Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Optimizing Cybersecurity Budgets With Attacksimulation, Alexander Master, George Hamilton, J. Eric Dietz

Faculty Publications

Modern organizations need effective ways to assess cybersecurity risk. Successful cyber attacks can result in data breaches, which may inflict significant loss of money, time, and public trust. Small businesses and non-profit organizations have limited resources to invest in cybersecurity controls and often do not have the in-house expertise to assess their risk. Cyber threat actors also vary in sophistication, motivation, and effectiveness. This paper builds on the previous work of Lerums et al., who presented an AnyLogic model for simulating aspects of a cyber attack and the efficacy of controls in a generic enterprise network. This paper argues that …

Password Managers: Secure Passwords The Easy Way, Alexander Master

CERIAS Technical Reports

Poor passwords are often the central problem identified when data breaches, ransomware attacks, and identity fraud cases occur. This Purdue Extension publication provides everyday users of Internet websites and computer systems with tools and strategies to protect their online accounts. Securing information access with password managers can be convenient and often free of cost, on a variety of devices and platforms. “Do’s and Don’ts” of password practices are highlighted, as well as the benefits of multi-factor authentication. The content is especially applicable for small businesses or non-profits, where employees often share access to systems or accounts.

Literature Review: How U.S. Government Documents Are Addressing The Increasing National Security Implications Of Artificial Intelligence, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This article emphasizes the increasing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in military and national security policy making. It seeks to inform interested individuals about the proliferation of publicly accessible U.S. government and military literature on this multifaceted topic. An additional objective of this endeavor is encouraging greater public awareness of and participation in emerging public policy debate on AI's moral and national security implications..

Wireless Underground Communications In Sewer And Stormwater Overflow Monitoring: Radio Waves Through Soil And Asphalt Medium, Usman Raza, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Storm drains and sanitary sewers are prone to backups and overflows due to extra amount wastewater entering the pipes. To prevent that, it is imperative to efficiently monitor the urban underground infrastructure. The combination of sensors system and wireless underground communication system can be used to realize urban underground IoT applications, e.g., storm water and wastewater overflow monitoring systems. The aim of this article is to establish a feasibility of the use of wireless underground communications techniques, and wave propagation through the subsurface soil and asphalt layers, in an underground pavement system for storm water and sewer overflow monitoring application. …

Internet Of Things For Sustainable Community Development: Introduction And Overview, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

The two-third of the city-dwelling world population by 2050 poses numerous global challenges in the infrastructure and natural resource management domains (e.g., water and food scarcity, increasing global temperatures, and energy issues). The IoT with integrated sensing and communication capabilities has the strong potential for the robust, sustainable, and informed resource management in the urban and rural communities. In this chapter, the vital concepts of sustainable community development are discussed. The IoT and sustainability interactions are explained with emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and communication technologies. Moreover, IoT opportunities and challenges are discussed in the context of sustainable community …

Peppytides, Dave Zwicky

2019 Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lightning talk for Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) at Purdue University on May 23, 2019.

Twitter And Disasters: A Social Resilience Fingerprint, Benjamin A. Rachunok, Jackson B. Bennett, Roshanak Nateghi

Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund

Understanding the resilience of a community facing a crisis event is critical to improving its adaptive capacity. Community resilience has been conceptualized as a function of the resilience of components of a community such as ecological, infrastructure, economic, and social systems, etc. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a “resilience fingerprint” and propose a multi-dimensional method for analyzing components of community resilience by leveraging existing definitions of community resilience with data from the social network Twitter. Twitter data from 14 events are analyzed and their resulting resilience fingerprints computed. We compare the fingerprints between events and show that …

Collecting Virtual And Augmented Reality In The Twenty-First Century Library, Matthew Hannah, Sarah Huber, Sorin Adam Matei

Matei Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory

In this paper, we discuss possible pedagogical applications for virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), within a humanities/social sciences curriculum, articulating a critical need for academic libraries to collect and curate 3D objects. We contend that building infrastructure is critical to keep pace with innovative pedagogies and scholarship. We offer theoretical avenues for libraries to build a repository 3D object files to be used in VR and AR tools and sketch some anticipated challenges. To build an infrastructure to support VR/AR collections, we have collaborated with College of Liberal Arts to pilot a program in which Libraries and CLA …

Potential For Participatory Big Data Ethics And Algorithm Design: A Scoping Mapping Review, Madisson Whitman, Chien-Yi Hsiang, Kendall Roark

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Ubiquitous networked data collection and algorithm-based information systems have the potential to disparately impact lives around the planet and pose a host of emerging ethical challenges. One response has been a call for more transparency and democratic control over the design and implementation of such systems. This scoping mapping review focuses on participatory approaches to the design, governance, and future of these systems across a wide variety of contexts and domains.

