Digital Commons Network^™

Constructing High Order Perceptrons With Genetic Algorithms, Timothy L. Andersen, Tony R. Martinez

Faculty Publications

Constructive induction, which is defined to be the process of constructing new and useful features from existing ones, has been extensively studied in the literature. Since the number of possible high order features for any given learning problem is exponential in the number of input attributes (where the order of a feature is defined to be the number of attributes of which it is composed), the main problem faced by constructive induction is in selecting which features to use out of this exponentially large set of potential features. For any feature set chosen the desirable characteristics are minimality and generalization …

Metamorphic Epiphany -- 3d Animation, Michael G. Corr

Senior Scholar Papers

As far back as I can remember, I have always been interested in studio art. Whether it be painting, drawing, printmaking, or photography, it has consistently been a part of my life. Upon enrolling in Colby, I became interested in computers and decided to major my undergraduate college career in Computer Science. Not forgetting past interests, I continued my studio art education, taking several classes within the Art department. In due time, I began combining interests and began studying Computer Graphics and Design. With limited resources in this field at Colby, the majority of my computer graphic education and experience …

Design And Implementation Of Triveni: A Process-Algebraic Api For Threads + Events, Christopher P. Colby, Lalita Jategaonkar Jagaeesan, Radhakrishnan Jagadeesan, Konstantin Laufer, Carlos Puchol

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We describe Triveni, a framework and API for integrating threads and events. The design of Triveni is based on an algebra, including preemption combinators, of processes. Triveni is compatible with existing threads standards, such as Pthreads and Java threads, and with the event models structured on the Observer pattern. We describe the software architecture and algorithms underlying a concrete implementation of Triveni in Java. This environment includes specification based testing of safety properties. The results described in the paper have been used to integrate process-algebraic methods into (concurrent) object orientated programming.

Adaptation Space: Surviving Non-Maskable Failures, Crispin Cowan, Lois Delcambre, Anne-Francoise Le Meur, Ling Liu, David Maier, Dylan Mcnamee, Michael Miller, Calton Pu, Perry Wagle, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Some failures cannot be masked by redundancies, because an unanticipated situation occurred, because fault-tolerance measures were not adequate, or because there was a security breach (which is not amenable to replication). Applications that wish to continue to offer some service despite nonmaskable failure must adapt to the loss of resources. When numerous combinations of non-maskable failure modes are considered, the set of possible adaptations becomes complex. This paper presents adaptation spaces, a formalism for navigating among combinations of adaptations. An adaptation space describes a collection of possible adaptations of a software component or system, and provides a uniform way of …

Problems In Harmonic Function Theory, Ronald A. Walker

Honors Theses

Harmonic Function Theory is a field of differential mathematics that has both many theoretical constructs and physical connections, as well as its store of classical problems.

One such problem is the Dirichlet Problem. While the proof of the existence of a solution is well-founded on basic theory, and general methods for polynomial solutions have been well studied, much ground is still yet to be overturned. In this paper we focus on the examination, properties and computation methods and limitations, of solutions for rational boundary functions.

Another area that we shall study is the properties and generalizations of the zero sets …

Intelligent Assistance For Human Supervisory Control Of Multiple Robots, Robin R. Murphy, Erika Rogers

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper reviews on-going collaborative efforts between the Colorado School of Mines and Clark-Atlanta University in cooperative assistance for coordination and control of multiple vehicles. It reports on progress in developing an intelligent assistance agent (IAA) for aiding a human operator in diagnosing problems and generating recovery strategies in remote ground robots. The current work has focused on the identification and incorporation of categories of additional information from multiple robots and other agents. These categories are: mission-related sources, such as peer robots working nearby; facility-related sources, such as security cameras; and opportunistically available agents, such as overhead satellites or humans …

Study Of Human Factors Variables In Battle Outcome Prediction Models, David Andrew Glovier

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Over time there have been many improvements in models that are used to predict the outcome of battles. Currently there is much supposition and speculation surrounding the use of human performance related factors as additional inputs to battle simulation models to improve their accuracy. However there is no conclusive scientific evidence which shows that these factors do make a significant difference. This study investigates the use of factors that may impact on the human performance directly or indirectly in battle prediction models. These factors consist of traditional human factors and external factors that may influence the human performance. The research …

Spectral/Temporal Segment Features For Automatic Speech Recognition, Xi Hong Wang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis an approach for efficiently computing a compact spectral/temporal feature set for representing a segment of speech, with effective resolution depending on both frequency and time position within the segment, is developed, analyzed, and tested. The goal of this method is to mimic the resolution properties of the human auditory system, but using a computationally efficient FFT-based front end rather than a more complex auditory model. In particular this method applies both frequency and time "warping" to FFT spectra to obtain good frequency resolution at low frequencies and good time resolution at high frequencies. Time resolution is also …

Resonant Structure And Flavour Tagging In The Bπ± System Using Fully Reconstructed B Decays, Barate, R.; Et Al., M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Building Lms Adaptive Filters With Register-Based Fpgas, Li Ding

