Digital Commons Network^™

Radar-Aware Transmission And Scheduling For Cognitive Radio Dynamic Spectrum Access In The Cbrs Radio Band, Dennis P. Bleier

Theses

Use of the wireless spectrum is increasing. In order to meet the throughput requirements, Dynamic Spectrum Access is a popular technique to maximize spectrum usage. This can be applied to the Citizen Broadband Radio Service (3550-3700MHz), a band recently opened by the Federal Communications Commission for opportunistic access. This radio band can be accessed as long as no higher priority users are interfered with. The top priority users are called incumbents, which are commonly naval radar. Naval radars transmit a focused beam that can be modelled as a periodic function. Lower tier users are prohibited from transmitting when their transmissions …

Turn And Orientation Sensitive A* For Autonomous Vehicles In Intelligent Material Handling Systems, Rashmi Ballamajalu

Theses

Autonomous mobile robots are taking on more tasks in warehouses, speeding up operations and reducing accidents that claim many lives each year. This work proposes a dynamic path planning algorithm, based on A* search method for large autonomous mobile robots such as forklifts, and generates an optimized, time-efficient path. Simulation results of the proposed turn and orientation sensitive A* algorithm show that it has a 94% success rate of computing a better or similar path compared to that of default A*. The generated paths are smoother, have fewer turns, resulting in faster execution of tasks. The method also robustly handles …

Design Of Hardware Cnn Accelerators For Audio And Image Classification, Rohini Jayachandre Gillela

Theses

Ever wondered how the world was before the internet was invented? You might soon wonder how the world would survive without self-driving cars and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). The extensive research taking place in this rapidly evolving field is making self-driving cars futuristic and more reliable. The goal of this research is to design and develop hardware Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) accelerators for self-driving cars, that can process audio and visual sensory information. The idea is to imitate a human brain that takes audio and visual data as input while driving. To achieve a single die that can process …

Adaptive Reuse As A Means For Socially Sustainable (Re)Development: How Reuse Of Existing Buildings Can Help To Establish Community Identity And Foster Local Pride, Ian Gauger

Theses

Two trends in building today are urbanization and a focus on sustainability. Concerns about sustainability, especially in building and city design, have been growing for decades now, and are being driven forward by fears over the effects of climate change. Urbanization is rapid population growth in many cities around the world caused by an influx of people from suburban, exurban, and rural communities. In some parts of the United States which experienced suburbanization during the middle part of the 20th century, this is a return of population to the city, or a reurbanization. This growth has led to a need …

Elucidating The Effect Of Temperature And Concentration On The Rotational Diffusion Of Yb– Crystallin To Elucidate Inter-Protein Interactions, Olivia Fraser

Theses

γB – crystallin is a 21 kDa protein found in the lens of the bovine eye, existing without turnover. It shares 76% sequence identity with a human lens protein, γD – crystallin, with a structural RMSD of 0.8 Å by Dali (174 residues, Cα atoms only). Damages to and abnormalities on crystallin proteins can lead to phase separation and aggregation in the lens, resulting from aberrant inter-protein interactions, which can lead to partial or total blindness by cataract. The purpose of this work is to elucidate global inter-protein interactions of wild-type γB – crystallin by T1 and T2 relaxation NMR …

Financial Fraud Detection Using Machine Learning Techniques, Matar Al Marri, Ahmad Alali

Theses

Payments related fraud is a key aspect of cyber-crime agencies and recent research has shown that machine learning techniques can be applied successfully to detect fraudulent transactions in large amounts of payments data. Such techniques have the ability to detect fraudulent transactions that human auditors may not be able to catch and also do this on a real time basis. In this project, we apply multiple supervised machine learning techniques to the problem of fraud detection using a publicly available simulated payment transactions data. We aim to demonstrate how supervised ML techniques can be used to classify data with high …

Forensic Memory Classification Using Deep Recurrent Neural Networks, Aishwarya Afzulpurkar

Theses

The goal of this project is to advance the application of machine learning frameworks and tools in the process of malware detection. Specifically, a deep neural network architecture is proposed to classify application modules as benign or malicious, using the lower level memory block patterns that make up these modules. The modules correspond to blocks of functionality within files used in kernel and OS level processes as well as user level applications. The learned model is proposed to reside in an isolated core with strict communication restrictions to achieve incorruptibility as well as efficiency, therefore providing a probabilistic memory-level view …

