Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Preventing Browser Fingerprinting By Randomizing Canvas, Rianna Quiogue

Honors Theses

Whether users know it or not, their online behaviors are being tracked and stored by many of the websites they visit regularly through a technique called browser fingerprinting. Just like a person's physical fingerprint can identify them, users' browser fingerprints can identify them on the Internet. This thesis outlines the techniques used in browser fingerprinting and explains how although it can be used for good, it can also be a major threat to people's online privacy and security. Since browser fingerprinting has gained popularity among many websites and advertising companies, researchers have been developing ways to counteract its effectiveness by …

Exploring The Behavior Repertoire Of A Wireless Vibrationally Actuated Tensegrity Robot, Zongliang Ji

Honors Theses

Soft robotics is an emerging field of research due to its potential to explore and operate in unstructured, rugged, and dynamic environments. However, the properties that make soft robots compelling also make them difficult to robustly control. Here at Union, we developed the world’s first wireless soft tensegrity robot. The goal of my thesis is to explore effective and efficient methods to explore the diverse behavior our tensegrity robot. We will achieve that by applying state-of-art machine learning technique and a novelty search algorithm.

Increasing The Effectiveness Of Impossible Spaces In Virtual Environments Using Moving Textures, Dylan Devenny

Honors Theses

This study looks to examine a method of overcoming the limitations caused by the size of a physical tracking area in virtual reality environments known as impossible spaces and attempt to improve its efficiency by altering the texture flow of the virtual environment. The experiment involves running participants through a series of small buildings consisting of two rooms in which the percentage of overlap between the two rooms and the ratio of texture movement to user movement (corresponding to textural ow conditions) differs from trial to trial and asking participants to make a judgement of whether or not the environment …

Indoor Localization Using A Smartphone: Approaches, Issues, And Challenges, Lee J. Easson

Honors Theses

Localization has gained priority in an increasingly inter-connected world. The majority of industries and sectors require some means of tracking the location of objects and/or people anywhere on the Earth, whether indoors or outdoors. GPS is an already-implemented and viable solution for outdoor localization. However, indoor localization is more challenging to implement and thus has become a broad area of research. Despite the challenges of tracking location in places where satellite GPS signals are unreliable or unreachable (i.e. within a building or structure), there has been considerable progress made in indoor localization research. Although current indoor localization technology can achieve …

Effects Of Halogen Bonding On 13c Nmr Shifts Of Iodotolan, James Long

Honors Theses

Halogen bonding is the ability of heavier halogens to have noncovalent interactions similar to hydrogen bonding. By mixing two compounds that should halogen bond together and analyzing this mixture with carbon NMR spectroscopy, we attempted to test the strength and extent of halogen bonding in 4-iodotolan. After observing the changes in the 4-iodotolans chemical shifts, the halogen bond appears to be too weak to affect the chemical shifts in a substantial manner; however, the C-I bonded carbon shows a slight but consistent increase in its shift which could be an avenue for future research.

Understanding Juuling Trends Among Differing Age And Gender Demographics Through Social Sensing, Thomas Mcfann

Honors Theses

Middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college students have increasingly begun using the Juul, which is a type of e-cigarette. In fact, in 2017 a study showed that “2.1 million high schoolers and middle schoolers used e-cigarettes” (Richtel and Kaplan, 2018). The reason why my research specifically addresses the Juul is that it “is now the largest e-cigarette brand measured by retail sales companies” (Huang et al., 2018b). Studies have been done to show the short time it takes for a child to lose autonomy over tobacco use, ranging from 2 to 30 days of first inhaling a cigarette (DiFranza et …

#Whyididntreport: Using Social Media As A Tool To Understand Why Sexual Assault Victims Do Not Report, Abby Garrett

Honors Theses

Sexual assault has gone largely under-reported, and social media movements, like #WhyIDidntReport, have brought great awareness to this issue. In order to take advantage of the large amounts of data the #WhyIDidntReport movement has generated, the study uses tweets to explore reasons why victims do not report their assault. The thesis cites current research on the topic of assault to generate a list of explanations victims use to describe their lack of reporting and compares the distributions with existing studies. We use a supervised learning technique to automatically categorize tweets into one of eight categories. This approach uses social sensing …

Designing A General Education Course On The Societal Impacts Of Artificial Intelligence, Vincent Rollins

