Computer Engineering Commons^™

Ceg 726-01: Pattern Recognition, Arthur A. Goshtasby

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course will cover fundamentals of Pattern Recognition, including supervised learning and clustering.

Cs 271/Bio 371: Introduction To Bioinformatics, Michael L. Raymer, Dan E. Krane

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ceg 461/661-01: Object-Oriented Programming And Design, Thomas C. Hartrum

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Study of object-oriented design and programming. Programming topics emphasize the core concepts of encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and dynamic binding. Additional topics include class organization, software maintenance, and design of reusable components. There is a project to be implemented in a modem object-oriented language such as Java or C++.

Ceg 770-01: Computer Engineering Mathematics, Jack Jean

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Cs 499/699: Cloud Computing, Keke Chen

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This is an introductory course to cloud computing. In this course, we will explore a few aspects of cloud computing: distributed data crunching with MapReduce, cloud and datacenter filesystems, virtualization, cloud security&privacy, Amazon Web Services, and interactive web-based applications. Students are expected to read extra materials including papers and online resources, finish several mini projects, and take the final exam. Participation in the class discussion is strongly encouraged. Guest speakers might be invited for some particular topics. (3 Hours Lecture + 1 Hour lab).

Cs 399-01: Ios Programming, Erik Marlow Buck

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Cs 415: Social Implications Of Computing, Leo Finkelstein

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

CS 415 is a communication skills course using as its subject matter current salient issues associated with the social implications of computing. In addition to the course text, you will need to use certain reading materials in the library and elsewhere, and you will be responsible for using concepts and theories provided in class and lectures and discussions.

Cs 206-01: Computer Software Productivity Tools, John P. Herzog

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Focus on learning MS Office software applications including advanced topics in spreadsheets, database and presentation graphics, using a case study approach where critical thinking and problem solving skills are required. Computer concepts are integrated throughout the course to provide an understanding of advanced computing, the latest technological advances and how they are used in industry. Ethics and issues encountered in business are discussed to challenge students on societal impact of technology.

Cs 466/666: Introduction To Formal Languages, Guozhu Dong

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

CS 466/666 is an introduction to formal language and automata theory. In this course we will examine methods for defining syntax of languages and recognizing patterns in strings/sentences: the syntax of languages can be defined using grammars and the patterns can be accepted by finite state machines. Along with presenting the fundamentals of these two topics, the course will develop and investigate the relationships between language definition mechanisms and pattern recognition devices. The text will be the third edition of Languages and Machines: An Introduction to the Theory of Computer Science, by Thomas Sudkamp.

Provable De-Anonymization Of Large Datasets With Sparse Dimensions, Anupam Datta, Divya Sharma, Arunesh Sinha

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There is a significant body of empirical work on statistical de-anonymization attacks against databases containing micro-dataabout individuals, e.g., their preferences, movie ratings, or transactiondata. Our goal is to analytically explain why such attacks work. Specifically, we analyze a variant of the Narayanan-Shmatikov algorithm thatwas used to effectively de-anonymize the Netflix database of movie ratings. We prove theorems characterizing mathematical properties of thedatabase and the auxiliary information available to the adversary thatenable two classes of privacy attacks. In the first attack, the adversarysuccessfully identifies the individual about whom she possesses auxiliaryinformation (an isolation attack). In the second attack, the adversarylearns additional …

Improving Backup And Restore Performance For Deduplication-Based Cloud Backup Services, Stephen Mkandawire

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The benefits provided by cloud computing and the space savings offered by data deduplication make it attractive to host data storage services like backup in the cloud. Data deduplication relies on comparing fingerprints of data chunks, and store them in the chunk index, to identify and remove redundant data, with an ultimate goal of saving storage space and network bandwidth.

However, the chunk index presents a bottleneck to the throughput of the backup operation. While several solutions to address deduplication throughput have been proposed, the chunk index is still a centralized resource and limits the scalability of both storage capacity …

A Vision-Based Automatic Safe Landing-Site Detection System, Yufei Shen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

An automatic safe landing-site detection system is proposed for aircraft emergency landing, based on visible information acquired by aircraft-mounted cameras. Emergency landing is an unplanned event in response to emergency situations. If, as is unfortunately usually the case, there is no airstrip or airfield that can be reached by the un-powered aircraft, a crash landing or ditching has to be carried out. Identifying a safe landing-site is critical to the survival of passengers and crew. Conventionally, the pilot chooses the landing-site visually by looking at the terrain through the cockpit. The success of this vital decision greatly depends on the …

Exploring The Components Of Dynamic Modeling Techniques, Charles Daniel Turnitsa

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Upon defining the terms modeling and simulation, it becomes apparent that there is a wide variety of different models, using different techniques, appropriate for different levels of representation for any one system to be modeled. Selecting an appropriate conceptual modeling technique from those available is an open question for the practitioner. Existing methods for describing techniques do not capture enough information about the expressive potential of those techniques such that an appropriate selection decision can be made. A formal method to describe conceptual modeling techniques that captures enough about the technique to distinguish it from others is identified as a …