Taxi Trips Prediction And Bus Capacity Coverage Analysis, Mohammad Odeh

Theses

Transportation agencies aim to serve the commuters with different transport modes through their transportation network, and they try to predict the demand to fulfil it either by optimizing their operation or by expanding their network and fleet capacity, and the only available data is the daily ridership data that can be captured by their ticketing system, this kind of data will help in optimizing the current operation in order to enhance availability of service and meeting the current demand. Encouraging people to use public transportation requires collecting more data about individuals trips using other modes like cars, taxi, Uber and …

Application Of Biochar As An Additive To Enhance Biomethane Potential In Anaerobic Digestion, Cecilia B. Frias Flores

Theses

Energy and useful materials can be produced by applying biological and thermal conversion processes such as anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis. Agricultural and industrial wastes seem to be the most attractive substrates since they are essentially unlimited resources. Pyrolysis has been used mostly for the conversion of biomass to bio-crude and biochar, a stable form of nearly pure carbon that has application in many agricultural and environmental applications. There is a widespread literature describing use of biochar as an additive to stabilize the anaerobic digestion process. We studied the effects that biochar has on the biomethane potential (BMP) during anaerobic digestion …

Aggregation As An Efficiency Driver In Bulk Heterojunction Devices Measured Through Mixed Squaraines In Ternary Blends, Soumya Gupta

Theses

While OPV offers great promise as a low-cost renewable energy source, the relatively low efficiency still challenges its commercialization potential. SQ dyes offer significant potential as a light-absorbing layer in OPV because of their high extinction coefficient, broad spectral absorption, and ease of tuning the chemical structure and packing motif. Devices incorporating SQ dyes, however, have shown low PCE. In this preliminary work, we seek to explore the relationship between low power conversion efficiency (PCE) of Squaraine (SQ) related Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) systems and the formation of aggregates with the help of mixed SQs in ternary blends. Four aniline based …

Detecting Performance Regression Inducing Code Changes Using Static And Dynamic Metrics, Hiten Gupta

Theses

Performance regression testing is a cost-intensive task as it delays the system development. The process, if performed in Iterations, significantly slows down the developer’s pace. Hence, it is essential to execute the performance tests only on the new commit and not the whole system, as regression is induced by a newly made change to the system. This work presents a novel contribution to the detection of performance regression inducing code changes to solve the optimization problem. In this study, we combine the static and dynamic metrics as features to train classifiers to predict the performance regression if introduced by the …

Identifying Performance Regression From The Commit Phase Utilizing Machine Learning Techniques, Max Mendelson

Theses

Over the lifespan of a software application, it is inevitable that changes to the source code will be made that causes unintended slowdowns in functionality. These slowdowns are referred to as performance regression. Typically projects who are particularly concerned about performance have performance testing that are run to identify if a performance regression is introduced into the code. This is difficult however due to how time consuming and resource intensive running performance tests are when trying to simulate a realistic scenario.

The study of De Oliveira et. al. (Perphecy) [4] suggests a technique to predict the likelihood that a commit …

Exploration Of The Process Of Building Brand Equity As A Digital Painter, Andrew Lim

Theses

The mainstream debut of the World Wide Web in the 20th century has increased the use of branding from its simple origins of being a visual marker into a multi-faceted entity. Branding has evolved to become a multi-faceted effort that creates rational and emotional attributes and can foster interactions and develop and deepen relationships with customers (Rubinstein, 2002).

The boom of the Internet brought forth new inventions and software that affected many industries, particularly the arts. A new emergent form of art known as digital painting emerged where a drawing tablet, stylus and digital image rendering software such as Adobe …

All-Passive Composite Right/Left-Handed (Crlh) Antenna Array For Sum And Difference Patterns, Vu James Le

Theses

Monopulse tracker is a system that uses the sum and difference radiation patterns to track. If there is a target in the beam, the tracker receives an echo from it following each transmitted pulse. The target range or distance is readily determined by multiplying half the time delay between the transmitted and received pulses by the speed of light. Typically, the sum and difference patterns are obtained by adding and subtracting individual beam patterns electronically or using RF components, such as: hybrid junctions, directional couplers. However, RF components are frequency dependent. Once they are used to realize the sum pattern …

The Design Of A Custom 32-Bit Risc Cpu And Port To Gcc Compiler Backend, Danielle Megan Fischer

Theses

This paper presents the design of a 32-bit RISC processor, which is then mapped to the backend of GCC so basic C code can be compiled successfully to the processor. There are many design decisions that go into the construction of a processor. The instruction set architecture gives away a lot of information regarding the individual instructions that the processor will have, the memory architecture, as well as how I/O peripherals will be handled. Additionally, the hardware implementation of the processor needs to be kept in mind when crating the design. Pipelining can often help with processor speed, while cache …

