Other Computer Engineering Commons^™

A Study Of Activation Functions For Neural Networks, Meenakshi Manavazhahan

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Artificial neural networks are function-approximating models that can improve themselves with experience. In order to work effectively, they rely on a nonlinearity, or activation function, to transform the values between each layer. One question that remains unanswered is, “Which non-linearity is optimal for learning with a particular dataset?” This thesis seeks to answer this question with the MNIST dataset, a popular dataset of handwritten digits, and vowel dataset, a dataset of vowel sounds. In order to answer this question effectively, it must simultaneously determine near-optimal values for several other meta-parameters, including the network topology, the optimization algorithm, and the number …

Software Updates To A Multiple Autonomous Quadcopter Search System (Maqss), Jared Speck, Toby Chan

Computer Engineering

A series of performance-based and feature implementation software updates to an existing multiple vehicle autonomous target search system is outlined in this paper. The search system, MAQSS, is designed to address a computational power constraint found on modern autonomous aerial platforms by separating real-time and computationally expensive tasks through delegation to multiple multirotor vehicles. A Ground Control Station (GCS) is also described as part of the MAQSS system to perform the delegation and provide a low workload user interface. Ultimately, the changes to MAQSS noted in this paper helped to improve the performance of the autonomous search mission, the accuracy …

Uncovering Exceptional Predictions Using Exploratory Analysis Of Second Stage Machine Learning., Aneseh Alvanpour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, algorithmic systems for making decisions are widely used to facilitate decisions in a variety of fields such as medicine, banking, applying for universities or network security. However, many machine learning algorithms are well-known for their complex mathematical internal workings which turn them into black boxes and makes their decision-making process usually difficult to understand even for experts. In this thesis, we try to develop a methodology to explain why a certain exceptional machine learned decision was made incorrectly by using the interpretability of the decision tree classifier. Our approach can provide insights about potential flaws in feature definition or …

Data Driven Discovery Of Materials Properties., Fadoua Khmaissia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The high pace of nowadays industrial evolution is creating an urgent need to design new cost efficient materials that can satisfy both current and future demands. However, with the increase of structural and functional complexity of materials, the ability to rationally design new materials with a precise set of properties has become increasingly challenging. This basic observation has triggered the idea of applying machine learning techniques in the field, which was further encouraged by the launch of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) by the US government since 2011. In this work, we present a novel approach to apply machine learning …

Feature Selection And Improving Classification Performance For Malware Detection, Carlos A. Cepeda Mora

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

The ubiquitous advance of technology has been conducive to the proliferation of cyber threats, resulting in attacks that have grown exponentially. Consequently, researchers have developed models based on machine learning algorithms for detecting malware. However, these methods require significant amount of extracted features for correct malware classification, making that feature extraction, training, and testing take significant time; even more, it has been unexplored which are the most important features for accomplish the correct classification.

In this Thesis, it is created and analyzed a dataset of malware and clean files (goodware) from the static and dynamic features provided by the online …

A Usability Study For Electronic Flight Bag (Efb) Flight Planning Applications On Tablet Devices For Ab-Initio Pilots, Jeff Schwartzentruber

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The proliferation of mobile technology has prompted the use of tablet devices in the cockpit and during ground operations in general aviation. Due to the increase in affordable and reliable hardware (i.e. iPads etc.), the development of pilot-specific software has led to the creation of a commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS), electronic flight bag (EFB) market. EFBs have many advantages, such as reducing the space requirements for flight documents, enabling faster searching and indexing of files, providing useful tools for flight planning, and providing automatic updates. The increase in availability of mobile technology and flight applications has allowed general aviation enthusiast and ab-initio …

Propagating Degrees Of Truth On An Argumentation Framework: An Abstract Account Of Fuzzy Argumentation, Pierpaolo Dondio

Conference papers

This paper proposes a computational framework to reason with conflicting and gradual evidence. The framework is a synthesis of Dung’s seminal work in argumentation semantics with multi-valued logic. Abstract grounded semantics is used to identify the conditions under which a conclusion can be accepted, while multi-valued logic operators are used to quantify the degree of truth of such conditions. We propose a truth-compositional recursive computation based on the notion of irrelevant arguments, and we discuss examples using the major multi-valued logics: Godel’s, Zadeh’s and Łukasiewicz's logic.

Cyber Security Risks In Public High Schools, Ion Goran

Student Theses

Today, just like other organizations, schools are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This vulnerability has vividly revealed itself in recent years, with the number of attacks on public schools increasing and taking ever-changing forms. Today, the student’s grades, disciplinary notes, learning diagnoses, phone numbers, addresses, and another identifying information is all at risk of being exposed. Moreover, poor network security poses a dire threat to parents of school children whose personal records contain sensitive or dangerous information. The practical implications of these attacks require intervention or remedy to increase cyber security. Cyberattacks may take place when storage facilities or infected devices are …

Small Fixed-Wing Aerial Positioning Using Inter-Vehicle Ranging Combined With Visual Odometry, Benjamin M. Fain

Theses and Dissertations

There has been increasing interest in developing the ability for small unmanned aerial systems (SUAS) to be able to operate in environments where GPS is not available. This research considers the case of a larger aircraft loitering above a smaller GPS-denied SUAS. This larger aircraft is assumed to have greater resources which can overcome the GPS jamming and provide range information to the SUAS flying a mission below. This research demonstrates that using a ranging update combined with an aircraft motion model and visual odometry can greatly improve the accuracy of a SUASs estimated position in a GPS-denied environment.

