Other Computer Engineering Commons^™

Cloud Computing: Strategies For Cloud Computing Adoption, Faith J. Shimba

Faith Joel Shimba

The advent of cloud computing in recent years has sparked an interest from different IT stakeholders. This is a result of the new economic model for the IT department that cloud computing promises. The model promises to remove the need for heavy investment for limited IT resources towards renting IT resources and paying based on usage. Although, the adoption of cloud computing promises various benefits to organizations, a successful adoption requires an understanding of different dynamics and expertise in diverse domains. Currently there are inadequate guidelines for adoption and this book proposes a roadmap for cloud computing adoption called ROCCA. …

Development Of A Cubesat Payload To Model Particle Dampening In Space: Design And Implementation Of Software For Cp7, Daniel Walker

Computer Engineering

The California Polytechnic State University CubeSat student research & development group, PolySat, is currently in a mature development stage of a single unit CubeSat designated CP7. The CP7 mission implements a scientific payload designed to characterize particle dampers in microgravity conditions. When subjected to vibration, the momentum exchanges and frictional forces of the particles create a damping effect that can be optimized to suit a number of applications over a broad frequency and amplitude range. In space based applications, particle dampers would serve as a robust and simple device to eliminate jitter in optical assemblies and other sensitive instrumentation. This …

A Similarity Matrix For Irish Traditional Dance Music, Padraic Lavin

Dissertations

It is estimated that there are between seven and ten thousand Irish traditional dance tunes in existence. As Irish musicians travelled the world they carried their repertoire in their memories and rarely recorded these pieces in writing. When the music was passed down from generation to generation by ear the names of these pieces of music and the melodies themselves were forgotten or changed over time. This has led to problems for musicians and archivists when identifying the names of traditional Irish tunes.

Almost all of this music is now available in ABC notation from online collections. An ABC file …

Software Engineering Issues For Mobile Application Development, Tony Wasserman

Tony Wasserman

This paper provides an overview of important software engineering research issues related to the development of applications that run on mobile devices. Among the topics are development processes, tools, user interface design, application portability, quality, and security.

Cybersecurity: Growing Like Topsy!, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses cybersecurity in an intelligence context – what it is, what it does to us, and the sudden (and somewhat unplanned) increase in financial support for the area.

An Introduction To Virus Scanners, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The main functions of an anti-virus program are, (i) Virus prevention and file protection, (ii) Virus scanning and detection, (iii) Removing virus from infected files, and (iv) Recovering damaged files and objects.

An anti-virus program employs various methods to detect and remove viruses. The two popular methods of detecting viruses are signature scanning and behavior monitoring. However each of these methods has its strengths and weaknesses.

As the detection gets more sophisticated so are the virus programmers. The virus programmers also try to go one step beyond the anti-virus mechanism and create intelligent viruses which pose more and more difficult …

An Introduction To Computer Viruses, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The computer virus is a problem to computer users at all levels including students, home users, corporate users, system administrators, corporate managers and even the anti-virus manufacturers. The viruses are written by people with malefic intentions to trouble the innocent users.

There are many types of viruses are boot sector viruses, file viruses, worms, Trojan horses, macro viruses etc. Each of these has many different variants. The older viruses were transmitting through floppies. Some older viruses like boot sector viruses are very rare nowadays as nobody boots from floppies. The modern day viruses transmit more through networks and emails. Macro …

Methods Of Virus Detection And Their Limitations, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

An anti-virus program typically employs various strategies to detect and remove viruses. The popular methods of detecting virus are signature scanning, heuristic scanning and integrity checking. However each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Signature scanning (or searching of known virus patterns) is the most common method of virus detection. But it cannot detect viruses whose signatures are not available in the virus database. The other popular method is to use a heuristic algorithm to find viruses based on common behaviors. This method can be complex, but it has the ability to detect unknown or new viruses. …

A Reconfigurable Pattern Matching Hardware Implementation Using On-Chip Ram-Based Fsm, Indrawati Gauba

