Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Applying Machine Learning To Categorize Distinct Categories Of Network Traffic, Isaac M. Dunham

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The recent rapid growth of the field of data science has made available to all fields opportunities to leverage machine learning. Computer network traffic classification has traditionally been performed using static, pre-written rules that are easily made ineffective if changes, legitimate or not, are made to the applications or protocols underlying a particular category of network traffic. This paper explores the problem of network traffic classification and analyzes the viability of having the process performed using a multitude of classical machine learning techniques against significant statistical similarities between classes of network traffic as opposed to traditional static traffic identifiers.

To …

A Historical And Practical Survey Of Quantum Computing Using Qiskit, Kenneth Paul Cook

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Quantum Computing has been a part of computer science literature since the 1960s, but the call for quantum mechanical-based computation came when renowned theoretical physicist Richard Feynman said, “… nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it's a wonderful problem, because it doesn't look so easy.” (Feynman, 486) His words inspired people to begin work on the project immediately. Although the best ideas have not yet been found, there is much active research and experimentation going on to learn how best to use these …

Building A Secure Web Application For Gamified Technical Labs, Kevin Higman

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

In order to improve upon existing online lab platforms, in an attempt to increase student motivation, gamification has been used to create a new gamified web application. Departmental research has shown gamification to provide significant improvement to student’s self-efficacy and motivation. Neuralabs, a web application created by two Eastern Michigan Honors Students, uses techniques often found in popular video games in order to create a more appealing learning experience. Building a public web application designed towards Cybersecurity students creates many technical security challenges. Neuralabs goal is to create a secure competitive learning experience where students can create and take labs …

Building A Competitive Platform For Cyber Security And Computer Science Technical Challenges, Zachariah Pelletier

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

To answer the question of whether creating a competitive environment drives students’ engagement while completing class objectives, two EMU Honors students designed and built a web application that creates such an environment. This system allows students to complete assignments that are weighted on a point system and compare scores on an anonymous “Leaderboard”. This system attempts to emulate a competition environment for objective-based learning and is designed to be used for Information Security lab assignments similar to a Security competition environment. Although the primary proof-of-concept labs for this project for this project are in the Computer Science and Information Security …

The Implementation Of A Novel Graphical Python Editor (Stremecoder) In A Rodent Discrimination Apparatus, Supraja Kalva

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

As the interest in neuroscience and the desire to perform behavioral tasks in a higher level of specificity and accuracy increases, the need to have tools and techniques to conduct experimentations in a low-cost automated manner is essential. Although such methods have been proposed previously by other researchers, they have presented their data and tools in a manner that would have been difficult to comprehend for non-programmers. In labs that do not have the accessibility to individuals who can understand the published procedures, it is very difficult for them to get started and manipulate the published procedures to their interests. …

Facilitating Cross-Chain Cryptocurrency Exchanges: An Inquiry Into Blockchain Technology And Interoperability With An Emphasis On Cryptocurrency Arbitrage, Samuel Grone

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Since the introduction and proliferation of the blockchain-based cryptocurrency Bitcoin, alternative cryptocurrencies also based on blockchain technology have exploded in number. It was once believed that one, or very few, cryptocurrencies would eventually dominate the market and drive out competitors. This assumption, however, was incorrect. Thousands of cryptocurrencies exist concurrently. The vast number of cryptocurrencies leads to a problem—what if the cryptocurrency that an individual possesses does not meet their current needs as well as another cryptocurrency might? The attempt to solve this problem has led to the rise of many cryptocurrency exchanges and exchange schemes. In this paper, we …

Exploring How Integrating Art & Animation In Teaching Text-Based Programming Affects High School Students' Interest In Computer Science, Hadeel Mohammed Jawad

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As oil is the fuel of the industrial society, software is the fuel of our current information society. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be more demand for computing jobs in the future. By 2024, more than one million computing jobs will be available. Statistics show that there is more demand for computing jobs than there is a supply of qualified graduates from universities. In this experimental study, three groups of high school students were targeted to explore how integrating art, animation, and code sharing into programming affects their interest in pursuing a degree in computer science …

