Computer Sciences Commons^™

Assume-Guarantee Reasoning Using A Cyber Security Ontology, Ali Abdurhman Alfageeh

Theses and Dissertations

Design of a network is a challenging problem as it involves the integration of several complex components such as routers, servers, computers, smart devices. This is further complicated by the need to have robust security policies implemented to prevent violation of confidentiality as the networked devices interact. The design of such complex networked systems demand a more rigorous approach to the modeling and analysis, which can be inherited from the field of Software engineering. Presently, network or security engineers do not use a system/software engineering approach to design and build cybersecurity systems. Thus, we propose a system/software engineering approach to …

Yelp Improved : Aggregating Restaurant Reviews, Kunal Sonar

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

In the near future, online food delivery service companies would occupy a big market share in the food industry. This project aims to provide factual information from customer reviews as part of the numerous innovations in place to drive business and demands. Natural Language Processing is used to provide a comprehensive view of individual restaurants using technologies like NLTK, SpaCy, Gensim and Sklearn. Data of one million Las Vegas restaurant customer reviews is curated from the Yelp Dataset Challenge. Reviews are pre-processed, split into chunks of phrases and mapped to attributes like food, budget, service etc. These attributes are derived …

Building Consumer Trust In The Cloud: An Experimental Analysis Of The Cloud Trust Label Approach, Lisa Van Der Werff, Grace Fox, Ieva Masevic, Vincent C. Emeakaroha, John P. Morrison, Theo Lynn

Department of Computer Science Publications

The lack of transparency surrounding cloud service provision makes it difficult for consumers to make knowledge based purchasing decisions. As a result, consumer trust has become a major impediment to cloud computing adoption. Cloud Trust Labels represent a means of communicating relevant service and security information to potential customers on the cloud service provided, thereby facilitating informed decision making. This research investigates the potential of a Cloud Trust Label system to overcome the trust barrier. Specifically, it examines the impact of a Cloud Trust Label on consumer perceptions of a service and cloud service provider trustworthiness and trust in the …

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 …

Use Of Software Process In Research Software Development:A Survey, Nasir U. Eisty, George K. Thiruvathukal, Jeffrey C. Carver

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background: Developers face challenges in building high-quality research software due to its inherent complexity. These challenges can reduce the confidence users have in the quality of the result produced by the software. Use of a defined software development process, which divides the development into distinct phases, results in improved design, more trustworthy results, and better project management. Aims: This paper focuses on gaining a better understanding of the use of software development process for research software. Method: We surveyed research software developers to collect information about their use of software development processes. We analyze whether and demographic factors influence the …

Automated Tool Support For Security Bug Repair In Mobile Applications, Larry Singleton

Computer Science Graduate Research Workshop

No abstract provided.

Tool Support For Recurring Code Change Inspection With Deep Learning, Krishna Teja Ayinala

Computer Science Graduate Research Workshop

No abstract provided.

Lightweight Formal Methods For Improving Software Security, Andrew Berns, James Curbow, Joshua Hilliard, Sheriff Jorkeh, Miho Sanders

Research in the Capitol

This research examines how software specifications could be used to build more-secure software. For this project, we analyzed known vulnerabilities for open source projects to identify the corrective actions required to patch the vulnerability. For each vulnerability, we then augmented the program with formal assertions in an attempt to allow a static analysis tool to find the vulnerability. Using the information gathered from these assertions, we hope to determine which assertions are most effective at finding vulnerabilities with today's tools and evaluate new assertions that could be added to the static analysis tool to help uncover more vulnerabilities. My work …

Take Note: An Investigation Of The Impact Of Human Computer Interaction On The Line Note Taking Process In Theatre, Rene Borr

Computer Science

Most technology used in the theatre was not originally designed for use in a theatrical setting. A majority of technology that we see on the state has been adapted from another field -- be it music, lighting, or construction -- to fit the production's specifics needs. The very nature of the theatre is that every performance is unique, which established one of the main challenges when creating technology to be used in the theatrical setting. This paper discusses the design, creation, and testing of a program to help stage managers take line notes during rehearsal for a theatrical production. We …