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The use of synthesizable reconfigurable IP cores has increasingly become a trend in System on Chip (SOC) designs. Such domain-special cores are being used for their flexibility and powerful functionality. The market introduction of multi-featured platform FPGAs equipped with on-chip memory and embedded processor blocks has further extended the possibility of utilizing dynamic reconfiguration to improve overall system adaptability to meet varying product requirements. A dynamically reconfigurable Finite State Machine (FSM) can be implemented using on-chip memory and an embedded processor. Since FSMs are the vital part of sequential hardware designs, the reconfiguration can be achieved in all designs containing …

Use Of Negation In Search, Kristen M. Lancaster

Theses and Dissertations

Boolean algebra was developed in the 1840s. Since that time, negation, one of the three basic concepts in Boolean algebra, has influenced the fields of information science and information retrieval, particularly in the modern computer era. In Web search engines, one of the present manifestations of information retrieval, little use is being made of this functionality and so little attention is given to it in the literature. This study aims to bolster the understanding of the use and usefulness of negation. Specifically, an Internet search task was developed for which negation was the most appropriate search strategy. This search task …

Ultrasonic Shark-Tag Locator System For Iver2 Auv, Nathaniel Garcia

Computer Engineering

The purpose of this project is to develop a system for tracking an ultrasonic underwater transmitter that can be integrated into an IVER2 AUV to allow it to follow and monitor tagged sharks in the ocean for scientific research.

The system consists of a four main components including a shark-tag, two hydrophones, a filter/amplifier & threshold detector circuit, and a microcontroller.

This project, while not completing field testing and integration with the IVER2, is a proof of concept of a system that utilizes passive sonar to determine a bearing from the system to a shark-tag transmitter. Additionally, it devised several …

Memento: Personal Scrapbook Android Application, Ryan Joseph Rosete

Computer Engineering

The Memento project focuses on providing Android phone users with a new alternative to capture memories. Its main purpose is to create an application that stores pictures and data on an Android phone. Users can view these saved entries for later use to recall what they have done in the past or show to others. The initial idea for this project stemmed from a personal interest in both scrapbooks and popular microblog services. The application aims to provide a new service that is currently not offered in the Android Market.

In order to create this application, there are two main …

A Low Power Touch Screen Document Viewer, Chris Perfetto

Computer Engineering

This document will cover the requirements, design, implementation and testing of a low power touch screen document viewer to serve as a replacement bulletin board. It was Implemented using a BeagleBoard development board, a 4.3” touchscreen LCD and a SD card with a Ubuntu Linux OS installed. The testing of this device is primarily testing the power consumption. The device is not yet complete and will require further development for it to completely satisfy the requirements.

Wii-Mote Head Tracking: A Three Dimensional Virtual Reality Display, David Fairman

Computer Engineering

The goal of this project is to create a customizable three dimensional virtual reality display on a system available to any non-technical user. This System will use the infrared camera component of a standard Nintendo Wii-mote to track a user's head motions in all six major directions. The virtual reality will be a customizable image projected onto a screen or simply shown on a computer or TV monitor. In order to appear 3-dimensional, the image will continually change according to the position of the user's head. As the user moves their head to the left and right, portions of the …

Household Outlet Monitoring And Control System, Michael Young

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Textured Hierarchical Precomputed Radiance Transfer, Harrison Lee Mckenzie Chapter

Master's Theses

Computing complex lighting simulations such as global illumination is a computationally intensive task. Various real time solutions exist to approximate aspects of global illumination such as shadows, however, few of these methods offer single pass rendering solutions for soft shadows (self and other) and inter-reflections. In contrast, Precomputed Radiance Transfer (PRT) is a real-time computer graphics technique which pre-calculates an object's response to potential incident light. At run time, the actual incident light can be used to quickly illuminate the surface, rendering effects such as soft self-shadows and inter-reflections. In this thesis, we show that by calculating PRT lighting coefficients …

A Novel Technique For Ctis Image-Reconstruction, Mitchel Dewayne Horton

Doctoral Dissertations

Computed tomography imaging spectrometer (CTIS) technology is introduced and its use is discussed. An iterative method is presented for CTIS image-reconstruction in the presence of both photon noise in the image and post-detection Gaussian system noise. The new algorithm assumes the transfer matrix of the system has a particular structure. Error analysis, performance evaluation, and parallelization of the algorithm is done. Complexity analysis is performed for the proof of concept code developed. Future work is discussed relating to potential improvements to the algorithm.