Access Granted: A Study Of The Factors Affecting The Development Of Technology Literacy In Black Males, Carlton Bernard Bell

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

One of the most urgent challenges of the digital divide is the need to expand technology literacy. Access to technology was believed to be one of the causes for the discrepancy that exists, but there is a deeper divide: the divide that exists between technology literacy, and career readiness. Although access to technology has improved over time, the educational outcomes for Black males in related fields have not. A critical area of concern is the lack of a Black male professional presence in technology fields, which has serious implications for the future of our society. These implications include a less …

Divine Vulpine: 3d Simulation Of Colorations Of The Wild And Domesticated Red Fox, Alyssa Newsome

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Vulpes vulpes, the red fox, has been domesticated for hundreds of years. Through the continued breeding of the red fox in captivity, there has been an explosion of variations in color, size, and temperament. With the rise of interest in domesticated foxes as pets and educational animals, there is a dire need for education of the public on these animals and their history. Fur farming also remains a lucrative industry, an industry engaged in continuous and broad academic research. Aimed at these audiences, this academic presentation allows users to view a 30 animated fox, and select its coloration, animation, view, …

Examining The Influence Of Technology Acceptance, Self-Efficacy, And Locus Of Control On Information Security Behavior Of Social Media Users, Abdullah Almuqrin

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Due to recent advances in online communication technology, social networks have become a vital avenue for human interaction. At the same time, they have been exploited as a target for viruses, attacks, and security threats. The first line of defense against such attacks and threats— as well as their primary cause—are social media users themselves. This study investigated the relationship between certain personality factors among social media users—i.e., technology acceptance of security protection technologies, self-efficacy of information security, and locus of control—and their information security behavior. Quantitative methods were used to examine this relationship. The population consisted of all students …

Construction Of A Custom Network Security Appliance, Jacob Rickerd

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Over the last three semesters, I worked toward my final goal to develop a custom network security appliance. I first began by completing a comparison analysis of network intrusion detection systems which are devices that read traffic from the network and determine if network packets should go through or be dropped. Second, I conducted a feasibility study of a custom framework to profile attackers in a network; this yielded positive results. Finally, I worked on creating a custom network security appliance; it uses the profiles I created in my framework to more efficiently block malicious attackers in comparison to other …

The Software Development Life Cycle And Its Application, Gillian Lemke

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The Software Development Life Cycle (SLDC) is a concept that is incredibly important to have a deep understanding of as a software engineer. With this project, my goal was to learn the complexities of each step conceptually and apply my skills to an actual application. The SDLC includes the following phases: planning and requirement analysis, design and development, implementation, testing, integration, and maintenance. In order to apply these concepts, I created a web application for users to schedule messages to be sent at a future time and date. The API is written in Ruby on Rails and the front end …

Assessing Patient And Caregiver Intent To Use Mobile Device Videoconferencing For Remote Mechanically-Ventilated Patient Management, Brian R. Smith

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The Michigan Medicine adult Assisted Ventilation Clinic (AVC) supports patients with neuromuscular disorders and spinal cord injuries and their caregivers at home, helping them avoid expensive emergency department visits, hospitalization, and unnecessary or excessive treatments. Mobile device videoconferencing provides an effective capability for remote mechanically-ventilated patient management but must rely upon an unknown infrastructure comprising patient and caregiver mobile device ownership, connectivity, and experience—and intent to use the service if provided. The purpose of this study was to measure the extent of this infrastructure and the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intent to use this mobile device …

Personal Privacy: A Study To Determine Views On Privacy As It Relates To Technology Acceptance, Keith A. Wuotinen

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This descriptive correlation study sought to learn the relationships, if any, between a person’s concern for privacy and their acceptance of technology, in conjunction with the control factors of the Big Five personality factors. The study employed a modified Concern for Information Privacy (CFIP) scale and a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) approach in conjunction with the Big Five personality factors using a 51-question survey.