Scalable Containerized Security Training Environment, Robert Sauer

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a portable application which is hosted on a server that provides an environment to safely conduct security training procedures and protocols. The project will be scalable to handle from a few to a multitude of users concurrently using a single server. For many users to perform security training simultaneously, each user must be directed to a sandbox environment, a container, where one user’s actions do not affect the website or database of other users. Furthermore, such an application should be readily deployable into any environment to provide the widest range of compatibility. …

To The Attention Of Mobile Software Developers: Guess What, Test Your App!, Luis C. Cruz, Rui Abreu, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Software testing is an important phase in the software development lifecycle because it helps in identifying bugs in a software system before it is shipped into the hand of its end users. There are numerous studies on how developers test general-purpose software applications. The idiosyncrasies of mobile software applications, however, set mobile apps apart from general-purpose systems (e.g., desktop, stand-alone applications, web services). This paper investigates working habits and challenges of mobile software developers with respect to testing. A key finding of our exhaustive study, using 1000 Android apps, demonstrates that mobile apps are still tested in a very ad …

Deepreview: Automatic Code Review Using Deep Multi-Instance Learning, Hengyi Li, Shuting Shi, Ferdian Thung, Xuan Huo, Bowen Xu, Ming Li, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Code review, an inspection of code changes in order to identify and fix defects before integration, is essential in Software Quality Assurance (SQA). Code review is a time-consuming task since the reviewers need to understand, analysis and provide comments manually. To alleviate the burden of reviewers, automatic code review is needed. However, this task has not been well studied before. To bridge this research gap, in this paper, we formalize automatic code review as a multi-instance learning task that each change consisting of multiple hunks is regarded as a bag, and each hunk is described as an instance. We propose …

Dynamic Student Classification On Memory Networks For Knowledge Tracing, Sein Minn, Michel C. Desmarais, Feida Zhu, Jing Xiao, Jianzong Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Knowledge Tracing (KT) is the assessment of student’s knowledge state and predicting whether that student may or may not answer the next problem correctly based on a number of previous practices and outcomes in their learning process. KT leverages machine learning and data mining techniques to provide better assessment, supportive learning feedback and adaptive instructions. In this paper, we propose a novel model called Dynamic Student Classification on Memory Networks (DSCMN) for knowledge tracing that enhances existing KT approaches by capturing temporal learning ability at each time interval in student’s long-term learning process. Experimental results confirm that the proposed model …

Dependable Machine Intelligence At The Tactical Edge, Archan Misra, Kasthuri Jayarajah, Dulanga Kaveesha Weerakoon Weerakoon Mudiyanselage, Randy Tandriansyah Daratan, Shuochao Yao, Tarek Abdelzaher

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The paper describes a vision for dependable application of machine learning-based inferencing on resource-constrained edge devices. The high computational overhead of sophisticated deep learning learning techniques imposes a prohibitive overhead, both in terms of energy consumption and sustainable processing throughput, on such resource-constrained edge devices (e.g., audio or video sensors). To overcome these limitations, we propose a ``cognitive edge" paradigm, whereby (a) an edge device first autonomously uses statistical analysis to identify potential collaborative IoT nodes, and (b) the IoT nodes then perform real-time sharing of various intermediate state to improve their individual execution of machine intelligence tasks. We provide …

Revocable Attribute-Based Encryption With Decryption Key Exposure Resistance And Ciphertext Delegation, Shengmin Xu, Guomin Yang, Yi Mu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Attribute-based encryption (ABE) enables fine-grained access control over encrypted data. A practical and popular approach for handing revocation in ABE is to use the indirect revocation mechanism, in which a key generation centre (KGC) periodically broadcasts key update information for all data users over a public channel. Unfortunately, existing RABE schemes are vulnerable to decryption key exposure attack which has been well studied in the identity-based setting. In this paper, we introduce a new notion for RABE called re-randomizable piecewise key generation by allowing a data user to re-randmomize the combined secret key and the key update to obtain the …

