Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Software-Based Decision Procedures To Control Instruction-Level Execution, William B. Kimball

AFIT Patents

An apparatus, method and program product are provided for securing a computer system. A digital signature of an application is checked, which is loaded into a memory of the computer system configured to contain memory pages. In response to finding a valid digital signature, memory pages containing instructions of the application are set as executable and memory pages other than those containing instructions of the application are set as non-executable. Instructions in executable memory pages are executed. Instructions in non-executable memory pages are prevented from being executed. A page fault is generated in response to an attempt to execute an …

On The Interoperability Of Programming Languages Based On The Fork-Join Parallelism Model, Sushek Shekar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis describes the implementation of MetaFork, a meta-language for concurrency platforms targeting multicore architectures. First of all, MetaFork is a multithreaded language based on the fork-join model of concurrency: it allows the programmer to express parallel algorithms assuming that tasks are dynamically scheduled at run-time. While MetaFork makes no assumption about the run-time system, it formally defines the serial C-elision of a MetaFork program. In addition, MetaFork is a suite of source-to-source compilers permitting the automatic translation of multithreaded programs between programming languages based on the fork-join model. Currently, this compilation framework supports the OpenMP and CilkPlus concurrency platforms. …

Missing Requirements Information And Its Impact On Software Architectures: A Case Study, Md Rounok Salehin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

[Context & motivation] In the development of large, software-intensive systems, the system’s requirements are seldom, if ever, concluded upon prior to commencing with systems architecture. Research shows that, in order to manage development and domain complexities, instances of requirements engineering (RE) and systems architecting (SA) processes tend to inter-weave. [Question/problem] However, missing requirements information can cause one to create (or recreate) the needed information during different SA activities. While backtracking in the software development process is known to be costly, the costs associated with missing requirements in the SA process have not been investigated empirically. [Principal ideas/results] We …

A Modular Approach To The Development Of Interactive Augmented Reality Applications., Nelson J. Andre

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Augmented reality (AR) technologies are becoming increasingly popular as a result of the increase in the power of mobile computing devices. Emerging AR applications have the potential to have an enormous impact on industries such as education, healthcare, research, training and entertainment. There are currently a number of augmented reality toolkits and libraries available for the development of these applications; however, there is currently no standard tool for development. In this thesis we propose a modular approach to the organization and development of AR systems in order to enable the creation novel AR experiences. We also investigate the incorporation of …

Redesign Of Johar: A Framework For Developing Accessible Applications, Oladapo Oyebode

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As the population of disabled people continues to grow, designing accessible applications is still a challenge, since most applications are incompatible with assistive technologies used by disabled people to interact with the computer. This accessibility issue is usually caused by the reluctance of software engineers or developers to include complete accessibility features in their applications, which in turn is often due to the extra cost and development effort required to dynamically adapt applications to a wide range of disabilities. Our aim to resolve accessibility issues led to the design and implementation of the "Johar" framework, which facilitates the development of …

Uos : A Resource Rerouting Middleware For Ubiquitous Games, Fabricio N. Buzeto, Miriam A M Capretz, Carla D. Castanho, Ricardo P. Jacobi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) relies on the computation distributed over the environment to simplify the tasks performed by its users. A smart space is an instance of a ubiquitous environment, composed of a dynamic and heterogeneous set of devices that interact to support the execution of distributed smart applications. In this context, mobile devices provide new resources when they join the environment, which disappear when they leave it. This introduces the challenge of self-adaptation, in which smart applications may either include new resources as they become available or replace them when they become unavailable. Ubiquitous games combine ubicomp and computer game …

Reconstructing Point Clouds Of Mid-Size Objects, Spencer Woodworth

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This project explores the use of an inexpensive 3D camera for the acquisition and reconstruction of mid-size objects. The disparity of objects between stereo image pairs are used to calculate depth and generate a depth map. The depth map is used to generate a point cloud representation of the object from a single view. Finally, point clouds are generated from several views of an object and then aligned and merged into a seamless 360-degree point cloud.

