Digital Commons Network^™

Editorial: Ai-Enhanced Computing And Digital Transformation, Hairulnizam Mahdin

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and advanced computing techniques are now central to the digital transformation journey, reshaping industries, academia, and society. This special issue of the Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering on AI-Enhanced Computing and Digital Transformation brings together contributions that reflect both technical innovation and societal applications. The featured articles span optimization methods, software quality improvements, data augmentation techniques, intelligent mobile applications, blockchain-based governance systems, and disaster management platforms. Together, they illustrate how computational advances not only strengthen efficiency and accuracy but also enable resilience in the face of global challenges. From a technical standpoint, metaheuristic …

Real-Time Read And Analysis Of Air Pollution Produced From Private Electrical Generators In Mosul City Using Lorawan, Mahmood Alfathe, Awfa Aladwani, Ali Abduljabbar

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

This study presents a novel, site-specific deployment of a Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN)-driven air pollution monitoring network specifically for the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is beset by widespread power outages and extensive utilization of decentralized diesel generators. While these generators mitigate electricity shortages, they are enormous contributors to urban air pollution, emitting high levels of CO2 and particulates. As opposed to previous studies, which concentrate on affluent urban areas, this research addresses a very deprived locale using an extensible low-power, low-cost LoRaWAN network and high-precision CO2 sensors (Sensirion SCD30 and MH-Z19) and The Things Network (TTN) for …

A Scoping Review Of Artificial Intelligence Research Trends In Mobile Applications, Asmau Usman, Ibrahim Anka Salihu, Abdulrahman Aminu Ghali, Bilkisu Larai Muhammad Bello, Aminu Aminu Mu'azu, Amina Sambo Magaji

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Over the past decade, mobile devices have become an integral part of our daily routines, offering a broad spectrum of applications that enhance everyday tasks. As more people adopt smartphones, developers are increasingly focusing on improving app quality, particularly by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) features. This growing trend has led to a surge of interest from both researchers and industry experts, who are aiming to explore AI integration in sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture, and e-commerce. This study conducts a thorough review of AI applications on mobile platforms by analysing 98 scholarly articles published between 2014 and 2024 from …

Impact Of Data Quality Types On Computational Time In Data Source Selection Using Ant Colony Optimization, Nor Amalina Mohd Sabri, Abd Samad Hasan Basari, Nurul Akmar Emran

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Data quality varies dramatically from source to source, even within the same domain. Given these challenges, data source selection has emerged as a crucial step in information integration. It demands efficient and scalable approaches that can handle massive data volumes while ensuring the quality of results. Adapting the ACO algorithm to solve the data sources selection problems may lead to inconsistent computational time if the data sources provided are vary in quality. These challenges bring the issues of time consuming in selecting the required data sources. However, how much the computational time needed in solving the data sources selection is …

Lightweight String Similarity Approaches For Duplicate Detection In Academic Titles, Fahrudin Mukti Wibowo, Muhammad Zidny Nafan, Muhamad Azrino Gustalika, Harinda Fernando, Muhammad Hussain, Nur Afiqah Sahadun

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

This study addresses the critical challenge of detecting duplicate final year project (FYP) titles in academic institutions, where minor variations like reordering, synonyms, and paraphrasing often obscure plagiarism. We systematically evaluate four string similarity algorithms - Jaro-Winkler, Levenshtein Edit Distance, TF-IDF with Cosine Similarity, and Jaccard Similarity - using a synthetic dataset of 250 title pairs representing common duplication patterns. Our experiments reveal that character-based methods (Jaro-Winkler and Edit Distance) achieve perfect detection (F1-score=1.0) for literal matches, including typographical variations and phrase reordering. At the same time, TF-IDF demonstrates strong semantic capability (F1-score=0.95), albeit with some false positives. Jaccard Similarity …

Improving Code Effectiveness Through Refactoring: A Case Study, Abdullah Almogahed, Manal Othman, Mazni Omar, Samera Obaid Barraood, Abdul Rehman Gilal

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Software refactoring is a crucial practice in modern software development methodologies, such as Agile and DevOps, as it enables teams to iteratively improve and evolve their codebases while minimizing the risk of introducing bugs or regressions. It fosters a culture of continuous improvement and code hygiene, ultimately leading to more robust, maintainable, and scalable software systems. However, research examining the impact of refactoring on code effectiveness is scarce. This study, therefore, seeks to investigate the impact of refactoring methods on the code’s effectiveness. The study was carried out in four distinct phases: refactoring methods selection, case study selection, software metric …

