Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Understanding Collective Performance: Human Factors And Team Science, Joseph Keebler

Math Department Colloquium Series

This talk will focus on modern issues with team science. Joe will discuss a variety of projects he's been involved with aimed at improving teamwork in complex sociotechnical systems including military, aviation, and healthcare. He will discuss major theoretical facets of teamwork and provide evidence-based best practices that were utilized to improve teams in applied settings.

Machine Learning In Minecraft: Proof Of Concept For Object Detection Oriented Autonomous Bots In Minecraft, John Merkin

Symposium of Student Scholars

Machine learning provides new methods of problem solving through applied pattern recognition. An interesting challenge is to utilize machine learning in the automation of tasks and behaviors in virtual environments. Minecraft is an open-world, sandbox style game giving players nearly limitless freedom to alter a procedurally generated world. In the survival game mode, the player must collect resources to craft tools and build structures. The collection of resources can be tedious, so this project seeks to automate the standard initial task of collecting wood. By combining a convolutional neural network with API, a bot can collect resources while remaining scalable …

Utilizing Non-Negative Least Squares For Data-Driven Discovery Of Dynamics, Tracey G. Oellerich

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Adaptive Human Behavior Into Epidemiological Models Using Equation Learning, Austin Barton, Jordan Klein, Jonathan Greer, Kevin Flores, Patrick Haughey

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Parameter Estimation In Epidemiological And Climate Models Using Ensemble Smoothing With Multiple Data Assimilation, Emmanuel Fleurantin

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Bayesian Adaptive Smoothing For Activation Detection In Fmri, Juan Florez

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Critical Transitions In Mental Health: Van Gogh Case Study, Anna Singley

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

The Double Edged Sword Of The Pandemic: Exploring Associations Between Covid-19 And Social Isolation In The Usa, Alexander Fulk

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Application Of Physics Informed Neural Networks For Predicting Disease Dynamics, Alonso Gabriel Ogueda, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Mathematical Modeling Of The Impact Of Lobbying On Climate Policy, Andrew Jacoby, Claire Hannah, James Hutchinson, Jasmine Narehood, Aditi Ghosh, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Modeling Maternal Outcomes By Predicting Geospatial And Social Determinants Of Health, Emily Thompson

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Modeling And Estimation Of A Continuous Flexible Structure Using The Theory Of Functional Connections, Riccardo Bevilacqua

Math Department Colloquium Series

This talk presents a novel method for modeling and estimating the dynamics of a continuous structure based on a limited number of noisy measurements. The goal is reached using a Kalman filter in synergy with the recently developed mathematical framework known as the Theory of Functional Connections (TFC). The TFC allows to derive a functional expression capable of representing the entire space of the functions that satisfy a given set of linear and, in some cases, nonlinear constraints. The proposed approach exploits the possibilities offered by the TFC to derive an approximated dynamical model for the flexible system using the …

Large-Scale Google Street View Images For Urban Change Detection, Fangzheng Lyu, Xinlin Ma, Yan Song, Eric Zhu, Shaowen Wang

I-GUIDE Forum

Urbanization has entered a new phase characterized by urban changes occurring at a micro-scale and “under the roof”, as opposed to external modifications. These changes, known as urban retrofitting, involve the incorporation of novel technologies or features into pre-existing systems to promote sustainability. Given the limitations of remote sensing images in identifying such urban changes, novel tools need to be developed for detecting urban retrofitting. In this study, we first build a pipeline to collect large-scale time-series urban street view images from Google Street View in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. And we examine the feasibility of utilizing the acquired dataset …

Deep Q-Learning Framework For Quantitative Climate Change Adaptation Policy For Florida Road Network Due To Extreme Precipitation, Orhun Aydin

I-GUIDE Forum

Climate change-induced extreme weather and increasing population are increasing the pressure on the global aging road networks. Adaptation requires designing interventions and alterations to the road networks that consider future dynamics of flooding and increased traffic due to the growing population. This paper introduces a reinforcement learning approach to designing interventions for Florida's road network under future traffic and climate projections. Three climate models and a tide and surge model are used to create flooding and coastal inundation projections, respectively. The optimal sequence of decisions for adapting Florida's road network to minimize flooding-related disruptions is solved by using a graph-based …

Graph Transformer Network For Flood Forecasting With Heterogeneous Covariates, Jimeng Shi, Vitalii Stebliankin, Zhaonan Wang, Shaowen Wang, Giri Narasimhan

I-GUIDE Forum

Floods can be very destructive causing heavy damage to life, property, and livelihoods. Global climate change and the consequent sea-level rise have increased the occurrence of extreme weather events, resulting in elevated and frequent flood risk. Therefore, accurate and timely flood forecasting in coastal river systems is critical to facilitate good flood management. However, the computational tools currently used are either slow or inaccurate. In this paper, we propose a Flood prediction tool using Graph Transformer Network (FloodGTN) for river systems. More specifically, FloodGTN learns the spatio-temporal dependencies of water levels at different monitoring stations using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) …

