The primary Clover Care forms that were to be centralized included the caregiver timesheet, client case management …

Predator-Prey Game To Maintain Stable Fish Population For Ecotoxicological Studies, Jason Blondin, Catherine Halpern, Tyler Malkus

Capstone Design Expo Posters

With the state of the environment on the forefront of many minds today, it’s important for our society to be able to understand how we interact with our local ecosystems and the potential impacts we can cause. Creating computational simulations of these environments can help to predict the possible effects of different situations. The purpose of our project was to create a predator-prey simulation of different species of fish that could take into account different population management strategies and accurately reflect the waves that could be caused by the introduction of various chemicals into the fish’s environment.

In order to …

Church Hill Activities & Tutoring, Dhundi Acharya, Dhruvil Shah, Michael Mcalexander

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: Church Hill Activities and Tutoring ( CHAT ), a non-profit organization which invests in the lives of Richmond’s most at-risk children by establishing strong connections through one-on one tutoring, mentorship, and enrichment activities , is facing difficulty in managing consistent communication with parents and volunteers. Each of these audiences requires different channels and information, and currently, sending paper to the home through students has become the primary channel for communicating with parents. The reliability of this practice is limited but continues because parents’ contact information, such as phone number or email, changes frequently.

Rationale: Since CHAT is facing …

Tatami: An Open Source Enterprise Social Network, Kenny Hegeland, Jeremy Narron, Kameron Spruill

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Tatami is an open source enterprise social network created by Ippon, a consulting and software design company with offices in France and the USA. Any company can install Tatami, allowing its employees to communicate in a Twitter-like fashion. Self-hosting Tatami also lets a company retain ownership of its data, keeping it out of the hands of third parties.

Tatami’s front end was originally coded using the Backbone.js library, which can make it challenging to add and modify features. Ippon decided to have it rewritten using the AngularJS web application framework, which will fix the previously mentioned problems. This rewrite will …

Searchblox Project Indexer Agent, Tri Nguyen, Tom Vaele, Zachary Johnson

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In this digital world, access to information is essential. We need it and almost every day; Google, Bing, Yahoo, or one of these other major services that help us find what we’re looking for so we can use a resource or answer a simple question. SearchBlox, an enterprise elasticsearch toolkit which boasts a robust and easy to use indexing system for an array of MIME types lacks an essential capability: remoting. The scope of this problem requires the ability to efficiently index particularly voluminous, dense, or distributed file-systems to a centralized SearchBlox indexing server while keeping the services that clients …

Optimizing Data Center Operations With Virtualization, Jason Kruse, Osman Sesay, Stephanie Goggin-Burns

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Design a computer network using two or more host servers that supports a virtual hosting environment.

The importance of creating a successful datacenter is to allow a company to maintain data accessibility while keeping the data secure. One way of doing this is to have servers at multiple locations to insure that data isn’t lost in case of a failure at one server location. The impact of a datacenter that supports a virtual hosting environment is to maximize hardware recourses, grants the ability to quickly stand up server services and increases availability during hardware failure due to software like VMotion. …

Dismira: Prioritization Of Disease Candidates In Mirna-Disease Associations Based On Maximum Weighted Matching Inference Model And Motif-Based Analysis, Joseph J. Nalluri, Bhanu K. Kamapantula, Debmalya Barh, Neha Jain, Antaripa Bhattacharya, Sintia Silva De Almeida, Rommel Thiago Juca Ramos, Artur Silva, Vasco Azevedo, Preetam Ghosh

Computer Science Publications

Background

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have increasingly been found to regulate diseases at a significant level. The interaction of miRNA and diseases is a complex web of multilevel interactions, given the fact that a miRNA regulates upto 50 or more diseases and miRNAs/diseases work in clusters. The clear patterns of miRNA regulations in a disease are still elusive.

Methods

In this work, we approach the miRNA-disease interactions from a network scientific perspective and devise two approaches - maximum weighted matching model (a graph theoretical algorithm which provides the result by solving an optimization equation of selecting the most prominent set of diseases) …

Use Of A Green Familiar Faces Paradigm Improves P300-Speller Brain-Computer Interface Performance, Qi Li, Shuai Lu, Jian Li, Ou Bai

Computer Science Publications

Background

A recent study showed improved performance of the P300-speller when the flashing row or column was overlaid with translucent pictures of familiar faces (FF spelling paradigm). However, the performance of the P300-speller is not yet satisfactory due to its low classification accuracy and information transfer rate.

Objective

To investigate whether P300-speller performance is further improved when the chromatic property and the FF spelling paradigm are combined.

