Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Side Channel Detection Of Pc Rootkits Using Nonlinear Phase Space, Rebecca Clark

Honors Theses

Cyberattacks are increasing in size and scope yearly, and the most effective and common means of attack is through malicious software executed on target devices of interest. Malware threats vary widely in terms of behavior and impact and, thus, effective methods of detection are constantly being sought from the academic research community to offset both volume and complexity. Rootkits are malware that represent a highly feared threat because they can change operating system integrity and alter otherwise normally functioning software. Although normal methods of detection that are based on signatures of known malware code are the standard line of defense, …

Ensuring Non-Repudiation In Long-Distance Constrained Devices, Ethan Blum

Honors Theses

Satellite communication is essential for the exploration and study of space. Satellites allow communications with many devices and systems residing in space and on the surface of celestial bodies from ground stations on Earth. However, with the rise of Ground Station as a Service (GsaaS), the ability to efficiently send action commands to distant satellites must ensure non-repudiation such that an attacker is unable to send malicious commands to distant satellites. Distant satellites are also constrained devices and rely on limited power, meaning security on these devices is minimal. Therefore, this study attempted to propose a novel algorithm to allow …

Tracking Xenophobic Terminology On Twitter Using Nlp, Harper Lyon

Honors Theses

Social media is a major driver of political thought, with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok having a massive impact on how people think and vote. For this reason we should take seriously any large shifts in the language used to describe issues or groups on social media, as these are likely to either denote a change in political thought or even forecast the same. Of particular interest, given the international reach of social media, is the way that discussions around foreign relations and immigration play out. In the United States of America online spaces have become the default space …

Corrective Feedback Timing In Kanji Writing Instruction Apps, Phoenix Mulgrew

Honors Theses

The focus of this research paper is to determine the correct time to provide corrective feedback to people who are learning how to write Japanese kanji. To do this, we developed a system that is able to recognize Japanese kanji that is handwritten onto an iPad screen and check for errors such as wrong stroke order. Previous research has achieved success in developing similar systems, but this project is unique because the research question involves the timing of corrective feedback. In particular, we are looking at whether immediate or delayed corrective feedback results in better learning.

Decoding Cyclic Codes Via Gröbner Bases, Eduardo Sosa

Honors Theses

In this paper, we analyze the decoding of cyclic codes. First, we introduce linear and cyclic codes, standard decoding processes, and some standard theorems in coding theory. Then, we will introduce Gr¨obner Bases, and describe their connection to the decoding of cyclic codes. Finally, we go in-depth into how we decode cyclic codes using the key equation, and how a breakthrough by A. Brinton Cooper on decoding BCH codes using Gr¨obner Bases gave rise to the search for a polynomial-time algorithm that could someday decode any cyclic code. We discuss the different approaches taken toward developing such an algorithm and …

Surface Reconstruction Library, Jhye Tim Chi

Honors Theses

The project aims to convert an arbitrary point cloud into a triangular mesh. Point clouds are a list of 3d points that model the topology of an object. Point clouds can have various issues, such as missing or noisy data. For the scope, we had no control over point cloud generation. We were also unable to deal with underlying registration or alignment problems. Triangular meshes are a list of triangles that have 3d vertices. This aggregate list of triangles defines the reconstructed surface. Our project implementation is based on Alexander Hornung and Leif Kobbelt’s method for surface reconstruction using the …

A Hybrid Decision Tree - Neural Network (Dt-Nn) Model For Predictive Maintenance Applications In Aircraft, Jarrod Carson

Honors Theses

As the Age of Information has evolved over the last several decades, the demand for technology which stores, analyzes, and utilizes data has increased substantially. For countless industries such as the medical, retail, and aircraft industries, such technology is crucial to their operation. This project proposes a hybrid machine learning model consisting of Decision Trees and Neural Networks which is able to classify data of varying volume and variety effectively and efficiently. The model’s structure consists of a decision tree with each node of the tree containing a neural network trained to classify a specific category of the output using …

Lee Honors College Mobile Application, James Ward

Honors Theses

In the spring of 2018 three Computer Science students Benjamin Campbell, James Ward, and Peter Shutt created a mobile application. This app was developed over the span of two semesters for their senior design project; a capstone to their degrees.

Their client, The Lee Honors College at Western Michigan University --referred to as LHC and WMU respectively hereafter-- has a plethora of academic and social information, and a large demand for access to it. This information includes building hours, contact information, health resources, a LHC specific course catalog, social media posts, event descriptions, and much more. The volume of information, …

An Alternative Approach To Training Sequence-To-Sequence Model For Machine Translation, Vivek Sah

Honors Theses

Machine translation is a widely researched topic in the field of Natural Language Processing and most recently, neural network models have been shown to be very effective at this task. The model, called sequence-to-sequence model, learns to map an input sequence in one language to a vector of fixed dimensionality and then map that vector to an output sequence in another language without any human intervention provided that there is enough training data. Focusing on English-French translation, in this paper, I present a way to simplify the learning process by replacing English input sentences by word-by-word translation of those sentences. …

Correcting Pedestrian Dead Reckoning With Monte Carlo Localization Boxed For Indoor Navigation, Akira T. Murphy

Honors Theses

Localization of phones is a ubiquitous part of the modern mobile electronics landscape. However, there are many situations where the current method of networked localization fails. A Pedestrian Dead Reckoning System where the location of the user is calculated by counting the steps and direction of the user was implemented as an iOS app with python for data analysis. A novel algorithm for wireless sensor localization using Ad-Hoc Bluetooth networks was proposed. A small experiment was performed proving that the system is nearly equal to state of the art algorithms.

Audience Response Clicker Project, Joseph Meyer

Honors Theses

This report will address the feasibility of a software-based audience response system to be implemented, to be known as the Clicker Project. The project seeks to address the growing need for active learning environments at the University level. The primary goal of the project is to construct a web-based system that allows presenters to gather responses from a viewing audience. To this end, presenters can collect and store data dynamically form whomever is in attendance. The following sections will discuss the project in greater detail.

A Framework For The Automation Of Discrete-Event Simulation Experiments, Bryan Ward

Honors Theses

Simulation is an important resource for researchers in diverse fields. However, many researchers have found flaws in the methodology of published simulation studies and have described the state of the simulation community as being in a crisis of credibility. This work describes the project of the Simulation Automation Framework for Experiments (SAFE), which addresses the issues that undermine credibility by automating the workflow in the execution of simulation studies. Automation reduces the number of opportunities for users to introduce error in the scientific process thereby improvingthe credibility of the final results. Automation also eases the job of simulation users and …

The Design Of Xml-Based Model And Experiment Description Languages For Network Simulation, Andy Hallagan

Honors Theses

The Simulation Automation Framework for Experiments (SAFE) is a project created to raise the level of abstraction in network simulation tools and thereby address issues that undermine credibility. SAFE incorporates best practices in network simulationto automate the experimental process and to guide users in the development of sound scientific studies using the popular ns-3 network simulator. My contributions to the SAFE project: the design of two XML-based languages called NEDL (ns-3 Experiment Description Language) and NSTL (ns-3 Script Templating Language), which facilitate the description of experiments and network simulationmodels, respectively. The languages provide a foundation for the construction of better …