Computer Sciences Commons^™

Glenside Fire Company Website Modernization, Jennifer Clark, Irene Patterson, David J. Cox Jr.

Senior Capstone Theses

Glenside Fire Company #1, known as GFC, is one of five volunteer fire companies operating in Cheltenham Township, providing services not limited to fire suppression, search and rescue, emergency medical services assistance, and fire safety education. GFC was looking to create a new website in order to promote volunteer firefighting, recruit new members, and fundraise, as well as provide a place where current members can keep records of events and trainings, using a public and member-only view. The website was created using a Bootstrap framework, in order to maximize usability across many platforms. The website will be easily updated with …

Ramping Down Chinese Commercial Cyber Espionage, Emilio Iasiello

Emilio Iasiello

While detractors believe that commercial cyber espionage hasn’t really stopped, recent Chinese efforts show a government trying to get a handle on its large spying apparatus that could include hired and independent contractors acting autonomously in addition to its other resources. While complete cessation may never occur, significant timely reduction demonstrates Beijing’s willingness to work with the United States as a partner and not a pariah, and provides a foundation from which the two governments can move forward on other cyber security areas where incongruity persists.

The Effectiveness Of A Smart School Bag System For Reminding Students Of Forgotten Items And Reducing The Weight Of Their Bags, Sau Ming Lau, Yammy Wai Yan Wong, Fiona Wing Yin Luk, Stella Sin Tung Kwok

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

The Mathematics And Applications Behind Image Warping And Morphing, Tanvir Prince, Maria Malik, Ildefonso Salva, Ariel Mazor, Sakhr Aldaylam

Publications and Research

This research is conducted in the summer of 2015 and is possible by the support of various agency, in particular, by the grant of Prof. Angulo Nieves and the New York City Research Initiative.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the mathematics and applications of the computer animation techniques of warping and morphing. A warp is a twist or distortion in the form of an object in an image while a morph is the smooth and gradual transformation of an object in one image into the object in another image. Linear algebra makes these computer animation techniques possible; …

Rapture Of The Geeks, Derek Schuurman

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"If we are more than machines, what is it that defines our humanity? Is it our intelligence, creativity, or emotion?"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the distinction between humans and artificial creatures from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/the-rapture-of-the-geeks/

Towards Sustainable Digital Humanities Software, George K. Thiruvathukal, Shilpika Shilpika, Nicholas J. Hayward, Saulo Aguiar, Konstantin Läufer

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Our work in software quality for digital humanities was borne of an effort to address sustainable practices in scientific software development, where the speaker (Thiruvathukal) co-authored a position paper on the case for software engineering in scientific software development as part of an all-encompassing strategy to create more sustainable scientific software (an example of a well-known scientific software package is LINPACK). In this position paper, we addressed how “progress in scientific research is dependent on the quality and accessibility of software at all levels". This progress depends on embracing the best traditional--and emergent--practices in software engineering, especially agile practices that …

The Digital Incunabula: Rock • Paper • Pixels, Patrick Aievoli

Zea E-Books Collection

“The Digital Incunabula is Patrick Aievoli’s personal sonnet through media, interaction and communication design. He carefully crafts each evolutionary step into ripples that are supported by his own storied professional and academic experiences. It’s full of facts, terms and historical information which makes it perfect for anyone looking to flat out learn!” ● James Pannafino, Professor, Millersville University & Interaction Design

“This is a serious work that will find a broad community of readers. The depth and breadth of Aievoli’s experience in the publication industry give his voice and ideas credibility in the extreme. This book will inspire deep reflection.” …

Visualizing Fantasy Fiction: Design Of A Class In Digital Scholarship And Visualization, Including Research, Organization And Digital Visualization, That Does Not Require Programming Or It Support, Charles W. Kann

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This paper outlines a course to integrate digital visualizations into undergraduate research. These visualizations will include mapping and timelines of events, and the ability to hyperlink the events, characters, and story lines in a fantasy fiction story such as Lord of the Rings or A Game of Thrones. The digital scholarship will involve the methodology for collecting, organizing, and representing the data for the visualizations.

