Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Chicago Alliance For Equity In Computer Science, Steven Mcgee, Lucia Dettori, Ronald I. Greenberg, Andrew M. Rasmussen, Dale F. Reed, Don Yanek

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

CAFECS is committed to ensuring that all students in Chicago participate in engaging, relevant, and rigorous computing experiences by addressing problems of practice through research and development that increases opportunities for all students to pursue computing pathways and prepares all students for the future of work.

Predicting The Adoption Of Password Managers: A Tale Of Two Samples, Shelia Kennison, D. Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Using weak passwords and re-using passwords can make one vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches. Cybersecurity experts recommend the adoption of password managers (PMs), as they generate and store strong passwords for all accounts. Prior research has shown that few people adopt PMs. Our research examined PM adoption in a sample of 221 undergraduates from psychology courses and a sample of 278 MTurk workers. We hypothesized that PM adoption could be predicted using a small set of user characteristics (i.e., gender, age, Big Five personality traits, number of devices used, frequency of using social media, and cybersecurity knowledge). The results showed that …

Nudging Students To Use Stronger Passwords: A Test Of Big Five Personality-Based Messages, Shelia Kennison, Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Cybersecurity breaches can occur when one uses an easily hacked password. Prior research has investigated 1) possible steps to encourage users to use strong passwords and 2) how personality is related to users using strong passwords.

We investigated whether personality-based nudging messages based on Big Five traits could nudge people to create stronger passwords (c.f., Jones et al., 2021). We also examined how personal characteristics, such as gender, age, personality traits, password knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, and need for cognition, were related to password strength.

We tested the hypothesis that passwords created following messages matching participants’ personality would be stronger …

Tweets R Us: Predicting Personality From Language And Emoji Use On Twitter, Maxwell Meckling, Sarah Shoup, D. E. Chan-Tin, Shelia Kennison

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The research investigated the suggestion from prior research that language and emojis use on Twitter and other social media platforms can predict users’ personality and gender (Adali et al., 2014; Golbeck et al., 2011; Li et al., 2019; Moreno et al., 2019; Raess, 2018). Some studies have also analyzed Twitter language to identify individuals with specific health conditions (e.g., alcohol recovery, Golbeck, 2012; sleep problems, Suarez et al., 2018).

If strategies to predict Twitter users’ characteristics prove to be successful, future efforts to direct persuasive messages related to recommended practices in public health and/or cybersecurity will be possible. Commercial applications …

Shape-Based Classification Of Partially Observed Curves, With Applications To Anthropology, Gregory J. Matthews, Karthik Bharath, Sebastian Kurtek, Juliet K. Brophy, George K. Thiruvathukal, Ofer Harel

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We consider the problem of classifying curves when they are observed only partially on their parameter domains. We propose computational methods for (i) completion of partially observed curves; (ii) assessment of completion variability through a nonparametric multiple imputation procedure; (iii) development of nearest neighbor classifiers compatible with the completion techniques. Our contributions are founded on exploiting the geometric notion of shape of a curve, defined as those aspects of a curve that remain unchanged under translations, rotations and reparameterizations. Explicit incorporation of shape information into the computational methods plays the dual role of limiting the set of all possible completions …

Automated Discovery Of Network Cameras In Heterogeneous Web Pages, Ryan Dailey, Aniesh Chawla, Andrew Liu, Sripath Mishra, Ling Zhang, Josh Majors, Yung-Hisang Lu, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Reduction in the cost of Network Cameras along with a rise in connectivity enables entities all around the world to deploy vast arrays of camera networks. Network cameras offer real-time visual data that can be used for studying traffic patterns, emergency response, security, and other applications. Although many sources of Network Camera data are available, collecting the data remains difficult due to variations in programming interface and website structures. Previous solutions rely on manually parsing the target website, taking many hours to complete. We create a general and automated solution for aggregating Network Camera data spread across thousands of uniquely …