Methods

We proposed a new spelling paradigm in which the flashing row or column is overlaid with translucent green pictures of familiar faces (GFF spelling paradigm). We analyzed the ERP waveforms elicited by …

Transcriptional Network Growing Models Using Motif-Based Preferential Attachment, Ahmed F. Abdelzaher, Ahmad F. Al-Musawi, Preetam Ghosh, Michael L. Mayo, Edward J. Perkins

Computer Science Publications

Understanding relationships between architectural properties of gene-regulatory networks (GRNs) has been one of the major goals in systems biology and bioinformatics, as it can provide insights into, e.g., disease dynamics and drug development. Such GRNs are characterized by their scale-free degree distributions and existence of network motifs – i.e., small-node subgraphs that occur more abundantly in GRNs than expected from chance alone. Because these transcriptional modules represent “building blocks” of complex networks and exhibit a wide range of functional and dynamical properties, they may contribute to the remarkable robustness and dynamical stability associated with the whole of GRNs. Here, we …

Miregulome: A Knowledge-Base Of Mirna Regulomics And Analysis, Debmalya Barh, Bhanu Kamapantula, Neha Jain, Joseph Nalluri, Antaripa Bhattacharya, Lucky Juneja, Neha Barve, Sandeep Tiwari, Anderson Miyoshi, Vasco Azevedo, Kenneth Blum, Anil Kumar, Artur Silva, Preetam Ghosh

Computer Science Publications

miRNAs regulate post transcriptional gene expression by targeting multiple mRNAs and hence can modulate multiple signalling pathways, biological processes, and patho-physiologies. Therefore, understanding of miRNA regulatory networks is essential in order to modulate the functions of a miRNA. The focus of several existing databases is to provide information on specific aspects of miRNA regulation. However, an integrated resource on the miRNA regulome is currently not available to facilitate the exploration and understanding of miRNA regulomics. miRegulome attempts to bridge this gap. The current version of miRegulome v1.0 provides details on the entire regulatory modules of miRNAs altered in response to …

Maprepeat: An Approach For Effective Assembly Of Repetitive Regions In Prokaryotic Genomes, Diego Cb Mariano, Felipe L. Pereira, Preetam Ghosh, Debmalya Barh, Henrique Cp Figueiredo, Artur Silva, Rommel Tj Ramos, Vasco Ac Azevedo

Computer Science Publications

The newest technologies for DNA sequencing have led to the determination of the primary structure of the genomes of organisms, mainly prokaryotes, with high efficiency and at lower costs. However, the presence of regions with repetitive sequences, in addition to the short reads produced by the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms, created a lot of difficulty in reconstructing the original genome in silico. Thus, even today, genome assembly continues to be one of the major challenges in bioinformatics specifically when repetitive sequences are considered. In this paper, we present an approach to assemble repetitive regions in prokaryotic genomes. Our methodology …

Self-Organizing Feature Maps Identify Proteins Critical To Learning In A Mouse Model Of Down Syndrome, Clara Higuera, Katheleen J. Gardiner, Krzysztof J. Cios

Computer Science Publications

Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal abnormality (trisomy of human chromosome 21) associated with intellectual disability and affecting approximately one in 1000 live births worldwide. The overexpression of genes encoded by the extra copy of a normal chromosome in DS is believed to be sufficient to perturb normal pathways and normal responses to stimulation, causing learning and memory deficits. In this work, we have designed a strategy based on the unsupervised clustering method, Self Organizing Maps (SOM), to identify biologically important differences in protein levels in mice exposed to context fear conditioning (CFC). We analyzed expression levels of 77 proteins …

Self-Organizing Feature Maps Identify Proteins Critical To Learning In A Mouse Model Of Down Syndrome, Clara Higuera, Katheleen J. Gardiner, Kryzysztof Cios

Computer Science Publications

Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal abnormality (trisomy of human chromosome 21) associated with intellectual disability and affecting approximately one in 1000 live births worldwide. The overexpression of genes encoded by the extra copy of a normal chromosome in DS is believed to be sufficient to perturb normal pathways and normal responses to stimulation, causing learning and memory deficits. In this work, we have designed a strategy based on the unsupervised clustering method, Self Organizing Maps (SOM), to identify biologically important differences in protein levels in mice exposed to context fear conditioning (CFC). We analyzed expression levels of 77 proteins …

Enabling Smartphone-Based Hd Video Chats By Cooperative Transmissions In Crns, Tao Jing, Xuewei Cui, Wei Cheng, Shixiang Zhu, Yan Huo, Xiuzhen Cheng

