Digital Commons Network^™

Faculty Library News - November 2019, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

On The Distribution Of Test Smells In Open Source Android Applications: An Exploratory Study, Anthony Peruma, Khalid Saeed Almalki, Christian D. Newman,, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Ali Ouni, Fabio Palomba

Presentations and other scholarship

The impact of bad programming practices, such as code smells, in production code has been the focus of numerous studies in software engineering. Like production code, unit tests are also affected by bad programming practices which can have a negative impact on the quality and maintenance of a software system. While several studies addressed code and test smells in desktop applications, there is little knowledge of test smells in the context of mobile applications. In this study, we extend the existing catalog of test smells by identifying and defining new smells and survey over 40 developers who confirm that our …

Addressing The Accessibility Of Social Media, Cole Gleason, Patrick Carrington, Lydia B. Chilton, Benjamin M. Gorman, Hernisa Kacorri, Andres Monroy-Hernandez, Meredith Ringel Morris, Garreth W. Tigwell, Shaomei Wu

Presentations and other scholarship

Social media platforms are deeply ingrained in society, and they offer many different spaces for people to engage with others. Unfortunately, accessibility barriers prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in these spaces. Social media users commonly post inaccessible media, including videos without captions (which are important for people who are deaf or hard of hearing) and images without alternative text (descriptions read aloud by screen readers for people who are blind). Users with motor impairments must find workarounds to deal with the complex user interfaces of these platforms, and users with cognitive disabilities may face barriers to composing and …

Behind The Lens, Guoxiang Zhao

Theses

Time flies. I arrived at my thesis year after two years of study at RIT, and began working on my film “Behind the Lens.” The film runs for five minutes and 56 seconds, and includes hand-drawn animation, music and sound created by me. After some personal changes, I re-pitched a whole new thesis proposal in the fall semester of my thesis year because I felt passionate and committed to the important message of the film. In truth, this story didn’t have a clear outline until April in my last semester. The story is about a camera character going through his …

Encouraging Children To Actively Recycle: A Mobile Application To Promote Recycling In The Dominican Republic, Noelia A. Rivera Pagan

Theses

The Dominican Republic generates 14,000 tons of solid waste daily, 49% of this is recyclable, but only 5% is. This waste is causing health problems, affecting the tourism industry, and the quality of life of its residents. Problems of confusion, lack of motivation, and lack of prioritization of the activity, affect the decision-making process when recycling.

What if there was a way to motivate the Dominican population to recycle, and change the behavior towards this activity? Children learn new behaviors faster than adults. Why not use this opportunity to incorporate the engaging factor of design and technology to help improve …

From Cast-Out To Community: Identifying Barriers In Design That Keep Lgbtq+ Youth From Accessing Homeless Shelters, Leah Przybylski

Theses

There is a gap in homeless youth services in the United States. A vulnerable population, LGBTQ+ individuals comprise nearly 40% of all homeless youth and are particularly susceptible to repeated victimization, trauma, and violence from their community. Current shelters re-traumatize and fail to address the needs of this unique population triggering an extreme aversion to the institutional design aesthetic that many of these services inhabit. LGBTQ+ youth enter a cycle of homelessness and disengagement that perpetuates into adulthood as a result. Why do existing shelters fail to meet the needs of LBGTQ+ homeless youth?

Utilizing a series of diverse theories …

Proposed Microgrid For Hatta City-Dubai, Amna Al Ansaari, Bashaer Al Shamsi, Mariam Al Hameli

Theses

Inspired by Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to make Dubai a global hub for clean energy and green economy, this research is conducted to study the feasibility of proposing a microgrid design in Hatta city, with taking into consideration its energy demand and locality. The research encompasses a detailed analysis of three successfully applied microgrid projects in three different countries to extract best practices that can be efficiently applied in Hatta and to provide guidelines that show how to develop a microgrid for this chosen city. The benefits of this project are to improve the electrical grid resiliency and efficiency …

Faculty Library News - October 2019, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

Student Library News - October 2019, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

Light Rail In Phoenix, Arizona: Increasing Economic, Environmental, And Social Sustainability, Patrick Thomas Mcdaniel, Denise Keele

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

In an effort to increase sustainability, reduce vehicular congestion, revitalize neighborhoods, and lower pollution from automobiles, Phoenix, Arizona launched the Valley Metro Light Rail system in December of 2008. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts as related to sustainability of the Valley Metro Light Rail system. In this qualitative case study of Phoenix sustainability and light rail policy subsystem, the researchers conducted semi-structured expert interviews with government officials and other policy-makers, non-government organizations, neighborhood and citizen associations, and other advisory bodies to understand and analyze the communities served by the light rail …

Artificial Intelligence Fairness In The Context Of Accessibility Research On Intelligent Systems For People Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Sushant Kafle, Abraham Glasser, Sedeeq Al-Khazraji, Larwan Berke, Matthew Seita, Matt Huenerfauth

Presentations and other scholarship

We discuss issues of Artificial Intelligence (AI) fairness for people with disabilities, with examples drawn from our research on human-computer interaction (HCI) for AI-based systems for people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH). In particular, we discuss the need for inclusion of data from people with disabilities in training sets, the lack of interpretability of AI systems, ethical responsibilities of access technology researchers and companies, the need for appropriate evaluation metrics for AI-based access technologies (to determine if they are ready to be deployed and if they can be trusted by users), and the ways in which AI …

The Legend Of Whales, Bingjie Xiao

Theses

The Legend of Whales is a 2D animated graduate thesis film. The entire film, including the credits, is 7 minutes 20 seconds long. The duration of the production went from September 2018 to May 2019.