Societies’ Funds Management System Using Blockchain, Jun Xiang Lau, Nur Ziadah Harun, Suziyanti Marjudi, Abd Samad Hasan Basari, Nur Amlya Abd Majid, Roziyani Setik

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Lack of transparency of the funds and lack of immutability of the funds’ records are large problems today, especially in the societies’ funds. Leveraging the Ethereum Blockchain, the system ensures complete transparency and security in recording and accessing financial transactions for any society. Advanced encryption and blockchain consensus protocols guarantee data privacy and resilience against fraud or tampering. The information entered in the system helps the treasurer to effectively manage funds and accurately and transparently pass appropriate financial transactions. This project meets the challenges of transparency and immutability in society’s fund records, providing an assurance system and promoting growth for …

Implementation Of Conjugate Gradient Method For Estimating Inflation Rate In Malaysia, Shin Yi Wong, Nur Syarafina Mohamed, Norhaslinda Zullpakkal

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Optimization methods are valuable for making decisions and identifying the most suitable alternative based on a given objective function. One of the mathematical optimization methods is Conjugate Gradient (CG) method which is commonly used to solve large-scale unconstrained optimization systems with less storage space. Recently, various optimization methods have been studied and used in economics estimating. However, just a few studies have predicted inflation rate using modified CG method. Random initial points are tested on New Three-Terms (NTT) which are modified Rivaie-Mustafa-Ismail-Leong (RMIL+) and Umar Mustapha Waziri (UMW) CG method with ten optimization test functions suggested by Andrei using MATLAB. …

Conjugate Gradient Methods In Fitting Precipitation Of Rainfall Data In Malaysia, Hua Ru Tang, Nur Syarafina Mohamed, Nurul Hajar Mohd Yusoff, Norhaslinda Zullpakkal

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Conjugate gradient method (CGM) is one of the most efficient numerical methods for solving unconstrained optimization problems. It is also known as an iterative method with simple formulation. The classical CGM has always been an interest to the current researchers in improving the formulation which are categorized into three-term (TTCGM), spectral (SCGM), hybrid and scaled CGM. Although there are many variations of the CGM available, choosing the most efficient and effective one for a particular problem can be a time-consuming process. In this study, spectral Hestenes-Stiefel (sHS) CGM with the greatest NOI and central processing time per unit (CPU time) …

Enhancing Imbalanced Data Augmentation: A Comparative Study Of Ganified-Smote And Latent Factor Integration, Rusma Anieza Ruslan, Nureize Arbaiy, Pei-Chun Lin

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

One such serious problem in machine learning (ML) is imbalanced datasets. Minority class samples are usually sparse but hold significant meaning. The model can become biased toward the majority class due to unbalanced class distribution. This results in fraudulently high accuracy without being able to detect minority cases. This bias is also most perilous in critical applications, where ignoring minority cases can be highly destructive. To overcome this problem, the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) is one of the most widely used. SMOTE creates balanced class distribution by interpolating between existing minority samples. It creates samples that are too close …

Skin Cancer Image Classification Using Deep Learning With Data Segmentation Technique, Akhilesh Kumar Shrivas, Hema Vastrakar

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

The human skin is an impressive organ and structural element often impacted by a diverse range of recognized and unknown diseases. Diagnosing disorders that affect the outermost layer of the body is the most uncertain and difficult component in the scientific field. Dermatological diseases are one of the most significant health concerns in the 21st century since their identification is challenging and costly, plagued with challenges and the subjectivity that comes with human interpretation. The main objective of this piece of research work is to develop a robust model for the classification of skin cancer diseases using deep convolution neural …

Arizona’S Experiential Learning Opportunities: Regional Security Operations Centers And Cybersecurity Clinics, Joshua Kipers, Paul Wagner, Robert J. Honomichl

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The increasing frequency, sophistication, and economic impact of cybersecurity incidents have intensified the global demand for a skilled cybersecurity workforce. Traditional academic programs often fail to provide the applied experience necessary to prepare graduates for the rapidly evolving threat landscape. This paper examines Arizona’s innovative approaches to experiential cybersecurity education through the establishment of Regional Security Operations Centers (RSOCs) and the Arizona Cybersecurity Clinic. These initiatives integrate Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework to align academic preparation with real-world practice. The RSOCs, supported by the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, provide paid student internships focused on …

