Computer Engineering Commons^™

Be Aware With A Honeypot, Stephen Meyer, Ivan Smyth, Mark Cummins, Anthony Keane

The ITB Journal

The Internet has already become a hostile environment for computers, especially when they are directly connected with a public IP address. We have experienced this hostile activity where on an average day; the ITB Honeypot recorded over a thousand reconnaissance attacks seeking unauthorised entry onto our private network. Our Honeypot is a basic PC running Windows XP with no services offered and no activity from users that would generate traffic. The Honeypot is running in a passive state on a stub-network where all inbound and outbound traffic is recorded at the bridging computer to the WAN. We report on the …

Using Extended Analogy To Teach Fundamental Computing Concepts, Damian Gordon

The ITB Journal

Using analogies has long been used to help explain complex ideas in teaching. One of the most important ideas that a computing student must understand is the basic architecture of a digital computer. Since the late 1960s the standard teaching approach used to explain computer architecture is the Little Man Computer (LMC) Paradigm. This research seeks to expand upon this standard explanation through the use of a relatively recently developed technique called Extended Analogy. Extended analogy seeks to combine regular analogy with exaggeration or dramatic emphasis. In this case the LMC paradigm is extended by use of Samuel Beckett's play …

A Survey Of Procedural Techniques For City Generation, George Kelly, Hugh Mccabe

The ITB Journal

The computer game industry requires a skilled workforce and this combined with the complexity of modern games, means that production costs are extremely high. One of the most time consuming aspects is the creation of game geometry, the virtual world which the players inhabit. Procedural techniques have been used within computer graphics to create natural textures, simulate special effects and generate complex natural models including trees and waterfalls. It is these procedural techniques that we intend to harness to generate geometry and textures suitable for a game situated in an urban environment. Procedural techniques can provide many benefits for computer …

Rapid-Prototyping Emulation System For Embedded System Hardware Verification, Using A Systemc Control System Environment And Reconfigurable Multimedia Hardware Development Platform, Dave Carroll, Richard Gallery

The ITB Journal

This paper describes research into the suitability of using SystemC for rapid prototyping of embedded systems. SystemC[1][2][3] communication interface protocols [4][5] are interfaced with a reconfigurable hardware system platform to provide a real-time emulation environment, allowing SystemC simulations to be directly translated into real-time solutions. The consequent Rapid Prototyping Emulation System Platform1, suitable for the implementation of consumer level multimedia systems, is described, including the system architecture, SystemC Controller model, the FPGA configured MicroBlaze CPU system and additional logic devices implemented on the Multimedia development board used for the hardware in the PESP, illustrated in the context of a typical …

Integration And Communication Of Process Support Tools In An Online Virtual Learning Environment, L. Raeside, B. Busschots, Shen Fei, J. G. Keating

The ITB Journal

The Education through Virtual Experience (EVE) research group based at the National University of Ireland Maynooth have successfully developed an online Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for Astronomy as part of the Virtual Telescopes in Education (VTIE) project. The VTIE VLE has been developed to provide online software support for the engagement of schoolchildren and their teachers in a scientific process. The development of an online VLE to support a scientific process has brought about complex interactions from the user perspective. This has lead to complex integration and communication challenges from the software implementation perspective. This paper contains a high level …

Stereoscopic 3-D Presentation For Air Traffic Control Digital Radar Displays, Jason G. Russi, Brent T. Langhals, Michael E. Miller, Eric L. Heft

AFIT Patents

An apparatus and method of presenting air traffic data to an air traffic controller are provided. Air traffic data including a two dimensional spatial location and altitude for a plurality of aircraft is received. A disparity value is determined based on the altitude for each aircraft of the plurality of aircraft. Left and right eye images are generated of the plurality of aircraft where at least one of the left and right eye images is based on the determined disparity value. The left and right eye images are simultaneously displayed to the air traffic controller on a display. The simultaneously …

Ben Regoso, Benjamin Regoso

Spring 2017

One of the first people I met when I first arrived on campus in the summer of 2010 was the IT Support “guy.” Based on past experience with IT in other places, my expectations were low. I figured I would pass him my tech gear and he would work everything out. A quick, simple transaction is all that was needed. Ben Regoso’s work ethic reset my expectations and, more importantly, began to shape my own perspective on how to work with others even when the task is “just” transactional.

