Computer Engineering Commons^™

Computational Geometry Teaching Tool, Yujie Zhou, Tao Ju

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

When students are taking Computational Geometry course which covers many geometry algorithms, most of them are difficult to follow because these algorithms are very abstract even if authors draw pictures to illustrate. In order to help students to get a better understanding of these algorithms, we decide to design Computational Geometry Teaching Tool. This tool is a web application that covers 8 geometry algorithms : Graham Scan, Quick Hull, Line Segment Intersection, Dual, Line Arrangement, Voronoi Diagram, Incremental Delaunay Triangulation and Kd Tree. First, this tool is developed by using JavaScript so that users don't need to install any software …

Integrating Mathematics And Educational Robotics: Simple Motion Planning, Ronald I. Greenberg, George K. Thiruvathukal, Sara T. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper shows how students can be guided to integrate elementary mathematical analyses with motion planning for typical educational robots. Rather than using calculus as in comprehensive works on motion planning, we show students can achieve interesting results using just simple linear regression tools and trigonometric analyses. Experiments with one robotics platform show that use of these tools can lead to passable navigation through dead reckoning even if students have limited experience with use of sensors, programming, and mathematics.

Aerial Base Station Deployment For Post-Disaster Public Safety Applications, Jose Antonio Matamoros Vargas

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Earthquakes and floods are constant threats to most of the countries in the world. After such catastrophes, a rapid response is needed, which includes communications not only for first responders but also for local civilians. Even though there are technologies and specialized personnel for rapid deployment, it is common that external factors will hinder the arrival of help while communication requirements are urgently required. Such communication technologies would aid tasks regarding organization and information dissemination from authorities to the civilians and vice-versa. This necessity is due to protocols and applications to allocate the number of emergency resources per location and …

Gaindroid: General Automated Incompatibility Notifier For Android Applications, Bruno Vieira Resende E Silva

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the ever-increasing popularity of mobile devices over the last decade, mobile apps and the frameworks upon which they are built frequently change. This rapid evolution leads to a confusing jumble of devices and applications utilizing differing features even within the same framework. For Android apps and devices, representing over 80% of the market share, mismatches between the version of the Android operating system installed on a device and the version of the app installed, can lead to several run-time crashes, providing a poor user experience.

This thesis presents GAINDroid, an analysis approach, backed with a classloader based program analyzer, …

Feasibility And Security Analysis Of Wideband Ultrasonic Radio For Smart Home Applications, Qi Xia

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Smart home Internet-of-Things (IoT) accompanied by smart home apps has witnessed tremendous growth in the past few years. Yet, the security and privacy of the smart home IoT devices and apps have raised serious concerns, as they are getting increasingly complicated each day, expected to store and exchange extremely sensitive personal data, always on and connected, and commonly exposed to any users in a sensitive environment. Nowadays wireless smart home IoT devices rely on electromagnetic wave-based radio-frequency (RF) technology to establish fast and reliable quality network connections. However, RF has its limitations that can negatively affect the smart home user …

Wavelet Transform On Digital Rainbow Hologram Based On Spectral Compression For Quality Enhancement In 3d Display Media, Ucuk Darusalam, Panca Dewi Pamungkasari

Makara Journal of Technology

A digital rainbow hologram (DRH) is a potential next-generation three-dimensional display media for the development of modern and smart electronics devices. It is one of the methods that can support the characteristic whereby a realistic display media occupies the space that the real object would have occupied. Since a rainbow hologram records a large amount of spatial or temporal frequency component from the object that represents the rainbow spectrum, a large amount of information needs to be decoded digitally. In this paper, to reconstruct a DRH, we propose a novel method based on the modulation of red, green, and blue …

The Pedagogy Of Design And Technology At Xavier University Of Louisiana, New Orleans, Shayna Tova Blum

Faculty and Staff Publications

Abstract. Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a Historically Black University (HBCU), the university serves a diverse community of students in which many are first-generation, college graduates. Students enrolled in Design courses at XULA are studying in Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Art programs and majoring in subjects such as Computer Science, Physics, Mass Communication, Art, Business, and Science. The interdisciplinary student environment offers a unique opportunity for collaboration and peer learning, whereby students are able to share diverse perspectives on a topic by relating …

Machine Learning Solution To Organ-At-Risk Segmentation For Radiation Treatment Planning, Brie Goo, Katrina May, Haobo Zhang, James Olivas

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

In the treatment of cancer using ionizing radiation, it is important to design a treatment plan such that dose to normal, healthy organs is sufficiently low. Today, segmentation requires a trained human to carefully outline, or segment, organs on each slice of a treatment planning computed tomography (CT) scan but it is laborious, time-consuming, and contains intra- and inter-rater variability. Currently, existing clinical automation technology relies on atlas-based automation, which has limited segmentation accuracy. Thus the auto-segmentations require post process editing by an expert. In this paper, we propose a machine learning solution that shortens the segmentation time of organs-at-risk …