Bifusenet: A Multimodal Network For Estimating Blood Alcohol Concentration Via Bidirectional Hierarchical Fusion, Abdullah Tariq, Arooba Maqsood, Martin Masek, Syed Zulqarnain Gilani

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Drunk driving remains a significant public safety challenge, demanding innovative alternatives to conventional methods such as field sobriety tests and breathalysers. Estimating a driver's level of intoxication through facial cues is particularly challenging due to the subtle and person-specific nature of alcohol-induced behaviours. In this paper, we present BiFuseNet, a 3D spatio-temporal multi-modal network designed to classify alcohol impairment levels into three categories: sober, moderate, and severe. Unlike prior approaches that rely on either uni-modal RGB video or hand-crafted facial features, our method exploits complementary physiological cues from RGB and infrared (IR) facial videos. We introduce a Bi-directional Hierarchical Fusion …

Improved Streamflow Forecasting Through Swe-Augmented Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks, Akhila Akkala, Soukaina Filali Boubrahimi, Shah Muhammad Hamdi, Pouya Hosseinzadeh, Ayman Nassar

Computer Science Student Research

Streamflow forecasting in snowmelt-dominated basins is essential for water resource planning, flood mitigation, and ecological sustainability. This study presents a comparative evaluation of statistical, machine learning (Random Forest), and deep learning models (Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network (STGNN)) using 30 years of data from 20 monitoring stations across the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). We assess the impact of integrating meteorological variables—particularly, the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)—and spatial dependencies on predictive performance. Among all models, the Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network (STGNN) achieved the highest accuracy, with a Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.84 …

Ophthoacr (Ophthalmology Automated Chart Review): An Ai-Powered Tool For Complete Automation Of Ophthalmology Chart Reviews And Cohort Data Analysis, Karen M. Chen, Kevin W. Chen, Vlad Diaconita, Stanley Chang, Leejee H. Suh

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Purpose: Retrospective chart reviews in ophthalmology are essential for gaining clinical insights, but they remain labor-intensive and prone to error. Despite digitization through electronic health records, extracting and interpreting lengthy, unstructured patient histories remains challenging, particularly in ophthalmology, which relies heavily on both imaging and text-based reports. We introduce OphthoACR, a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool for automated chart review and cohort analyses in ophthalmology. Methods: OphthoACR was applied to extract 16 variables of increasing task difficulty from the complete chart histories of 91 patients who underwent secondary intraocular lens surgery at the Columbia University …

A Case Study On The Effectiveness Of Llms In Verification With Proof Assistants, Barış Bayazıt, Yao Li, Xujie Si

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Large language models (LLMs) can potentially help with verification using proof assistants by automating proofs. However, it is unclear how effective LLMs are in this task. In this paper, we perform a case study based on two mature Rocq projects: the hs-to-coq tool and Verdi. We evaluate the effectiveness of LLMs in generating proofs by both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Our study finds that: (1) external dependencies and context in the same source file can significantly help proof generation; (2) LLMs perform great on small proofs but can also generate large proofs; (3) LLMs perform differently on different verification projects; …

The Challenge Of Achieving Attributability In Multilingual Table-To-Text Generation With Question-Answer Blueprints, Aden Haussmann

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Generating faithful text descriptions from data tables is a significant challenge in Natural Language Processing (NLP), especially for the world’s many low-resource languages. This paper investigates whether Question-Answer (QA) blueprints—an intermediate planning step where a model first asks and answers questions about the data—can improve the factual accuracy of multilingual table-to-text generation. This novel approach is tested on the TaTA dataset, which includes several African languages, by finetuning models with and without these blueprints.

The results show a key distinction: while the QA blueprint method improves performance for English-only models, these gains disappear in the multilingual setting. This paper’s analysis …

Analyzing Adversarial Strategies And Countermeasures For Cyberbullying Detection, Maddie Juarez, Eldor Abdukhamidov, Manuel Sandoval, Deborah Hall, Mujtaba Nazari, George Thiruvathukal, Tamer Abuhmed, Yasin Silva, Mohammed Abuhamad

