Digital Commons Network^™

Formally Verified Space-Safety For Program Transformations, Jason Carr

Theses

Existing work on compilers has often primarily concerned itself with preserving behavior, but programs have other facets besides their observable behavior. We expect that the performance of our code is preserved and bettered by the compiler, not made worse. Unfortunately, that's exactly what sometimes occurs in modern optimizing compilers. Poor representations or incorrect optimizations may preserve the correct behavior, but push that program into a different complexity class entirely. We've seen such blowups like this occurring in practice, and many transformations have pitfalls which can cause issues. Even when a program is not dramatically worsened, it can cause the program …

Improvements To A Thermally Actuated Mems Viscosity Sensor, Shreyas Choudhary

Theses

Being able to measure and monitor the viscosity of a fluid accurately and in real-time can provide insights and prevent field failures of lubricated mechanical elements. A micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) viscosity sensor that measures the properties of liquids through thermal vibrations of a silicon membrane has been previously developed. The device measures viscosity through three different characteristics: the frequency, amplitude and the quality factor of the vibrating membrane. The membrane is actuated via a short pulse of heat delivered by the heater resistor provided by an external voltage. The pulse width is controlled by a waveform generator and …

Exploring Hls Coding Techniques To Achieve Desired Turbo Decoder Architectures, Thomas Cenova

Theses

Software defined radio (SDR) platforms implement many digital signal processing algorithms. These can be accelerated on an FPGA to meet performance requirements. Due to the flexibility of SDR's and continually evolving communications protocols, high level synthesis (HLS) is a promising alternative to standard handcrafted design flows. A crucial component in any SDR is the error correction codes (ECC). Turbo codes are a common ECC that are implemented on an FPGA due to their computational complexity. The goal of this thesis is to explore the HLS coding techniques required to produce a design that targets the desired hardware architecture and can …

Perceptions Of The Ethics Of Persuasive Technology, Christopher C. Branch

Theses

This thesis explores the perceptions of the ethics of persuasive technology as applied to the design of user interfaces. The intentions are to learn whether consumers of software see persuasion through technology as ethical, whether producers of software view the development of persuasive technology as ethical, and whether these opinions can be reconciled. This research consists of a review of relevant literature on the topic, a survey of software consumers, interviews with software producers, and an analysis of the data, resulting in conclusions intended to influence the responsible design of user interfaces in the future.

The results suggest a number …

Lambdanet: A Novel Architecture For Unstructured Change Detection, Bryan Matthew Blakeslee

Theses

The goal of this thesis is the development of LambdaNet, a new type of network architecture for the performance of unstructured change detection. LambdaNet combines concepts from Siamese and semantic segmentation architectures, and is capable of identifying and localizing the significant differences between image pairs while simultaneously disregarding background noise. Changes are marked at the pixel level, by interpreting change detection as a binary (change/no change) classification problem.

Development of this architecture began with an evaluation of several candidate models, inspired by other successful network architectures and layers, including VGG, ResNet, and the Res2Net layer. Once the best performing LambdaNet …

The Dishwasher, Kaiyuan Deng

Theses

The Dishwasher is a 2D animated thesis film that lasts 5 minutes and 27 seconds. This animated short film shows a story of a young man, Kai, who dreams of becoming an artist in the US; however, he has to wash dishes for his living. One day, the dish machine is out of control because of Kai’s careless mistake. The manager sees the situation and begins to blame Kai. While the manager yells at him, Kai notices a funny animation loop appearing on the spinning dishes, which makes him laugh. After the manager leaves, Kai looks at his face reflected …

System-Level Eco-Driving (Sled): Algorithms For Connected And Autonomous Vehicles, Hrishikesh Barad