Have Objects, Will Travel: Object-Based Outreach To Solstice Independent Living At Fairport, New York, Taylor Carpenter

Theses

This thesis details my process in designing and delivering a program, “The Evolution of the Erie Canal,” to residents of the Solstice Senior Living at Fairport, New York, utilizing objects from the Rochester Museum & Science Center’s teaching collection. Given the ever-increasing population of American adults aged 55 and older, it is more important than ever for museums to create engaging programs aimed at this sector of the population. The goal of this project was to create a meaningful object-based experience for participants through discussion and reminiscence. My sources include findings from similar projects, literature on working with adult audiences, …

An Assessment Of Media Consumers’ Ability To Distinguish The Level Of Post-Processing In Journalistic Images, Emily Shriver

Theses

Photojournalists are held to a high degree of ethics because of the importance and impact of their work. To address this, several professional photojournalist organizations and publishers have created guidelines on how to appropriately post-process an image. Today the average media consumer is exposed to a diverse news landscape, and there is a tendency for consumers to trust photojournalistic images as being representative of the truth (Farid, 2006). This research considers to what extent can the average media consumer distinguish between ethically and unethically post-processed images.

This study aimed to discover how well people can distinguish between three categories of …

Design And Production Of 3d Animation Short Film “Memories Of The Post-80s”, Hui Shen

Theses

“The memories of the post-80s” is a 2minutes and 8 seconds 3D animated short film which tells a story of a young man named Kai who born in the post-80s in China, living in a modern, high-tech environment, but falling into a fantasy dream and reminiscing about his simple and happy life as a child. The most important question expressed in this short film is whether a more convenient, high-tech, fast-paced modern life is proportional to people's happiness index. The main reasons for this problem are multiple, such as working pressure, stressful life, repayment of loans, health, and so on. …

Modular Synthesis Of Dual- And Tri-Modal Targeted Molecular Imaging Agents, Nicholas C. Schug

Theses

There are few reported methods for combining two or three different imaging dyes, metals, or dye-metal combinations, followed by the conjugation of a disease- targeting group to enable the use a given imaging system for multiple imaging applications. Previously, peptides have been used as scaffolds for dyes and metals used in diagnostic techniques such as optical molecular imaging (OMI), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The aim of this project was to reassemble peptide-based imaging agents through a modular method by coupling together modules comprised of amino acids with imaging agents attached to their side chains to …

Assessing The Status Of Autonomous Vehicles Innovation Using Patent Data, Mamy Traore

Theses

The transportation industry is undergoing an unprecedented revolution as researchers in the field expect the adoption of autonomous vehicles (AV) in a not-too-distant future. Even though there is no fully automated vehicle on the road currently, several features of driver’s assistance (e.g., lane departure warning, rear cameras, blind-spot warning) are integrated into most of the recent vehicles. It is therefore fundamental for industry leaders and policymakers to comprehend the state-of-the-art of AV innovation. The main purpose of this study is to assess the current status of AV innovations in the U.S. market. My analysis, based on more than 2,000 patents …

Learning Riders' Preferences In Ridesharing Platforms, Ritaban Bhattacharya

Theses

Ridesharing platforms allow people to commute more efficiently. Ridesharing can be beneficial since it can reduce the travel expenses for individuals as well as decrease the overall traffic gridlocks. One of the key aspects of ridesharing platforms is for riders to find suitable partners to share the ride. Thus, the riders need to be matched to other riders/drivers. From the social perspective, a rider may prefer to share the ride with certain individuals as opposed to other riders. This leads to the rider having preferences over the other riders. A matching based on social welfare indicates the quality of the …

An Interactive Medication Reminder To Bond Senior Citizens And Their Family Members, Bei Liu

Theses

This project is about assisting seniors in their daily life. More and more senior citizens in the world are facing the problem of living alone. After research, I find that medication is a very important part of seniors’ life. My design is about medication reminder that can also connect the seniors with their family members. At first, I focused on the social relationship of senior citizens and started to research medication reminders in the market. I also read many books and magazines about the medication of senior citizens and try to figure out the size and volume of my design. …

A Sustainable Residential Community That Promotes Urban Dwellers’ Well-Being – New City Development In Nanjing China, Xingyan Wang

