Digital Commons Network^™

Student Library News - April 2020, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

A Social Game Design To Solve Young Peoples’ Loneliness Problem, Jiaxi Yuan

Theses

This project’s topic is helping solve young people’s loneliness problem. According to my research, young people are more likely to feel lonely than old people. Because young people need to work or study in other cities or countries, they have always been apart from their families and friends. Although loneliness is not a mental illness, it does have negative effects on young people’s mental health.

Therefore, I designed a warm and healing social game to help to solve young people’s loneliness problems. After the user research, I defined the major functions of this social game. The functions of this social …

Visualization & Automation Of Shams Dubai Report, Noora Ibrahim Alblooshi

Theses

Dubai’s Smart Grid strategy includes the implementation of Distributed Energy Resources and Distribution Automation (DA) facilities to continuous monitoring and remote control from DEWA’s Distribution Control Center (DCC) , and, in some cases, automatic control of electric distribution assets operated at 33kV or lower. The increase level of telemetry and automation in the field imposes a greater challenge in monitoring and live data visualization for establishing a decision support system that empowers distribution system operators and enables optimal control of existing and planned assets. This challenge can be overcome through introducing data science tools in the sector of energy. Through …

Smart Cities At Play: Technology And Emerging Forms Of Playfulness, Konstantinos Papangelis, Michael Saker, Catherine Jones

Articles

Editorial. No abstract is available.

An Examination Of The Work Practices Of Crowdfarms, Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Michael Saker, Ioanna Lykourentzou, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Alan Chamberlain, Jonathan Grudin

Presentations and other scholarship

Crowdsourcing is a new value creation business model. Annual revenue of the Chinese market alone is hundreds of millions of dollars, yet few studies have focused on the practices of the Chinese crowdsourcing workforce, and those that do mainly focus on solo crowdworkers. We have extended our study of solo crowdworker practices to include crowdfarms, a relatively new entry to the gig economy: small companies that carry out crowdwork as a key part of their business. We report here on interviews of people who work in53 crowdfarms. We describe how crowdfarms procure jobs, carry out macrotasks and microtasks, manage their …

A Study On Dna Memory Encoding Architecture, Robert W. Mason

Theses

The amount of raw generated data is growing at an exponential rate due to the greatly increasing number of sensors in electronic systems. While the majority of this data is never used, it is often kept for cases such as failure analysis. As such, archival memory storage, where data can be stored at an extremely high density at the cost of read latency, is becoming more popular than ever for long term storage. In biological organisms, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is used as a method of storing information in terms of simple building blocks, as to allow for larger and more …

The Impact Of Pocket Parks To Enhance Public Space And Realm In Ajman, Uae, Manal Abdalla Al Shamsi

Theses

Green spaces in urban life play an important role in maintaining healthy lifestyle and providing a calm and peaceful place for roaming around. Large new urban park projects are gradually decreasing in dense cities, and small green spaces like pocket parks are likely to become more important. However previous studies showed that multiple research studies on small urban green spaces have been conducted. On infill sites and other overlooked city corners, pocket parks are created. Apart from the obvious benefits of the ecosystem and the environment, they can be a small but important step towards a fair architecture. The project …

Designing A Mental Health Institute For Adolescents In Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia (Healing Architecture), Heba Bin Seddeq

Theses

The society in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia obstructs people who want to see a psychiatrist, especially adolescents. Based on the lack of mental health support in Saudi Arabia, this thesis will introduce a mental health institute project for adolescents that puts more attention on specific design factors, such as daylighting, color, and green roofs. These aspects provide help for the recovery process by supporting healing according to many psychological studies. This psychiatric institute will be specialized for teenagers 10-19 because the early intervention at this critical period has the possibility for the potential for making a lifelong difference. by …

Animal Testing Sentimental Analysis Using Twitter, Afra Naji Saeed Almansoori

Theses

This research explores attitudes towards the testing of cosmetics on animals, as pressure is increasing all over the world to stop animal testing and different countries have introduced policies to ban it. It is estimated that more than 115 million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year. But because only a small proportion of countries collect and publish data concerning use of animals for testing and research, the precise numbers are unknown. This research was designed to investigate whether awareness of the issue impacts whether or not people support animal testing. The research hypothesis is that the reason …

New Technology For Old Models: Can Dioramas Resonate With A Modern Audience?, Carmen Ibis Lopez

Theses

This thesis uses visitor studies from the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) to investigate whether dioramas are still a useful, resonant tool for visitor engagement and if they do fulfill this purpose, how do they do so. The case study is the newly revamped diorama Rochester in 1838: Young Lion of the West at the RMSC. This diorama, a 70-year-old model, has been mixed with modern Virtual Reality (VR) technology to create an experience that will provide the visitor with a new perspective on an old model. As context, this thesis uses the history of the diorama to show …