Theses

One of the main reasons for increasing carbon emissions by the transportation sector is the frequent congestion caused in a traffic network. Congestion in transportation occurs when demand for commuting resources exceeds their capacity and with the increasing use of road vehicles, congestion and thereby emissions will continue to rise if proper actions are not taken. Adoption of intelligent transportation systems like autonomous vehicle technology can help in increasing the efficiency of transportation in terms of time, fuel and carbon footprint. This research proposes a System Level Eco-Driving (SLED) algorithm and compares the results, produced by performing microscopic simulations, with …

Poly-Gan: A Multi-Conditioned Gan For Multiple Tasks, Nilesh Pandey

Theses

We present Poly-GAN, a novel conditional GAN architecture that is motivated by different Image generation and manipulation applications like Fashion Synthesis, an application where garments are automatically placed on images of human models at an arbitrary pose, image inpainting, an application where we try to recover a damaged image using the edges or a rough sketch of the image. While different applications use different GAN setup for image generation, we propose only one architecture for multiple applications with little to no change in the pipeline. Poly-GAN allows conditioning on multiple inputs and is suitable for many different tasks. Our novel …

Design Of An Efficient Design For Test (Dft) Architecture And It's Verification Using Universal Verification Methodology, Sushmitha Mavuram

Theses

The complexity of the circuit design has been significantly increased from 1980’s till date, and until 80’s, due to less complexity and technology node being down to 180nm, the need for Design for Test (DFT) equipment was not as important. The few System on Chips (SoC) were tested using test patterns sent from the external test equipment. As the technology node shrunk further, the devices became faster and the complexity of S0C’s increased as the chip could accommodate more transistors. The SoC’s have become more vulnerable to physical defects. Quality factor became a major issue, which pushed the industry standard …

Using Reduced Graphs For Efficient Hls Scheduling, Stephanie Soldavini

Theses

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is the process of inferring a digital circuit from a high-level algorithmic description provided as a software implementation, usually in C/C++. HLS tools will parse the input code and then perform three main steps: allocation, scheduling, and binding. This results in a hardware architecture which can then be represented as a Register-Transfer Level (RTL) model using a Hardware Description Language (HDL), such as VHDL or Verilog. Allocation determines the amount of resources needed, scheduling finds the order in which operations should occur, and binding maps operations onto the allocated hardware resources. Two main challenges of scheduling are …

A Novel System To Improve Over-Speeding Traffic Violation Ticketing Using A Black Box, Gaurav Mohan Shende

Theses

The paper will discuss the implementation of a novel system using a black box to make the overspeeding ticketing system more robust. The system will provide a physical proof of the drivers driving statistics. The system consist of three parts. First being a black box implementation using a raspberry pi 3b+ on the drivers side. It will track the current speed of the car via OBD-ii port with timestamp. Second being IOT device on the sheriff’s side which can fetch the speed information for past 20 minutes (speed information before vehicle came to compelete stantstill) from the black box and …

Did I Tell You About My Date Last Night?, Palwasha Azimi

Theses

did i tell you about my date last night? is an animated short that illustrates a transformation in two characters who are experiencing their date together in different ways.

This film gives a small taste of a larger story that all women go through, whether or not they know it’s happening.

It is a tale of toxic masculinity, gaslighting, consent and entitlement. These things have been ever-present in history but never contested and brought to light on a scale like this. Recently, these issues have risen to the forefront of social change. Now, because of the internet, the support of …

E-Government In The United Arab Emirates: A Study Of The Abu Dhabi Government Contact Centre, Hessa Mohammed Aleisaei

Theses

In this current age of information technology (IT), electronic government (e-government) has transformed the interaction between the government and the citizens. To make this transformation contextually and locally relevant, this research examines the efficiency of e-government in Abu Dhabi by undertaking a case study of the efficiency of the electronic contact channels at the Abu Dhabi Government Contact Center (ADGCC). It, also, identifies the challenges faced by the ADGCC and provides recommendations to overcome the challenges accordingly. The study model for this research is developed by reviewing the key concepts related to the implementation of the e-government. The primary research …