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, an 8-bit least mean squares (LMS) adaptive digital filter with 16 coefficients is implemented on a single FPGA, using the MaxPlus+2 design environment. The system is constructed as a hierarchical structure, using four different levels of design hierarchy. Subdesigns at each level of the hierarchy project are complied, fitted and simulated to test and verify their functional correctness. The complete system is tested and verified by checking the MaxPlus+2 simulator results against fixed-point integer arithmetic simulations written in Matlab. The resulting adaptive filter is subsequently mapped to the Alters FLEX I OK20TC144-3 device, resulting in a 14,500 …

Trends. Injustice Through Justice Within The Ins And The Fbi: Fertile Territory For Information, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the quest for justice, in which policymakers, legislators, and those who seek to influence them sometimes seek to effect mandatory sequences of adjudicative procedure upon allegations of misbehavior.

A Framework For World Wide Web Client-Authentication Protocols, Cem Paya

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Existing client-authentication protocols deployed on the World Wide Web today are based on conventional distributed systems and fail to address the problems specific to the application domain. Some of the protocols restrict the mobility of the client by equating user identity to a machine or network address, others depend on sound password management strategies, and yet others compromise the privacy of the user by transmitting personal information for authentication. We introduce a new framework for client-authentication by separating two goals that current protocols achieve simultaneously: 1. Maintain persistent sense of identity across different sessions. 2. Prove facts about the user …

Message Patterns In The Bond Distributed Object System, Ladislau Bölöni, Kyung-Koo Jun, Thomas Danials, Dan C. Marinescu

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Graphical User Interface Design For The X-Ray Crystallography Data Processing Program - Scaling, K. C. Van Zandt, Dan C. Marinescu, Robert Bolotovsky, Michael Rossman

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of The W Mass By Direct Reconstruction In E+E- Collisions At 172 Gev, Barate, R.; Et Al., M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of Triple Gauge-Boson Couplings At 172 Gev, Barate, R.; Et Al, M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The triple gauge-boson couplings, αWΦ, αW and αBΦ, have been measured using 34 semileptonically and 54 hadronically decaying W+W− candidate events. The events were selected in the data recorded during 1996 with the ALEPH detector at 172 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.65 pb−1. The triple gauge-boson couplings have been measured using optimal observables constructed from kinematic information of W+W− events. The results are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation.

Abstract State Machines 1988-1998: Commented Asm Bibliography, James Huggins, Egon Borger

Computer Science Publications

Hartmut Ehrig asked the first author to write for this column what are the distinguishing features of the ASM approach to specification and verification of complex computing systems. In [21] an attempt had already been made to answer that question by discussing, in general comparative terms, some specific features which are characteristic for the ASM approach with respect to other well known approaches in the literature. That explanation seems to have been understood, as shown by the many positive reactions, but even more the numerous critical reactions of colleagues in the field who felt—rightly—that ASMs put justified doubt on cherished …

A Visual Object-Relationship Query Language For User-Database Interaction, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

User–database interaction has a direct and immediate effect on the effectiveness and efficiency of database end users. Traditional query languages like SQL and QBE require end users to understand the underlying data structure in the database. This is a burden on end users, especially novice end users who have little technical knowledge or understanding of database. To alleviate the need for end users to know the logical database organization, this paper proposes the use of an object–relationship (OR) model and a formal high-level visual query language as the interface. Using this interface, end users communicate only domain knowledge with the …

Flag : The Fault-Line Analytic Graph And Fingerprint Classification, Ching-Yu Huang

Dissertations

Fingerprints can be classified into millions of groups by quantitative measurements of their new representations - Fault-Line Analytic Graphs (FLAG), which describe the relationship between ridge flows and singular points. This new model is highly mathematical, therefore, human interpretation can be reduced to a minimum and the time of identification can be significantly reduced.

There are some well known features on fingerprints such as singular points, cores and deltas, which are global features which characterize the fingerprint pattern class, and minutiae which are the local features which characterize an individual fingerprint image. Singular points are more important than minutiae when …

A Simple Neural Agent Communicating Through Sets, James P. Stanski

Theses

Networked agents of the simplest kind offer the power of cooperative problem solving through parallel operation along with tight packaging potential. Such agents are self-contained analog machines capable of only a few primitive intelligent operations. In this thesis, a design will be developed for a simple agent capable of sending, receiving, and processing information in a environment where agents are coupled together. This environment imposes unorchestrated simultaneous input while expecting a useful timely response. Successful collaboration in these conditions is accomplished through sets encoded within pulse ensembles. The simplicity of the set definition is an inviting candidate for message communication …

Definitional Interpreters For Higher-Order Programming Languages, John C. Reynolds

College of Engineering and Computer Science - Former Departments, Centers, Institutes and Projects