Exhibition Labels: Language, Accessibility And Inclusion, Brienna Johnson-Morris

Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between language and visitor experience as key facets of accessibility and inclusion by asking how museums use language to address visitor experience and facilitate engagement. When museums are sources of exclusion, a barrier exists between potential visitors and the collections on view, effectively gatekeeping cultural heritage, arts, and humanities. To examine the extent to which language contributes to this, I discuss power dynamics and language, specifically how language contributes to and supports social hierarchy. Then I relate this research to museum education and evaluate how discursive power dynamics operate within these institutions. Combining museum education …

Decolonization Of Zimbabwean Museums: The Movement Toward Practices Informed By Indigineous Cultures, Rebecca Jarrett

Theses

Since Zimbabwe won its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, the country has sought to embrace and reinterpret its own cultural history. Influences of the colonial era linger in museums, especially in the areas of architecture, interpretation, administration, and community relations. How can Zimbabwean museums systematically identify the colonial influences affecting them, deconstruct those influences, and form new models that reaffirm indigenous cultures and stimulate growth for cultural institutions? The sources cited within this document discuss Zimbabwean history, colonial history, and cultural heritage. The BaTonga Community Museum, the first museum to serve a minority ethnic group, is an important …

“Natural State”: Navigating The Experiences Of Black Women’S Natural Hair Identities, Leah Green

Theses

In 2009, The “Natural hair movement” developed and was widely discussed in online discourse. The goal of this contemporary movement was to encourage Black women to wear their natural hair to work in an effort to combat internalized negative images Black women might have surrounding natural hair. This transformative movement resulted in many books and articles being written on the shared experiences and adversities many Black women face about choosing to wear their natural hair today in the workplace. These inspiring books and articles prompted this project which will track my journey and the results of conducting a Black hair …

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes: Empathy And Rehumanization In Community-Based Programming, Rachel Baldwin

Theses

In the past decade, museums have been changing their missions, definitions, and exhibitions to focus on activism and the interpretation of the controversial and polarizing. Through exhibiting controversy and engaging visitors with it, museums have attempted to foster feelings of empathy. This paper summarizes the results of the research done on community-based projects from the 2020 exhibition Hostile Terrain 94 and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Hostile Terrain 94 is an international pop-up exhibit concerning the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. RIT will be exhibiting a piece of this map which will come together at the National …

Randomizable Phenology-Dependent Corn Canopy For Simulated Remote Sensing Of Agricultural Scenes, M Grady Saunders

Theses

Crop health assessment and yield prediction from multi-spectral remote sensing imagery are ongoing areas of interest in precision agriculture. It is in these contexts that simulation-based techniques are useful to investigate system parameters, perform preliminary experiments, etc., because remote sensing systems can be prohibitively expensive to design, deploy, and operate. However, such techniques require realistic and reliable models of the real world. We thus present a randomizable time-dependent model of corn (Zea mays L.) canopy, which is suitable for procedural generation of high-fidelity virtual corn fields at any time in the vegetative growth phase, with application to simulated remote sensing …

Representations And Representation Learning For Image Aesthetics Prediction And Image Enhancement, Michal Kucer

Theses

With the continual improvement in cell phone cameras and improvements in the connectivity of mobile devices, we have seen an exponential increase in the images that are captured, stored and shared on social media. For example, as of July 1st 2017 Instagram had over 715 million registered users which had posted just shy of 35 billion images. This represented approximately seven and nine-fold increase in the number of users and photos present on Instagram since 2012. Whether the images are stored on personal computers or reside on social networks (e.g. Instagram, Flickr), the sheer number of images calls for methods …

Capturing The City’S Heritage On-The-Go: Design Requirements For Mobile Crowdsourced Cultural Heritage, Bas Hannewijk, Federica Lucia Vinella, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Ioanna Lykourentzou, Konstantinos Papangelis, Judith Masthoff

Articles

Intangible Cultural Heritage is at a continuous risk of extinction. Where historical artefacts engine the machinery of intercontinental mass-tourism, socio-technical changes are reshaping the anthropomorphic landscapes everywhere on the globe, at an unprecedented rate. There is an increasing urge to tap into the hidden semantics and the anecdotes surrounding people, memories and places. The vast cultural knowledge made of testimony, oral history and traditions constitutes a rich cultural ontology tying together human beings, times, and situations. Altogether, these complex, multidimensional features make the task of data-mapping of intangible cultural heritage a problem of sustainability and preservation. This paper addresses a …

Teaching Cybersecurity To Students With Visual Impairments And Blindness, Jesse R. Hairston, Tania Williams, Derrick W. Smith Ed.D., Coms, William T. Sabados Ph.D., Steven Forney

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This work showcases specific adaptations used to make cybersecurity accessible to high school students with visual impairments and blindness (VIB). The rapidly growing field of cybersecurity demands a diverse workforce; however, barriers exist which can deter students with disabilities from studying cybersecurity, let alone pursuing a career in the field. To help overcome this challenge, we launched the first GenCyber camp specifically developed and instructed for high school students with VIB in summer 2019. We created a unique learning environment by combining interactive instructional aids, accessible development environments, and innovative instructional strategies. With intent to show cybersecurity as a viable …

Faculty Library News - March 2020, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

The Geek’S Guide To The Writing Life, Annie Trinh

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

No abstract provided.