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Cyberbullying on social networking sites has become more prevalent. Most cyberbullying detection models often lack consideration of adversarial threads, leaving them vulnerable. This study evaluates the resilience of text-based cyberbullying detection models, constrained by limited available datasets, against word-level substitutions and character-level perturbations. We consider well-established ML techniques with real-world data and more recent LLM-based approaches to uncover model weaknesses. The results reveal that adversarial attacks can significantly reduce detection accuracy, e.g., most models are vulnerable to word- and character-level attacks with success rates up to 88% and 44%, respectively. We also find that LLM-based models such as CyberBERT are …

Cnn-Based Hybrid Model For Detecting Blight Diseases In Potato Crops With Advanced Image Processing Techniques, Farian S. Ishengoma

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Potato production plays a vital role in global agriculture as a major food source for large populations. However, potato crops are highly susceptible to diseases, particularly Early Blight and Late Blight, which result in substantial yield losses. Timely detection and effective control of these diseases are essential for maintaining stable crop output. This study explores the integration of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and advanced image processing techniques to differentiate between diseased and healthy potato plants accurately. Two datasets comprising original and enhanced images were used to train four CNN models: InceptionV3, Xception, Densenet201, and Resnet152V2. The original images underwent background …

Static Malware Analysis For Incident Response: Developing A Tactical Aid With Ember, Joel Meoak, Shengjie Xu

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Incident responders face a variety of challenges when identifying malware using existing solutions, particularly when rapid tactical decisions are needed. Traditional malware detection methods are often signature-based, limiting their effectiveness to previously known threats detected by anti-virus (AV) engines. Online analysis tools introduce confidentiality risks, potentially alerting adversaries that their actions are under scrutiny. While free sandbox environments offer useful capabilities, they often require substantial setup time and hardware resources that may not be available in the field. This research leverages the Elastic Malware Benchmark for Empowering Researchers (EMBER) dataset to develop a lightweight, portable tactical decision aid that enables …

Interdisciplinary Narratives On Artificial Intelligence & Personnel Selection Systems, John Hunter, Melissa Intindola, Neil Boyd, Thiago Serra Azevedo Silva

Faculty Journal Articles

Artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly and persistently become a daily presence in our lives, and its omnipresence has eclipsed the speed with which scholars can fully assess its efficacy and pitfalls. AI’s ubiquity and the lack of a clear understanding of its implications for humanity has spurred scholars across disciplines to action, and scholars in the field of Human Resource Management (HR) have certainly joined the fray. As scholars with a variety of experience and scholarship across disciplines, we believe that the burgeoning conversation in the HR literature would significantly benefit from a greater presence of interdisciplinary knowledge.

Information Provision And Search Frictions: Evidence From The Taxi Industry In Singapore, Sumit Agarwal, Shih-Fen Cheng, Jussi Keppo, Long Wang, Yang Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Search frictions and misallocation are common in decentralized transportation markets. Using novel trip-level data of taxis in Singapore, this paper examines the impactof real-time demand information at airport terminals on search frictions. The information reduces taxi supply misallocation, increasing deadheading speed by 16.3% and decreasing deadheading time by 10.77%, benefiting both passengers and drivers. It raises daily earnings by $3.70 USD and adds 6.2 minutes of operational time per airport-trip taxi. Spatial spillovers are primarily observed among drivers in adjacentdistricts. Taxis from the Budget Terminal and drivers with fewer prior airport pickups benefit more from this information.

Conditional Attribute-Based Pre: Definition And Construction From Lwe, Lisha Yao, Jian Weng, Pengfei Wu, Guofeng Tang, Guomin Yang, Haiyang Xue, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Attribute-based proxy re-encryption (AB-PRE) is a crucial variant of proxy re-encryption. It allows a proxy with a re-encryption key to transform a delegator’s ciphertext associated with an access policy into another ciphertext associated with a new access policy, enabling delegatees with matching attributes to decrypt the transformed ciphertext. However, a key limitation of AB-PRE is that the delegator cannot control which ciphertexts are transformed. As a result, the proxy, once given the re-encryption key, indiscriminately transforms all ciphertexts, effectively switching their underlying policies—an issue known as the all-or-nothing problem. It limits the system’s flexibility and practicality in real-world use cases.In …

Studying Topic Evolution Based On Bertopic Model And Semantic Function, Jiabin Qu, Mengyang Wang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] Topic evolution analysis can help researchers quickly grasp the research hotspots and development trends of a discipline. However, existing topic models often overlook the semantic functions and structures of texts during topic extraction, making it difficult to reveal the deeper patterns of disciplinary development. This paper proposes an integrated framework for topic evolution analysis that combines the BERTopic model with semantic functions, aiming to enrich and improve the methodological system of topic evolution research.