An Efficient Boosted Classifier Tree-Based Feature Point Tracking System For Facial Expression Analysis, Adam Redd Livingston

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The study of facial movement and expression has been a prominent area of research since the early work of Charles Darwin. The Facial Action Coding System (FACS), developed by Paul Ekman, introduced the first universal method of coding and measuring facial movement. Human-Computer Interaction seeks to make human interaction with computer systems more effective, easier, safer, and more seamless. Facial expression recognition can be broken down into three distinctive subsections: Facial Feature Localization, Facial Action Recognition, and Facial Expression Classification. The first and most important stage in any facial expression analysis system is the localization of key facial features. Localization …

Image-Guided Robotic Dental Implantation With Natural-Root-Formed Implants, Xiaoyan Sun

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Dental implantation is now recognized as the standard of the care for tooth replacement. Although many studies show high short term survival rates greater than 95%, long term studies (> 5 years) have shown success rates as low as 41.9%. Reasons affecting the long term success rates might include surgical factors such as limited accuracy of implant placement, lack of spacing controls, and overheating during the placement.

In this dissertation, a comprehensive solution for improving the outcome of current dental implantation is presented, which includes computer-aided preoperative planning for better visualization of patient-specific information and automated robotic site-preparation for superior …

Health Nexus: A Serious Game Prototype For Prevention And Treatment Of Obesity And Diabetes, Joseph C. Miller

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Electronic games are a prevalent phenomenon of American culture and entertainment. Serious games are video games that take advantage of games' intrinsic entertaining and challenging characteristics for serious purposes, such as education, training, advertisement, and political campaigns. A significant number of serious games have been developed for a variety of diverse purposes. The last few years have witnessed the inception and growth of motion sensing technologies for games, including Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation Move, and Microsoft Kinect. These motion sensing technologies usually require game players' physical body movement in order to perform and achieve in the games, such as playing …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Algorithms For Visual Maritime Surveillance With Rapidly Moving Camera, Sergiy Fefilatyev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Visual surveillance in the maritime domain has been explored for more than a decade. Although it has produced a number of working systems and resulted in a mature technology, surveillance has been restricted to the port facilities or areas close to the coastline assuming a fixed-camera scenario. This dissertation presents several contributions in the domain of maritime surveillance. First, a novel algorithm for open-sea visual maritime surveillance is introduced. We explore a challenging situation with a camera mounted on a buoy or other floating platform. The developed algorithm detects, localizes, and tracks ships in the field of view of the …

Overcoming Limitations Of Serial Audio Search, Isabela Cordeiro Ribeiro Moura Hidalgo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The typical approach for finding audio recordings, such as music and sound effects, in a database is to enter some textual information into a search field. The results appear summarized in a list of textual descriptions of the audio files along with a function for playing back the recordings. Exploring such a list sequentially is a time-consuming and tedious way to search for sounds. This research evaluates whether searching for audio information can become more effective with a user interface capable of presenting multiple audio streams simultaneously.

A prototype audio player was developed with a user interface suitable for both …

Extreme Learning Machine Terrain-Based Navigation For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Ee May Kan, Meng Hiot Lim, Yew Soon Ong, Ah-Hwee Tan, Swee Ping Yeo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) rely on global positioning system (GPS) information to ascertain its position for navigation during mission execution. In the absence of GPS information, the capability of a UAV to carry out its intended mission is hindered. In this paper, we learn alternative means for UAVs to derive real-time positional reference information so as to ensure the continuity of the mission. We present extreme learning machine as a mechanism for learning the stored digital elevation information so as to aid UAVs to navigate through terrain without the need for GPS. The proposed algorithm accommodates the need of the …

Towards Fine-Grained Radio-Based Indoor Location, Jie Xiong, Kyle Jamieson

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Location systems are key to a rich experience for mobile users. When they roam outdoors, mobiles can usually count on a clear GPS signal for an accurate location, but indoors, GPS usually fades, and so up until recently, mobiles have had to rely mainly on rather coarse-grained signal strength readings for location. What has changed this status quo is the recent trend of dramatically increasing numbers of antennas at the indoor AP, mainly to bolster capacity and coverage with multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. In the near future, the number of antennas at the access point will increase several-fold, to meet …

A Threshold-Based Approach To Calorimetry In Helium Droplets: Measurement Of Binding Energies Of Water Clusters, William K. Lewis, Barbara A. Harruff-Miller, Michael A. Gord, Joseph R. Gord, Elena A. Guliants, Christopher E. Bunker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Helium dropletbeam methods have emerged as a versatile technique that can be used to assemble a wide variety of atomic and molecular clusters. We have developed a method to measure the binding energies of clusters assembled in helium droplets by determining the minimum droplet sizes required to assemble and detect selected clusters in the spectrum of the dopeddropletbeam. The differences in the droplet sizes required between the various multimers are then used to estimate the incremental binding energies. We have applied this method to measure the binding energies of cyclic waterclusters from the dimer to the tetramer. We obtain measured …