Artemisia: A Reflection Of Women’S Rights, Julie Mcgrath

Theses

This thesis will analyze and document the historiographic perspective of Artemisia Gentileschi and the changing perspective of the artist and her artwork since the 1960s. The research will explore the changing of perception of Artemisia through various methodologies to understand the evolution of her story. By looking at the change from modernism to postmodernism, I will explain how the latter opened up the feminist movement and methodology, and how the four waves of feminism have directly impacted the perception of her life and her body of work. Without these changes, scholarship would not have developed a greater understanding of Artemisia …

Developing Musicians Out Of Instrumentalists: A Comprehensive Guide To Improve Intonation Skills In Intermediate Band, Andrew Bryant Smith

Theses

This project will focus on the fundamental skills taught in an intermediate band program and assess skills needed to enhance their musicianship. One of the primary musical components studied is the development of individual and group intonation by utilizing a more concrete focus on the development of fundamental skills associated. The final deliverable focused on the fundamental skills needed to improve intonation. The guide will also include a compilation of instrument-specific strategies and tendencies having to do with the development of the skills outlined.

Network-Based Apt Profiler, Benjamin Bornholm

Theses

Constant innovation in attack methods presents a significant problem for the security community which struggles to remain current in attack prevention, detection and response. The practice of threat hunting provides a proactive approach to identify and mitigate attacks in real-time before the attackers complete their objective. In this research, I present a matrix of adversary techniques inspired by MITRE’s ATT&CK matrix. This study allows threat hunters to classify the actions of advanced persistent threats (APTs) according to network-based behaviors.

A Means To An End: Adding Value To The Preference Debate, Laura Miller

Theses

Helping disadvantaged people involves trusting them to make the best possible choices. Under scrutiny, however, it seems that the disadvantaged often fail to make the best choices for themselves. In this paper, I oppose both the traditional philosophical view that some choices of the disadvantaged are deformed or adaptive, and the view of preference utilitarians, who favor aiming to satisfy all preferences.

My rejection of the traditional views of preference is founded on my identification of two distinct kinds of preferences and their relationship to each other: means preferences and end preferences. Means preferences are those choices that are made …

Unintentional Injuries And Violence In Schools, Lina G. Nouwayhed

Theses

The project was done to study the causes and outcomes of injuries and violence at school, and to provide the school with a plan to prevent unintentional injuries and violence.

On Unifying Declarative Memory, Thomas Ames

Theses

The distinction between episodic and semantic declarative memory systems, as introduced by Tulving (1972, updated in 1984, 1991), was a revolutionary approach to human memory. While the distinction is now widely endorsed in the study of memory, there are debates about what constitutes each system’s domain, how each system is used, how each system functions, and the phenomenal experiences associated with the functioning of each system. On the basis of clinical studies and insights from conditions affecting memory, this paper argues that the episodic/semantic distinction can be reframed as a result of a unified declarative memory system. In this view, …

Deepfake Detection And Low-Resource Language Speech Recognition Using Deep Learning, Bao Thai

Theses

While deep learning algorithms have made significant progress in automatic speech recognition and natural language processing, they require a significant amount of labelled training data to perform effectively. As such, these applications have not been extended to languages that have only limited amount of data available, such as extinct or endangered languages. Another problem caused by the rise of deep learning is that individuals with malicious intents have been able to leverage these algorithms to create fake contents that can pose serious harm to security and public safety. In this work, we explore the solutions to both of these problems. …

A Systematic Analysis Of Accessibility Education Within Computing Disciplines, Paula Conn

Theses

Accessible technologies improve the usability for all users, including 1 billion people in the world who have a disability. Although there is a demand for accessible technologies, there is currently no requirement for universities to integrate this content within the computing curriculum. A systematic comparison of teaching efficacy is important to effectively prepare future computing professionals with the skills to create accessible technologies.