Cross-Scale Urban Land Cover Mapping: Empowering Classification Through Transfer Learning And Deep Learning Integration, Zhe Wang, Chao Fan, Xian Min, Shoukun Sun, Xiaogang Ma, Xiang Que

I-GUIDE Forum

Urban land cover mapping is essential for effective urban planning and resource management. Thanks to its ability to extract intricate features from urban datasets, deep learning has emerged as a powerful technique for urban classification. The U-net architecture has achieved state-of-the-art land cover classification performance, highlighting its potential for mapping urban trees at different spatial scales. However, deep learning approaches often require large, labeled datasets, which are challenging to acquire for specific urban contexts. Transfer learning addresses this limitation by leveraging pre-trained deep learning models on extensive datasets and adapting them to smaller urban datasets with limited labeled samples. Transfer …

Solving Geospatial Problems Under Extreme Time Constraints: A Call For Inclusive Geocomputational Education, Coline C. Dony

I-GUIDE Forum

To prepare our next generation to face geospatial problems that have extreme time constraints (e.g., disasters, climate change) we need to create educational pathways that help students develop their geocomputational thinking skills. First, educators are central in helping us create those pathways, therefore, we need to clearly convey to them why and in which contexts this thinking is necessary. For that purpose, a new definition for geocomputational thinking is suggested that makes it clear that this thinking is needed for geospatial problems that have extreme time constraints. Secondly, we can not further burden educators with more demands, rather we should …

Reducing Uncertainty In Sea-Level Rise Prediction: A Spatial-Variability-Aware Approach, Subhankar Ghosh, Shuai An, Arun Sharma, Jayant Gupta, Shashi Shekhar, Aneesh Subramanian

I-GUIDE Forum

Given multi-model ensemble climate projections, the goal is to accurately and reliably predict future sea-level rise while lowering the uncertainty. This problem is important because sea-level rise affects millions of people in coastal communities and beyond due to climate change's impacts on polar ice sheets and the ocean. This problem is challenging due to spatial variability and unknowns such as possible tipping points (e.g., collapse of Greenland or West Antarctic ice-shelf), climate feedback loops (e.g., clouds, permafrost thawing), future policy decisions, and human actions. Most existing climate modeling approaches use the same set of weights globally, during either regression or …

Precise Method To Identify Kinase Drug Targets In Complex Diseases: The First Step Towards Sustainable And Effective Treatment, Hasbanny Irisson, Marzieh Ayati

Research Symposium

Background: Kinases are enzymes that have proven to be important drug targets due to their role in critical biological mechanisms such as phosphorylation. Phosphorylation happens when a kinase catalyzes the transfer of a phosphate group to a protein in a phosphorylated site, which then becomes known as the substrate of the kinase. Any dysregulation of protein phosphorylation causes a wide range of complex diseases including cancer. Thus, discovering the links between kinases and their substrates (i.e. predicting kinase-substrate associations (KSAs)) is crucial in developing effective and sustainable treatments. Presently, less than 5% of phosphorylated sites have an associated kinase, and …

Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning, Dumindu Samaraweera

Math Department Colloquium Series

AI's applicability across diverse fields is hindered by data sensitivity, privacy concerns, and limited training data availability. Federated Learning (FL) addresses this challenge by enabling collaborative machine learning while preserving data privacy. FL allows clients to engage in model training with their local data, avoiding centralized storage. However, even with FL, security threats persist, jeopardizing model integrity and client data privacy. In this presentation, we will explore our latest findings in this area of research, safeguarding sensitive data from attacks through techniques like secure multiparty computation, homomorphic encryption, and differential privacy within the FL framework, enhancing data protection, and expanding …

Codesigning A Big Data Analytic Tool For Girl Child Learner Drop Out From Eastern Cape Province -South Africa, Nobert Rangarirai Jere, Nosipho Carol Mavuso, Nelly Sharpley

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

Developing sustainable solutions is critical for adoption of digital solutions. As the high number of learners dropping out of school continues to increase, it is critical to find innovative ways of predicting and preventing high drop out. Current literature has documented a number of factors that influence learner drop out. Innovative ideas, techniques and activities have been undertaken to motivate learners to stay at school. It is unfortunate that most of the initiatives have not helped to avoid drop out of learners. The study is based on a mixed approached that was used targeting female learns from Oliver Tambo District …

A Low-Complexity Algorithm To Determine Spacecraft Trajectories, Sirani Perera

Math Department Colloquium Series

The growing traffic within the Cislunar region has created a need for computationally effective methods to obtain the trajectories of spacecraft in the Cislunar region. By developing algorithms with low time and arithmetic complexities, we can effectively address these needs.