How Is M&S Interoperability Different From Other Interoperability Domains?, Andreas Tolk, Saikou Y. Diallo, Jose J. Padilla, Charles D. Turnitsa

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

During every standard workshop or event, the examples of working interoperability solutions are used to motivate for 'plug and play' standards for M&S as well, like standardized batteries for electronics, or the use of XML to exchange data between heterogeneous systems. While these are successful applications of standards, they are off the mark regarding M&S interoperability. The challenge of M&S is that the product that needs to be made interoperable is not the service or the system alone, but the model behind it as well. The paper shows that the alignment of conceptualizations is the real problem that is not …

Forensic Analysis Of Social Networking Applications On Mobile Devices, Noora Al Mutawa, Ibrahim Baggili, Andrew Marrington

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The increased use of social networking applications on smartphones makes these devices a goldmine for forensic investigators. Potential evidence can be held on these devices and recovered with the right tools and examination methods. This paper focuses on conducting forensic analyses on three widely used social networking applications on smartphones: Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. The tests were conducted on three popular smartphones: BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Android phones. The tests consisted of installing the social networking applications on each device, conducting common user activities through each application, acquiring a forensically sound logical image of each device, and performing manual forensic analysis …

Comparing Android Applications To Find Copying, Larry Melling, Bob Zeidman

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Android smartphone operating system includes a Java virtual machine that enables rapid development and deployment of a wide variety of applications. The open nature of the platform means that reverse engineering of applications is relatively easy, and many developers are concerned as applications similar to their own show up in the Android marketplace and want to know if these applications are pirated. Fortunately, the same characteristics that make an Android application easy to reverse engineer and copy also provide opportunities for Android developers to compare downloaded applications to their own. This paper describes the process for comparing a developer’s …

Forensic Evidence Identification And Modeling For Attacks Against A Simulated Online Business Information System, Manghui Tu, Dianxiang Xu, Eugene Butler, Amanda Schwartz

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Forensic readiness of business information systems can support future forensics investigation or auditing on external/internal attacks, internal sabotage and espionage, and business fraud. To establish forensics readiness, it is essential for an organization to identify which fingerprints are relevant and where they can be located, to determine whether they are logged in a forensically sound way and whether all the needed fingerprints are available to reconstruct the events successfully. Also, a fingerprint identification and locating mechanism should be provided to guide potential forensics investigation in the future. Furthermore, mechanisms should be established to automate the security incident tracking and reconstruction …

To License Or Not To License Updated: An Examination Of State Statutes Regarding Private Investigators And Digital Examiners, Thomas Lonardo, Doug White, Alan Rea

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this update to the 2009 year's study, the authors examine statutes that regulate, license, and enforce investigative functions in each US state. After identification and review of Private Investigator licensing requirements, the authors find that very few state statutes explicitly differentiate between Private Investigators and Digital Examiners, but do see a trend of more states making some distinction. The authors contacted all state regulatory agencies where statutory language was not explicit, and as a result, set forth the various state approaches to professional Digital Examiner licensing. As was the case in the previous two iterations of this research, the …

Dns In Computer Forensics, Neil F. Wright

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Domain Name Service (DNS) is a critical core component of the global Internet and integral to the majority of corporate intranets. It provides resolution services between the human-readable name-based system addresses and the machine operable Internet Protocol (IP) based addresses required for creating network level connections. Whilst structured as a globally dispersed resilient tree data structure, from the Global and Country Code Top Level Domains (gTLD/ccTLD) down to the individual site and system leaf nodes, it is highly resilient although vulnerable to various attacks, exploits and systematic failures.

Simulation Visualization Rhetoric And It's Practical Implications, D'An Knowles Ball, Andrew J. Collins

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Modeling and simulation has moved far beyond simple data representation into the world of visual communication over the past 15 years; ultimately, the acceptance of M&S within mainstream science and society will depend on the results that are produced visually. A simulation’s function is of primary importance to its end result, but it cannot be denied that the discipline of M&S now prizes fancy graphics to communicate. Rhetorical methodological decisions have the greatest impact on the end user, and considerations that bring visual rhetoric to modeling and simulation should be examined as a necessity to application. This paper will expose …

Ipad2 Logical Acquisition: Automated Or Manual Examination?, Somaya Ali, Sumaya Alhosani, Farah Alzarooni, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Due to their usage increase worldwide, iPads are on the path of becoming key sources of digital evidence in criminal investigations. This research investigated the logical backup acquisition and examination of the iPad2 device using the Apple iTunes backup utility while manually examining the backup data (manual examination) and automatically parsing the backup data (Lantern software-automated examination).The results indicate that a manual examination of the logical backup structure from iTunes reveals more digital evidence, especially if installed application data is required for an investigation. However, the researchers note that if a quick triage is needed of an iOS device, then …