Computer Engineering Commons^™

Cs 142: Computer Programming Ii, Vanessa Starkey

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Concepts introduced in CS 141 are developed in greater detail and depth.
Emphasis on verification and testing of programs. Three hours of lecture, two hours lab.

System Dynamics Implementation Of An Extended Brander And Taylor-Like Easter Island Model, Takuro Uehara, Yoko Nagase, Wayne Wakeland

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

We provide a system dynamics implementation of a dynamic ecological economics model. Dynamic economic models are often constrained to use functions, such as the Cobb-Douglas function, chosen “conveniently” to allow for analytic solutions. The C-D function, however, suffers from its fixed elasticity that does not allow for the substitutability between man-made capital and natural capital to change, which is vital for economic sustainability. Using system dynamics removes this constraint and enables more realistic ecological economics models containing functions not amenable to analytic solution. The base model is the natural resource and population growth model developed by Brander and Taylor (1998) …

A Differential Absorption Model For Remote Sensing Of Atmospheric Pressure, Shivam J. Shah

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The goal of the project is to develop and test a "model based" radar processing strategy that is compatible with the concept of a "cognitive radar". The basic approach will be to develop a cognitive radar algorithm (genetic algorithm) based on the capabilities of an existing commercially available Software Radio. While the focus of this effort is the development of a candidate approach for genetic algorithm, the longer term goal would be to implement the approach using this software radio technology to provide a low cost radar processor. The proposed technology would use differential absorption radar working at the 50-56 …

Designing Software Product Lines For Testability, Isis Cabral

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Software product line (SPL) engineering offers several advantages in the development of families of software products such as reduced costs, high quality and a short time to market. A software product line is a set of software intensive systems, each of which shares a common core set of functionalities, but also differs from the other products through customization tailored to fit the needs of individual groups of customers. The differences between products within the family are well-understood and organized into a feature model that represents the variability of the SPL. Products can then be built by generating and composing features …

On The Sampling Of Web Images For Learning Visual Concept Classifiers, Shiai Zhu, Gang Wang, Chong-Wah Ngo, Yu-Gang Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Visual concept learning often requires a large set of training images. In practice, nevertheless, acquiring noise-free training labels with sufficient positive examples is always expensive. A plausible solution for training data collection is by sampling the largely available user-tagged images from social media websites. With the general belief that the probability of correct tagging is higher than that of incorrect tagging, such a solution often sounds feasible, though is not without challenges. First, user-tags can be subjective and, to certain extent, are ambiguous. For instance, an image tagged with “whales” may be simply a picture about ocean museum. Learning concept …

Co-Reranking By Mutual Reinforcement For Image Search, Ting Yao, Tao Mei, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Most existing reranking approaches to image search focus solely on mining “visual” cues within the initial search results. However, the visual information cannot always provide enough guidance to the reranking process. For example, different images with similar appearance may not always present the same relevant information to the query. Observing that multi-modality cues carry complementary relevant information, we propose the idea of co-reranking for image search, by jointly exploring the visual and textual information. Co-reranking couples two random walks, while reinforcing the mutual exchange and propagation of information relevancy across different modalities. The mutual reinforcement is iteratively updated to constrain …

Coherent Bag-Of Audio Words Model For Efficient Large-Scale Video Copy Detection, Yang Liu, Wan-Lei Zhao, Chong-Wah Ngo, Chang-Sheng Xu, Han-Qing Lu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Current content-based video copy detection approaches mostly concentrate on the visual cues and neglect the audio information. In this paper, we attempt to tackle the video copy detection task resorting to audio information, which is equivalently important as well as visual information in multimedia processing. Firstly, inspired by bag-of visual words model, a bag-of audio words (BoA) representation is proposed to characterize each audio frame. Different from naive singlebased modeling audio retrieval approaches, BoA is a highlevel model due to its perceptual and semantical property. Within the BoA model, a coherency vocabulary indexing structure is adopted to achieve more efficient …

Flying Mobile On-Board Ellipsometer, Polarimeter, Reflectometer And The Like Systems, Blaine D. Johs, Ping He, Martin M. Liphardt, Christopher A. Goeden, John A. Woollam, James D. Welch