The study surveyed students at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, who were enrolled in the College of Technology. The results indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between the CFIP and the TAM. …

A Study Of Information Security Awareness Program Effectiveness In Predicting End-User Security Behavior, James Michael Banfield

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As accessibility to data increases, so does the need to increase security. For organizations of all sizes, information security (IS) has become paramount due to the increased use of the Internet. Corporate data are transmitted ubiquitously over wireless networks and have increased exponentially with cloud computing and growing end-user demand. Both technological and human strategies must be employed in the development of an information security awareness (ISA) program. By creating a positive culture that promotes desired security behavior through appropriate technology, security policies, and an understanding of human motivations, ISA programs have been the norm for organizational end-user risk mitigation …

Technological, Organizational, And Environmental Factors Affecting The Adoption Of Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) Systems, John Njenga Kinuthia

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences between organizations that adopted Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (Cloud ERP) systems and organizations that did not adopt Cloud ERP systems based on the Technological, Organizational, and Environmental (TOE) factors. Relevant technological factors were identified as relative advantage of Cloud ERP systems, compatibility of Cloud ERP systems, and security concern of Cloud ERP system environment. Organizational factors included top management support, organizational readiness, size of the organization, centralization, and formalization. External environment factors were identified as competitive pressure and vendor support.

A survey was developed using constructs from existing studies of …

Mobile Device Vulnerabilities & Securities, Luke Rondeau

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

An investigation on current mobile vulnerabilities and research into security. Also, a proof of concept to show the ease of injecting an Android phone with a virus.

An Investigation Of The User Satisfaction Of Customer Relationship Management Program, Sangeun Lee

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The thesis investigates user satisfaction for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 by conduction surveys to graduate level students. The training manual was developed to guide the way to follow instructions to create an order and an invoice.

A Novel Defense Mechanism Against Web Crawler Intrusion, Alireza Aghamohammadi

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Web robots also known as crawlers or spiders are used by search engines, hackers and spammers to gather information about web pages. Timely detection and prevention of unwanted crawlers increases privacy and security of websites. In this research, a novel method to identify web crawlers is proposed to prevent unwanted crawler to access websites. The proposed method suggests a five-factor identification process to detect unwanted crawlers. This study provides the pretest and posttest results along with a systematic evaluation of web pages with the proposed identification technique versus web pages without the proposed identification process. An experiment was performed with …

Development Techniques For Android Platform Mobile Device Application, Ivan Njunjic

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis focuses on Android application development techniques needed to implement a mobile application portal that consists of features used at Eastern Michigan University. Since there is not a single source available to developers that explains such techniques, this thesis represents a unique manual for such development. Based on the similarity of features, mainly in terms of data nature and access, five techniques are defined in a step-by-step procedural manner. This is accomplished by outlining the development techniques and presenting them “in action” with coding examples from a fully developed demo application. As a result, the demo application demonstrates functional …

Adding Simple Simulations To Video Games To Improve Realism, Leonard Kinnaird-Heether

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In this paper a method of enhancing the realism of certain computer game types, particularly First Person Shooter games, is explored by attempting to include intelligent neutral background characters to the game environment. This method also requires that the inclusion of these background characters will not adversely affect the performance of a game by drastically increasing the computational complexity of the game. A simulation was created to show how this can be done using a group of intelligent agents based in a simulated world, and a simplified system of norms designed to influence the agents’ behavior. The agents are designed …

Implementation Of Labcreator And The Integration Of Cyberlab, Kang Zhao

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

With the development of the World Wide Web, online courses are becoming more and more popular in modern science education. CyberLab aims to solve an important issue in distance science education -- laboratory experiments in online courses. It is a toolkit that handles creation, exportation, and execution of virtual experiments (within web browsers). It consists of LabCreator and LabExecutor. With LabCreator, instructors can create virtual experiments and export them into intermediate files. Students can download those files from online course websites and execute them in LabExecutor on their own computers.

The paper reports on the completion of two important tasks …