Computer Engineering Commons^™

Grit Mobile: Data Collection App For The Grit Research Project, Ryan Chang

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This project consists of one part of a larger University research project aimed at determining if active learning builds the character trait of grit in students while they learn in the domain of mechanical engineering. The research project has three goals: the development of a mobile app to measure the quantity and quality of active learning, a model of student success using the quantity and quality of active learning, and a characterization of the relationship between active learning and grit growth. This senior project focuses on the mobile app as part of the larger research project. The mobile app will …

Smart Solar Oven, Aaron Gragg

Computer Engineering

Though solar oven technology provides a green and cost effective means of cooking, it is often not adopted because it fails to meet the demands of speed and reliability that are commonplace in our society. This project explores the modification of a traditional box solar to meet these demands by allowing the oven to report temperature to a user’s phone as well as orient itself towards the sun throughout the day.

Music Dynamic Animations, Thuy-Vy Do

Computer Engineering

Audio visualization gives a graphical representation to beats, intensity, and the fluctuating sounds heard in music. Music dynamic animation, deriving from this concept of audio visualizers, implements a hard coded range styled beat detection. This algorithm prioritizes graphical representations of classical and instrumental music. These graphical representations are intended to provide a sense of imagery.

Cybersecurity In The Information Age

DePaul Magazine

According to the Identify Theft Resource Center, more than 750 breaches occurred in 2014, exposing more than 83 million records. Breaches occur because people have discovered that there’s money to be made from stealing corporate and customer information. Faced with this reality, consumers and companies may wonder if it’s possible to protect their personal and financial data. DePaul's College of Computing and Digital Media is training the next generation of cybersecurity experts to thwart cybersecurity attacks. In addition, DePaul faculty and alumni in data security offer advice to consumers on securing their financial and personal information.

Density Based Data Clustering, Rayan Albarakati

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Data clustering is a data analysis technique that groups data based on a measure of similarity. When data is well clustered the similarities between the objects in the same group are high, while the similarities between objects in different groups are low. The data clustering technique is widely applied in a variety of areas such as bioinformatics, image segmentation and market research.

This project conducted an in-depth study on data clustering with focus on density-based clustering methods. The latest density-based (CFSFDP) algorithm is based on the idea that cluster centers are characterized by a higher density than their neighbors and …

Click-Boosting Multi-Modality Graph-Based Reranking For Image Search, Xiaopeng Yang, Yongdong Zhang, Ting Yao, Chong-Wah Ngo, Tao Mei

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Image reranking is an effective way for improving the retrieval performance of keyword-based image search engines. A fundamental issue underlying the success of existing image reranking approaches is the ability in identifying potentially useful recurrent patterns from the initial search results. Ideally, these patterns can be leveraged to upgrade the ranks of visually similar images, which are also likely to be relevant. The challenge, nevertheless, originates from the fact that keyword-based queries are used to be ambiguous, resulting in difficulty in predicting the search intention. Mining useful patterns without understanding query is risky, and may lead to incorrect judgment in …

Comparing The Effect Of Smoothing And N-Gram Order : Finding The Best Way To Combine The Smoothing And Order Of N-Gram, Wenyang Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The SRILM is a toolkit for building and applying statistical language models (LMs), designed and developed primarily for use in speech recognition, statistical tagging and segmentation, and machine translation. It has been under development in the SRI Speech Technology and Research Laboratory since 1995. The toolkit has also greatly benefited from its use and enhancements during the Johns Hopkins University/CLSP summer workshops in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2002. In this thesis, the effect of smoothing and order of N-gram for language model we build by srilm toolkit is studied. My primary method is to use comparison. Firstly, training corpus and …

A Proposed Model For The Approach To Augmented Reality Deployment In Marketing Communications, Stephen O'Mahony

Dept. of Marketing & International Business Conference Material

In the contemporary landscape, human interaction is characterized by the pervasive mediation of intelligent agents. Owing to advances in computer science and engineering, phenomena once limited to fixed locations are metamorphosing from extraneous entities to implicit components of the everyday. Computing power has simultaneously enhanced and miniaturized to the extent that contemporary consumer devices demonstrate power equivalent to or greater than that of personal computers of recent memory. At the same time, network connectivity has proliferated to ubiquitous levels, reflected in the fact that the amount of inanimate objects connected to the Internet has recently surpassed the human population of …