Abstract. Higher-order programming languages (i.e., languages in which procedures or labels can occur as values) are usually defined by interpreters that are themselves written in a programming language based on the lambda calculus (i.e., an applicative language such as pure LISP). Examples include McCarthy’s definition of LISP, Landin’s SECD machine, the Vienna definition of PL/I, Reynolds ’ definitions of GEDANKEN, and recent unpublished work by L. Morris and C. Wadsworth. Such definitions can be classified according to whether the interpreter contains higher-order functions, and whether the order of application (i.e., call by value versus call by name) in the defined …

Partial Shape Matching Using Genetic Algorithms, Ender Ozcan, Chilukuri K. Mohan

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

Shape recognition is a challenging task when images contain overlapping, noisy, occluded, partial shapes. This paper addresses the task of matching input shapes with model shapes described in terms of features such as line segments and angles. The quality of matching is gauged using a measure derived from attributed shape grammars. We apply genetic algorithms to the partial shape-matching task. Preliminary results, using model shapes with 6 to 70 features each, are extremely encouraging.

Techniques For Empirical Testing Of Parallel Random Number Generators, Paul D. Coddington, Sung-Hoon Ko

Northeast Parallel Architecture Center

Parallel computers are now commonly used for computational science and engineering, and many applications in these areas use random number generators. For some applications, such as large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, it is crucial that the random number generator have good randomness properties. Many programs are available for testing the quality of sequential random number generators, but very little work has been done on testing parallel random number generators. We present some techniques for empirical testing of random number generators on parallel computers, using tests based on computational science applications as examples. In particular, we focus on tests based on parallel …

Parallel Probabilistic Computations On A Cluster Of Workstations, Atanas Radenski, Andrew Vann, Boyana Norris

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Probabilistic algorithms are computationally intensive approximate methods for solving intractable problems. Probabilistic algorithms are excellent candidates for cluster computations because they require little communication and synchronization. It is possible to specify a common parallel control structure as a generic algorithm for probabilistic cluster computations. Such a generic parallel algorithm can be glued together with domain-specific sequential algorithms in order to derive approximate parallel solutions for different intractable problems.

In this paper we propose a generic algorithm for probabilistic computations on a cluster of workstations. We use this generic algorithm to derive specific parallel algorithms for two discrete optimization problems: the …

Design, Implementation, And Evaluation Of Parallell Pipelined Stap On Parallel Computers, Alok Choudhary, Wei-Keng Liao, Donald Weiner, Pramod Varshney, Richard Linderman, Mark Linderman

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

Performance results are presented for the design and implementation of parallel pipelined space-time adaptive processing (STAP) algorithms on parallel computers. In particular, the issues involved in parallelization, our approach to parallelization, and performance results on an Intel Paragon are described. The process of developing software for such an application on parallel computers when latency and throughput are both considered together is discussed and tradeoffs considered with respect to inter and intratask communication and data redistribution are presented. The results show that not only scalable performance was achieved for individual component tasks of STAP but linear speedups were obtained for the …

Automatic Granularity Control For Load Balancing Of Concurrent Particle Simulations, Marc Rieffel, Stephen Taylor, Jerrell Watts

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

This paper demonstrates the use of automatic granularity control as part of dynamic load balancing for irregular, particle-based simulations. Performance optimization techniques are considered in the context of a concurrent Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method used to study the rarefied gas flow inside three-dimensional plasma reactors. Several computational techniques are used to reduce the overall time to deliver realistic threedimensional results. The effectiveness of dynamic load balancing and granularity control are presented for large-scale simulations on distributed-memory multicomputers.

Verification And Validation Of Simulation Models, Robert G. Sargent

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

This paper discusses verification and validation of simulation models. The different approaches to deciding model validity are presented; how model verification and validation relate to the model development process are discussed; various validation techniques are defined; conceptual model validity, model verification, operational validity, and data validity are described; ways to document results are given; and a recommended procedure is presented.

Adaptive Linkage Crossover, Ayed A. Salman, Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri K. Mohan

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

Problem-specific knowledge is often implemented in search algorithms using heuristics to determine which search paths are to be explored at any given instant. As in other search methods, utilizing this knowledge will more quickly lead a genetic algorithm (GA) towards better results. In many problems, crucial knowledge is not found in individual components, but in the interrelations between those components. For such problems, we develop an interrelation (linkage) based crossover operator that has the advantage of liberating GAs from the constraints imposed by the fixed representations generally chosen for problems. The strength of linkages between components of a chromosomal structure …

Robots In The Undergraduate Curriculum, D. Kumar, Lisa A. Meeden

Computer Science Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Average-Case Lower Bounds For Noisy Boolean Decision Trees, William Evans, Nicholas Pippenger

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We present a new method for deriving lower bounds to the expected number of queries made by noisy decision trees computing Boolean functions. The new method has the feature that expectations are taken with respect to a uniformly distributed random input, as well as with respect to the random noise, thus yielding stronger lower bounds. It also applies to many more functions than do previous results. The method yields a simple proof of the result (previously established by Reischuk and Schmeltz) that almost all Boolean functions of n arguments require $\Me(n \log n)$ queries, and strengthens this bound from the …