Computer Engineering Commons^™

Autonomous Aerial Water Sampling, John-Paul W. Ore

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Obtaining spatially separated, high frequency water samples from rivers and lakes is critical to enhance our understanding and effective management of fresh water resources. In this thesis we present an aerial water sampler and verify the system in field experiments. The aerial water sampler has the potential to vastly increase the speed and range at which scientists obtain water samples while reducing cost and effort. The water sampling system includes: 1) a mechanism to capture three 20 ml samples per mission; 2) sensors and algorithms for safe navigation and altitude approximation over water; and 3) software components that integrate and …

Avida Checkpoint/Restart Implementation, Nilab Mohammad Mousa

McNair Scholars Research Journal

As high performance computing centers (HPCC) continue to grow in popularity, issues of resource management and reliability are becoming limiting factors in scheduling long-running jobs. One of the factors is time. Efficacy of Avida, the platform of research for digital evolution, is limited by the allocated time available on HPCC. Saving the state of the software at a point and restarting the execution from the paused state will allow for better resource utilization, as well as help reduce restrictions that constrain the potential of the software. This research examines whether or not Berkeley Lab Checkpoint/Restart (BLCR) can be integrated with …

Computational-Communicative Actions Of Informational Processing, Florentin Smarandache, Stefan Vladutescu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This study is circumscribed to the Information Science. The zetetic aim of research is double: a) to define the concept of action of informational processing and b) to design a taxonomy of actions of informational processing. First, the investigation trays to demonstrate that the computational actions of informational processing or the informational actions are computational-investigative configurations for structuring information: clusters of highly-aggregated operations which are carried out in a unitary manner operate convergently and behave like a unique computational device. From a methodological point of view, they are comprised within the category of analytical instruments for the informational processing of …

Robust Tracking With Discriminative Ranking Middle-Level Patches, Hong Liu, Zilin Liang, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The appearance model has been shown to be essential for robust visual tracking since it is the basic criterion to locating targets in video sequences. Though existing tracking-by-detection algorithms have shown to be greatly promising, they still suffer from the drift problem, which is caused by updating appearance models. In this paper, we propose a new appearance model composed of ranking middle-level patches to capture more object distinctiveness than traditional tracking-by-detection models. Targets and backgrounds are represented by both low-level bottom-up features and high-level top-down patches, which can compensate each other. Bottom-up features are defined at the pixel level, and …

Twill: A Hybrid Microcontroller-Fpga Framework For Parallelizing Single- Threaded C Programs, Douglas S. Gallatin

Master's Theses

Increasingly System-On-A-Chip platforms which incorporate both micropro- cessors and re-programmable logic are being utilized across several fields ranging from the automotive industry to network infrastructure. Unfortunately, the de- velopment tools accompanying these products leave much to be desired, requiring knowledge of both traditional embedded systems languages like C and hardware description languages like Verilog. We propose to bridge this gap with Twill, a truly automatic hybrid compiler that can take advantage of the parallelism inherent in these platforms. Twill can extract long-running threads from single threaded C code and distribute these threads across the hardware and software domains to more …

Compacting Loads And Stores For Code Size Reduction, Isaac Asay

Master's Theses

It is important for compilers to generate executable code that is as small as possible, particularly when generating code for embedded systems. One method of reducing code size is to use instruction set architectures (ISAs) that support combining multiple operations into single operations. The ARM ISA allows for combining multiple memory operations to contiguous memory addresses into a single operation. The LLVM compiler contains a specific memory optimization to perform this combining of memory operations, called ARMLoadStoreOpt. This optimization, however, relies on another optimization (ARMPreAllocLoadStoreOpt) to move eligible memory operations into proximity in order to perform properly. This mover optimization …

Los And Nlos Classification For Underwater Acoustic Localization, Roee Diamant, Hwee-Pink Tan, Lutz Lampe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The low sound speed in water makes propagation delay (PD)-based range estimation attractive for underwater acoustic localization (UWAL). However, due to the long channel impulse response and the existence of reflectors, PD-based UWAL suffers from significant degradation when PD measurements of nonline-of-sight (NLOS) communication links are falsely identified as line-of-sight (LOS). In this paper, we utilize expected variation of PD measurements due to mobility of nodes and present an algorithm to classify the former into LOS and NLOS links. First, by comparing signal strength-based and PD-based range measurements, we identify object-related NLOS (ONLOS) links, where signals are reflected from objects …

Providing Flexible File-Level Data Filtering For Big Data Analytics, Lei Xu, Ziling Huang, Hong Jiang, Lei Tian, David Swanson