Student Library News - March 2020, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

See3d: 3d Printing For People Who Are Blind, Caroline Frances Karbowski

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Objects such as snowflakes, castles, and butterflies have become more than just words when explored as a 3D print. The founder’s passion for braille led to the creation of the program See3D, which organizes the printing and distribution of 3D printed models for people who are blind. 3D prints such as DNA, cells, animals, constellations, telescopes, historic landmarks, logos, and maps were created to fulfill requests by people who are blind for tactile learning tools. Recipients shared their feedback on how to improve the models, and the printing and distribution service. See3D seeks to spread awareness about accessibility by …

Use Of Scientific Argumentation By Deaf/Hard-Of-Hearing Students In Environmental Science Topics, Annemarie Ross, Randy Yerrick, Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Deaf/hard-of-hearing (Deaf and hard-of-hearing) postsecondary students may have some misconceptions surrounding scientific concepts that might be partially ascribed to a lack of access to culturally-responsive forms of pedagogy. The Deaf and hard-of-hearing community is diverse in communication modes, including those who use American Sign Language as their primary language, and therefore, some students from this population may display characteristics similar to English Language Learners. Through classroom discourse analyses and interviews, we found a general lack of persuasion characteristics used by most students in an environmental science unit, and that the lack of higher-level scientific argumentation skills seemed to be related …

Space Camp Experience For Attendees Of The 2019 Island Conference In Huntsville, Alabama, Rachel Bigham

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

About the space camp experience

Overview Of The Proceedings Of The 2019 Inclusion In Science, Learning A New Direction Conference On Disability (Island), Cary Supalo Dr., Jasodhara Bhattacharya, Daniel Steinberg, Derrick W. Smith Ed.D., Coms

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The 10^th annual Inclusion in Science, Learning a New Direction Conference on Disability (ISLAND) was hosted by the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), with support from the UAH College of Education, UAH Office of Academic Affairs, and the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, as well as the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a National Science Foundation funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and the UAH Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education (CCRE). On October 4-5, 2019, the conference was held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center facility and at the new Student …

Advancing Multi-Modal Deep Learning: Towards Language-Grounded Visual Understanding, Kushal Kafle

Theses

Using deep learning, computer vision now rivals people at object recognition and detection, opening doors to tackle new challenges in image understanding. Among these challenges, understanding and reasoning about language grounded visual content is of fundamental importance to advancing artificial intelligence. Recently, multiple datasets and algorithms have been created as proxy tasks towards this goal, with visual question answering (VQA) being the most widely studied. In VQA, an algorithm needs to produce an answer to a natural language question about an image. However, our survey of datasets and algorithms for VQA uncovered several sources of dataset bias and sub-optimal evaluation …

Design Approval Smart Application For Dubai Electricity Installations (Dasa-Dubai), Maryam Ahmad Mohammed Al Ali

Theses

Design Approval smart application for assure the healthy and safety installations for buildings and properties in Dubai using programming and automations. It will enable the engineers in the concerned departments to have effective use of time and effort through having automatic first line defends reviewing the submissions of the electrical engineers contractors/ consultants who will be referred to as customers through the project description. The application will be a data base that carries the original standards and regulations that related to the installations of the electricity wiring in the government of Dubai. That kind of information’s are already distributed as …

From The Co-Editors..., Todd Pagano, Sami Kahn

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Rapid Inference Of Antibiotic Resistance And Susceptibility By Genomic Neighbour Typing, Karel Břinda, Alanna Callendrello, Kevin C. Ma, Derek R. Macfadden, Themoula Charalampous, Robyn S. Lee, Lauren Cowley, Crista B. Wadsworth, Yonatan H. Grad, Gregory Kucherov, Justin O'Grady, Michael Baym, William P. Hanage

Articles

Surveillance of drug-resistant bacteria is essential for healthcare providers to deliver effective empirical antibiotic therapy. However, traditional molecular epidemiology does not typically occur on a timescale that could affect patient treatment and outcomes. Here, we present a method called ‘genomic neighbour typing’ for inferring the phenotype of a bacterial sample by identifying its closest relatives in a database of genomes with metadata. We show that this technique can infer antibiotic susceptibility and resistance for both Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. We implemented this with rapid k-mer matching, which, when used on Oxford Nanopore MinION data, can run in real time. …

Young Patient Education On Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Margaret Jane Atieno Mcfarland

Theses

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that primarily causes the degeneration of major muscle groups. It’s caused by the absence of an essential sarcolemma protein called Dystrophin due to mutations in its gene that is in the X-chromosome. DMD affects 1 out of 4,000 boys worldwide with most being diagnosed between ages 3-5 and if left untreated, most patients would succumb to the disorder by their late teens or early twenties. While there currently isn’t a cure for DMD, there are different treatments available that are effective in prolonging patients’ lives.

Because DMD is such a deadly disorder, …