Ben’s attitude and posture in every “transaction” I’ve had with him …

A Current-Dependent Switching Strategy For Si/Sic Hybrid Switch-Based Power Converters, Jiangbiao He, Ramin Katebi, Nathan Weise

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Abstract: Hybrid switches configured by paralleling Silicon (Si) Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFET) have been verified to be a high-efficiency cost-effective device concept. In this paper, a current-dependent switching strategy is introduced and implemented to further improve the performance of Si/SiC hybrid switches. This proposed switching strategy is based on a comprehensive consideration of reducing device losses, reliable operation, and overload capability. Based on the utilization of such Si/SiC hybrid switches and the proposed switching strategy, a 15-kW single-phase H-bridge inverter prototype was implemented and tested in the laboratory. Simulation and …

Exploiting On-Chip Voltage Regulators As A Countermeasure Against Power Analysis Attacks, Weize Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-invasive side-channel attacks (SCA) are powerful attacks which can be used to obtain the secret key in a cryptographic circuit in feasible time without the need for expensive measurement equipment. Power analysis attacks (PAA) are a type of SCA that exploit the correlation between the leaked power consumption information and processed/stored data. Differential power analysis (DPA) and leakage power analysis (LPA) attacks are two types of PAA that exploit different characteristics of the side-channel leakage profile. DPA attacks exploit the correlation between the input data and dynamic power consumption of cryptographic circuits. Alternatively, LPA attacks utilize the correlation between the …

Evaluation Of The Efficiency Of An Arm-Based Beowulf Cluster Versus Traditional Desktop Computing For High Performance Computing, Nicholas Addiego

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the realm of scientific computing, it has become increasingly important to focus on results driven growth (Kamil, Shalf and Storhmaier). Doing this enables researchers to continue building the rapidly expanding area of scientific discovery. However, with the growth comes a cost of the amount of resources consumed to accomplish these results. Large supercomputers are consuming power at a rate roughly fourteen thousand times that of a traditional American household (U.S. Energy Information Administration). Parallel to this, public consumers have been driving the mobile industry and the research behind it. The need to have faster and faster mobile devices that …

Perception Of 3d Symmetrical And Near-Symmetrical Shapes, Vijai Jayadevan, Aaron Michaux, Edward Delp, Zygmunt Pizlo

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Advanced Text Analytics And Machine Learning Approach For Document Classification, Chaitanya Anne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Text classification is used in information extraction and retrieval from a given text, and text classification has been considered as an important step to manage a vast number of records given in digital form that is far-reaching and expanding. This thesis addresses patent document classification problem into fifteen different categories or classes, where some classes overlap with other classes for practical reasons. For the development of the classification model using machine learning techniques, useful features have been extracted from the given documents. The features are used to classify patent document as well as to generate useful tag-words. The overall objective …

Improving A Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Clustering Method, Sharif Shahadat

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses clustering related works with emphasis on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) principles. Specifically, we review in detail the PSO clustering algorithm proposed by Van Der Merwe & Engelbrecht, the particle swarm clustering (PSC) algorithm proposed by Cohen & de Castro, Szabo’s modified PSC (mPSC), and Georgieva & Engelbrecht’s Cooperative-Multi-Population PSO (CMPSO). In this thesis, an improvement over Van Der Merwe & Engelbrecht’s PSO clustering has been proposed and tested for standard datasets. The improvements observed in those experiments vary from slight to moderate, both in terms of minimizing the cost function, and in terms of run time.

Real Time Learning Level Assessment Using Eye Tracking, Saurin S. Parikh, Hari Kalva

MODVIS Workshop

E-Learning is emerging as a convenient and effective learning tool. However, the challenge with eLearning is the lack of effective tools to assess levels of learning. Ability to predict difficult content in real time enables eLearning systems to dynamically provide supplementary content to meet learners’ needs. Recent developments have made possible low-cost eye trackers, which enables a new class of applications based on eye response. In comparison to past attempts using bio-metrics in learning assessments, with eye tracking, we can have access to the exact stimulus that is causing the response. A key aspect of the proposed approach is the …

Understanding Deleted File Decay On Removable Media Using Differential Analysis, James H. Jones Jr, Anurag Srivastava, Josh Mosier, Connor Anderson, Seth Buenafe

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital content created by picture recording devices is often stored internally on the source device, on either embedded or removable media. Such storage media is typically limited in capacity and meant primarily for interim storage of the most recent image files, and these devices are frequently configured to delete older files as necessary to make room for new files. When investigations involve such devices and media, it is sometimes these older deleted files that would be of interest. It is an established fact that deleted file content may persist in part or in its entirety after deletion, and identifying the …

