Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Domain Specific Computing In Tightly-Coupled Heterogeneous Systems, Anthony Michael Cabrera Aug 2020

Domain Specific Computing In Tightly-Coupled Heterogeneous Systems, Anthony Michael Cabrera

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Over the past several decades, researchers and programmers across many disciplines have relied on Moores law and Dennard scaling for increases in compute capability in modern processors. However, recent data suggest that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits is losing pace with Moores laws projection due to the breakdown of Dennard scaling at smaller semiconductor process nodes. This has signaled the beginning of a new “golden age in computer architecture” in which the paradigm will be shifted from improving traditional processor performance for general tasks to architecting hardware that executes a class of applications in a …


Convex Relaxations For Particle-Gradient Flow With Applications In Super-Resolution Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy, Hesam Mazidisharfabadi Aug 2020

Convex Relaxations For Particle-Gradient Flow With Applications In Super-Resolution Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy, Hesam Mazidisharfabadi

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) techniques have become advanced bioanalytical tools by quantifying the positions and orientations of molecules in space and time at the nanoscale. With the noisy and heterogeneous nature of SMLM datasets in mind, we discuss leveraging particle-gradient flow 1) for quantifying the accuracy of localization algorithms with and without ground truth and 2) as a basis for novel, model-driven localization algorithms with empirically robust performance. Using experimental data, we demonstrate that overlapping images of molecules, a typical consequence of densely packed biological structures, cause biases in position estimates and reconstruction artifacts. To minimize such biases, we develop …


Investigating Single Precision Floating General Matrix Multiply In Heterogeneous Hardware, Steven Harris Aug 2020

Investigating Single Precision Floating General Matrix Multiply In Heterogeneous Hardware, Steven Harris

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The fundamental operation of matrix multiplication is ubiquitous across a myriad of disciplines. Yet, the identification of new optimizations for matrix multiplication remains relevant for emerging hardware architectures and heterogeneous systems. Frameworks such as OpenCL enable computation orchestration on existing systems, and its availability using the Intel High Level Synthesis compiler allows users to architect new designs for reconfigurable hardware using C/C++. Using the HARPv2 as a vehicle for exploration, we investigate the utility of several of the most notable matrix multiplication optimizations to better understand the performance portability of OpenCL and the implications for such optimizations on this and …


Real-Time Communication In Cloud Environments, Chong Li May 2020

Real-Time Communication In Cloud Environments, Chong Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Real-time communication is critical to emerging cloud applications from smart cities to industrial automation. The new class of latency-critical applications requires latency differentiation and performance isolation in a highly scalable fashion in a virtualized cloud environments. This dissertation aims to develop novel cloud architecture and services to support real-time communication at both the platform and infrastructure layers. At the platform layer, we build SRTM, a scalable and real-time messaging middleware (platform) that features (1) latency differentiation, (2) service isolation through rate limiting, and (3) scalability through load distribution among messaging brokers. A key contribution of SRTM lies in the exploitation …


Exploring Attacks And Defenses In Additive Manufacturing Processes: Implications In Cyber-Physical Security, Nicholas Deily May 2020

Exploring Attacks And Defenses In Additive Manufacturing Processes: Implications In Cyber-Physical Security, Nicholas Deily

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Many industries are rapidly adopting additive manufacturing (AM) because of the added versatility this technology offers over traditional manufacturing techniques. But with AM, there comes a unique set of security challenges that must be addressed. In particular, the issue of part verification is critically important given the growing reliance of safety-critical systems on 3D printed parts. In this thesis, the current state of part verification technologies will be examined in the con- text of AM-specific geometric-modification attacks, and an automated tool for 3D printed part verification will be presented. This work will cover: 1) the impacts of malicious attacks on …


Exploring Usage Of Web Resources Through A Model Of Api Learning, Finn Voichick May 2020