Honors Theses

Most colleges, including UTC, already offer an artificial intelligence course (CPSC 4440) as part of their computer science curricula. Such courses are meant to explain the technology behind these elaborate systems, but these courses often neglect extensive coverage of the real-world impacts of the technology itself. UTC also offers a course entitled “Ethical and Social Issues in Computing” that does convey the importance behind the advances of computer technology and its impacts, but this course is practically available only to computer science majors. There is no generalized and widely available course that covers the technological, economic, cultural, philosophical/theological, and ethical …

A Mobile Application For Crowdsourced Acquisition Of Urban Street-View Pedestrian Facility Data, Andrew Fink

Honors Theses

In recent years, pedestrians have been dangerously overrepresented in traffic crashes, and the pedestrian fatality rate has steadily increased during the last decade. Additionally, studies have shown that the majority of pedestrian-involved traffic accidents occur in urban non-intersections, which suggests that a more well-connected pedestrian facility network in cities would lower the rate of pedestrian involvement in traffic accidents. One way to improve the pedestrian facility network coverage is to first have up-to-date, accurate, and thorough data regarding the presence of existing pedestrian facilities. However, state departments of transportation have stated that the current methods of acquiring this data are …

The Standards Project, Dustin Robbins

Honors Theses

The Standards Project is a web app that is intended to assist United States K-12 students in meeting the academic standards each state has set out for their students. The app is intended to allow instructors to see how proficient incoming students are in standards set for the prior grade (e.g. 6th grade students’ 5th grade math skills would be shown) and launch “interventions”—be these online modules with educational content and quiz questions, after school activities, or some other form of instruction—in order to help students in problem areas while spending a minimum of class time on old material.

It …

Implementation Considerations For The Digital Bronco Id, Bryan Gilginas

Honors Theses

This paper aims to discuss the conditions and preferences of students that Western Michigan University should take if they ever implement a Digital Bronco ID. These conditions are found via an anonymous survey given to random students. These students were prompted to answer questions based on their preference and possible uses of the Digital Bronco ID. It was found that the respondents were significantly diverse in their answers. However, things such as gender, major, and age range played a significant role in patterns in which students chose their preferences. Within the paper, these patterns are interpreted and discussed for the …

Cyanotech: A Strategic Audit, Trent Hoppe

Honors Theses

Microalgae is a fascinating group of organisms that possess a diverse array of interesting traits and benefits relevant to food, medicine, and biofuel. Extensive research behind the viability of microalgae to disrupt the market has sparked an emergent microalgae industry. Founded in 1983, one of the top microalgae companies in the world today is Cyanotech. With a 90-acre algae farm in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and two flagship microalgae products that are world leaders in their categories, Cyanotech is well- positioned be setting the course for the industry and revolutionizing the use microalgae commercially. Despite these favorable attributes, Cyanotech has been trapped …

Analysis And Comparison Of Multiple Approaches For Software Development Management As Applied To A Design Studio Project, Bethany Hage

Honors Theses

This research analyzes multiple approaches to software development management through the lens of my experience in the Raikes Design Studio capstone program. The Design Studio project I participated in was a project for the company Hudl, and throughout its course we used techniques from the Agile framework of Scrum. I compared the Scrum principles to my team’s own application over the course of the project, and I researched other software development methodologies such as Extreme Programming and Lean in order to determine whether they could improve the effectiveness of the current Design Studio experience. The proposed solution to this question …

Hinge Region In Dna Packaging Terminase Pul15 Of Herpes Simplex Virus: A Potential Allosteric Target For Antiviral Drugs, Lana Faisal Thaljeh

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Pascal's Triangle Modulo N And Its Applications To Efficient Computation Of Binomial Coefficients, Zachary Warneke

Honors Theses

In this thesis, Pascal's Triangle modulo n will be explored for n prime and n a prime power. Using the results from the case when n is prime, a novel proof of Lucas' Theorem is given. Additionally, using both the results from the exploration of Pascal's Triangle here, as well as previous results, an efficient algorithm for computation of binomial coefficients modulo n (a choose b mod n) is described, and its time complexity is analyzed and compared to naive methods. In particular, the efficient algorithm runs in O(n log(a)) time (as opposed to …

Peerra: An Extensible And Structured Web Service For Peer-To-Peer Assistance, Drake Lambert

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Contextualizing Sexual Assault Data Collection On College Campuses: A Socio-Technical Approach, Anushikha Sharma

Honors Theses

Sexual assault is a rampant issue on college campuses in the United States. Colleges and universities use a variety of survey instruments to collect data regarding sexual assault as a means to improve campus culture, policies, and resources. These instruments contain a wealth of associated information in the form of metadata, that is, data about data.