An intuitive explanation for the success of the new algorithm is that it reformulates the image reconstruction …

Dynamic Application Level Security Sensors, Christopher Thomas Rathgeb

Masters Theses

The battle for cyber supremacy is a cat and mouse game: evolving threats from internal and external sources make it difficult to protect critical systems. With the diverse and high risk nature of these threats, there is a need for robust techniques that can quickly adapt and address this evolution. Existing tools such as Splunk, Snort, and Bro help IT administrators defend their networks by actively parsing through network traffic or system log data. These tools have been thoroughly developed and have proven to be a formidable defense against many cyberattacks. However, they are vulnerable to zero-day attacks, slow attacks, …

Gpu Implementation Of A Novel Approach To Cramer’S Algorithm For Solving Large Scale Linear Systems, Rosanne Lane West

Masters Theses

Scientific computing often requires solving systems of linear equations. Most software pack- ages for solving large-scale linear systems use Gaussian elimination methods such as LU- decomposition. An alternative method, recently introduced by K. Habgood and I. Arel, involves an application of Cramer’s Rule and Chio’s condensation to achieve a better per- forming system for solving linear systems on parallel computing platforms. This thesis describes an implementation of this algorithm on an nVidia graphics processor card us- ing the CUDA language. Increased performance, relative to the serial implementation, is demonstrated, paving the way for future parallel realizations of the scheme.

A Computer Vision Application To Accurately Estimate Object Distance, Kayton B. Parekh

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Scientists have been working to create robots that perform manual work for years. However, creating machines that can navigate themselves and respond to their environment has proven to be difficult. One integral task to such research is to estimate the position of objects in the robot's visual field.

In this project we examine an implementation of computer vision depth perception. Our application uses color-based object tracking combined with model-based pose estimation to estimate the depth of specific objects in the view of our Pioneer 2 and Power Wheels robots. We use the Camshift algorithm for color-based object tracking, which uses …

Non Bayesian Conditioning And Deconditioning, Jean Dezert, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this paper, we present a Non-Bayesian conditioning rule for belief revision. This rule is truly Non-Bayesian in the sense that it doesn’t satisfy the common adopted principle that when a prior belief is Bayesian, after conditioning by X, Bel(X|X) must be equal to one. Our new conditioning rule for belief revision is based on the proportional conflict redistribution rule of combination developed in DSmT (Dezert-Smarandache Theory) which abandons Bayes’ conditioning principle. Such Non-Bayesian conditioning allows to take into account judiciously the level of conflict between the prior belief available and the conditional evidence. We also introduce the deconditioning problem …

Global Positioning Logger, Matthew Hall

Computer Engineering

The Global Positioning Logger (GPL) is a mobile embedded device that utilizes GPS technology. The GPS data is used to display current speed and past global locations.

Exploring The Relationship Of The Closeness Of A Genetic Algorithm's Chromosome Encoding To Its Problem Space, Kevin Mccullough

Master's Theses

For historical reasons, implementers of genetic algorithms often use a haploid binary primitive type for chromosome encoding. I will demonstrate that one can reduce development effort and achieve higher fitness by designing a genetic algorithm with an encoding scheme that closely matches the problem space. I will show that implicit parallelism does not result in binary encoded chromosomes obtaining higher fitness scores than other encodings. I will also show that Hamming distances should be understood as part of the relationship between the closeness of an encoding to the problem instead of assuming they should always be held constant. Closeness to …

Controlling The Uncontrollable: A New Approach To Digital Storytelling Using Autonomous Virtual Actors And Environmental Manipulation, Matthew J. Colon