In this talk, we will present a mathematical model that uses interpolation and boundary conditions to obtain trajectories for satellites based on the principles of three-body dynamics. Following the model, we propose a low- complexity algorithm to generate satellite trajectories. Once the algorithm is proposed, we will apply it to the relevant periodic orbits in the Cislunar region. Finally, we …

Produção De Artigos Científicos No Estudo Longitudinal De Saúde Do Adulto (Elsa-Brasil), 2011-2023, Arthur Sandi Bauermann, Maria Antônia Mylius De Oliveira, Clara Akemi Basso Aseka, Luiza Dalmolin Beneduzi

AMNET Conferencia Internacional

No abstract provided.

Instagram Travel Influencers Coping With Covid-19 Travel Disruption, Andrei Kirilenko, Katarzyna Emin, Karen Tavares

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

A significant portion of today’s marketing is done through social media influencers, that is, through bloggers with established online credibility in a certain area who are recognized and followed by a sizable online audience. In the travel and hospitality industry, the influencer marketing is primarily done through Instagram due to its emphasis on visual images rather than texts. Covid-19 related travel restrictions and shrinking social media advertisement in travel industry have heavily impacted travel influencers, reducing their income and forcing many out of business. We present the outcomes of a study of the top 150 online travel influencers. The analysis …

Utilizing Few-Shot Meta Learning Algorithms For Medical Image Segmentation, Nick Littlefield

Thinking Matters Symposium

Deep learning models can be difficult to train because they require large amounts of data, which we usually do not have or are too expensive to get or annotate. To overcome this problem, we can use few-shot meta-learning, which allows us to train deep learning models with little data. Using a few examples, meta-learning, or learning-to-learn, aims to use the experience learned during training to generalize to unknown tasks. Medical imaging is an industry where it is particularly useful, as there is limited publicly available data due to patient privacy concerns and annotating costs.

This project examines how meta-learning performs …

"Church On My Couch": Predicting The Future Impact Of Online Ministry Based On The Impact During Covid-19, Samukeliso Mabarani, Sikhumbuzo Dube

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

With “everything from home” as the new norm, “how does the use of digital platforms impact Adventist education, community engagement, and spiritual outreach?” Using a quantitative approach, we draw insights from online ministry during Covid-19 and use the insights to predict the future impact of online ministry statistically.

Covid-19 In Casinos: Analysis Of Covid-19 Contamination And Spread With Economic Impact Assessment, Anastasia (Stasi) D. Baran, Jason D. Fiege

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous disruption for casinos, with the virus causing various lengths of shutdowns, capacity restrictions, and social distancing strategies such as machine removals or section closures. Although most of the world has now eased off these measures, it is important to review lessons learned to understand, and better prepare for similar circumstances in the future. We present Monte Carlo slot floor simulation software customized to simulate players spreading COVID-19 on the slot floor. We simulate the amount of touch surface contamination; the number of potential surface contact exposure events per day, and a proximity exposures statistic …

Statistical Methods To Generate Artificial Slot Floor Data For The Advancement Of Casino Related Research, Courtney Bonner, Anastasia (Stasi) D. Baran, Jason D. Fiege, Saman Muthukumarana

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract:

A common difficulty when researching gambling topics is the availability of high-quality data sets for development and testing. Due to the high level of secrecy within the gambling industry, if data is obtained for research purposes it is often prohibitively obfuscated, incomplete, or aggregated. Although these data have allowed for advancement in academic work, it leaves both the researchers and readers left wondering about what would be possible if more detailed data sets were available. To mitigate the paucity of data available to researchers, we present a Markov chain-based statistical process for producing artificial event data for a simulated …

Payments Data In Gambling Research, Kasra Ghaharian, Mana Azizsoltani

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A considerable body of gambling-related research has leveraged gamblers' behavioral tracking data to address a broad set of research questions. These data have typically comprised of gamblers' betting-related behaviors including, for example, the frequency and volume of betting. The analysis of gamblers' payment-related behavioral data is far less common, but provides a fruitful avenue gambling-related research.

In this presentation we discuss a selection of potential research opportunities that payments transaction data presents. We supplement this discussion with specific analyses that have been performed by our research group. We also discuss knowledge gaps and areas for future research.

The Locals Casino As A Social Network – Can An Interconnected Community Of Players Detect Differences In Hold?, Jason D. Fiege, Anastasia (Stasi) D. Baran

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract

It is difficult for individual players to detect differences in theoretical hold between slot machines without playing an unrealistically large number of games. This difficulty occurs because the fractional loss incurred by a player converges only slowly to the theoretical hold in the presence of volatility designed into slot pay tables. Nevertheless, many operators believe that players can detect changes in hold or differences compared to competition, especially in a locals casino market, and therefore resist increasing holds. Instead of investigating whether individual players can detect differences in hold, we ask whether a population of casino regulars who share …