A Hierarchical Learning Model For Extracting Public Health Data From Social Media, Elham Rastegari

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In decision making processes, particularly when it comes to health-related decisions, each relevant piece of information is important. This is particularly important when it comes to health conditions for which there remains a high degree of non-determinism as far as diagnosis and treatment. Online social media, are places in which people feel free to share their opinions about numerous topics, including public health issues and how individuals have responded to different types of treatments associated with diseases. social media could represent a secondary source that can be used as a supplement to other data sources. This would allow individuals as …

Evergreen: A Senior Project, Ashley Grover

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

College Cloud: Web Development With A Django Stack And Google Cloud, Evan Joseph Hench

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Students at Cal Poly run into two main problems involving clubs: efficiency of communication and the ability to find clubs that interest them. Currently, members of clubs communicate in four main ways: Facebook, GroupMe, text message, and email. As a result, it is fairly easy for things to become disorganized from all the different types of communication. Group members are forced to check multiple communication outlets just to stay updated, wasting their time. In addition, finding clubs at Cal Poly is not easy. The annual club fair helps interested students to some degree, but with hundreds of clubs on campus …

Android Mobile Application For Hospital Executives, Vihitha Nalagatla

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Hospitals are the largest and most complex organizations where health care is provided. Safe and effective patient care services in hospitals depend on the efficient decisions made by hospital executives. The main task of hospital executives is to ensure the hospital can provide high quality patient care and services. “Android Mobile Application For Hospital Executives” is an Android application used for displaying hospital performance metrics on a daily basis. This application allows hospital executives to review and monitor hospital operational data with ease of access and in a portable manner. Thus, reducing the effort of the hospital executives to perform …

Corgi: Compute Oriented Recumbent Generation Infrastructure, Christopher Allen Hunt

Master's Theses

Creating a bicycle with a rideable geometry is more complicated than it may appear, with today’s mainstay designs having evolved through years of iteration. This slow evolution coupled with the bicycle’s intricate mechanical system has lead most builders to base their new geometries off of previous work rather than expand into new design spaces. This crutch can lead to slow bicycle iteration rates, often causing bicycles to all look about the same. To combat this, several bicycle design models have been created over the years, with each attempting to define a bicycle’s handling characteristics given its physical geometry. However, these …

Normalizer: Augmenting Code Clone Detectors Using Source Code Normalization, Kevin Ly

Master's Theses

Code clones are duplicate fragments of code that perform the same task. As software code bases increase in size, the number of code clones also tends to increase. These code clones, possibly created through copy-and-paste methods or unintentional duplication of effort, increase maintenance cost over the lifespan of the software. Code clone detection tools exist to identify clones where a human search would prove unfeasible, however the quality of the clones found may vary. I demonstrate that the performance of such tools can be improved by normalizing the source code before usage. I developed Normalizer, a tool to transform C …

Distinguished Alumni Luncheon With Dr. Wayne A. Brown, Nova Southeastern University

College of Computing and Engineering News Archive

Last week on November 9th, 2017, Dr. Tao and Dr. Abramson had the pleasure of honoring CCE's distinguished alumni Dr. Wayne A. Brown as part of the NSU's Homecoming festivities.

Robert B. Batie Jr., Ph.D., Nova Southeastern University

College of Computing and Engineering News Archive

It’s a safe bet to say that Robert B. Batie Jr., Ph.D., has seen a thing or two. Given his 22 years in the U.S. Army, it’s pretty clear to understand why. That’s because in those 2+ decades he traveled to 33 foreign countries, 41 of the 50 states and visited every continent aside from Antarctica and Australia. And it was his chosen occupation while serving in the U.S. Army – Signal Corp as a Communications Security (COMSEC) Maintenance Chief – that led him to where he is today.

Cce Hosts Shbe Workshop, Nova Southeastern University

College of Computing and Engineering News Archive

Dr. Yong Tao, Dean and Professor, College of Computing and Engineering hosted the Interdisciplinary Data Structure for Collaborative Research in Sustainable Human-Building Ecosystems (SHBE) Workshop on June 5-6 at NSU Art Museum with the support from Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator of NSU Art Museum. The workshop was aimed at bringing together professionals from multiple disciplines, i.e., architects, civil engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer scientists, social scientists, psychologists, and social/ public policy experts.

Cec Congratulates 2017 Dean's List, Nova Southeastern University

College of Computing and Engineering News Archive

College of Computing and Engineering at NSU (CCE) held its Fall 2017 Dean’s List reception on April 25. 18 undergraduate students major in computer science, computer engineering, information technology and engineering are on the 2017 Dean’s List and have achieved a minimum GPA of 3.8 for the semester. They are: Franco Criscola, Christopher Daniels, Maximiliano Hernandez, Liana Huynh, Abraham Kohn, Brogan O’Connor, Sagar Patel, Liam White, Karen Rita Ann D’Lima, Ashli Amoy Jarrett, Anthony DiFede, Corey Lee, Nicole Staley, Simon Wang, Lydia Warshaw, Albert Baldoni, Henry Koenig, Nikolas Kevorkian.

Automatic Power Management For Instructional Computers At Humboldt State University: A Calculation Of Potential Energy Savings And Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions, Nicholas F. Flenghi

Projects

Computers consume an estimated 5,610 GWh per year in California alone. Much of that energy is consumed by computers that are not being used. In this project, detailed user login data are used to estimate the energy consumption of instructional computers at Humboldt State University (HSU) over the course of one semester. The data are also used to estimate the potential energy savings from automating the shutdown process. Potential cost savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions resulting from implementing an automatic-shutdown power management plan are also calculated.

There are approximately 1,000 computers used for teaching and learning purposes at …