Using Cross-Linked Su-8 To Flip-Chip Bond, Assemble, And Package Mems Devices, Robert A. Lake, Ronald A. Coutu Jr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper investigates using an SU-8 photoresist as an adhesive material for flip-chip bonding, assembling, and packaging microelectromechanical systems devices. An important factor, when using SU-8 as an adhesive material is to control ultraviolet (UV) exposure during fabrication to maximize bond strength due to material cross linking. This approach is much improved over previous efforts where SU-8 bake times and temperatures where changed to alter material cross-linking. In this paper, bake times and temperatures were maintained constant and total UV exposure energy was varied. Once fabricated, bond strength was systematically tested to determine the tensile loads needed to separate bonded …

A Natural Simple Model Of Scientists' Strength Leads To Skew-Normal Distribution, Komsan Suriya, Tatcha Sudtasan, Tonghui Wang, Octavio Lerma, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, we have probability distributions which are close to normal but skewed. Several families of distributions were proposed to describe such phenomena. The most widely used is skew-normal distribution, whose probability density (pdf) is equal to the product of the pdf of a normal distribution and a cumulative distribution function (cdf) of another normal distribution. Out of other possible generalizations of normal distributions, the skew-normal ones were selected because of their computational efficiency, and not because they represent any real-life phenomena. Interestingly, it turns out that these distributions do represent a real-life phenomena: namely, in a natural …

Our Reasoning Is Clearly Fuzzy, So Why Is Crisp Logic So Often Adequate?, Hung T. Nguyen, Berlin Wu, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Our reasoning is clearly fuzzy, so why is crisp logic so often adequate? We explain this phenomenon by showing that in the presence of noise, an arbitrary continuous (e.g., fuzzy) system can be well described by its discrete analog. However, as the description gets more accurate, the continuous description becomes necessary.

An Empirical Study Of Critical Success Factors Of Mobile Learning Platform From The Perspective Of Instructors, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Mobile learning is newest learning platform and based on the rapid rate of proliferation of mobile technology throughout the world is expected to grow at a rapid rate. However, the adoption of m-Learning is proceeding at a cautious rate. This mismatch in the rate of growth of the technology itself and the use of the technology in learning is a subject of extensive interest to researchers. However, research in the area has been mostly focused on understanding the success factors of the platform from learners’ perspective. In this research, we have conducted an extensive analysis of the extent to which …

Clustering Header Categories Extracted From Web Tables, George Nagy, David W. Embley, Mukkai Krishnamoorthy, Sharad C. Seth

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Revealing related content among heterogeneous web tables is part of our long term objective of formulating queries over multiple sources of information. Two hundred HTML tables from institutional web sites are segmented and each table cell is classified according to the fundamental indexing property of row and column headers. The categories that correspond to the multi-dimensional data cube view of a table are extracted by factoring the (often multi-row/column) headers. To reveal commonalities between tables from diverse sources, the Jaccard distances between pairs of category headers (and also table titles) are computed. We show how about one third of our …

Secure Transmission Of Static And Dynamic Images Via Chaotic Encryption In Acousto-Optic Hybrid Feedback With Profiled Light Beams, Monish Ranjan Chatterjee, Fares S. Almehmadi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Secure information encryption via acousto-optic (AO) chaos with profiled optical beams indicates substantially better performance in terms of system robustness. This paper examines encryption of static and time-varying (video) images onto AO chaotic carriers using Gaussian-profile beams with diffracted data numerically generated using transfer functions. The use of profiled beams leads to considerable improvement in the encrypted signal.

While static image encryption exhibits parameter tolerances within about ±10% for uniform optical beams, profiled beams reduce the tolerance to less than 1%, thereby vastly improving both the overall security of the transmitted information as well as the quality of the image …

Semi-Modular Delay Model Revisited In Context Of Relative Timing, Hoon Park, Anping He, Marly Roncken, Xiaoyu Song

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new definition of semi-modularity to accommodate relative timing constraints in self-timed circuits is presented. While previous definitions ignore such constraints, the new definition takes them into account. The difference on a design solution for a well-known speed-independent circuit implementation of the Muller C element and a set of relative timing constraints that renders the implementation hazard free is illustrated. The old definition produces a false semi-modularity conflict that cannot exist due to the set of imposed constraints. The new definition correctly accepts the solution.

Agenda, Hr Adaptation Forum

January 23, 2015: Storm Surge Modeling Tools for Planning and Response

No abstract provided.