This is a story about the cycle of destiny which takes place in an ancient Viking-inspired fishing village. The main character, Bion, is born with a special connection with the enemy of the village, a species of whale. One day he meets a beluga whale and is immediately drawn to the beautiful creature. After a friendly meeting, they build up a bonded relationship, even though …

Three Dimensional Digital Alloying With Reactive Metal Inks, Chaitanya G. Mahajan

Theses

3D printing of multifunctional components using two or more materials is a rapidly growing area of research. Metallic alloy inks have been used with various 3D printing techniques to create functional components such as antennas, inductors, resistors, and biocompatible implants. Most of these printing techniques use premixed metallic alloy inks or nanoalloy particles with a fixed composition to fabricate the functional part. Since the properties of alloys vary with changes in the elemental composition, a printing process which could digitally dispense alloy inks having specific desired compositions would enable different functionalities and be highly desirable.

Using the binary copper-nickel system …

Corrosion Protection Of Monel Alloy Coated With Graphene Quantum Dots Starts With A Surge, Ksv Santhanam, Charles Bopp

Articles

There has been an active interest in protecting metals and alloys using graphene coating. The mechanism by which corrosion protection occurs has not been well understood as the couple involved are both good electron conductors. In this work, we demonstrate that Monel alloy coated with graphene quantum dots (GQD) changes the corrosion rate with a surge (increase) caused by the galvanic coupling of the two materials. This surge results in the protective layer formation on Monel to inhibit the corrosion. X-ray fluorescence spectrum of Monel (400) alloy showed the composition of it as Ni (67.05%) and Cu (29.42%). The Tafel …

Statement Of Creative Practice: Creative Making And Vr Literature, Mez Breeze

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Editor's Note
Mez Breeze authored her artist’s statement in virtual reality. You can view Mez’s artist’s statement even without a VR headset. Just click this link: https://bit.ly/2Kov372
You’ll need this password to access it: XR_PlayG

Abstract
Constructing creative writing in XR (aka Extended Reality: an umbrella term that covers Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, and a fourth category called Synthetic Reality), and VR in particular, is an exciting and recent phenomenon in the Electronic Literature field. This proposed Statement of Creative Practice will examine the scope and reach of XR artforms while focusing in particular on the subset of …

Hyperspectral Video Processing On Resource-Constrained Platforms, Honglei Li, Lei Pan, Eung Joo Lee, Zhu Li, Matthew J. Hoffman, Anthony Vodacek, Shuvra S. Bhattacharyya

Presentations and other scholarship

Hyperspectral imaging offers valuable spectral diversity for scene analysis and information extraction. However, exploiting this spectral diversity involves significant challenges in performing efficient video processing, especially in resource-constrained environments. These challenges arise due to the high memory and computational requirements for hyperspectral video processing applications. This paper presents system design methods using band subset selection to address this problem. These methods are applied to develop an adaptive video processing system targeted to an Android platform. The system dynamically adapts the selected bands to process based on constraints on real-time performance and video analysis accuracy. Experimental results provide quantitative insight into …

Student Library News - September 2019, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

Faculty Library News - September 2019, Rit Libraries

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

Basho & Friends Literacy Game For Tablet, Joshua Korenblat

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Basho & Friends is an in-progress prototype for an interactive children’s book. Here, children ages 8-13 collaborate with young Basho, the legendary founder of haiku poetry, to become poets themselves. This project exemplifies a “convivial tool,” defined by philosopher Ivan Illich as a platform designed to promote creative expression. Here, we imagine new possibilities for reading, sensemaking, and creative writing based on past forms and ideas. Through poetry, Basho promotes meaningful principles of literacy and sustainability today. Children can engage with Basho’s story in an historical context and practice haiku to see themselves as authors of their life stories.

Fanfiction As Performative Criticism: Harry Potter Racebending, Khaliah A. Petersen-Reed

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Fanfiction anatomizes a text and in this textual nakedness fanfiction writers recognize gaps in their chosen source texts and seek to supplement these deficiencies through literary disruption. This essay focuses on the kind of fanfiction that critically disrupts through artistic cultural production—a practice that I am labeling performative criticism. I look at Racebending fanfiction that intervenes in the gaps of the Harry Potter series—specifically the gaps related to race. Using fanfiction produced by Harry Potter fans, I will show that by reading and writing fanfiction these writers are blurring demarcation between creative writing and literary criticism.

This Is (Not) A Game: The Adjunct Experience As Playable Fiction, Lee Skallerup Bessette

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

How can a never-ending running 8-bit game be a piece of protest art? In examining her own experience in a related netprov protesting the treatment of adjuncts, the artist explores issues of agency, exploitation, and the very nature of games and playing in her artist’s statement on her game, Adjunct Run: https://adjunctrun.readywriting.org/.