Master's Theses

In most video games today that focus on a single story, scripting languages are used for controlling the artificial intelligence of the virtual actors. While scripting is a great tool for reliably performing a story, it has many disadvantages; mainly, it is limited by only being able to respond to those situations that were explicitly declared, causing unreliable responses to unknown situations, and the believability of the virtual actor is hindered by possible conflicts between scripted actions and appropriate responses as perceived by the viewer. This paper presents a novel method of storytelling by manipulating the environment, whether physically or …

A Graduate Education In Software Management And The Software Business For Mid-Career Professionals, Ray Bareiss, Gladys Mercier

Ray Bareiss

Given the unique nature of the software business, the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus concluded that mid-career software professionals would be better served by a tailored master’s degree focusing on software management and more broadly on the business of software than by a typical MBA. Our software management master’s program integrates business, technical, and soft skills to prepare our students for technical leadership in their current companies or in entrepreneurial ventures. Our initial program built on the strengths of Carnegie Mellon’s world-class software engineering education. We targeted students working in large companies, engaged in large-scale enterprise software …

Coaching Via Cognitive Apprenticeship, Ray Bareiss, Martin Radley

Ray Bareiss

At Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley campus we employ a learn by- doing educational approach in which nearly all student learning, and thus instruction, is in the context of realistic, team based projects. Consequently, we have adopted coaching as our predominant teaching model. In this paper we reflect on our experience with the nature of teaching by coaching using a framework derived from Cognitive Apprenticeship, and explain how we employ the techniques it suggests in our teaching. We also discuss a range of instructional tensions that arise in teaching by coaching and present a survey of student attitudes regarding the effectiveness …

An Mpi-Cuda Implementation For Massively Parallel Incompressible Flow Computations On Multi-Gpu Clusters, Dana A. Jacobsen, Julien C. Thibault, Inanc Senocak

Inanc Senocak

Modern graphics processing units (GPUs) with many-core architectures have emerged as general-purpose parallel computing platforms that can accelerate simulation science applications tremendously. While multi-GPU workstations with several TeraFLOPS of peak computing power are available to accelerate computational problems, larger problems require even more resources. Conventional clusters of central processing units (CPU) are now being augmented with multiple GPUs in each compute-node to tackle large problems. The heterogeneous architecture of a multi-GPU cluster with a deep memory hierarchy creates unique challenges in developing scalable and efficient simulation codes. In this study, we pursue mixed MPI-CUDA implementations and investigate three strategies to …

Evaluating A New Mac For Current And Next Generation Rfid, Serge Zhilyaev

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

We evaluate SQUASH, a new MAC for RFID, in hardware and software. A smaller hardware design for SQUASH is proposed which also reduces latency. Area and latency in hardware are reduced further with a new variant we call permuted SQUASH. We explore SQUASH on embedded microprocessors and propose a method to choose the optimal partial product ordering to reduce latency.

Wi-Fi Localization Using Rssi Fingerprinting, Michael Quan, Eduardo Navarro, Benjamin Peuker

Computer Engineering

Wireless Local Area Networks using Wi-Fi is becoming more and more ubiquitous. As such, they provide a potential pre-built infrastructure for small area localization. This project serves as a proof of concept for a playground child tracking system to be deployed at Cal Poly's Child Development Playground Lab. The two main options for doing Wi-Fi localization are triangulation and fingerprinting. Triangulation involves mapping signal strength as a function of distance while fingerprinting creates a probability distribution of signal strengths at a given location and uses a map of these distributions to predict a location given signal strength samples. The triangulation …

An Mpi-Cuda Implementation For Massively Parallel Incompressible Flow Computations On Multi-Gpu Clusters, Dana A. Jacobsen, Julien C. Thibault, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Modern graphics processing units (GPUs) with many-core architectures have emerged as general-purpose parallel computing platforms that can accelerate simulation science applications tremendously. While multi-GPU workstations with several TeraFLOPS of peak computing power are available to accelerate computational problems, larger problems require even more resources. Conventional clusters of central processing units (CPU) are now being augmented with multiple GPUs in each compute-node to tackle large problems. The heterogeneous architecture of a multi-GPU cluster with a deep memory hierarchy creates unique challenges in developing scalable and efficient simulation codes. In this study, we pursue mixed MPI-CUDA implementations and investigate three strategies to …