Grafalgo - A Library Of Graph Algorithms And Supporting Data Structures, Jonathan Turner

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

This report provides an overview of Grafalgo, an open-source library of graph algorithms and the data structures used to implement them. The programs in this library were originally written to support a graduate class in advanced data structures and algorithms at Washington University. Because the code's primary purpose was pedagogical, it was written to be as straightforward as possible, while still being highly efficient. Grafalgo is implemented in C++ and incorporates some features of C++11. The library is available on an open-source basis and may be downloaded from https://code.google.com/p/grafalgo/. Source code documentation is at www.arl.wustl.edu/~jst/doc/grafalgo. While not designed as production …

An Analysis Of The Predictive Capability Of C5.0 And Chaid Decision Trees And Bayes Net In The Classification Of Fatal Traffic Accidents In The Uk, Aiden O'Connor

Dissertations

Road traffic accidents are a significant cause of deaths worldwide and there is a global focus on understanding accident contributory factors and implementing prevention strategies. Although accident statistics are steadily improving, effective prevention must be persistent, evidence based and properly resourced. This research aimed to extract fatal traffic accident prediction from UK STATS19 accident data using C5.0 and Chaid decision trees and Bayes net classification models. Data was grouped as either fatal or non-fatal. The class imbalance due to fatal accident infrequency was considered and data transformation and sampling techniques were applied to increase prediction likelihood. Chaid was used for …

Dynamic Modeling, Parameter Estimation And Control Of A Leg Prosthesis Test Robot, Hanz Richter, Daniel J. Simon, William A. Smith, Sergey Samorezov

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Robotic testing can facilitate the development of new concepts, designs and control systems for prosthetic limbs. Human subject test clearances, safety and the lack of repeatability associated with human trials can be reduced or eliminated with automated testing, and test modalities are possible which are dangerous or inconvenient to attempt with patients. This paper describes the development, modeling, parameter estimation and control of a robot capable of reproducing two degree-of-freedom hip motion in the sagittal plane. Hip vertical displacement and thigh angle motion profiles are applied to a transfemoral prosthesis attached to the robot. A treadmill is used as walking …

Static Conflict Detection For A Policy Language, Alix Trou, Robert Dockins, Andrew Tolmach

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present a static control flow analysis used in the Simple Unified Policy Programming Language (SUPPL) compiler to detect internally inconsistent policies. For example, an access control policy can decide to both “allow” and “deny” access for a user; such an inconsistency is called a conflict. Policies in Suppl. follow the Event-Condition-Action paradigm; predicates are used to model conditions and event handlers are written in an imperative way. The analysis is twofold; it first computes a superset of all conflicts by looking for a combination of actions in the event handlers that might violate a user-supplied definition of conflicts. SMT …

Thorough Exploration Of Complex Environments With A Space-Based Potential Field, Kenealy Alina, Nicholas Primiano, Alex Keyes, Lyons Damian

Faculty Publications

Robotic exploration, for the purposes of search and rescue or explosive device detection, can be improved by using a team of multiple robots. Potential field navigation methods offer natural and efficient distributed exploration algorithms in which team members are mutually repelled to spread out and cover the area efficiently. However, they also suffer from field minima issues. Liu and Lyons proposed a Space-Based Potential Field (SBPF) algorithm that disperses robots efficiently and also ensures they are driven in a distributed fashion to cover complex geometry. In this paper, the approach is modified to handle two problems with the original SBPF …

Homing With Stereovision, Paramesh Nirmal, Damian Lyons

Faculty Publications

Visual Homing is a navigation method based on comparing a stored image of a goal location to the current image to determine how to navigate to the goal location. It is theorized that insects such as ants and bees employ visual homing techniques to return to their nest or hive, and inspired by this, several researchers have developed elegant robot visual homing algorithms. Depth information, from visual scale, or other modality such as laser ranging, can improve the quality of homing. While insects are not well equipped for stereovision, stereovision is an effective robot sensor. We describe the challenges involved …

Evaluation Of Parallel Reduction Strategies For Fusion Of Sensory Information From A Robot Team., Damian M. Lyons, Joseph Leroy

Faculty Publications

The advantage of using a team of robots to search or to map an area is that by navigating the robots to different parts of the area, searching or mapping can be completed more quickly. A crucial aspect of the problem is the combination, or fusion, of data from team members to generate an integrated model of the search/mapping area. In prior work we looked at the issue of removing mutual robots views from an integrated point cloud model built from laser and stereo sensors, leading to a cleaner and more accurate model. This paper addresses a further challenge: Even …