Applying Hierarchical Task Analysis Method To Discovery Layer Evaluation, Marlen Promann, Tao Zhang

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

While usability tests have been helpful in evaluating the success or failure of implementing discovery layers in the library context, the focus of usability tests has remained on the search interface rather than the discovery process for users. The informal site-­‐ and context specific usability tests have offered little to test the rigor of the discovery layers against the user goals, motivations and workflow they have been designed to support. This study proposes hierarchical task analysis (HTA) as an important complementary evaluation method to usability testing of discovery layers. Relevant literature is reviewed for the discovery layers and the HTA …

Misalignments: Challenges In Cultivating Science Faculty With Education Specialties In Your Department, Seth D. Bush, Nancy Pelaez, James A. Rudd Ii, Michael T. Stevens, Kimberly D. Tanner, Kathy S. Williams

PIBERG Publications

Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) are increasingly being hired across the United States. However, little is known about the motivations for SFES hiring or the potential or actual impact of SFES. In the context of a recent national survey of US SFES, we investigated SFES perceptions about these issues. Strikingly, perceptions about reasons for hiring SFES were poorly aligned with perceptions about potential and actual contributions reported by SFES themselves, and the advice they extended to beginning SFES was varied. While preparation of future teachers and departmental teaching needs were common reasons offered for SFES hiring, the potential and …

Developing Professional Skills In Stem Students: Data Information Literacy, Lisa Zilinski, Megan R. Sapp Nelson, Amy S. Van Epps

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Undergraduate STEM students are increasingly expected to have some data use skills upon graduation, whether they pursue post-graduate education or move into industry. This project was an initial foray into the application of data information literacy competencies to training undergraduate students to identify markers of data and information quality. The data consumer training appeared within two courses to help students evaluate data objects, including databases and datasets available on the Internet. The application of the Data Credibility Checklist provides a foundation for developing data reuse competencies. Based upon the initial presentation of the content, it became obvious that students need …

Study Of User Search Activities With Two Discovery Tools At An Academic Library, Xi Niu, Tao Zhang, Hsin-Liang Chen

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The goal of this study was to investigate and compare user search activities of two discovery tools at an academic library. The implementation of a new discovery tool (Primo by Ex Libris) to replace an existing system (VuFind) provided a unique opportunity to collect transaction logs of both systems and examine user search behavior in an empirical test. Results from a transaction log analysis and a user study of this study have contributed to the understanding of users’ search behavior and their preferences and perceptions of the two systems. We find both commonalities and differences between VuFind and Primo for …

Tablet And Face-To-Face Hybrid Professional Development: Providing Earth Systems Science Educators Authentic Research Opportunities Through The Globe Program At Purdue University, Kristin Wegner, Benjamin D. Branch, Steven Smith

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Using Existing Programs As Vehicles To Disseminate Knowledge, Provide Opportunities For Scientists To Assist Educators, And To Engage Students In Using Real Data., Steven Smith, Kristin Wegner, Benjamin D. Branch, Bridget Miller, Darrell G. Schulze, Ann M. Bessenbacher

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Many national and statewide programs throughout the K-12 science education environment teach students about science in a hands-on format, including programs such as Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), Project Learning Tree (PLT), Project Wild, Project Wet, and Hoosier River Watch. Partnering with one or more of these well-known programs can provide many benefits to both the scientists involved in disseminating research and the K-12 educators. Scientists potentially benefit by broader dissemination of their research by providing content enrichment for educators. Educators benefit by gaining understanding in content, becoming more confident in teaching the concept, and increasing …

A Justification For Semantic Training In Data Curation Frameworks Development, Xiaogang Ma, Benjamin D. Branch, Kristin Wegner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

In the complex data curation activities involving proper data access, data use optimization and data rescue, opportunities exist where underlying skills in semantics may play a crucial role in data curation professionals ranging from data scientists, to informaticists, to librarians. Here, We provide a conceptualization of semantics use in the education data curation framework (EDCF) (Fig. 1) [1] under development by Purdue University and endorsed by the GLOBE program [2] for further development and application. Our work shows that a comprehensive data science training includes both spatial and non-spatial data, where both categories are promoted by standard efforts of organizations …

Providing Educators Authentic Scientific Research Opportunities Through Integration Of Research Content And Technology With Globe Teacher Workshops Using An Integrated Model Of Professional Development, Steven Smith, Kristin Wegner, Benjamin D. Branch, Bridget Miller, Darrell G. Schulze, Ann M. Bessenbacher

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

A Library Approach To Establish An Educational Data Curation Framework (Edcf) That Supports K-12 Data Science Sustainability, Benjamin D. Branch, Kristin Wegner, Steven Smith, Darrell G. Schulze, Venkatesh Merwade, Jinha Jung

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

It has been the tradition of the libraries to support literacy. Executive Order, Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information, May 9, 2013, implies new roles for libraries. The library has the responsibility to support geospatial data, big data, earth science data or cyber infrastructure data that may support STEM for educational pipeline stimulation. (More information can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/09/executive-order-making-open-and-machine-readable-new-default-government-.)

Provided is an Educational Data Curation Framework (EDCF) that has been initiated in Purdue research. The EDCF may be applied to geospatial data service, engagement and outreach endeavors to augment the data science and climate …

Lower Tropospheric Temperature Variability Over The Usa: A Gis Approach, Souleymane Fall, Dev Niyogi, Gilbert L. Rochon

GIS Day

We use the high resolution North American Regional Analysis (NARR) dataset to build for the United States a Temperature Change Index (TCI) based on four contributing variables derived from the layer-averaged temperature and lapse rate of the 1000mb - 700mb layer (near-surface to 3000 meters) for the 1979-2008 period. The analysis uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods to identify distinct regional patterns based on aggregate temperature trends and variability scores. The resulting index allows us to identify and compare regions that experience high (low) temperature trends and variability that are referred to as hot spots (cold spots). The upper Midwest …