The topic for the visualizations in this paper is fantasy fiction; however the methods to develop these visualizations will be applicable to many academic disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences.

The paper outlines …

A Computational Translation Of The Phaistos Disk, Peter Revesz

CSE Conference and Workshop Papers

For over a century the text of the Phaistos Disk remained an enigma without a convincing translation. This paper presents a novel semi-automatic translation method that uses for the first time a recently discovered connection between the Phaistos Disk symbols and other ancient scripts, including the Old Hungarian alphabet. The connection between the Phaistos Disk script and the Old Hungarian alphabet suggested the possibility that the Phaistos Disk language may be related to Proto-Finno-Ugric, Proto-Ugric, or Proto-Hungarian. Using words and suffixes from those languages, it is possible to translate the Phaistos Disk text as an ancient sun hymn, possibly connected …

A Computational Study Of The Evolution Of Cretan And Related Scripts, Peter Revesz

CSE Conference and Workshop Papers

Crete was the birthplace of several ancient writings, including the Cretan Hieroglyphs, the Linear A and the Linear B scripts. Out of these three only Linear B is deciphered. The sound values of the Cretan Hieroglyph and the Linear A symbols are unknown and attempts to reconstruct them based on Linear B have not been fruitful. In this paper, we compare the ancient Cretan scripts with four other Mediterranean and Black Sea scripts, namely Phoenician, South Arabic, Greek and Old Hungarian. We provide a computational study of the evolution of the three Cretan and four other scripts. This study encompasses …

Building A New Academic Library Web Site, Ann S. Johnston Mrs., Pam Greenlee, Matt W. Marcukaitis, Ian M. Lopshire

Faculty Scholarship – Library Science

The Benner Library Web site at Olivet Nazarene University was targeted for an update and those responsible desired a systematic, efficient approach to the process. The project needed clear goals and careful coordination of all stakeholders, including all levels of patrons, library professionals and staff, and university administrators. A team composed of web developers, programmers, and graphic designers accomplished the technological process, but communication between team members and stakeholders was essential. The methodical approach proved to be time-consuming, but effective.

Technology Isn’T Just For Smart People, Kari Sandouka

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Technology isn’t only for those who like studying computers and interacting with the technology that makes them run. Rather, we all use technology, no matter what our given job or profession is. Here are four ways to decipher how best to use technology."

Posting about technology and if it brings us together or pushes us apart from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/technology-isnt-just-for-smart-people

God: One, Daniel Kiteck

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

I see the most mathematically significant verse as Deut. 6:4 where God says He is ONE. (And I don’t believe that it is an accident that the greatest commandment to love God with all we are immediately follows.) What is the concept of “one” in relationship to God? Is God dependent on the concept of “one?” What if “one” is ultimately always a comparison going back to God? God is also commonly viewed as infinite. How is this connected to our understanding of the mathematical continuum? Could this help us see how God is foundational both to discrete and continuous …

Software Engineering I: Teaching Challenges, Paul C. Grabow

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The term software engineering can be traced to the late 1960s in response to large-scale, software development problems. Since then it has evolved as a discipline, both within industry and the academy. There have been distinct educational successes: “Standard practice” has matured (and found its way into more textbooks),the ACM and IEEE Computer Society have published curriculum guidelines, computer science programs commonly offer at least one software engineering course, and software engineering degrees (undergraduate or graduate) are more common. However, software engineering still presents a challenge. The term itself has become contorted by companies (and society in general); software has …

Designing For Mistrust, Eric Gossett

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The 2014 ACM North Central Region programming contest contained a problem about a group of v bandits who want to use multiple locks to seal their treasure and distribute keys in such a way that no group of less than m bandits can open all the locks. The problem asks for an algorithm that will determine the number of locks needed for any set of parameters (v, m). I will present an analytic solution that produces a minimum number of locks, a recurrence relation solution, and a constructive algorithm that can print out a table showing the …