[Method/process] Firstly, the BERTopic model is used to extract topics, obtaining the“Topic-Word”distribution. Next, a discourse parsing tool analyzes abstracts into five semantic function segments, resulting …

Research On Identification And Evaluation Method Of Medical Experts' Expertise Domains In Online Health Community Based On Knowledge Graph, Yunjiang Xi, Qian Zhang, Man Li, Juan Yu

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] This study aims to identify the expertise domains of medical experts, and evaluates their domain levels to provide a basis for community expert recommendation.

[Method/process] This study utilized the improved OneRel model to structure community historical Q&A into entity relation triples. Then used the knowledge graph triples to test the consistency between the medical knowledge in the community Q&A and the domain knowledge, and finally obtained the doctor's domain levels by aggregating in each expertise domain.

[Result/conclusion] Using the data example from xywy.com website, 214 doctors in the community were ranked in terms of their average level of expertise …

Learn To Fly: Enabling Deep Learning Based Perception And Control In Aerial Robotics, Krishna Muvva

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly deployed in dynamic, GPS degraded, and cluttered environments, yet their autonomy remains fundamentally constrained by limitations in onboard perception and real-time control. This dissertation addresses these challenges by proposing a unified framework that co-designs deep learning-based perception and model-based control, organized around three core thrusts: Learn to Track, Learn to Localize, and Learn to Evade.

Learn to Track develops dynamic and adaptive perception control mechanisms that optimize CNN inference for target tracking. A control-aware CNN framework dynamically adjusts inference frequency based on UAV motion, reducing latency while maintaining visual lock. An adaptive CNN with …

The Pastor As Romantic Author: Ai, Preaching, And The Unacknowledged Inheritance Of Authenticity, Daniel Plate, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article interrogates contemporary reactions to sermons produced with generative technologies through a historical–conceptual lens, arguing that widespread judgments of such outputs as “soulless,” “generic,” or lacking a “beating heart” are best explained by an unacknowledged inheritance from nineteenth-century Romantic expressivism. Rather than treating resistance to machine authorship as a theological verdict on computational incapacity, the study reconstructs how Romanticism centered authorship in sincere self-expression and solitary genius, displacing earlier heraldic expectations that prized fidelity to a received message. Methodologically, the analysis combines intellectual history with discourse analysis of global Christian experiments in synthetic composition (2020–2025), denominational guidance, and media …

Parameter-Efficient Variational Autoencoder For Multimodal Multi-Interest Recommendation, Nhu Thuat Tran, Hady Wirawan Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Learning user preferences in recommendation systems is enriched by multimodal features, such as textual and visual content, and amplified by multi-interest modeling with Variational AutoEncoders (VAEs). However, prior efforts are limited by single modality focus and cumbersome, parameter-heavy architecture designs. To address these limitations, we introduce an innovative solution that blends the semantic richness of multimodal data with the representational power of multi-representation VAEs. Drawing inspiration from Mixture of Experts (MoE), we cast each VAE as an expert tailored to a specific modality, then fuse them via a novel parameter-merging function into a lean, unified model. This approach efficiently captures …

Building An Inclusive Ai Chatbot For Diverse Student Communities At Cal Poly: Uplift Ai, Gideon Telahun

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This research project will investigate the ability of advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify and assess misinformation across diverse forms of media, including text, images, and video. In an age where misleading content spreads rapidly across digital platforms, evaluating the reliability and integrity of AI systems tasked with fact-checking is critical. We will develop a comprehensive dataset composed of factual and misleading examples drawn from various well-known and reliable fact-checking organizations. Each item will be independently reviewed and transparently labeled to ensure reproducibility. We will then prompt a curated group of state-of-the-art LLMs—including GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and …

Leveraging Machine Learning And Causal Inference For Loan Default Prediction, Luca Guida

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This research explores a systematic application of machine learning techniques combined with causal inference to predict loan defaults in peer-to-peer lending. Accurately forecasting loan defaults is crucial for mitigating financial risk and optimizing lending strategies. This analysis is based on multiple datasets of loan applications spanning over a decade, containing detailed financial and credit information about borrowers. Beginning with extensive Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) coupled with scaling strategies, the research identifies key trends in loan performance across a large number of factors, such as interest rates or borrower creditworthiness, and one objective is to determine from the many available predictors …