Testing And Integration Team Project Management, Tyler Leben, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The Testing and Integration Team plays an integral role in the development of the open source CubeSat known as Open Orbiter. Like any project, the Testing Team’s project can benefit from structure and management to effectively utilize it’s time and resources. CSCI 297 teaches the skills needed to turn a good idea into successful endeavor. By applying skills such as effective planning, setting milestones, dealing with changes and supervising to an actual project, Open Orbiter has transformed from a pipe dream to a real, obtainable goal. Doing this has turned learning about project management into more that just power points …

Software For Openorbiter, Christoffer Korvald, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The software development effort for the OpenOrbiter project consists of four teams: operating software development, payload software development, ground station software development and testing. These teams are designing and developing the software required to create a turn-key spacecraft design1 which can be produced at a price point of under USD $5,000 by faculty, students and researchers world-wide2. Through this process, students are gaining valuable real-world experience3,4 in areas of indicated interest5. Each team is headed by a team lead who is responsible for conducting weekly meetings and organizing the activities of the team. During the Fall, 2013 semester, team leads …

Forensic Investigation Of Mysql Database Management System, Andrew C. Lawrence

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

For various reasons, circumstances might arise in which an investigator, enlisting the help of a system administrator, needs access to an instance of MySQL that is password protected by an individual system user. If this password is unknown and the user is uncooperative or unavailable, alternative means must be utilized to gain access to the data stored within the program. Two main approaches will be explored, each with its pros and cons. In one case, the password can be bypassed entirely, granting the investigator unfettered access to the program data. The second method allows a narrower look at only some …

Fundamental Limits On End-To-End Throughput Of Network Coding In Multi-Rate And Multicast Wireless Networks, Luiz Felipe Viera, Mario Gerla, Archan Misra

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper investigates the interaction between network coding and link-layer transmission rate diversity in multi-hop wireless networks. By appropriately mixing data packets at intermediate nodes, network coding allows a single multicast flow to achieve higher throughput to a set of receivers. Broadcast applications can also exploit link-layer rate diversity, whereby individual nodes can transmit at faster rates at the expense of corresponding smaller coverage area. We first demonstrate how combining rate-diversity with network coding can provide a larger capacity for data dissemination of a single multicast flow, and how consideration of rate diversity is critical for maximizing system throughput. Next …

Dense Image Correspondence Under Large Appearance Variations, Linlin Liu, Kok-Lim Low, Wen-Yan Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper addresses the difficult problem of finding dense correspondence across images with large appearance variations. Our method uses multiple feature samples at each pixel to deal with the appearance variations based on our observation that pre-defined single feature sample provides poor results in nearest neighbor matching. We apply the idea in a flow-based matching framework and utilize the best feature sample for each pixel to determine the flow field. We propose a novel energy function and use dual-layer loopy belief propagation to minimize it where the correspondence, the feature scale and rotation parameters are solved simultaneously. Our method is …

Exposing And Mitigating Privacy Loss In Crowdsourced Survey Platforms, Thivya Kandappu, Vijay Sivaraman, Arik Friedman, Roksana Borell

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and Google Consumer Surveys can profile users based on their inputs to online surveys. In this work we first demonstrate how easily user privacy can be compromised by collating information from multiple surveys. We then propose, develop, and evaluate a crowdsourcing survey platform called Loki that allows users to control their privacy loss via atsource obfuscation.

Can Clustering Improve Requirements Traceability? A Tracelab-Enabled Study, Brett Taylor Armstrong

Master's Theses

Software permeates every aspect of our modern lives. In many applications, such in the software for airplane flight controls, or nuclear power control systems software failures can have catastrophic consequences. As we place so much trust in software, how can we know if it is trustworthy? Through software assurance, we can attempt to quantify just that.

Building complex, high assurance software is no simple task. The difficult information landscape of a software engineering project can make verification and validation, the process by which the assurance of a software is assessed, very difficult. In order to manage the inevitable information overload …

Vortex, Charles F. Armstrong, Dimitri Yacoub, Alexander B. Sayers

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Object Detection Using Contrast Enhancement And Dynamic Noise Reduction, Justin Lee Baker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Edge detection is one of the most important steps a computer must perform to gain understanding of an object in a digital image either from disk or from video feed. Edge detection allows for the computer to describe the shape of the objects in an image and create a pixel boundary defining what is considered part of an object, and what is not. Cannys edge detection algorithm is one of the most robust and accurate of these edge detection algorithms. However, as with many algorithms in image processing, there are many cases where the algorithm does not perform as well …

Towards A Hybrid Framework For Detecting Input Manipulation Vulnerabilities, Sun Ding, Hee Beng Kuan Tan, Lwin Khin Shar, Bindu Madhavi Padmanabhuni