School of Computing: Technical Reports

The enormous amount of big data datasets impose the needs for effective data filtering technique to accelerate the analytics process. We propose a Versatile Searchable File System, VSFS, which provides a transparent, flexible and near real-time file-level data filtering service by searching files directly through the file system. Therefore, big data analytics applications can transparently utilize this filtering service without application modifications. A versatile index scheme is designed to adapt to the exploratory and ad-hoc nature of the big data analytics activities. Moreover, VSFS uses a RAM-based distributed architecture to perform file indexing. The evaluations driven by three real-world analytics …

Secure Map Generation For Multiplayer, Turn-Based Strategy Games, Stephen L. Rice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In strategy games, players compete against each other on randomly generated maps in an attempt to prove their superior skill. Traditionally, these games rely on a client/server architecture with one player fulfilling the role of server and holding responsibility for the map generation process. We propose, analyze and evaluate a method that allows these maps to be created in a peer-to-peer fashion and thus reduce the potential for cheating. We provide an example map generation program that puts these concepts into action and demonstrate how it can be extended and customized for any game. Finally, we analyze the performance of …

Efficient Anonymous Biometric Matching In Privacy-Aware Environments, Ying Luo

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Video surveillance is an important tool used in security and environmental monitoring, however, the widespread deployment of surveillance cameras has raised serious privacy concerns. Many privacy-enhancing schemes have been recently proposed to automatically redact images of selected individuals in the surveillance video for protection. To identify these individuals for protection, the most reliable approach is to use biometric signals as they are immutable and highly discriminative. If misused, these characteristics of biometrics can seriously defeat the goal of privacy protection. In this dissertation, an Anonymous Biometric Access Control (ABAC) procedure is proposed based on biometric signals for privacy-aware video surveillance. …

A Federated Architecture For Heuristics Packet Filtering In Cloud Networks, Ibrahim M. Waziri Jr

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The rapid expansion in networking has provided tremendous opportunities to access an unparalleled amount of information. Everyone connects to a network to gain access and to share this information. However when someone connects to a public network, his private network and information becomes vulnerable to hackers and all kinds of security threats. Today, all networks needs to be secured, and one of the best security policies is firewall implementation.

Firewalls can be hardware or cloud based. Hardware based firewalls offer the advantage of faster response time, whereas cloud based firewalls are more flexible. In reality the best form of firewall …

Measuring Security: A Challenge For The Generation, Janusz Zalewski, Steven Drager, William Mckeever, Andrew J. Kornecki

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Daytona Beach

This paper presents an approach to measuring computer security understood as a system property, in the category of similar properties, such as safety, reliability, dependability, resilience, etc. First, a historical discussion of measurements is presented, beginning with views of Hermann von Helmholtz in his 19th century work “Zählen und Messen”. Then, contemporary approaches related to the principles of measuring software properties are discussed, with emphasis on statistical, physical and software models. A distinction between metrics and measures is made to clarify the concepts. A brief overview of inadequacies of methods and techniques to evaluate computer security is presented, followed by …

Keeping The Skies Safe, Massood Towhidnejad, Andrew J. Kornecki

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Daytona Beach

Professors Massood Towhidnejad and Andrew Kornecki shine a light on how their lab is helping government and the aviation industry to enhance the safety and security of software-intensive systems.

A Hypernet Architecture, Shufeng Huang

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Network virtualization is becoming a fundamental building block of future Internet architectures. By adding networking resources into the “cloud”, it is possible for users to rent virtual routers from the underlying network infrastructure, connect them with virtual channels to form a virtual network, and tailor the virtual network (e.g., load application-specific networking protocols, libraries and software stacks on to the virtual routers) to carry out a specific task. In addition, network virtualization technology allows such special-purpose virtual networks to co-exist on the same set of network infrastructure without interfering with each other.

Although the underlying network resources needed to support …

Perception Based Misunderstandings In Human-Computer Dialogues, Niels Schütte, John D. Kelleher, Brian Mac Namee

Articles

In a situated dialogue, misunderstandings may arise if the participants perceive or interpret the environment in different ways. In human-computer dialogue this may be due the sensor errors. We present an experiment system and a series of experiments in which we investigate this problem.