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A substantially self-contained "on-board" material system investigation system for effecting relative translational and rotational motion between a source and detector of electromagnetic radiation and a sample, which system is functionally mounted on a three-dimensional locational system to enable positioning at desired locations on, and distances from, the surface of a sample, including the capability to easily and conveniently effect rotation and/or to change the angle-of-incidence of a beam of electromagnetic radiation onto a sample surface and/or to provide gas flow confined in a mini-chamber near the surface of a sample, at a location at which a beam having UV, VUV, …

Attaining Realistic Simulations Of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Derek J. Huber

Theses and Dissertations

Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) are comprised of wireless systems that communicate without the assistance of centrally managed routers or base stations. MANET research and development has increased due to computing technologies offering smaller, faster, smarter, and more power efficient platforms to operate on. Largely the testing and evaluation of new and existing MANET protocols has resided in simulation environments. This is due in part to the complexities and expenses incurred when conducting real world tests. Many researchers have come to recognize that these current simulations tend to assume away critical components of the MANET domain. These assumptions are made either …

Deterministic, Efficient Variation Of Circuit Components To Improve Resistance To Reverse Engineering, Daniel F. Koranek

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes two alternative methods for generating semantically equivalent circuit variants which leave the circuit's internal structure pseudo-randomly determined. Component fusion deterministically selects subcircuits using a component identification algorithm and replaces them using a deterministic algorithm that generates canonical logic forms. Component encryption seeks to alter the semantics of individual circuit components using an encoding function, but preserves the overall circuit semantics by decoding signal values later in the circuit. Experiments were conducted to examine the performance of component fusion and component encryption against representative trials of subcircuit selection-and-replacement and Boundary Blurring, two previously defined methods for circuit obfuscation. …

Performance Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array-Based System For Detecting And Tracking Peer-To-Peer Protocols On A Gigabit Ethernet Network, Brennon D. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Recent years have seen a massive increase in illegal, suspicious, and malicious traffic traversing government and military computer networks. Some examples include illegal file distribution and disclosure of sensitive information using the BitTorrent file sharing protocol, criminals and terrorists using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies to communicate, and foreign entities exfiltrating sensitive data from government, military, and Department of Defense contractor networks. As a result of these growing threats, the TRacking and Analysis for Peer-to-Peer (TRAPP) system was developed in 2008 to detect BitTorrent and VoIP traffic of interest. The TRAPP system, designed on a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Field …

Use Of Negation In Search, Kristen M. Lancaster

Theses and Dissertations

Boolean algebra was developed in the 1840s. Since that time, negation, one of the three basic concepts in Boolean algebra, has influenced the fields of information science and information retrieval, particularly in the modern computer era. In Web search engines, one of the present manifestations of information retrieval, little use is being made of this functionality and so little attention is given to it in the literature. This study aims to bolster the understanding of the use and usefulness of negation. Specifically, an Internet search task was developed for which negation was the most appropriate search strategy. This search task …

A Dynamically Configurable Log-Based Distributed Security Event Detection Methodology Using Simple Event Correlator, Justin M. Myers

Theses and Dissertations

Log event correlation is an effective means of detecting system faults and security breaches encountered in information technology environments. Centralized, database-driven log event correlation is common, but suffers from flaws such as high network bandwidth utilization, significant requirements for system resources, and difficulty in detecting certain suspicious behaviors. This research presents a distributed event correlation system which performs security event detection, and compares it with a centralized alternative. The comparison measures the value in distributed event correlation by considering network bandwidth utilization, detection capability and database query efficiency, as well as through the implementation of remote configuration scripts and correlation …

Mission Assurance: A Review Of Continuity Of Operations Guidance For Application To Cyber Incident Mission Impact Assessment (Cimia), Brian L. Hale

Theses and Dissertations

Military organizations have embedded information technology (IT) into their core mission processes as a means to increase operational efficiency, improve decision-making quality, and shorten the sensor-to-shooter cycle. This IT-to-mission dependence can place the organizational mission at risk when an information incident (e.g., the loss or manipulation of a critical information resource) occurs. Non-military organizations typically address this type of IT risk through an introspective, enterprise-wide focused risk management program that continuously identifies, prioritizes, and documents risks so an economical set of control measures (e.g., people, processes, technology) can be selected to mitigate the risks to an acceptable level. The explicit …