Source Anonymization Of Digital Images: A Counter–Forensic Attack On Prnu Based Source Identification Techniques, Prithviraj Sengupta, Venkata Udaya Sameer, Ruchira Naskar, Ezhil Kalaimannan

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A lot of photographers and human rights advocates need to hide their identity while sharing their images on the internet. Hence, source–anonymization of digital images has become a critical issue in the present digital age. The current literature contains a number of digital forensic techniques for “source–identification” of digital images, one of the most efficient of them being Photo–Response Non–Uniformity (PRNU) sensor noise pattern based source detection. PRNU noise pattern being unique to every digital camera, such techniques prove to be highly robust way of source–identification. In this paper, we propose a counter–forensic technique to mislead this PRNU sensor noise …

Harnessing Predictive Models For Assisting Network Forensic Investigations Of Dns Tunnels, Irvin Homem, Panagiotis Papapetrou

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In recent times, DNS tunneling techniques have been used for malicious purposes, however network security mechanisms struggle to detect them. Network forensic analysis has been proven effective, but is slow and effort intensive as Network Forensics Analysis Tools struggle to deal with undocumented or new network tunneling techniques. In this paper, we present a machine learning approach, based on feature subsets of network traffic evidence, to aid forensic analysis through automating the inference of protocols carried within DNS tunneling techniques. We explore four network protocols, namely, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and POP3. Three features are extracted from the DNS tunneled traffic: …

An Accidental Discovery Of Iot Botnets And A Method For Investigating Them With A Custom Lua Dissector, Max Gannon, Gary Warner, Arsh Arora

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper presents a case study that occurred while observing peer-to-peer network communications on a botnet monitoring station and shares how tools were developed to discover what ultimately was identified as Mirai and many related IoT DDOS Botnets. The paper explains how researchers developed a customized protocol dissector in Wireshark using the Lua coding language, and how this enabled them to quickly identify new DDOS variants over a five month period of study.

Underwater Celestial Navigation Using The Polarization Of Light Fields, Samuel Bear Powell

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Global-scale underwater navigation presents challenges that modern technology has not solved. Current technologies drift and accumulate errors over time (inertial measurement), are accurate but short-distance (acoustic), or do not sufficiently penetrate the air-water interface (radio and GPS). To address these issues, I have developed a new mode of underwater navigation based on the passive observation of patterns in the polarization of in-water light. These patterns can be used to infer the sun__s relative position, which enables the use of celestial navigation in the underwater environment. I have developed an underwater polarization video camera based on a bio-inspired polarization image sensor …

The Replacement Of Network Switches, Sean Fenton

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Networking equipment often has to be replaced every few years in order to keep up with network speed demands and bandwidth, as well as the expiration of equipment. Gallaudet’s network switches were approaching their End of Life (EoL) and the Gallaudet networking team decided to replace the networking equipment to improve the network efficiency at Gallaudet. After much research and debate, the decision was made to replace current Cisco networking equipment with Juniper in order to optimize the network speed for Internet traffic. Cisco and Juniper are competing brands for a wide range of networking equipment. The capstone project is …

Adaptive Region-Based Approaches For Cellular Segmentation Of Bright-Field Microscopy Images, Hady Ahmady Phoulady

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microscopy image processing is an emerging and quickly growing field in medical imaging research area. Recent advancements in technology including higher computation power, larger and cheaper storage modules, and more efficient and faster data acquisition devices such as whole-slide imaging scanners contributed to the recent microscopy image processing research advancement. Most of the methods in this research area either focus on automatically process images and make it easier for pathologists to direct their focus on the important regions in the image, or they aim to automate the whole job of experts including processing and classifying images or tissues that leads …

Inferring Motion Direction Using Commodity Wi-Fi For Interactive Exergames, Kun Qian, Chenshu Wu, Zimu Zhou, Yue Zheng, Yang Zheng, Yunhao Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In-air interaction acts as a key enabler for ambient intelligence and augmented reality. As an increasing popular example, exergames, and the alike gesture recognition applications, have attracted extensive research in designing accurate, pervasive and low-cost user interfaces. Recent advances in wireless sensing show promise for a ubiquitous gesture-based interaction interface with Wi-Fi. In this work, we extract complete information of motion-induced Doppler shifts with only commodity Wi-Fi. The key insight is to harness antenna diversity to carefully eliminate random phase shifts while retaining relevant Doppler shifts. We further correlate Doppler shifts with motion directions, and propose a light-weight pipeline to …