Perception Coordination Network: A Neuro Framework For Multimodal Concept Acquisition And Binding, You-Lu Xing, Xiao-Feng Shi, Fu-Rao Shen, Jin-Xi Zhao, Jing-Xin Pan, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To simulate the concept acquisition and binding of different senses in the brain, a biologically inspired neural network model named perception coordination network (PCN) is proposed. It is a hierarchical structure, which is functionally divided into the primary sensory area (PSA), the primary sensory association area (SAA), and the higher order association area (HAA). The PSA contains feature neurons which respond to many elementary features, e.g., colors, shapes, syllables, and basic flavors. The SAA contains primary concept neurons which combine the elementary features in the PSA to represent unimodal concept of objects, e.g., the image of an apple, the Chinese …

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

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

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 …

Estimating And Visualizing Debt Using Debt Calculator, Donald E. Landrum Jr., Caleb D.H. Parks

Senior Theses

Debt Calculator is a web application that our team developed this year to assist users in understanding and visualizing both their current debt sources, such as student loans, car loans, and credit card debt, and the impact that upcoming career choices, such as where they attend graduate school or which job offer they accept, will have on their standards of living and savings accounts. All of the data that our application bases its analysis upon is entered by the user, and none of the algorithms that our application performs are particularly unique or proprietary; rather, the value that our application …

Near Real-Time Rf-Dna Fingerprinting For Zigbee Devices Using Software Defined Radios, Frankie A. Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network(s) (LR-WPAN) usage has increased as more consumers embrace Internet of Things (IoT) devices. ZigBee Physical Layer (PHY) is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 specification designed to provide a low-cost, low-power, and low-complexity solution for Wireless Sensor Network(s) (WSN). The standard’s extended battery life and reliability makes ZigBee WSN a popular choice for home automation, transportation, traffic management, Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and cyber-physical systems. As robust and versatile as the standard is, ZigBee remains vulnerable to a myriad of common network attacks. Previous research involving Radio Frequency-Distinct Native Attribute …

The Effect Of Modeling Simultaneous Events On Simulation Results, John M. Carboni

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the method that governs the prioritizing process for simultaneous events in relation to simulation results for discrete-event simulations. Specifically, it contrasts typical discrete-event simulation (DES) execution algorithms with how events are selected and ordered by the discrete-event system specification (DEVS) formalism. The motivation for this research stems from a desire to understand how the selection of events affects simulation output (i.e., response). As a particular use case, we briefly investigate the processing of simultaneous events by the Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling (AFSIM), a military discrete-event combat modeling and simulation package. To facilitate the building …

Instantaneous Bandwidth Expansion Using Software Defined Radios, Nicholas D. Everett

Theses and Dissertations

The Stimulated Unintended Radiated Emissions (SURE) process has been proven capable of classifying a device (e.g. a loaded antenna) as either operational or defective. Currently, the SURE process utilizes a specialized noise radar which is bulky, expensive and not easily supported. With current technology advancements, Software Defined Radios (SDRs) have become more compact, more readily available and significantly cheaper. The research here examines whether multiple SDRs can be integrated to replace the current specialized ultra-wideband noise radar used with the SURE process. The research specifically targets whether or not multiple SDR sub-band collections can be combined to form a wider …

Modeling Crowd Feedback In The Mobile App Market, Grant S. Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mobile application (app) stores, such as Google Play and the Apple App Store, have recently emerged as a new model of online distribution platform. These stores have expanded in size in the past five years to host millions of apps, offering end-users of mobile software virtually unlimited options to choose from. In such a competitive market, no app is too big to fail. In fact, recent evidence has shown that most apps lose their users within the first 90 days after initial release. Therefore, app developers have to remain up-to-date with their end-users’ needs in order to survive. Staying close …