Improving C2 Effectiveness Based On Robust Connectivity, S. Deller, A. Tolk, G. Rabadi, S. Bowling

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

This chapter describes an approach to develop an improved metric for network effectiveness through the use of Cares' (2005) Information Age Combat Model (IACM) as a context for combat (or competition) between networked forces. The IACM highlights the inadequacy of commonly used quantifiable metrics with regards to comparing networks that differ only by the placement of a few links. An agent-based simulation is used to investigate the potential value of the Perron-Frobenius Eigenvalue (λ_PFE) as an indicator of network effectiveness. The results validate this assumption. Another measurement is proven to be equally important, namely the robustness of a …

Evaluating Electronic Market Designs: The Effects Of Competitive Arousal And Social Facilitation On Electronic Group Buying, Yuecheng Yu, Karl R. Lang, Alex Pelaez

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This article presents an evaluation approach foralternative electronic market designs and examines theimpact of competitive arousal under time pressure onmarket performance in a group-buying setting. Drawingon theory from economics, decision theory, andinformation systems, we present a competitive arousalmodel for a social buying setting that posits thatintroducing competitive arousal among buyers reducesbuyer profits and that social facilitation can mitigate thesecosts through better task completion and time tocompletion rates. Using an economic experiment, wefound that rivalry has a negative effect on buyer profitsbut also that competitive arousal increases the efficiencyof social facilitation in terms of group formation. Wediscuss the implications of these …

Myspace, Inc. V. Graphon Corp.: Ignoring The Basic Premise That 101 Must Come Before 102 And 103, Emmanuel A. Fishelman

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Measuring And Modelling The Thermal Performance Of The Tamar Suspension Bridge Using A Wireless Sensor Network, Nicholas De Battista, James M. W. Brownjohn, Hwee-Pink Tan, Ki Young Koo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A study on the thermal performance of the Tamar Suspension Bridge deck in Plymouth, UK, is presented in this paper. Ambient air, suspension cable, deck and truss temperatures were acquired using a wired sensor system. Deck extension data were acquired using a two-hop wireless sensor network. Empirical models relating the deck extension to various combinations of temperatures were derived and compared. The most accurate model, which used all the four temperature variables, predicted the deck extension with an accuracy of 99.4%. Time delays ranging from 10 to 66 min were identified between the daily cycles of the air temperature and …

Using Software-Based Decision Procedures To Control Instruction-Level Execution, William B. Kimball

AFIT Patents

An apparatus, method and program product are provided for securing a computer system. A digital signature of an application is checked, which is loaded into a memory of the computer system configured to contain memory pages. In response to finding a valid digital signature, memory pages containing instructions of the application are set as executable and memory pages other than those containing instructions of the application are set as non-executable. Instructions in executable memory pages are executed. Instructions in non-executable memory pages are prevented from being executed. A page fault is generated in response to an attempt to execute an …

Tascked: The Sanity Promoting Task Manager, Jake Tobin

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Personal task managers or various forms of to-do lists are abundant in our modern computing age. With the explosion of mobile computing technology, it is easier than ever to take notes digitally and make the data seemingly instantly available anywhere on the Internet. There is a fairly well defined core set of features in personal task managers available for public consumption, but it seems nothing that is publicly available provides feedback to the user or suggestions based on user history. Tascked is a task management solution, which records user history and solicits user feedback on progress. This allows the system …

On High-Performance Parallel Fixed-Point Decimal Multiplier Designs, Ming Zhu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

High-performance, area-efficient hardware implementation of decimal multiplication is preferred to slow software simulations in a number of key scientific and financial application areas, where errors caused by converting decimal numbers into their approximate binary representations are not acceptable.

Multi-digit parallel decimal multipliers involve two major stages: (i) the partial product generation (PPG) stage, where decimal partial products are determined by selecting the right versions of the pre-computed multiples of the multiplicand, followed by (ii) the partial product accumulation (PPA) stage, where all the partial products are shifted and then added together to obtain the final multiplication product. In this thesis, …

Adaptive Computer‐Generated Forces For Simulator‐Based Training, Expert Systems With Applications, Teck-Hou Teng, Ah-Hwee Tan, Loo-Nin Teow

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Simulator-based training is in constant pursuit of increasing level of realism. The transition from doctrine-driven computer-generated forces (CGF) to adaptive CGF represents one such effort. The use of doctrine-driven CGF is fraught with challenges such as modeling of complex expert knowledge and adapting to the trainees’ progress in real time. Therefore, this paper reports on how the use of adaptive CGF can overcome these challenges. Using a self-organizing neural network to implement the adaptive CGF, air combat maneuvering strategies are learned incrementally and generalized in real time. The state space and action space are extracted from the same hierarchical doctrine …

Vehicular Motion Sensor: Developing A Wide-Range Motion Sensing Alarm System, Joshua Isaacson

Senior Honors Theses

Vehicular safety has become a serious concern in recent years. Many drivers have difficulty backing out of parking spaces, especially when large trucks and sport utility vehicles block the peripheral view from smaller vehicles. This can lead to accidents and pedestrian injuries when drivers are unable to see or do not pay careful attention to their surroundings.