Computer Science Publications

Smartphones have been equipped with the cameras that can shoot HD videos, and the video chat apps such as Skype are becoming popular. We can, therefore, intuitively predict the trend that users are expecting to enjoy HD video chats via utilizing their smartphones. Most of the current Internet services, however, cannot support the live HD video transmissions because of their low uplink rate. In order to overcome this limit, we propose to offload the uplink transmissions to cooperative users via cognitive radio networks. Specifically, we first divide the video stream into several substreams according to the H.264/SVC standard and the …

Self-Organizing Feature Maps Identify Proteins Critical To Learning In A Mouse Model Of Down Syndrome, Clara Higuera, Kathleen J. Gardiner, Kryzysztof Cios

Computer Science Publications

Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal abnormality (trisomy of human chromosome 21) associated with intellectual disability and affecting approximately one in 1000 live births worldwide. The overexpression of genes encoded by the extra copy of a normal chromosome in DS is believed to be sufficient to perturb normal pathways and normal responses to stimulation, causing learning and memory deficits. In this work, we have designed a strategy based on the unsupervised clustering method, Self Organizing Maps (SOM), to identify biologically important differences in protein levels in mice exposed to context fear conditioning (CFC). We analyzed expression levels of 77 proteins …

Identifying Influential Nodes In A Wound Healing-Related Network Of Biological Processes Using Mean First-Passage Time, Tomasz Jakub Arodz, Danail Bonchev

Computer Science Publications

In this study we offer an approach to network physiology, which proceeds from transcriptomic data and uses gene ontology analysis to identify the biological processes most enriched in several critical time points of wound healing process (days 0, 3 and 7). The top-ranking differentially expressed genes for each process were used to build two networks: one with all proteins regulating the transcription of selected genes, and a second one involving the proteins from the signaling pathways that activate the transcription factors. The information from these networks is used to build a network of the most enriched processes with undirected links …

Print Estimation: Columbia Printing And Graphics, Alex Jacobi, Chris Wooten, Sahil Zubair

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: Can we create a web application to help facilitate the estimation of printing services as requested by clients and allow for the full interaction between a client, sales representative, and an administrator all through a single web application.

Rationale: The importance of this project is to create an easy to use online service that a user can access from either their smartphone or desktop computer. If successful, this project will allow users to have quick access to quotes regarding their printing needs anywhere they are without the need of contacting an actual printing company. This project will also …

Developing An Epics Ioc In Labview, Kenneth Butler, David Shires, Michael Talbott

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement In working with labView and experimental physics at Jefferson Lab the current configuration is a linux based control system. Christiana has posed the task of implementing a windows based network configuration where input and output from the data readings is distributed across the network. With the help of LabView demos and CALabs softIOC we were asked to prove the concept of this windows based configuration to be possible. Specifically the task is to prove (or disprove) that we can serve data using the caLabs soft IOC.

Rationale The current configuration of Jefferson Labs data systems is served on …

Vcu Cctr Mobile App: Android & Ios, Vattana Vichith, Stephen Wu, Bowen Zhang

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In today’s day and age, data should be accessible at all times. The biggest break-through for data accessibility is mobile technologies such as phones and tablets. The CCTR provides a continuum of informatics research and services to support translational and clinical research. Clinical Trials represent one of the central themes for the Center for Clinical and Translational Research, but they do not have a mobile app for the VCU community to access CCTR’s informatics resources.

This project aims to promote the expanded informatics research and services available to VCU students, faculty and staff as well as patients interested in discovering …

Mobile Crm Integration Using Amc Technology Apis, Matthew Bates, Allen Calderwood, Matthew Jenkins

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The problem our project solves is the feasibility of use of Salesforce, MSCRM and many other CRM technologies outside of the desk environment. When a user is away from their desk, they are unable to easily use these CRM technologies and our project solves that problem through the use of a Mobile Application that communicates with a desired CRM technology and deliver the desired information to an Android Smart-Watch. Regardless of what a company may do, efficiency is important. Through the use of our Mobile Application, companies that use CRM technologies such as Salesforce are able to further enhance their …

Visualization Of Nlp Extractions, K. Barbour, D. Vieth, D. Warraich

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The goal of this project is to design a visualization system for information extracted from large amounts of unstructured text. The importance of the project is for the system to display information in a more informative way than simple highlighting of the raw text. The data is obtained from a program that scans multiple files for entities and extracts the information in said files pertaining to those entities. The entities that the program scans for includes people, organizations, locations, dates, incidents and any relative key words. The information is extracted and stored in JSON files, specifically in a format that …