Parables To A Mathematician, Melvin Royer

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Jesus frequently used parables in His ministry, usually short narratives illustrating the outcomes of people’s choices. In John 3:12 and Matthew 13:10-15, He explained that one reason was to be sure that people who genuinely wanted to understand His message would be able to do so. Since most of His audience was familiar with an agrarian economy, Jesus spoke extensively of wheat, fish, trees, wine, debt, tenants, lamps, etc. Many people have speculated on parables Jesus might have used had He lived in a different society. This non-scholarly (but hopefully thought-provoking) talk will propose parables targeted toward groups of mathematicians …

Physical Activity In A Theory Of Computing Class, Nancy Lynn Tinkham

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Physical activity breaks, sometimes called brain breaks, are beginning to gain attention among K-12 teachers as a way to keep their students alert and engaged in the classroom. In the Fall 2014 semester, faced with the task of teaching an introductory course in Theory of Computing in a once-a-week, 2 1/2-hour format, I decided to try incorporating physical activity into my own classroom. Time is precious in the college classroom, so any physical activities have to be directly related to the course material. I will describe some physically active exercises that I used in the classroom to teach students about …

Preparing Students To Read A Calculus Textbook, Douglas Phillippy

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Consider the exercise of reading the textbook before class. While most educators agree that this practice leads to better learning, too often students enrolled in a calculus class do not find pre-class reading a valuable use of their time, and their commitment to doing so fades. Why is this? As instructors, we hope that these students will be well-versed in the fundamental concepts of the subject by the time they prepare for their final exam, but as they progress through the course and encounter new concepts, they may not be ready for the technical language of the standard calculus textbook. …

The Best Religious Calendar, Andrew Simoson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Many religions have deep roots in the rhythms of the moon. And ever since at least the fifth century BC man has known that the moon repeats itself every n = 19 years. Is this integer valuen the best of all choices?Easter follows such a calendar. We briefly show that 19 is second best. And then we run time backwards, and give a rationale as to why a certain species of cicada has a life cycle of 17 years. The answer involves the moon, the Farey series, and Kepler’s laws of motion.

Home Primes And Foreign Primes, Nicholas Zoller

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Home primes and foreign primes are produced by a simple recipe that blends prime factorizations with recursion. The home prime of a positive integer n is formed by concatenating the prime factors of n in non-decreasing order. If the resulting integer is prime, then we have found the home prime of n. If not, then we repeat the process as many times as needed to obtain a prime. For instance, 35 = 5·7. After concatenation, we have 57 = 3·19, which is followed by 319 = 11·29, which is followed by 1129, which is prime. Thus, the home prime …

A Triune Philosophy Of Mathematics, Dusty Wilson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

What is mathematics and is it discovered or invented? The Humanist, Platonist, and Foundationalist each provide answers. But are the options within the philosophy of mathematics so limited? Rather than viewing and describing mathematics in a mutually exclusive manner, each of these approaches includes components of truth from a greater triune philosophy of mathematics. This talk will introduce this inclusive triune paradigm through which to explore fundamental questions about mathematics.

The Remarkable Mrs. Somerville, Richard Stout

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

As a woman growing up in the late eighteenth century, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was denied access to most formal education and getting a university education was completely out of the question. Yet her interests in nature, science, and mathematics, coupled with an intense curiosity and tenacious desire to learn led her to eventually be known and respected by scientists, mathematicians, and intellectuals in both Britain and France. She is one of the important woman in the history of mathematics, even though she did not publish original work. However, she was a talented writer, producing several significant works, including Mechanism of …

Pressure And Impulse In Student Learning: What I Learned From Teaching Physics, Kim Jongerius