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Input manipulation vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection, Cross-site scripting, Buffer Overflow vulnerabilities are highly prevalent and pose critical security risks. As a result, many methods have been proposed to apply static analysis, dynamic analysis or a combination of them, to detect such security vulnerabilities. Most of the existing methods classify vulnerabilities into safe and unsafe. They have both false-positive and false-negative cases. In general, security vulnerability can be classified into three cases: (1) provable safe, (2) provable unsafe, (3) unsure. In this paper, we propose a hybrid framework-Detecting Input Manipulation Vulnerabilities (DIMV), to verify the adequacy of security vulnerability defenses …

Factors Influencing Research Contributions And Researcher Interactions In Software Engineering: An Empirical Study, Subhajit Datta, A. S. M. Sajeev, Santonu Sarkar, Nishant Kumar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Research into software engineering (SE) education is largely concentrated on teaching and learning issues in coursework programs. This paper, in contrast, provides a meta analysis of research publications in software engineering to help with research education in SE. Studying publication patterns in a discipline will assist research students and supervisors gain a deeper understanding of how successful research has occurred in the discipline. We present results from a large scale empirical study covering over three and a half decades of software engineering research publications. We identify how different factors of publishing relate to the number of papers published as well …

Next Generation Crystal Viewing Tool, Zach Schaffter, Gerhard Klimeck

Gerhard Klimeck

The science and engineering community is limited when it comes to crystal viewing software tools. Each tool lacks in a different area such as customization of structures or visual output. Crystal Viewer 2.0 was created to have all of these features in one program. This one tool simulates virtually any crystal structure with any possible material. The vtkvis widget offers users advanced visual options not seen in any other crystal viewing software. In addition, the powerful engine behind Crystal Viewer 2.0, nanoelectronic modeling 5 or (NEMO5), performs intensive atomic calculations depending on user input. A graphical user interface, or GUI, …

Automatic Recommendation Of Api Methods From Feature Requests, Ferdian Thung, Shaowei Wang, David Lo, Julia Lawall

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Developers often receive many feature requests. To implement these features, developers can leverage various methods from third party libraries. In this work, we propose an automated approach that takes as input a textual description of a feature request. It then recommends methods in library APIs that developers can use to implement the feature. Our recommendation approach learns from records of other changes made to software systems, and compares the textual description of the requested feature with the textual descriptions of various API methods. We have evaluated our approach on more than 500 feature requests of Axis2/Java, CXF, Hadoop Common, HBase, …

Constraint-Based Automatic Symmetry Detection, Shao Jie Zhang, Jun Sun, Chengnian Sun, Yang Liu, Junwei Ma, Jin Song Dong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present an automatic approach to detecting symmetry relations for general concurrent models. Despite the success of symmetry reduction in mitigating state explosion problem, one essential step towards its soundness and effectiveness, i.e., how to discover sufficient symmetries with least human efforts, is often either overlooked or oversimplified. In this work, we show how a concurrent model can be viewed as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP), and present an algorithm capable of detecting symmetries arising from the CSP which induce automorphisms of the model. To the best of our knowledge, our method is the first approach that can automatically detect …

Automatically Partition Software Into Least Privilege Components Using Dynamic Data Dependency Analysis, Yongzheng Wu, Jun Sun, Yang Liu, Jin Song Dong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The principle of least privilege requires that software components should be granted only necessary privileges, so that compromising one component does not lead to compromising others. However, writing privilege separated software is difficult and as a result, a large number of software is monolithic, i.e., it runs as a whole without separation. Manually rewriting monolithic software into privilege separated software requires significant effort and can be error prone. We propose ProgramCutter, a novel approach to automatically partitioning monolithic software using dynamic data dependency analysis. ProgramCutter works by constructing a data dependency graph whose nodes are functions and edges are data …

Mining Branching-Time Scenarios, Dirk Fahland, David Lo, Shahar Maoz

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Specification mining extracts candidate specification from existing systems, to be used for downstream tasks such as testing and verification. Specifically, we are interested in the extraction of behavior models from execution traces. In this paper we introduce mining of branching-time scenarios in the form of existential, conditional Live Sequence Charts, using a statistical data-mining algorithm. We show the power of branching scenarios to reveal alternative scenario-based behaviors, which could not be mined by previous approaches. The work contrasts and complements previous works on mining linear-time scenarios. An implementation and evaluation over execution trace sets recorded from several real-world applications shows …