Vehicular motion sensor systems can alert drivers of approaching obstacles when attempting to back out of parking spaces with limited visibility. This thesis aims to explain the limitations of current systems and the research conducted by the author to develop a prototype for …

D-Tunes: Configuration Engine For Geo-Replicated Cloud Storage, Jiawei Wang, Sanjay Rao

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

When developing a web-based application, developers are facing stringent requirements to balance the latency, scalability and availability for their cloud database. Application developers need a specific replication configuration strategy based on the requirement of their application. To deal with this problem, some geo-replicated cloud strategy systems have emerged recently, like Cassandra. This project serves to design a web tool that can help configure the best replication strategies for geo-distributed data stores, which uses quorum-based protocols. Currently, our web tool D-Tunes, require a minimum input from users and generate specific scripts based on the inputs user provided. The program running these …

Open Cortex-M0™ Modular Debug Unit, Chuan Yean Tan, Matthew Swabey

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The debug unit of a modern digital system on chip (SoC) is a critical unit that allows users to monitor and analyze the chip’s activity that occurs throughout a SoC design. Selection of the debug unit’s correct feature set and architecture are critical to the success of the design. Debugging systems that exist have different architectures and are closely coupled to their host SoCs. As a consequence they are resource intensive to improve on due to the different nature of each SoC designs. Moreover, the bus protocols that allow the debug unit to interact with the SoC design are often …

Clustering Algorithms For Maximizing The Lifetime Of Wireless Sensor Networks With Energy-Harvesting Sensors, Pengfei Zhang, Gaoxi Xiao, Hwee-Pink Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Motivated by recent developments in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), we present several efficient clustering algorithms for maximizing the lifetime of WSNs, i.e., the duration till a certain percentage of the nodes die. Specifically, an optimization algorithm is proposed for maximizing the lifetime of a single-cluster network, followed by an extension to handle multi-cluster networks. Then we study the joint problem of prolonging network lifetime by introducing energy-harvesting (EH) nodes. An algorithm is proposed for maximizing the network lifetime where EH nodes serve as dedicated relay nodes for cluster heads (CHs). Theoretical analysis and extensive simulation results show that the proposed …

An Experimental Study For Inter-User Interference Mitigation In Wireless Body Sensor Networks, Bin Cao, Yu Ge, Chee Wee Kim, Gang Feng, Hwee-Pink Tan, Yun Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Inter-user interference degrades the reliability of data delivery in wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) in dense deployments when multiple users wearing WBSNs are in close proximity to one another. The impact of such interference in realistic WBSN systems is significant but is not well explored. To this end, we investigate and analyze the impact of inter-user interference on packet delivery ratio (PDR) and throughput. We conduct extensive experiments based on the TelosB WBSN platform, considering unslotted carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) with collision avoidance (CA) and slotted CSMA/CA modes in IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, respectively. In order to mitigate interuser interference, …

Evaluating The Presence Of A Victim Cache On An Arm Processor, Lakshmi Vidya Peri

Computer Science Graduate Projects and Theses

Mobile processor is a CPU designed to save power. It is found in mobile computers and cell phones. A CPU chip, designed for portable computers, is typically housed in a smaller chip package, but more importantly, in order to run cooler, it uses lower voltages than its desktop counterpart and has more "sleep mode" capability. A mobile processor can be throttled down to different power levels and/or sections of the chip can be turned off entirely when not in use. ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA). The relative simplicity of ARM processors makes …

The Mayaarch3d Project: A 3d Webgis For Analyzing Ancient Architecture And Landscapes, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Giorgio Agugario, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

There is a need in the humanities for a 3D WebGIS with analytical tools that allow researchers to analyze 3D models linked to spatially referenced data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow for complex spatial analysis of 2.5D data. For example, they offer bird’s eye views of landscapes with extruded building footprints, but one cannot ‘get on the ground’ and interact with true 3D models from a pedestrian perspective. Meanwhile, 3D models and virtual environments visualize data in 3D space, but analytical tools are simple rotation or lighting effects. The MayaArch3D Project is developing a 3D WebGIS—called QueryArch3D—to allow these two …