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In the fall of 2014, a one-semester gap between the departure of one physics professor and the arrival of the next afforded me the opportunity(?) to teach a first-semester, calculus-based physics class. The thirty-year gap between the last (of three) physics courses I had taken myself and this course I was to teach, combined with a two-week notice prior to the start of the semester, placed me in the interesting position of learning alongside my students. Wading through an unfamiliar text, trying to understand publisher-produced lecture slides, learning from and getting frustrated with online homework, entering review sessions fearful of …

On Random Numbers And God’S Nature, James Bradley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

I start with mathematical Platonism, an ancient stream of thought that views numbers as transcending physical reality. I join this to recent insights into mathematical randomness from theoretical computer science. Joining these streams – one ancient, one recent – yields the surprising conclusion that randomness, defined in a particular way, is part of the nature of God. I then explore some of the implications of this conclusion for our understanding of the doctrine of God’s infinitude.

Experiencing A Paradigm Shift: Teaching Statistics Through Simulation-Based Inference, Dave Klanderman, Mandi Maxwell, Nathan Tintle

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

For decades, statistics has been taught as an application of formulas, making use of normal and other distributions, and relying heavily on algebraic skills of students, in short, emphasizing mathematical thinking. More recently, several textbook author teams have published statistics books that place an increased emphasis on simulation and randomization methods, and a corresponding decreased emphasis on the algebraic manipulation in formulas (e.g., Lock et al., 2012; Tintle et al., 2015) as a way to encourage better statistical thinking.This session describes simulation-based inference curricula more fully, reports on the necessary steps towards implementation of such an approach, and provides both …

Math, God And Politics—A Fight Over Geometry In 19th Century Italy, Donna Pierce

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In 1839 a polemic, reminiscent of the Renaissance public challenges over mathematical problems, was issued by the leader of the synthetic school of geometry, Vincent Flauti, to the analytical school, headed by Fortunato Padula. Three geometric problems were proposed, all carefully chosen to guarantee a victory for the synthetic school. The judges were from the Royal Academy of Sciences, men also favorable to the synthetic method. Why then did the analytics take up this challenge, and who were the real victors? This was not just a fight over the ‘correct’ way to do geometry, it was a fight over politics, …

Ten Mathematicians Who Recognized God’S Hand In Their Work, Dale L. Mcintyre

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) once observed that

“Whoever is moved by faith to assent to [the Christian religion], is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.” [Hume]

Evidently Humes cynical pronouncement did not apply to Euler, Cauchy, Cantor, and other profound thinkers who believed God had commissioned and equipped them to glorify Him in their pursuit of truth through mathematics And based on their extraordinary achievements the principles of their understanding do not appear …

Mathematics Without Apologies: A Portrait Of A Problematic Vocation By Michael Harris. A Review, Jeremy Case

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The subtitle of Mathematics without Apologies by Michael Harris is a “Portrait of a Problematic Vocation,”and that problematic vocation involves pure mathematics. What do pure mathematicians do, and why should they do it? Harris critiques the usual answers of truth, beauty, and potential applications as he gives a contemporary revision of G.H. Hardys’ A Mathematicians Apology. Described as a post-post-modern book, Mathematics without Apologies provides a cultural, sociological, philosophical and psychological landscape of the profession and the life of a mathematician. We will explore whether a romantic view of the profession satisfactorily answers the questions and how it might …

The Mathematics Of Evolution, Steven R. Lay

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Like many universities, Lee University has a non-major’s course for liberal arts students. The course typically includes a potpourri of topics: logical thinking, scientific notation, linear functions, estimation, and probability. At Lee, we have found a way to conclude the course that applies these varied topics to an issue designed to engage student interest and promote critical thinking. We have developed a series of three lessons on “The Mathematics of Evolution.” The first lesson is on radiometric dating. The second lesson is on the origin and progression of life. And the third lesson deals with the nature of the DNA …

The Math Olympian, By Richard Hoshino. A Review, Moriah Magcalas, Kyle Spyksma

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

This presentation will be a review of the novel The Math Olympian written by ACMS member Richard Hoshino.