Developing A Hybrid Virtualization Platform Design For Cyber Warfare And Simulation, Kyle E. Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Virtualization is a technique used to model and simulate the cyber domain, as well as train and educate. Different types of virtualization techniques exist that each support a unique set of benefits and requirements. This research proposes a novel design that incorporates host and network virtualization concepts for a cyber warfare training platform. At the host level, hybrid virtualization combines full and operating system virtualization techniques in order to leverage the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of each individual technique. Network virtualization allows virtual machines to connect in flexible topologies, but it also incurs additional processing overhead. Quantitative analysis falls …

Raw As Archival Still Image Format: A Consideration, Michael J. Bennett, F. Barry Wheeler

Published Works

Source materials like fine art, over-sized, fragile maps, and delicate artifacts have traditionally been digitally converted through the use of controlled lighting and high resolution scanners and camera backs. In addition the capture of items such as general and special collections bound monographs has recently grown both through consortial efforts like the Internet Archive's Open Content Alliance and locally at the individual institution level. These projects, in turn, have introduced increasingly higher resolution consumer-grade digital single lens reflex cameras or "DSLRs" as a significant part of the general cultural heritage digital conversion workflow. Central to the authors' discussion is the …

Presentation On Raw As Archival Still Image Format: A Consideration, Michael J. Bennett, F. Barry Wheeler

UConn Library Presentations

No abstract provided.

Minimum Description Length (Mdl) Principle As A Possible Approach To Arc Detection, Jan Beck, David Nemir, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Detecting arcing faults is an important but difficult-to-solve practical problem. In this paper, we show how the Minimum Description Length (MDL) Principle can help in solving this problem.

Optimal Prices In The Presence Of Discounts: A New Economic Application Of Choquet Integrals, Hung T. Nguyen, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many real-life situations, there are ``package deals'', when customers who buy two or more different items get a special discount. For example, when planning a trip, a deal including airfare and hotel costs less than the airfare and hotel on their own; there are often also special deals when we combine airfare with car rental, and deals that cover all three items plus tickets to local tourist attractions, etc.

Usually, there are several such deals with different combinations and different discounts. What if we plan to buy several different copies of each item: e.g., we plan a group tour …

Spatial Resolution For Processing Seismic Data: Type-2 Methods For Finding The Relevant Granular Structure, Vladik Kreinovich, Jaime Nava, Rodrigo Romero, Julio Olaya, Aaron A. Velasco, Kate C. Miller

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the main methods of determining the Earth structure is the analysis of the seismic data. Based on the seismic data, we produce a 3-D map describing the density at different locations on different depths. Due to incomplete coverage and measurement uncertainty, this map provides only an approximate description of the actual density distribution. For example, based on the seismic data, it is impossible to distinguish between the densities at two nearby points. In other words, what we actually reconstruct is not a function of 3 variables, but rather values determined on the appropriate spatial granules. Because of this …

How To Describe Spatial Resolution: An Approach Similar To The Central Limit Theorem, Omar Ochoa, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

For spatially distributed quantities v(x), there are two main reasons why the measured value is different from the actual value. First, the sensors are imprecise, so the measured value is slightly different from the actual one. Second, sensors have a finite {\it spatial resolution}: they do not simply measure the value at a single point, they are "blurred", i.e., affected by the values of the nearby points as well. It is known that uncertainty can be often described by the Gaussian distribution. This possibility comes from the Central Limit Theorem, according to which the sum of many independent small measurement …

Toward Computing An Optimal Trajectory For An Environment-Oriented Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) Under Uncertainty, Jerald Brady, Octavio Lerma, Vladik Kreinovich, Craig Tweedie

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Over the past decade a few but increasing number of researchers have begun using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to expand and improve upon existing remote sensing capabilities in the Arctic. Due to the limited flight time, it is important to make sure that the UAV follows an optimal trajectory -- in which it cover all the points from a given area within the smallest possible trajectory length. Under the usual assumptions that we cover a rectangular area and that each on-board sensor covers all the points with a given radius r, we describe the optimal trajectory. A more complex optimal …

