Computer Engineering Commons^™

Development Of Workforce Skills: Student Perceptions Of Mentoring In First Robotics, Katie Joan Veal Wallace

Dissertations

In today’s global economy, new workforce competencies are needed for success at both individual and societal levels. The new workforce skills extend beyond basic reading, writing, and arithmetic to include higher order processes such as critical thinking and problem solving. Technical job opportunities have grown by approximately 17%, yet the United States continues to decline in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Further, U.S. students earn average or below average test scores when compared to other developed countries. Researchers cite the need to incorporate the learning of workplace skills into secondary education curriculum, and advocates call for new teaching …

Lntegration Of Conventional Lithography And Printing Processes As A Key Enabling Technology For Printed And Flexible Sensing Systems, Binu Baby Narakathu

Dissertations

Sensors, which are used ubiquitously in a wide variety of applications, are revolutionizing the already ever-changing world we live in by providing real-time information about our surroundings. This dissertation focuses on the integration of conventional photolithography and printing processes as a key enabling technology for printed and flexible sensing systems.

Initially, an efficient opto-electrochemical sensing system, for the dual detection of heavy metal compounds was successfully developed. A novel microfluidic flow cell, with a reservoir volume of 25 μl, was designed and fabricated using acrylic. An electrochemical sensor with gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes (IDE) on a glass substrate was photolithographically …

A Complex Social Network Analyses Of Online Finanical Communties In Times Of Geopolitcal Military And Terrorist Events, James Usher

Dissertations

Given the advances in technology the field of social network analysis has very much hit the forefront in recent years. The information age harnesses the use of social network analysis for multiple industries and for solving complex problems. Social network analysis is an important tool in the world of the military and counter intelligence, whether it’s the capture of Osama Bin Laden or uncovering hidden Al Qaeda terrorist networks, the world around us is built on networks, be that hidden or otherwise. Online social networks give new information in the world of intelligence agencies similarly online financial communities such as …

Modeling That Leads To The Prediction Of Photocatalytic Coatings Characterization, Biju Bajracharya

Dissertations

One of the abundant sources of energy on earth is a solar energy which is the clean and safest energy source. It is also known as universal energy, the most important source of renewable energy available today. On realizing that the light source has a crucial role in daily life, several scientists and researchers from centuries ago have studied to establish photo induced systems and utilized them. Long after the knowledge of thermal energy, photovoltaic energy, and photosynthesis in plants, two prominent scientists, Fujishima and Honda, have discovered the electrochemical photolysis of water with the Titanium dioxide electrode which was …

Development And Applications Of The Expanded Equivalent Fluid Method, Bharath Kumar Kandula

Dissertations

Ocean acoustics is the study of sound in the oceans. Electromagnetic waves attenuate rapidly in the water medium. Sound is the best means to transmit information underwater. Computational numerical simulations play an important role in ocean acoustics. Simulations of acoustic propagation in the oceans are challenging due to the complexities involved in the ocean environment. Different methods have been developed to simulate underwater sound propagation. The Parabolic-Equation (PE) method is the best choice in several ocean acoustic problems. In shallow water acoustic experiments, sound loses some of its energy when it interacts with the bottom. An equivalent fluid technique was …

Predicting Professional Golfer Performance Using Proprietary Pga Tour “Shotlink” Data, Brian Leahy

Dissertations

It can cost a minimum of $110,000 a year for a professional golfer to compete on the PGA Tour. For the successful golfers who earn millions every year, this is not a problem. For those lower ranked golfers, it is a problem. This is due to the fact that almost half the golfers who compete in any one PGA Tour tournament will not get paid, because they have missed the dreaded cut. When a golfer begins to consistently miss the cut, they can come under financial pressure which may manifest itself into poor further tournament performances. This dissertation attempts to …

Opportunistic Service Differentiation And Cloud Resource Management In Support Of Enhanced Vehicular Applications, Mohammad Ali Salahuddin