Got Issues? Who Cares About It? A Large Scale Investigation Of Issue Trackers From Github, Tegawende F. Bissyande, David Lo, Lingxiao Jiang, Laurent Reveillere, Jacques Klein, Yves Le Traon

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Feedback from software users constitutes a vital part in the evolution of software projects. By filing issue reports, users help identify and fix bugs, document software code, and enhance the software via feature requests. Many studies have explored issue reports, proposed approaches to enable the submission of higher-quality reports, and presented techniques to sort, categorize and leverage issues for software engineering needs. Who, however, cares about filing issues? What kind of issues are reported in issue trackers? What kind of correlation exist between issue reporting and the success of software projects? In this study, we address the need for answering …

Challenges And Opportunities In Taxi Fleet Anomaly Detection, Rijurekha Sen, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To enhance fleet operation and management, logistics companies instrument their vehicles with GPS receivers and network connectivity to servers. Mobility traces from such large fleets provide significant information on commuter travel patterns, traffic congestion and road anomalies, and hence several researchers have mined such datasets to gain useful urban insights. These logistics companies, however, incur significant cost in deploying and maintaining their vast network of instrumented vehicles. Thus research problems, that are not only of interest to urban planners, but to the logistics companies themselves are important to attract and engage these companies for collaborative data analysis. In this paper, …

From Rssi To Csi: Indoor Localization Via Channel Response, Zheng Yang, Zimu Zhou, Yunhao Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The spatial features of emitted wireless signals are the basis of location distinction and determination for wireless indoor localization. Available in mainstream wireless signal measurements, the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) has been adopted in vast indoor localization systems. However, it suffers from dramatic performance degradation in complex situations due to multipath fading and temporal dynamics.

Tzuyu: Learning Stateful Typestates, Hao Xiao, Jun Sun, Yang Liu, Shang-Wei Lin, Chengnian Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Behavioral models are useful for various software engineering tasks. They are, however, often missing in practice. Thus, specification mining was proposed to tackle this problem. Existing work either focuses on learning simple behavioral models such as finite-state automata, or relies on techniques (e.g., symbolic execution) to infer finite-state machines equipped with data states, referred to as stateful typestates. The former is often inadequate as finite-state automata lack expressiveness in capturing behaviors of data-rich programs, whereas the latter is often not scalable. In this work, we propose a fully automated approach to learn stateful typestates by extending the classic active learning …

A Scalable Approach For Malware Detection Through Bounded Feature Space Behavior Modeling, Mahinthan Chandramohan, Hee Beng Kuan Tan, Lionel C Briand, Lwin Khin Shar, Bindu Madhavi Padmanabhuni

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In recent years, malware (malicious software) has greatly evolved and has become very sophisticated. The evolution of malware makes it difficult to detect using traditional signature-based malware detectors. Thus, researchers have proposed various behavior-based malware detection techniques to mitigate this problem. However, there are still serious shortcomings, related to scalability and computational complexity, in existing malware behavior modeling techniques. This raises questions about the practical applicability of these techniques. This paper proposes and evaluates a bounded feature space behavior modeling (BOFM) framework for scalable malware detection. BOFM models the interactions between software (which can be malware or benign) and security-critical …

Social-Loc: Improving Indoor Localization With Social Sensing, Jung-Hyun Jun, Yu Gu, Long Cheng, Banghui Lu, Jun Sun, Ting Zhu, Jianwei Niu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Location-based services, such as targeted advertisement, geo-social networking and emergency services, are becoming increasingly popular for mobile applications. While GPS provides accurate outdoor locations, accurate indoor localization schemes still require either additional infrastructure support (e.g., ranging devices) or extensive training before system deployment (e.g., WiFi signal fingerprinting). In order to help existing localization systems to overcome their limitations or to further improve their accuracy, we propose Social-Loc, a middleware that takes the potential locations for individual users, which is estimated by any underlying indoor localization system as input and exploits both social encounter and non-encounter events to cooperatively calibrate the …

Understanding The Genetic Makeup Of Linux Device Drivers, Peter Senna Tschudin, Laurent Reveillere, Lingxiao Jiang, David Lo, Julia Lawall

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Attempts have been made to understand driver development in terms of code clones. In this paper, we propose an alternate view, based on the metaphor of a gene. Guided by this metaphor, we study the structure of Linux 3.10 ethernet platform driver probe functions.