Underground Environment Aware Mimo Design Using Transmit And Receive Beamforming In Internet Of Underground Things, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

In underground (UG) multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), the transmit beamforming is used to focus energy in the desired direction. There are three different paths in the underground soil medium through which the waves propagates to reach at the receiver. When the UG receiver receives a desired data stream only from the desired path, then the UG MIMO channel becomes three path (lateral, direct, and reflected) interference channel. Accordingly, the capacity region of the UG MIMO three path interference channel and degrees of freedom (multiplexing gain of this MIMO channel requires careful modeling). Therefore, expressions are required derived the degrees of …

On Efficiency Of Artifact Lookup Strategies In Digital Forensics, Lorenz Liebler, Patrick Schmitt, Harald Baier, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In recent years different strategies have been proposed to handle the problem of ever-growing digital forensic databases. One concept to deal with this data overload is data reduction, which essentially means to separate the wheat from the chaff, e.g., to filter in forensically relevant data. A prominent technique in the context of data reduction are hash-based solutions. Data reduction is achieved because hash values (of possibly large data input) are much smaller than the original input. Today's approaches of storing hash-based data fragments reach from large scale multithreaded databases to simple Bloom filter representations. One main focus was put on …

Modeling Sequential And Basket-Oriented Associations For Top-K Recommendation, Duc-Trong Le Duc Trong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Top-K recommendation is a typical task in Recommender Systems. In traditional approaches, it mainly relies on the modeling of user-item associations, which emphasizes the user-specific factor or personalization. Here, we investigate another direction that models item-item associations, especially with the notions of sequence-aware and basket-level adoptions . Sequences are created by sorting item adoptions chronologically. The associations between items along sequences, referred to as “sequential associations”, indicate the influence of the preceding adoptions on the following adoptions. Considering a basket of items consumed at the same time step (e.g., a session, a day), “basket-oriented associations” imply correlative dependencies among these …

Molecularly Conductive Behavior Of Blended Polymer Electrolyte-Based Cmc/Pva, Noor Saadiah Mohd Ali, Dishen Zhang, Yuki Nagao, Ahmad Salihin Samsudin

Makara Journal of Technology

This study investigated the electrical conduction and structural behavior of blended polymer electrolyte (BPE)-based carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in the development of solid-state electrochemical devices. Based on impedance spectroscopy and correlating Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) with thermogravimetric analysis, a framework was proposed to explain the structural enhancement of the BPE system. As revealed by FTIR, the optimum conductivity of CMC/PVA BPEs was 9.21 × 10−6 Scm−1 for 80:20 composition attributed to the intermolecular attraction between the polymers. Thermal stability of the CMC/PVA was influenced by the formation of a hydrogen bond between the hydroxyl (-OH), carboxylate (-COO-), …

Multistage Sonication Effect On The Composition And Properties Of Degraded Chitosan Product, Nurul Laili Arifin, Emma Savitri, Anjar Indah, Fesa Putra, Sumarno Sumarno

Makara Journal of Technology

The sonication method randomly breaks polymer chains to produce a varied distribution of products. A scheme with multi-stage sonication steps is proposed to identify oligomers and low molecular weight chitosan based on changes to the degrad-ed product. For each sonication level, 1% (w/v) chitosan in 1% (v/v) aqueous acetic acid was sonicated for 120 min at 60 °C. The products of the sonication treatment were deprotonized by adding an alkali solution, freeze dried and insoluble product re-sonicated until a low molecular weight was produced. Low molecular weight chitosan/insoluble products were character-ized with Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) …

Data Fusion Method Based On Adaptive Kalman Filtering, Bernadus Herdi Sirenden

Makara Journal of Technology

This paper discusses data fusion methods to combine the data from a rotary encoder and ultrasonic sensor. Both sensors are used in a micro-flow calibration system developed by the Research Center of Metrology LIPI. The methods studied are hierarchical data fusion and Kalman filtering. Three types of Kalman filters (KFs) are compared: the conventional Kalman filter and two adaptive Kalman filters. Moreover, a method to combine the uncertainty results from KF in hierarchical data fusion is proposed. The aim of this study is to find appropriate methods of data fusion that can be implemented in micro-flow calibration systems. Data from …

Study Of Zno Nanospheres Fabricated Via Thermal Evaporation For Solar Cell Application, Fatin Farisha Alia Azmi, Bouchta Sahraoui, Saifful Kamaluddin Muzakir