Dissertations

An integral part of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs), which consist of vehicles with on-board units (OBUs) and fixed road-side units (RSUs). Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) offers QoS via service differentiation by using application defined priorities. However, WAVE has unbounded delay and is oblivious to network load and severity of vehicles with respect to their environment. Our context severity metric innovatively enhances WAVE to be sensitive to vehicle and environment interactions. Our novel Opportunistic Service Differentiation (OSD) technique, dynamically readjusts the WAVE packet priorities to improve utilization of lower latency queues, prioritizing packets …

Predicting Mortgage Arrears: An Investigation Into The Predictive Capability Of Customer Spending Patterns, Jamie Roche

Dissertations

The management of credit risk and mortgage arrears has become a very important area in financial services and banking. This dissertation set out to build a statistical model, which incorporates customer spending habits and the current equity value of a property, capable of predicting arrears. Current literature identifies many themes such as negative equity and unemployment that are common occurring factors in mortgage arrears but a multi-faceted approach was required to build a model capable of accurately predicting arrears. Property equity values were included in the model by taking the current outstanding value of the loans and using a property …

The Mpt Assessment Deployed Via Digital Mobile Application, Niall Duffy

Dissertations

This project will look at the area of the Matching Person and Technology assessment (MPT). This project will be to develop a version of the MPT that can be deployed as a mobile application. The key research being performed in this project will be the analysis of the results given on the mobile application when compared to those given via the traditional paper method. The MPT is a very large assessment; because of this there are a number of different specific assessments like workplace and education assessments (Cook, A.M. and Hussey, S. 2001). Because of the size of the assessment …

Reducing Ambiguities In Customer Requirements Through Historical Rule-Based Knowledge In A Small Organization, Silvia Brum Preston

Dissertations

During the elicitation process the requirements for a software application are obtained from the customer. Customers often do not know how to clearly express the requirements of the application to be built, causing requirements to be ambiguous. Many studies have been found to cover different characteristics of the requirements elicitation process including methods for reducing ambiguities in requirements. The methods and findings of these studies were found to be too general when it comes to the specific domain of the requirements and knowledge about the requirements. In addition, some studies did not take into consideration the level of expertise of …

Bringing Knowledge To Imbedded Collaboration Tools Within An Irish Financial Services It Department, Anthony Daly

Dissertations

The field of organisational knowledge management attempts to define and identify work practices and the use of technologies which provide an organisation with sustained competitive advantage. This research presents findings from analysis carried out in an Irish financial services organisation. The organisation has no defined knowledge management strategy yet as this research will indicate that this firm can be classified as a Knowledge-Intensive Organisation. Many of the desired attributes of a knowledge management strategy and characteristics for a knowledge management system can be found within the organisations technology and cultural structures. This project, having reviewed the established literature which defines …

Cloud-Based Storage Applications For Smart Phones: Forensic Investigation Of Cloud Storage Applications, Radoslaw Ochrymowicz

Dissertations

The proliferation of smart phones across the globe, development of 4G network standards and its progressing implementation along with shift towards cloud computing bring risks to smart phone users who avail of these service. Security of cloud storage mobile applications should be essential to smart phone users. Enterprises’ move to huge data centres and availing of their infrastructure, platform and service is an advantage but poses a risk. Users use corporate resources managed and administered with security in mind of policy makers but it is still possible to use unsecure, designed for users services without business being aware of it. …

A Framework For The Analysis And User-Driven Evaluation Of Trust On The Semantic Web, Peter Clarke

Dissertations

This project will examine the area of trust on the Semantic Web and develop a framework for publishing and verifying trusted Linked Data. Linked Data describes a method of publishing structured data, automatically readable by computers, which can linked to other heterogeneous data with the purpose of becoming more useful. Trust plays a significant role in the adoption of new technologies and even more so in a sphere with such vast amounts of publicly-created data. Trust is paramount to the effective sharing and communication of tacit knowledge (Hislop, 2013). Up to now, the area of trust in Linked Data has …