“The Machinic Author” Artist’S Statement: The Reading Club, Annie Abrahams, Emmanuel Guez

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

The Reading Club is an online venue for simultaneous, collaborative reading and writing, both of which occur within a precisely defined framework: «reariters» are invited to read a given text and to rewrite it within a set number of characters. The public also gets involved, reading and commenting in a chat field. Performances have been held in various languages (sometimes simultaneously), including the language of code.

Machine Co-Authorship(S) Via Translative Creative Writing, Aaron Tucker

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This paper argues that machine translation and a symbiotic ecosystem of authorship are central to the poetic works of Aaron Tucker and reveal larger ethical paths for machine-human relationships. In particular, the elements of chance alongside the intersemiotic translative acts that are the nature of human-computer relationships give space to a potential futurity that challenges a human-centric understanding of “reading” and “writing” and generates a type of literature that encourages a reader to better understand their own interactions within their daily digital environments.

The Many Authors Of The Several Houses Of Brian, Spencer, Liam, Victoria, Brayden, Vincent, And Alex: Authorship, Agency, And Appropriation, Zach Whalen

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

The Several Houses of Brian, Spencer, Liam, Victoria, Brayden, Vincent, and Alex is a computer-generated children’s book of 53,651 words and 350 unique illustrations arranged over 800 pages. The text is a cumulative poem in the style of the nursery rhyme “This is the House that Jack Built,” but with a house for each of the eponymous seven individuals, and with each of their houses containing many more types of things. These houses, these things, and these words were chosen by a Python script that I wrote, and the resulting novel--which can be viewed on my Github repository--is …

Atari, Creative Making & Zombie Computers: Robbo. Solucja., Piotr Marecki

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

In 1989, Janusz Pelc wrote the game Robbo on an 8-bit Atari, one of the first personal computers, which enjoyed a cult-like status in Poland before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Robbo, a small robot, collects screws and has to get through 56 planets. The game has achieved cult status, spawning hundreds of remixes and modifications. Beginning in the 1980s, fans (once mainly young boys, today adult men) played this game, collecting screws and running away from enemies such as bats, flying eyes, devils etc., while drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, eating crisps and telling jokes. One …

Digital Participatory Poetics And Civic Engagement In The Creative Writing Classroom, Liza D. Flum, Emily Oliver

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This article explores the ways a team-taught course, “Public Poetry in a Digital World,” supported community-building through participatory action and digital creative making. Using digital texts responding to current events, this course fostered students’ civic imagination and invited them to make connections among their own lives, their communities and poetic civic media. This class facilitated critical community engagement through digital pedagogy and final projects in which students performed public scholarship. Ultimately, this course serves as a case study of how teaching born-digital texts with digital tools can expand the capacity of the creative writing classroom.

Toward Disruptive Creation In Digital Literature Instruction, Michael D. Clark

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Given the multimodal and collaborative nature of digital literature along with the ways it often embodies the theories informing its artistic production, approaches to exploring both the creation and study of the form must abandon legacy pedagogies in favor of disruptive, student-driven course experiences. This work must further include explorations of digital culture, means of production, multimodal literacies, and connections with various definitions of literature ranging from print to auditory to visual forms. To accomplish this, instructors must move from more traditional hierarchical roles to those of facilitator and participant, committing consistently to returning decision-making work to the students.

Creative Writing Across Mediums And Modes: A Pedagogical Model, Saul B. Lemerond Phd

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This is a creative practice (pedagogy) paper outlining the current formulation of my multimodal introduction to creative writing course. In this paper, I describe the course in detail, address the tensions, tradeoffs, and workarounds inherent in abandoning the traditional workshop model, describe instances of student engagement and success to illuminate this process, and endeavor to explain why high amounts of engagement and enthusiasm I get from my students concerning the content of my course is justified. My multimodal course is a generative course where my students are required to produce work in different creative modes on a near weekly basis. …

Introduction: What Is “Creative Making As Creative Writing”?, Kathi Berens

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This special issue of the Journal of Creative Writing Studies centers on how creative writing changes when writers actively engage computers as nonhuman collaborators in “creative making.” Using examples from McGurl’s The Program Era, Emily Dickinson, and the crowdsourced “translation” of Melville’s classic into Emoji Dick, Berens suggests that creative writing methods have long been procedural and technologic.

There are many forms of creative making. This special issue features creative writers that

• Write code to output novels
• Redefine how we think of writing’s “container”
• Demonstrate aspects of the digital-first, multimodal writing classroom
• Modify or remix existing artworks

Berens supplies three …

Kick Boxing Coaching System, Wentian Chen

Theses

There are three key considerations when training for kickboxing; correct body position, motivation, and how to achieve different training goals. Training gear available on the market does not provide enough relevant feedback to the user to validate the effectiveness of their training. I will design a coaching system for recreational and avid kick boxers that records user input while also providing an interactive experience that tracks training in a more meaningful way. This is a project focused on user experience and product testing. User Experience requires me to study the response of the human body when it is hit, and …