Who Creates Strong Passwords When Nudging Fails, Shelia M. Kennison, Ian T. Jones, Victoria H. Spooner, D. Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The use of strong passwords is viewed as a recommended cybersecurity practice, as the hacking of weak passwords led to major cybersecurity breaches. The present research investigated whether nudging with messages based on participants’ self-schemas could lead them to create stronger passwords. We modeled our study on prior health-related research demonstrating positive results using messages based on self-schema categories (i.e., True Colors categories -compassionate, loyal, intellectual, and adventurous). We carried out an online study, one with 256 (185 women, 66 men, 5 other) undergraduates and one with 424 (240 men, 179 women, 5 other) Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers, in …

Requirements Metrics - A Working List, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A working set of metrics for review of requirements materials including documents.

Impact Of Personality Types And Matching Messaging On Password Strength, Anna Bakas, Anne Wagner, Spencer Johnston, Shelia Kennison, Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

People often create passwords for their accounts that are insecure. An insecure password is often easy to guess– thus, hackers can easily access their victims’ accounts. It is important for users to know how to create and manage secure passwords so they can better protect themselves from hackers. It is well-known that different users have different personality types, such as Big Five and True Colors. This research examines if there is any link between personality types and password security behavior. Each participant was shown either a matching or mismatching message based on their personality type, and it was measured whether …

Establishing Suitable Metrics To Encourage Broader Use Of Atomic Requirements, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Despite the apparent benefits of singular, individual, or atomic requirements, their use remains limited, and teaching their creation is difficult. The acceptance of a set of requirements metrics specifically designed to evaluate atomic requirements may lead to their better utilization and improved requirements engineering. Twelve metrics designed to measure atomic requirements are presented here: six used on individual requirements statements and six applied to a requirements document or set of requirement statements. Example metrics for individual requirements are Requirement Completeness and Requirement Atomicity; examples to measure multiple requirements include Requirements Traceablity and Requirements Purity. These metrics are designed to work …

Investigating Which Elements Of Ecs Teaching Motivate Subsequent Computer Science Course Taking, Steven Mcgee, Randi Mcgee-Tekula, Lucia Dettori, Ronald I. Greenberg, John Wachen, Mark Johnson

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A key strategy for broadening computer science participation in a large urban school district has been the enactment of a high school computer science graduation requirement. The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum and professional development program serves as a core foundation for supporting the enactment of this policy. ECS seeks to foster broadening participation in computer science through activities designed to engage students in computer science inquiry connected to meaningful problems. Prior research has shown that student motivation is an important mediating factor for the impact of ECS on broadening participation in future CS coursework. The current study was undertaken …

Moonshine: An Online Randomness Distiller For Zero-Involvement Authentication, Jack West, Kyuin Lee, Suman Banerjee, Younghyun Kim, George K. Thiruvathukal, Neil Klingensmith

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Context-based authentication is a method for transparently validating another device's legitimacy to join a network based on location. Devices can pair with one another by continuously harvesting environmental noise to generate a random key with no user involvement. However, there are gaps in our understanding of the theoretical limitations of environmental noise harvesting, making it difficult for researchers to build efficient algorithms for sampling environmental noise and distilling keys from that noise. This work explores the information-theoretic capacity of context-based authentication mechanisms to generate random bit strings from environmental noise sources with known properties. Using only mild assumptions about the …

Research-Practice Partnership Strategies To Conduct And Use Research To Inform Practice, Erin Henrick, Steven Mcgee, Lucia Dettori, Troy Williams, Andrew M. Rasmussen, Don Yanek, Ronald I. Greenberg, Dale Reed

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Given the complex challenges inherent in improving the quality of education, research-practice partnerships (RPPs) aim to bring together research and practice educators to conduct and use research to improve outcomes for students. This collaborative approach is challenging, and often requires members to adopt new ways of working (Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013). RPPs have the potential to provide an infrastructure and mechanisms to integrate and unify research, policy, and practice, in contrast to traditional research processes in which research, policy, and practice can be in tension (Desimone, Wolford, Hill, 2016). The RPP literature is still young, and rich descriptions related …