Makara Journal of Technology

A solar cell is a device that absorbs light energy to generate electrical energy. A typical example of a solar cell is the quantum dot solar cell (QDSC), which consists of three main components: (i) fluorophore: the component that absorbs light and generates excited state electrons and holes, (ii) photoelectrode: the component that transports the excited state electron and prevents recombination of excited state electrons and holes, and (iii) electrolyte: the component that re-plenishes the vacancy left by the excited electron in the hole. Despite the increasing number of research in the QDSC field, to date, a device with significant …

Sorption-Based Energy Storage Systems: A Review, Kyaw Thu, Nasruddin Nasruddin, Sourav Mitra, Bidyut Baran Saha

Makara Journal of Technology

Mismatched timing between the supply and demand of energy calls for reliable storage systems. Energy storage systems have become further significant with the widespread implementation of renewable energy. These systems can mitigate problems that are often associated with renewable energy sources such as supply unreliability while meeting the de-mand during peak hours. Energy can be stored in various forms, yet storage systems can be generally grouped based on their output forms, namely (i) electricity and (ii) heat or thermal energy. Electrical energy is the most convenient and effective form since it can power almost all modern devices. However, the electricity …

Electrical Properties Of A Novel Solid Biopolymer Electrolyte Based On Algi-Nate Incorporated With Citric Acid, Ahmad Faizrin Ahmad Fuzlin, Noor Syahida Ismail, Yuki Nagao, Ahmad Salihin Samsudin

Makara Journal of Technology

In the present study, a novel solid biopolymer electrolyte (SBE) system is introduced by doping citric acid into alginate polymer. A sample of the alginate-citric acid SBE system was prepared via a solution casting technique. Using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the electrolytes of alginate-citric acid analyzed from 5 Hz to 1 MHz achieved the highest conductivity at 20 wt.% of 5.49 × 10-7 S cm-1. The temperature dependence of various citric acid amounts obeyed the Arrhenius rule with R2~1, where all SBE systems were thermally activated with increasing temperature. The dielectric studies of the alginate-citric acid SBE system showed non-Debye …

The Applications Of Grid Cells In Computer Vision, Keaton Kraiger

Maseeh Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

In this study we present a novel method for position and scale invariant object representation based on a biologically-inspired framework. Grid cells are neurons in the entorhinal cortex whose multiple firing locations form a periodic triangular array, tiling the surface of an animal’s environment. We propose a model for simple object representation that maintains position and scale invariance, in which grid maps capture the fundamental structure and features of an object. The model provides a mechanism for identifying feature locations in a Cartesian plane and vectors between object features encoded by grid cells. It is shown that key object features …

Bridgr: An Ios Application For Organizing And Discussing Long-Distance Carpooling, Harrison Engoren, Erik Zorn

Senior Theses

Bridgr is an iOS application that facilitates long distance carpooling. This application allows drivers to post destinations on an interactable map so that they can be linked with students that need a ride to a location within close proximity of the posted destination. The riders and driver are linked in a common chat board where they can discuss ride details among themselves. The goal of Bridgr is to allow drivers to utilize extra space in their car in turn for fellowship and/or gas money.

A Strategic Audit Of Microsoft Azure, Lee Fitchett

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This paper looks at Microsoft Azure's current strategies and proposes possible options for the future. It looks at several competitors and explores how Azure will affect and react to Microsoft’s vision.

Effects Of Control Device And Task Complexity On Performance And Task Shedding During A Robotic Arm Task, Shelby K. Long

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The use of robotic arms across domains is increasing, but the relationship between control features and performance is not fully understood. The goal of this research was to investigate the difference in task performance when using two different control devices at high and low task complexities when participants can shed tasks to automation. In this experiment, 40 undergraduates (24 females) used two control devices, a Leap Motion controller and an Xbox controller, to teleoperate a robotic arm in a high or low complexity peg placement task. Simultaneously, participants were tasked with scanning images for tanks. During the experiment, participants had …

Testing Photovoltaic Pavers For Roadway Applications, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., David Newman, James Crovetti, Ashish Kumar Mishra, Mohiuddin Munna, Allyssa Delbridge-Ramos, Julie Brusaw, Scott Brusaw

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Concrete and asphalt are the primary materials used to construct roadways for motor vehicles, bike paths for pedestrians and bicyclists, and runways for aircraft. Solar Roadways®, Inc. (SR) in Sandpoint, ID, proposed using robust, Solar Road Panels (SRPs) as an alternative roadway material due to the potential for creating a modular, multi-functional infrastructure product with cost-savings, user-safety, power-generation, and a better alternative in terms of environmental sustainability when compared to contemporary pavement materials. Typical roadway construction materials, on average, need to be replaced every 10-15 years while also requiring regular annual maintenance to maintain proper safety standards. SR’s novel roadway …

Distributed Wireless Algorithms For Rfid Systems: Grouping Proofs And Cardinality Estimation, Vanya D. Cherneva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The breadth and depth of the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are becoming more substantial. RFID is a technology useful for identifying unique items through radio waves. We design algorithms on RFID-based systems for the Grouping Proof and Cardinality Estimation problems.