Reconode: Towards An Autonomous Multi-Robot Team Agent For Usar, Kang Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban search and rescue (USAR) robots can benefit from small size as it facilitates movement in cramped quarters. Yet, small size limits actuator power, sensor payloads, computational capacity and battery life. We are alleviating these issues by developing the hardware and software infrastructure for high performance, heterogeneous, dynamically-reconfigurable miniature USAR robots, as well as a host of other relevant applications. In this thesis, a generic modular embedded system architecture based on the RecoNode multiprocessor is proposed, which consists of a set of hardware and software modules that can be configured to construct various types of robot systems for dynamic and …

Use Of Machine Learning Classification Techniques To Detect Atypical Behavior In Medical Applications, Terrence Ziemniak

Technical Reports

Health care informatics is growing at an incredible pace. Originally health care organizations, like all other industries, used pen and paper to track medical information. Ten years ago the more mature health care organizations had simply practice management applications. Today these organizations have full blown electronic health records systems. Tomorrow these organizations will be sharing information across the globe.

Physicians (and the sponsoring organizations) are obligated to protect this data. Health care has followed the trend of many other industries in implementing technologies and processes to address certain risks. Encryption is enabled to ensure confidentiality. Business continuity techniques are applied …

Irrigation Leak Detection: Using Flow Rate Sensors To Detect Breaks In An Irrigation System, Adam Openshaw, Kalvin Vu

Computer Engineering

This report details the exploration and invention of a mechanism that can detect breaks in an irrigation system. With the ultimate goal of conserving water, we have designed an inexpensive, self sustaining flow rate monitor that can be used to identify anomalies in an irrigation system and wirelessly communicate the status of the system to a base station. Our implementation can also determine the direction of the anomaly based on the nature of the anomaly itself. This means that multiple monitors can be used to pinpoint the location of a break within the system in addition to merely detecting its …

Engaging Students In Real-Life Data And Network Security Assessment Of Pace Computing Environment, Narayan Murthy, Ravi Ravishanker

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

No abstract provided.

Towards A More Adequate Defuzzification Of Interval-Valued Fuzzy Sets, Vladik Kreinovich, Van Nam Huynh, Yoshiteru Nakamori

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It is known that interval-valued fuzzy sets [m(x)] provide a more adequate description of expert uncertainty than the more traditional "type-1" (number-valued) fuzzy techniques. Specifically, an interval-valued fuzzy set can be viewed as a class of possible fuzzy sets m(x) from [m(x)]. In this case, as a result of defuzzification, it is natural to return the range [u] of all possible values u(m) that can be obtained by defuzzifying membership functions m(x) from this class. In practice, it is reasonable to restrict ourselves only to fuzzy numbers m(x), i.e., to "unimodal" fuzzy sets. Under this restriction, in general, we get …

How To Define A Confidence Set For Functions: A New Justification Of The Area Method, Vladik Kreinovich, Gang Xiang, Michael Oberguggenberger

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Due to uncertainty, in many problems, we only know the probability of different values. In such situations, we need to make decisions based on these probabilities: e.g., we must tell the user which values are possible and which are not. Often -- e.g., for a normal distribution -- the probability density is everywhere positive, so, theoretically, all real values are possible. In practice, it is usually safe to assume that values whose probability is very small are not possible. For a single variable, this idea is described by a confidence interval C, the interval for which the probability to be …

Femprof: Advancing Females To The Professoriate In Computing, Nestor J. Rodriguez, Richard A. Alo, Sarah Hug, Sangeeta Gad, Nayda Santiago, Gladys O. Ducodray

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Considering both the percentage of science and engineering PhDs awarded to women in the twenty year period 1974-2004 and the data from the National Science 2006 Survey of Earned Doctorates 1974-2004, the U.S. National Academies noted that women in 2004 have attained equality with men in their representation in the Social Sciences and Life Sciences but are still lagging in Physical and Computing Sciences and Engineering. In the top 50 engineering departments in the U.S., women earn one-fourth of the PhDs granted in Chemical Engineering and 15% in engineering overall (Handelsman et al, 2005). Although women constitute about half of …

Nexys 2 Slot Machine, Mark Luna

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.