Theses

The process of rapid urbanization has brought not only opportunities for the development of urban areas but also challenges for the design of quality urban space, especially for residential neighborhoods and public spaces. For the past four decades, the most common housing option for urban dwellers in China has been an apartment in a high-rise concrete tower in a gated residential community. This type of housing model initially improved the living conditions for residents and helped to solve the land shortage issue; however, that model can no longer fulfill residents’ demand for well-being or maintain a sustainable way of living. …

Bayesian Methods For Radiometric Calibration In Motion Picture Encoding Workflows, Ricardo R. Figueroa

Theses

A method for estimating the Camera Response Function (CRF) of an electronic motion picture camera is presented in this work. The accurate estimation of the CRF allows for proper encoding of camera exposures into motion picture post-production workflows, like the Academy Color Encoding Specification (ACES), this being a necessary step to correctly combine images from different capture sources into one cohesive final production and minimize non-creative manual adjustments.

Although there are well known standard CRFs implemented in typical video camera workflows, motion picture workflows and newer High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging workflows have introduced new standard CRFs as well as …

Breathing Pacer Device For Stress And Anxiety Relief, Maria Grazia Guerrero Bejarano

Theses

Stress and stress-related physical and mental diseases are increasing and affecting more people every day. There have been many approaches to try to solve this issue. Many of them are based on the idea that meditation and mindfulness breathing could improve these conditions. The problem is that not everyone can achieve those levels of meditation for that to work. Another issue is that those solutions are relying on a particular way of breathing to help all.

In contrast, this project developed under research that shows that the amount of CO₂ in a person's exhaled breath could be an indicator of …

Neural Network Architectures And Ensembles For Packet Classification: Addressing Visibility, Security And Quality Of Service Challenges In Communication Networks, Bruce Hartpence

Theses

Increasingly researchers are turning to machine learning techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANN) to address communication network research challenges in the areas of enhanced security, quality of service, visibility and control. Central to each is the need to classify packets. Determining an effective architecture for the artificial neural network is more difficult because traditional techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) show reduced effectiveness. Presented are the techniques for preprocessing datasets and selecting input traffic features for the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) architecture. This methodology achieves classification accuracy above 99%.

An investigation into neural network architectures revealed the optimal structure …

Self-Supervised Learning For Segmentation Using Image Reconstruction, Srivallabha Karnam

Theses

Deep learning is the engine that is piloting tremendous growth in various segments of the industry by consuming valuable fuel called data. We are witnessing many businesses adopting this technology be it healthcare, transportation, defense, semiconductor, or retail. But most of the accomplishments that we see now rely on supervised learning. Supervised learning needs a substantial volume of labeled data which are usually annotated by humans- an arduous and expensive task often leading to datasets that are insufficient in size or human labeling errors. The performance of deep learning models is only as good as the data. Self-supervised learning minimizes …

Parallelized Robustness Computation For Cyber Physicalsystems Verification, Joseph Cralley

Theses

Failures in cyber physical systems can be costly in terms of money and lives. The marsclimate orbiter alone had a mission cost of 327.6 million USD which was almostcompletely wasted do to an uncaught design flaw. This shows the importance of beingable to define formal requirements as well as being able to test the design against theserequirements. One way to define requirements is in Metric Temporal Logic (MTL), whichallows for constraints that also have a time component. MTL can also have a distancemetric defined that allows for the calculation of how close the MTL constraint is to beingfalsified. This is …

Effect Of Building Orientation On Structural Response Of Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frame Structures, Amanullah Parsa

Theses

In time history analysis of structures, the geometric mean of two orthogonal horizontal components of ground motion in the as-recorded direction of sensors, have been used as measure of ground motion intensity prior to the 2009 NEHRP provision. The 2009 NEHRP Provisions and accordingly the seismic design provisions of the ASCE/SEI 7-10, modified the definition of ground motion intensity measure from geometric mean to the maximum direction ground motion, corresponding to the direction that results in peak response of the oscillator. Maximum direction response spectra are assumed to envelope the range of maximum possible responses over all nonredundant rotation angles. …

Experimental Investigation Of Corrosion Of Coated Cast Iron Rotors In The Automotive Industry, Prabin Parajuli

Theses

Electric and hybrid vehicles uses regenerative braking, where application of the brake triggers the electric motor to work as a generator to produce electricity, which in turn charges the battery. This results in much less use of the friction brake, changing the corrosion and wear behavior of the rotor surface. There is a need for research on this topic, since fully electric or hybrid vehicles are replacing combustion engines due to concerns about global warming and climate change. Here the corrosion behavior of coated cast iron vehicle rotors in 3.5wt% NaCl is studied. The corrosion study has been performed using …