A grouping-proof protocol is evidence that a reader simultaneously scanned the RFID tags in a group. In many practical scenarios, grouping-proofs greatly expand the potential of RFID-based systems such as supply chain applications, simultaneous scanning of multiple forms of IDs in banks or airports, and government paperwork. The design of RFID grouping-proofs that provide optimal security, privacy, and …

Robotic Motion Generation By Using Spatial-Temporal Patterns From Human Demonstrations, Yongqiang Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Robots excel in manufacturing facilities because the tasks are repetitive and do not change. However, when the tasks change, which happens in almost all tasks that humans perform daily, such as cutting, pouring, and grasping, etc., robots perform much worse. We aim at teaching robots to perform tasks that are subject to change using demonstrations collected from humans, a problem referred to as learning from demonstration (LfD).

LfD consists of two parts: the data of human demonstrations, and the algorithm that extracts knowledge from the data to perform the same motions. Similarly, this thesis is divided into two parts. The …

Force Feedback And Intelligent Workspace Selection For Legged Locomotion Over Uneven Terrain, John Rippetoe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Legged robots present an incredible opportunity for humanity to conduct dangerous operations such as search and rescue, disaster recovery, and planetary exploration without ever placing themselves in harms way. The ability of a leg to more freely dictate its shape, orientation, and length gives it tremendous mobility and adaptability demanded of a system intended for operation outside of a controlled environment. However, one only need look at the average cat, dog, or friendly neighborhood squirrel to understand the immense gap that exists between what is possible of legged systems and their current set of capabilities.

Areas of study relevant to …

Immersive Virtual Reality Attacks And The Human Joystick, Peter Casey, Ibrahim Baggili, Ananya Yarramreddy

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

This is one of the first accounts for the security analysis of consumer immersive Virtual Reality (VR) systems. This work breaks new ground, coins new terms, and constructs proof of concept implementations of attacks related to immersive VR. Our work used the two most widely adopted immersive VR systems, the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift. More specifically, we were able to create attacks that can potentially disorient users, turn their Head Mounted Display (HMD) camera on without their knowledge, overlay images in their field of vision, and modify VR environmental factors that force them into hitting physical objects and …

A Comparison Of X86 Computer Architecture Simulators, Ayaz Akram, Lina Sawalha

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

Computer architecture simulators are widely used to evaluate different design options and tradeoffs. This work explores different x86 computer architecture simulators and shows the experimental error of the simulators compared to real hardware runs. We selected gem5, Sniper, MARSSx86 and Zsim, and configured them to model one of the state-of-the- art high-performance processors, Intel’s Haswell microarchitecture. We compared simulators features and statistics, and quantified the experimental error of simulators for single- and multi-core runs compared to a real hardware platform. Finally, we pointed some causes of inaccuracies resulted by the simulators.

Near Real-Time Rf-Dna Fingerprinting For Zigbee Devices Using Software Defined Radios, Frankie A. Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network(s) (LR-WPAN) usage has increased as more consumers embrace Internet of Things (IoT) devices. ZigBee Physical Layer (PHY) is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 specification designed to provide a low-cost, low-power, and low-complexity solution for Wireless Sensor Network(s) (WSN). The standard’s extended battery life and reliability makes ZigBee WSN a popular choice for home automation, transportation, traffic management, Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and cyber-physical systems. As robust and versatile as the standard is, ZigBee remains vulnerable to a myriad of common network attacks. Previous research involving Radio Frequency-Distinct Native Attribute …

Machine Translation With Image Context From Mandarin Chinese To English, Brooke E. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Despite ongoing improvements in machine translation, machine translators still lack the capability of incorporating context from which source text may have been derived. Machine translators use text from a source language to translate it into a target language without observing any visual context. This work aims to produce a neural machine translation model that is capable of accepting both text and image context as a multimodal translator from Mandarin Chinese to English. The model was trained on a small multimodal dataset of 700 images and sentences, and compared to a translator trained only on the text associated with those images. …

A Blockchain-Based Anomalous Detection System For Internet Of Things Devices, Joshua K. Mosby

Theses and Dissertations

Internet of Things devices are highly susceptible to attack, and owners often fail to realize they have been compromised. This thesis describes an anomalous-based intrusion detection system that operates directly on Internet of Things devices utilizing a custom-built Blockchain. In this approach, an agent on each node compares the node's behavior to that of its peers, generating an alert if they are behaving differently. An experiment is conducted to determine the effectiveness at detecting malware. Three different code samples simulating common malware are deployed against a testbed of 12 Raspberry Pi devices. Increasing numbers are infected until two-thirds of the …