Exploring Usage Of Web Resources Through A Model Of Api Learning, Finn Voichick

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are essential to modern software development, and new APIs are frequently being produced. Consequently, software developers must regularly learn new APIs, which they typically do on the job from online resources rather than in a formal educational context. The Kelleher–Ichinco COIL model, an acronym for “Collection and Organization of Information for Learning,” was recently developed to model the entire API learning process, drawing from information foraging theory, cognitive load theory, and external memory research. We ran an exploratory empirical user study in which participants performed a programming task using the React API with the goal of …


Csp-Completeness And Its Applications, Alexander Durgin May 2020

Csp-Completeness And Its Applications, Alexander Durgin

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

We build off of previous ideas used to study both reductions between CSPrefutation problems and improper learning and between CSP-refutation problems themselves to expand some hardness results that depend on the assumption that refuting random CSP instances are hard for certain choices of predicates (like k-SAT). First, we are able argue the hardness of the fundamental problem of learning conjunctions in a one-sided PAC-esque learning model that has appeared in several forms over the years. In this model we focus on producing a hypothesis that foremost guarantees a small false-positive rate while minimizing the false-negative rate for such hypotheses. Further, …


Toward Efficient Scheduling For Parallel Real-Time Tasks On Multiprocessors, Son Ngoc Dinh May 2020

Toward Efficient Scheduling For Parallel Real-Time Tasks On Multiprocessors, Son Ngoc Dinh

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Modern real-time applications are becoming more demanding computationally while their temporal requirements, dictated by the physical world, often remain unchanged. This coupled with the increasing prevalence of multiprocessors in real-time systems necessitates that highly computation-demanding real-time tasks need to be parallelized to exploit the parallelism offered by the underlying hardware, in order to satisfy their temporal constraints. Scheduling parallel real-time tasks, however, introduces a new layer of complexity due to the allowance for intra-task parallelism. This dissertation addresses the problem of scheduling parallel real-time tasks in which tasks may (or may not) access shared non-processor resources, such as in-memory buffers …


Predicting Disease Progression Using Deep Recurrent Neural Networks And Longitudinal Electronic Health Record Data, Seunghwan Kim May 2020

Predicting Disease Progression Using Deep Recurrent Neural Networks And Longitudinal Electronic Health Record Data, Seunghwan Kim

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are widely adopted and used throughout healthcare systems and are able to collect and store longitudinal information data that can be used to describe patient phenotypes. From the underlying data structures used in the EHR, discrete data can be extracted and analyzed to improve patient care and outcomes via tasks such as risk stratification and prospective disease management. Temporality in EHR is innately present given the nature of these data, however, and traditional classification models are limited in this context by the cross-sectional nature of training and prediction processes. Finding temporal patterns in EHR is especially …


Predicting Disease Progression Using Deep Recurrent Neural Networks And Longitudinal Electronic Health Record Data, Seunghwan Kim May 2020

Predicting Disease Progression Using Deep Recurrent Neural Networks And Longitudinal Electronic Health Record Data, Seunghwan Kim

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are widely adopted and used throughout healthcare systems and are able to collect and store longitudinal information data that can be used to describe patient phenotypes. From the underlying data structures used in the EHR, discrete data can be extracted and analyzed to improve patient care and outcomes via tasks such as risk stratification and prospective disease management. Temporality in EHR is innately present given the nature of these data, however, and traditional classification models are limited in this context by the cross- sectional nature of training and prediction processes. Finding temporal patterns in EHR is …


The Effects Of Mixed-Initiative Visualization Systems On Exploratory Data Analysis, Adam Kern Apr 2020

The Effects Of Mixed-Initiative Visualization Systems On Exploratory Data Analysis, Adam Kern

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The main purpose of information visualization is to act as a window between a user and data. Historically, this has been accomplished via a single-agent framework: the only decisionmaker in the relationship between visualization system and analyst is the analyst herself. Yet this framework arose not from first principles, but from necessity: prior to this decade, computers were limited in their decision-making capabilities, especially in the face of large, complex datasets and visualization systems. This thesis aims to present the design and evaluation of a mixed-initiative system that aids the user in handling large, complex datasets and dense visualization systems. …