Computer Engineering Commons^™

Top-Down Construction Cost Estimating Model Using An Artificial Neural Network, Douglas D. Gransberg, H. David Jeong, Ilker Karaca, Brendon Gardner

Ilker Karaca

This report contains the information and background on top-down cost estimating using artificial neural networks (ANN)_to enhance the accuracy of MDT early estimates of construction costs. Upon conducting an extensive review of MDT’s budgeting and cost estimating efforts, and following a survey of agency experts on the identification of the most salient project attributes with the dual-objectives of low effort and high accuracy, a rational method for top-down variable selection is proposed. Selected variables were further tested in their explanatory power of construction costs through the application of two cost estimating methodologies—multiple regression and artificial neural network methodologies. Both methods …

Aviation Cybersecurity: An Overview, Gary C. Kessler, J. Philip Craiger

J. Philip Craiger, Ph.D.

Information security—aka cybersecurity—is the most rapidly growing threat to critical infrastructures, including the aviation industry. Due to the plethora of digital devices, ubiquity of the Internet and other networks, and the rapid growth in the adoption of technology, everyone is an information system security manager. Every professional in the aviation and aeronautics industry use computers, mobile devices, tablets, GPS devices, and/or other hardware on a daily basis, as well as go online for a variety of reasons.

Attacks on information have been ongoing since the inception of the industry a hundred years ago, in such forms as intellectual property theft …

Ransomware In Healthcare Facilities: The Future Is Now, Nikki Spence, David P. Paul Iii, Alberto Coustasse

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

Cybercriminals have begun to target the healthcare industry with a type of malware called ransomware, malware that encrypts an infected device and any attached devices or network drives. After encryption, cybercriminals demand a sum of money, also known as a “ransom,” to release the devices from encryption. Without adequate disaster recovery and backup plans, many businesses are forced to pay the ransom. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of recent ransomware infections in healthcare settings, the risk liabilities and cost associated with such infections, and to determine possible risk mitigation tactics. Financial costs associated with business …

Mobile Devices: The Case For Cyber Security Hardened Systems, Maurice Dawson, Jorja Wright, Marwan Omar

Maurice Dawson

Mobile devices are becoming a method to provide an efficient and convenient way to access, find and share information; however, the availability of this information has caused an increase in cyber attacks. Currently, cyber threats range from Trojans and viruses to botnets and toolkits. Presently, 96% of mobile devices do not have pre-installed security software while approximately 65% of the vulnerabilities are found within the application layer. This lack in security and policy driven systems is an opportunity for malicious cyber attackers to hack into the various popular devices. Traditional security software found in desktop computing platforms, such as firewalls, …

Mobile Devices: The Case For Cyber Security Hardened Systems, Maurice Dawson, Jorja Wright, Marwan Omar

Maurice Dawson

Mobile devices are becoming a method to provide an efficient and convenient way to access, find and share information; however, the availability of this information has caused an increase in cyber attacks. Currently, cyber threats range from Trojans and viruses to botnets and toolkits. Presently, 96% of mobile devices do not have pre-installed security software while approximately 65% of the vulnerabilities are found within the application layer. This lack in security and policy driven systems is an opportunity for malicious cyber attackers to hack into the various popular devices. Traditional security software found in desktop computing platforms, such as firewalls, …

Advances In Technology Project Management: Review Of Open Source Software Integration, Maurice Dawson, Brian Leonard, Emad Rahim

Maurice Dawson

As organizations must continually drive down costs of software-driven projects, they need to evaluate the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and other software-based design methodologies. These methodologies include looking at software-based alternatives that could save a significant amount of money by reducing the amount of proprietary software. This chapter explores the use and integration of Open Source Software (OSS) in software-driven projects to include in enterprise organizations. Additionally, the legalities of the GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), and Creative Commons are explored with the integration of these OSS solutions into organizations. …

A Brief Review Of New Threats And Countermeasures In Digital Crime And Cyber Terrorism, Maurice Dawson

Maurice Dawson

Cyber security is becoming the cornerstone of national security policies in many countries around the world as it is an interest to many stakeholders, including utilities, regulators, energy markets, government entities, and even those that wish to exploit the cyber infrastructure. Cyber warfare is quickly becoming the method of warfare and the tool of military strategists. Additionally, it is has become a tool for governments to aid or exploit for their own personal benefits. For cyber terrorists there has been an overwhelmingly abundance of new tools and technologies available that have allowed criminal acts to occur virtually anywhere in the …

Understanding The Methods Behind Cyber Terrorism, Maurice E. Dawson Jr., Marwan Omar, Jonathan Abramson

Maurice Dawson

Cyber security has become a matter of national, international, economic, and societal importance that affects multiple nations (Walker, 2012). Since the 1990s users have exploited vulnerabilities to gain access to networks for malicious purposes. In recent years the number of attacks on U.S. networks has continued to grow at an exponential rate. This includes malicious embedded code, exploitation of backdoors, and more. These attacks can be initiated from anywhere in the world from behind a computer with a masked Internet Protocol (IP) address. This type of warfare, cyber warfare, changes the landscape of war itself (Beidleman, 2009). This type of …

Advances In Technology Project Management: Review Of Open Source Software Integration, Maurice Dawson, Brian Leonard, Emad Rahim

Maurice Dawson

As organizations must continually drive down costs of software-driven projects, they need to evaluate the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and other software-based design methodologies. These methodologies include looking at software-based alternatives that could save a significant amount of money by reducing the amount of proprietary software. This chapter explores the use and integration of Open Source Software (OSS) in software-driven projects to include in enterprise organizations. Additionally, the legalities of the GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), and Creative Commons are explored with the integration of these OSS solutions into organizations. …

Teaching Evaluation (Spring 2014), Hwee-Joo Kam

Hwee-Joo Kam

No abstract provided.