Leveraging Area Bounds Information For Autonomous Decentralized Multi-Robot Exploration, Tsungming Liu, Damian Lyons

Faculty Publications

This paper proposes a simple and uniform, decentralized approach to the problem of dispersing a team of robots to explore an area quickly. The Decentralized Space-Based Potential Field (D-SBPF) algorithm is a potential field approach that leverages knowledge of the overall bounds of the area to be explored. It includes a monotonic coverage factor in the potential field to avoid minima, realistic sensor bounds, and a distributed map exchange protocol. The D-SBPF approach yields a simple potential field control strategy for all robots but nonetheless has good dispersion and overlap performance in exploring areas with convex geometry while avoiding potential …

Performance Verification For Behavior-Based Robot Missions, Damian M. Lyons, Ron Arkin, Shu Jiang, Tsungming Liu, Paramesh Nirmal

Faculty Publications

Certain robot missions need to perform predictably in a physical environment that may have significant uncertainty. One approach is to leverage automatic software verification techniques to establish a performance guarantee. The addition of an environment model and uncertainty in both program and environment, however, means the state-space of a model-checking solution to the problem can be prohibitively large. An approach based on behavior-based controllers in a process-algebra framework that avoids state-space combinatorics is presented here. In this approach, verification of the robot program in the uncertain environment is reduced to a filtering problem for a Bayesian Network. Validation results are …

Online Auction-Based Relay Selection For Cooperative Communication In Cr Networks, Tao Jing, Fan Zhang, Wei Cheng, Yan Huo, Xiuzhen Cheng

Computer Science Publications

Cognitive radio and cooperative communication are two new network technologies. So, the combination of these two new technologies is a novel solution to solve the problem of spectrum scarcity. Two main challenges exist in the integration of cognitive radio and cooperative communication. First, there is a lack of incentives for the participating wireless devices to serve as relay nodes. Second, there is not an effective relay selection policy. In this paper, we propose an online auction-based relay selection scheme for cooperative communication in cognitive radio (CR) networks. Specifically, we design an auction scheme through adopting stopping theory. The proposed scheme …

Grid Game: Developing A Java/Android Version For Increased Accessibility And Usability, Sean Amos, Patrick Sivils, Aidan Collins

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Objective: Idaho University has implemented a power grid simulator game as a teaching aid for students enrolled in their Resilient Control Systems course. The game was created in LabView and requires the user to download the LabView client, as well as install the Grid Game on their machine in order to play. Our goal is to recreate the Grid Game in a Java based web-browser format so that the game is more accessible and easy to use. By recreating the Grid Game in a format that can be played in browser, other universities, companies, and individuals will easily be able …

Smart Grid Network Simulation, Morgan Waser, Brandon Perkins, Benjamin Koppier

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem: In the coming years the United States is working to move towards a smarter electric grid. One that is more versatile and can adjust to different situations. To move forward with these from our current electric grid to the Smart Grid, simulations are needed to understand how the new grid is likely to behave in different situations.

Rationale: The importance of creating these simulations is to try and predict which topological set-ups are best for different kinds of scenarios as well as how the grid might behave under different circumstances. Once different situations are simulated, Smart Grid developers can …

Scientifically Defensible And Measurable Anti-Phishing Training, Josh Rymer, Chris Neville, Robert Hodges

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem: How can the effectiveness of a phishing attack be quantified and/or measured?

Applications: This project will provide a resource for Idaho National Labs to quantitavely evaluate the effectiveness of their security awareness program in regards to phishing attacks. In turn, it will aid them in hardening the human element of security at the research facility.

Approach: Our approach is to construct a fully functional phishing system where we can craft phishing emails, send emails, and place links that point to our web application. We hope to use this system to conduct an anonymous and non-malicious experiment. This data will …

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities In The Smart Grid & Thermodynamical Properties Database Software, Abderrahmen Chouat, Shiyoon Joo, Jacob Holcombe

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Project Scope: Smart grid stability and issues/ challenges associated with coupling nuclear and renewable energy source will be researched. The changes we can expect in grid technology so the robustness and resilience could be further improved will be addressed. This projects will entail literature surveys and may involve running some simulation software and comparisons. Another aspect of the project will be focus on nuclear plant as part of the future smart grid stability challenge. Specifically, this part of the project will entail CFD modeling of zig-zag Printed Circuit compact heat exchanger and modeling it in MATLAB and seeing the difference …