Lightweight Data Aggregation Scheme Against Internal Attackers In Smart Grid Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Debiao He, Sherali Zeadally, Huaqun Wang, Qin Liu

Information Science Faculty Publications

Recent advances of Internet and microelectronics technologies have led to the concept of smart grid which has been a widespread concern for industry, governments, and academia. The openness of communications in the smart grid environment makes the system vulnerable to different types of attacks. The implementation of secure communication and the protection of consumers’ privacy have become challenging issues. The data aggregation scheme is an important technique for preserving consumers’ privacy because it can stop the leakage of a specific consumer’s data. To satisfy the security requirements of practical applications, a lot of data aggregation schemes were presented over the …

Classification Of Images Based On Pixels That Represent A Small Part Of The Scene. A Case Applied To Microaneurysms In Fundus Retina Images, Pablo F. Ordonez, Pablo F. Ordonez

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), the state of the art in image classification, have proven to be as effective as an ophthalmologist, when detecting Referable Diabetic Retinopathy (RDR). Having a size of less than 1\% of the total image, microaneurysms are early lesions in DR that are difficult to classify. The purpose of this thesis is to improve the accuracy of detection of microaneurysms using a model that includes two CNNs with different input image sizes, 60x60 and 420x420 pixels. These models were trained using the Kaggle and Messidor datasets and tested independently against the Kaggle dataset, showing a sensitivity of …

A Robotics Framework For Simulation And Control Of A Robotic Arm For Use In Higher Education, Craig Christensen

MS in Computer Science Project Reports

Robotic arms have been in common use for a several decades now in many areas from manufacturing and industrial uses to hobby projects and amusement park rides. However, there have been very few attempts to make an inexpensive robot arm with a software stack for use in higher education. This paper will outline a control and interfacing software stack built on the Robot Operating System (ROS) and a simulation of the 5 degree of freedom (DoF) robotic arm.

Tum: Towards Ubiquitous Multi-Device Localization For Cross-Device Interaction, Han Xu, Zheng Yang, Zimu Zhou, Ke Yi, Chunyi Peng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cross-device interaction is becoming an increasingly hot topic as we often have multiple devices at our immediate disposal in this era of mobile computing. Various cross-device applications such as file sharing, multi-screen display, and crossdevice authentication have been proposed and investigated. However, one of the most fundamental enablers remains unsolved: How to achieve ubiquitous multi-device localization? Though pioneer efforts have resorted to gesture-assisted or sensing-assisted localization, they either require extensive user participation or impose some strong assumptions on device sensing abilities. This introduces extra costs and constraints, and thus degrades their practicality. To overcome these limitations, we propose TUM, an …

Developing And Implementing An Online Research Data Repository For Your University Or College Campus, Raymond J. Uzwyshyn

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Data-driven research is becoming increasingly important on university and college campuses. Most US federal and many international granting agencies mandatorily require that researchers applying for public grants possess a data management plan and make their research and data publically available through online access. This presentation overviews online research data repositories and implementation strategies for university and college campus libraries. The presentation pragmatically surveys this newer technology landscape and how organizations can begin to think about and implement an online data research repository. This session will survey the landscape but also makes use of practical example from Texas State University and …

Improving Automatic Content Type Identification From A Data Set, Kathy T. Dai

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Data file layout inference refers to building the structure and determining the metadata of a text file. The text files dealt within this research are personal information records that have a consistent structure. Traditionally, if the layout structure of a text file is unknown, the human user must undergo manual labor of identifying the metadata. This is inefficient and prone to error. Content-based oracles are the current state-of-the-art automation technology that attempts to solve the layout inference problem by using databases of known metadata. This paper builds upon the information and documentation of the content-based oracles, and improves the databases …

Music Feature Matching Using Computer Vision Algorithms, Mason Hollis

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to establish the validity and potential benefits of using existing computer vision techniques on audio samples rather than traditional images in order to consistently and accurately identify a song of origin from a short audio clip of potentially noisy sound. To do this, the audio sample is first converted to a spectrogram image, which is used to generate SURF features. These features are compared against a database of features, which have been previously generated in a similar fashion, in order to find the best match. This algorithm has been implemented in a system that can run as …

Project Pradio, Trigg T. La Tour

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the design and manufacturing of a device that allows two or more users to share a wireless audio stream. Effectively, this allows a group of people to listen to the same audio in a synchronized manner. The product was unable to be completed in the allotted time. Regardless, significant progress was made and valuable insight into the circuit board design process was gained.