The Future Of National And International Security On The Internet, Maurice Dawson, Marwan Omar, Jonathan Abramson, Dustin Bessette

Maurice Dawson

Hyperconnectivity is a growing trend that is driving cyber security experts to develop new security architectures for multiple platforms such as mobile devices, laptops, and even wearable displays. The futures of national and international security rely on complex countermeasures to ensure that a proper security posture is maintained during this state of hyperconnectivity. To protect these systems from exploitation of vulnerabilities it is essential to understand current and future threats to include the laws that drive their need to be secured. Examined within this chapter are the potential security-related threats with the use of social media, mobile devices, virtual worlds, …

Student Feedback (Spring 2014), Hwee-Joo Kam

Hwee-Joo Kam

No abstract provided.

Big Data, Predictive Analytics, And Data Visualization In The Construction Engineering, Joseph Shrestha

Joseph Shrestha

Energy Costs For Data Center Operations, Heather M. Brotherton

Heather M Brotherton

This document answers the questions: What are relative energy costs for data center operations (energy per unit computing) and how do sources of fuel impact data center operation costs geographically across the US?

Transforming Information Systems And Computer Science Education With Virtualization, Maurice E. Dawson Jr., Jorja Wright, Jonathan Abramson

Maurice Dawson

This paper will propose an innovative method to transform information systems (IS) and computer science education on a global scale. This method will introduce the use of virtualization and cloud computing combined with open source software (OSS) in higher education. This will allow for those studying IS and computer science to work independently on projects anywhere in the world from a baseline image that has been developed with information assurance (IA) controls. Additionally, this will allow professors and course developers to deploy their own customized virtual machines (VMs) to be used with the course. These VMs will host their own …

Research In Progress-Defending Android Smartphones From Malware Attacks, Marwan Omar, Maurice E. Dawson Jr.

Maurice Dawson

Smart phones are becoming enriched with confidential information due to their powerful computational capabilities and attractive communications features. The Android smart phone is one of the most widely used platforms by businesses and users alike. This is partially because Android smart phones use the free, open-source Linux as the underlying operating system, which allows development of applications by any software developer. This research study aims to explore security risks associated with the use of Android smart phones and the sensitive information they contain, the researcher devised a survey questionnaire to investigate and further understand security threats targeting Android smart phones. …

Ict For Poverty Alleviation In Pacific Island Nations: Study Of Icts4d In Fiji, Deogratias Harorimana, Opeti Rokotuinivono, Emali Sewale, Fane Salaiwai, Marica Naulu, Evangelin Roy

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

ICT for Poverty Alleviation in Pacific Island Nations: Study of ICTs4D in Fiji There has been a vague and little knowledge on the role or potential of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in relation to addressing poverty in Fiji. This may be probably due to the newness of the technology in the South Pacific Region as a whole but also probably due to the fact that only 9.7% of the current Fiji 931,000 populations are internet users (ITC Figures 2011). This paper reports on finding how ICTs is contributing towards poverty alleviation in Fiji. On the basis of reviewed best …

Modeling Product Development As A System Design Game, C. Jason Woodard

C. Jason Woodard

A system design game is a model of a situation in which agents’ actions determine the structure of a system, which in turn affects the system’s value and the share of value that each agent may capture through bargaining or market competition. This paper describes a class of games in which agents design interdependent products, for example software programs, which may be complements or substitutes for each other. These relationships are epresented by an object called a design structure network (DSN). Depending on the modeler’s choice of allocation rules, agents may benefit from owning critical nodes in the DSN, corresponding …

A Business Model Perspective For Icts In Public Engagement, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos, Guy Fitzgerald, Tony Elliman

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

Public institutions, in their efforts to promote meaningful citizen engagement, are increasingly looking at the democratic potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Previous studies suggest that such initiatives seem to be impeded by socio-technical integration barriers such as low sustainability, poor citizen acceptance, coordination difficulties, lack of understanding and failure to assess their impact. Motivated by these shortcomings, the paper develops and applies a business model perspective as an interceding framework foranalysisandevaluation. The underlying principlebehind thisapproachisthatit isnottechnology per se which determines success, but rather the way in which the business model of the technological artifact is configured and employed …

Issues In Human Capital Development : Lessons For Public Administration And Governance, Deogratias Harorimana Mr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

With few minerals or other natural resources, Rwanda believes that she can still achieve her ambitions by investing in human capital - her unique resource. If this ambition can be achieved, then is this the next role model for international development? We used a case study design and analysis methods to examine development models used elsewhere in recent decades, using both qualitative and quantitative data on Rwanda to establish the comparative advantages in relation to Singapore’s economic development model. The implications for international development are that (1) an effective human capital development strategy should be inclusive enough to respond to …

Strategic Assessment Of Information Security Maturity, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Dayasindhu Nagarajan, Raghavan Subramanian

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

CXOs are becoming increasingly interested in the information security maturity of their enterprises. This paper presents a CXO dashboard that will allow better management of the information security resources in an enterprise.

Infosemm: Infosys It Security Maturity Model: A Report, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, N. Dayasindhu, Raghavan Subramanian

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Businesses are faced with a continuing battle related to cyber security related issues ranging from cyber attacks all the way to cyber (information) war. These issues affect result in information, system, reputation, and revenue related risks. These risks arise because of vulnerabilities introduced in three major parts of the enterprise – infrastructure, intelligence and practices. This report provides a rating system for representing the security health of enterprises.