This project takes a human-centered socio-technical approach to understanding the data collection processes associated with sexual assault, specifically, on the campus of Bucknell University. By identifying the underlying metadata within the data collection processes, this research contextualizes and critiques the process of data collection, …

Determining The Presence Of Bpa In Vaping Mouthpieces, Jessica Cook-Snelgrove

Honors Theses

As more and more teenagers and young adults begin to vape, whether it be to quit smoking or to look cool, there is a potential for them to be exposed to bisphenol-A (BPA) through the plastic mouthpieces on the vapes. BPA is a molecule that is added in many plastics to make the plastic harder (Houlihan, Lunder, & Jacob, 2008). Unfortunately, BPA is structurally similar to estrogen as can be seen in Figure 1. The closeness of the structures can cause issues in humans such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and reproductive problems (Houlihan, Lunder, & Jacob, 2008). In recent years, …

Dworkinian Liberalism, The Right To Pornography, And The Internet, Will Nowell

Honors Theses

In a 1981 journal article, “Is There A Right to Pornography?,” Ronald Dworkin argues that we have a right to ethical independence that includes the right to consume pornography. The purpose of this thesis is to inquire as to whether Dworkinian liberalism does entail a right to specifically internet pornography. This research is primarily focused on Ronald Dworkin’s writings in Justice for Hedgehogs, Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality, and Taking Rights Seriously to describe the principles and character of Dworkinian liberalism and its philosophical relationship to the question of the right to pornography. This thesis considers contemporary …

Computer Science In The Elementary Classroom: The Basics, Mary Grace Belle Hill

Honors Theses

Computer Science is often ranked with Nuclear Physics or Biochemical Engineering; people understand it is an academic discipline, but have no desire to study or learn anything about it. With the introduction of Arkansas Computer Science Standards in the elementary classroom, many teachers wonder how to satisfy these and to do so without full knowledge of computer science and alongside all the other demands they must meet in the classroom. This paper covers my interest in computer science and why it is needed in elementary schools, specifically in Arkansas. It also incorporates the standards, including a chart of all the …

Bridging Act-R And Project Malmo, Developing Models Of Behavior In Complex Environments, David M. Schwartz

Honors Theses

Cognitive architectures such as ACT-R provide a system for simulating the mind and human behavior. On their own they model decision making of an isolated agent. However, applying a cognitive architecture to a complex environment yields more interesting results about how people make decisions in more realistic scenarios. Furthermore, cognitive architectures enable researchers to study human behavior in dangerous tasks which cannot be tested because they would harm participants. Nonetheless, these architectures aren’t commonly applied to such environments as they don’t come with one. It is left to the researcher to develop a task environment for their model. The difficulty …

Survey Of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters From Sequenced Myxobacteria And Analysis Of Potential Metabolic Diversity, Katherine C. Gregory

Honors Theses

The importance of natural product discovery to society is undeniable as natural products have seemingly infinite applications, particularly in regard to pharmacological use as antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, anticancer and immunosuppressive agents. The search for new therapeutics and other new chemical commodities thus grows simultaneously with antibiotic resistance and commercial pressure on pharmaceutical research. However, the increasingly common phenomenon of natural product rediscovery continues to inhibit advancement in this field. We contend that the likelihood of rediscovery can be predicted by taxonomic distance between the bacteria in question and previously studied bacteria. That is, our data supports a correlation between chemical …

Classically Biased: A Quantitative Analysis Of Gender & Writing Styles In Classical Literature, Madeleine Rose Delcambre

Honors Theses

This thesis is a first attempt in assessing patterns related to gender in classical literature prior to the 21st century, specifically looking at the way writing styles and language di↵er among female and male authors; e.g., sentence structuring, lexical diversity, and dictionary similarities. Further topics of analysis included gender distribution and sentiment within the novels themselves. Seventy-eight open-source novels were used in the analysis, with thirty-one books by female authors and forty-seven by male authors. Data from the novels was acquired using Python, natural language processing, and the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK). Graphs and visuals were then created to summarize …