This dissertation contains a mixed-methods cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of undergraduate Software Engineering and Information Technology students’ learning of accessibility. Four teaching conditions were assessed at Rochester Institute of Technology: content lectures, projects, exposure to stakeholders with …

Subjective Image Quality Assessment Of Digitally Printed Images, Gaurav Sheth

Theses

Smartphones have become ingrained in our daily activities, driving their cameras to become better with every generation. As more and more images are being taken by cell phones it has become increasingly important to assess the quality of the images taken by different phones. While many cell phone images are only viewed electronically, many images also get transformed into printed images, especially photo-books, as digital printing gets better and cheaper compared to traditional printing processes. The gap between electronic image and printed image in shrinking rapidly and it becomes important to study the transition of images from screen to paper. …

Smart Tracking For Healthier Lifestyle, Shiwen Ding

Theses

Smart Tracking for healthier lifestyle is an interactive prototyping application to monitor sugar intake. For most individuals, their amount of sugar intake is much higher than the amount they need per day. Many people like sweet food as they find that it makes them satisfied and relaxed. People tend to consume sugar unconsciously eating cakes, candies, drinking soft-drinks, juice, and even coffee. Regular consumption of these foods substantially increases the amount of sugar people consume. It has been found that people are less conscious of their sugar intake in regard to drinking liquids than eating solid foods. Parents are very …

Computational Methods For Segmentation Of Multi-Modal Multi-Dimensional Cardiac Images, Shusil Dangi

Theses

Segmentation of the heart structures helps compute the cardiac contractile function quantified via the systolic and diastolic volumes, ejection fraction, and myocardial mass, representing a reliable diagnostic value. Similarly, quantification of the myocardial mechanics throughout the cardiac cycle, analysis of the activation patterns in the heart via electrocardiography (ECG) signals, serve as good cardiac diagnosis indicators. Furthermore, high quality anatomical models of the heart can be used in planning and guidance of minimally invasive interventions under the assistance of image guidance.

The most crucial step for the above mentioned applications is to segment the ventricles and myocardium from the acquired …

Word Importance Modeling To Enhance Captions Generated By Automatic Speech Recognition For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Users, Sushant Kafle

Theses

People who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) benefit from sign-language interpreting or live-captioning (with a human transcriptionist), to access spoken information. However, such services are not legally required, affordable, nor available in many settings, e.g., impromptu small-group meetings in the workplace or online video content that has not been professionally captioned. As Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems improve in accuracy and speed, it is natural to investigate the use of these systems to assist DHH users in a variety of tasks. But, ASR systems are still not perfect, especially in realistic conversational settings, leading to the issue of trust and …

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 …

Another You, Yiran Qiao

Theses

Another You is an animated 2D graduate thesis film. The entire film, including the credits, is 4 minutes 45 seconds long. The production phase went from September 2018 to May 2019.

This story is about a housewife who tries to escape from her daily life. Her escape takes place at the dinner table. The housewife has been busy with cooking and serving her family, but no one really cares about her, which makes her very angry and she abruptly leaves the table and everyone is shocked. She runs upstairs and to a hallway with many doors and moves from one …

Improving Automatic Speech Recognition On Endangered Languages, Kruthika Prasanna Simha

Theses

As the world moves towards a more globalized scenario, it has brought along with it the extinction of several languages. It has been estimated that over the next century, over half of the world's languages will be extinct, and an alarming 43% of the world's languages are at different levels of endangerment or extinction already. The survival of many of these languages depends on the pressure imposed on the dwindling speakers of these languages. Often there is a strong correlation between endangered languages and the number and quality of recordings and documentations of each. But why do we care about …

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 …

Mother’S Way, Chaofan Li

Theses

Mother’s way is my 2D graduate thesis film. The production phase of this film was between September 2018 to August 2019.

This is a film about the sincere feelings between mother and son. The protagonist of this film is an old man who has been estranged from his family for decades. He decides to visit his mother after getting the news that she is seriously ill. During his journey, his misunderstandings between them are eradicated through his mother's diary.

Mother’s way is mainly made using the 2D animation software TVPaint. At different stages of production, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, …