Wiwear: Wearable Sensing Via Directional Wifi Energy Harvesting, Huy Vu Tran, Archan Misra, Jie Xiong, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Energy harvesting, from a diverse set of modes such as light or motion, has been viewed as the key to developing batteryless sensing devices. In this paper, we develop the nascent idea of harvesting RF energy from WiFi transmissions, applying it to power a prototype wearable device that captures and transmits accelerometer sensor data. Our solution, WiWear, has two key innovations: 1) beamforming WiFi transmissions to significantly boost the energy that a receiver can harvest ~23 meters away, and 2) smart zero-energy, triggering of inertial sensing, that allows intelligent duty-cycled operation of devices whose transient power consumption far exceeds what …

Quantum Computing Is Here To Stay, Manoj Thulasidas

MITB Thought Leadership Series

QUANTUM COMPUTING is emerging from university laboratories and entering the industry arena at a painfully slow pace. The measured and deliberate progress is understandable given its complexity and promise. The stakes are high, because quantum computing presents the tantalising prospect of solving problems previously considered completely insoluble

Functionality & Privacy In Mobile Applications - Who's Going To Win The Game, Debin Gao

MITB Thought Leadership Series

MOBILE APPS have brought so much convenience and fun into our lives. From route planning to grocery shopping, reserving flights and hiring bicycles, to the action games we play to pass the time on public transport.

Flashlight In A Dark Room: A Grounded Theory Study On Information Security Management At Small Healthcare Provider Organizations, Gerald Auger

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Healthcare providers have a responsibility to protect patient’s privacy and a business motivation to properly secure their assets. These providers encounter barriers to achieving these objectives and limited academic research has been conducted to examine the causes and strategies to overcome them. A subset of this demographic, businesses with less than 10 providers, compose a majority 57% of provider organizations in the United States. This grounded theory study provides exploratory findings, discovering these small healthcare provider organizations (SHPO) have limited knowledge on information technology (IT) and information security that results in assumptions and misappropriations of information security implementation, who is …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Detecting X.509 Covert Channels, Cody Welu

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

This quasi-experimental before-and-after study examined the performance impacts of detecting X.509 covert channels in the Suricata intrusion detection system. Relevant literature and previous studies surrounding covert channels and covert channel detection, X.509 certificates, and intrusion detection system performance were evaluated. This study used Jason Reaves’ X.509 covert channel proof of concept code to generate malicious network traffic for detection (2018). Various detection rules for intrusion detection systems were created to aid in the detection of the X.509 covert channel. The central processing unit (CPU) and memory utilization impacts that each rule had on the intrusion detection system was studied and …

Api Recommendation For Event-Driven Android Application Development, Weizhao Yuan, Huu Hoang Nguyen, Lingxiao Jiang, Yuting Chen, Jianjun Zhao, Haibo Yu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Context: Software development is increasingly dependent on existing libraries. Developers need help to find suitable library APIs. Although many studies have been proposed to recommend relevant functional APIs that can be invoked for implementing a functionality, few studies have paid attention to an orthogonal need associated with event-driven programming frameworks, such as the Android framework. In addition to invoking functional APIs, Android developers need to know where to place functional code according to various events that may be triggered within the framework.Objective: This paper aims to develop an API recommendation engine for Android application development that can recommend both (1) …

Characterizing And Identifying Reverted Commits, Meng Yan, Xin Xia, David Lo, Ahmed E. Hassan, Shanping Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In practice, a popular and coarse-grained approach for recovering from a problematic commit is to revert it (i.e., undoing the change). However, reverted commits could induce some issues for software development, such as impeding the development progress and increasing the difficulty for maintenance. In order to mitigate these issues, we set out to explore the following central question: can we characterize and identify which commits will be reverted? In this paper, we characterize commits using 27 commit features and build an identification model to identify commits that will be reverted. We first identify reverted commits by analyzing commit messages and …

Automatic, Highly Accurate App Permission Recommendation, Zhongxin Liu, Xin Xia, David Lo, John Grundy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To ensure security and privacy, Android employs a permission mechanism which requires developers to explicitly declare the permissions needed by their applications (apps). Users must grant those permissions before they install apps or during runtime. This mechanism protects users’ private data, but also imposes additional requirements on developers. For permission declaration, developers need knowledge about what permissions are necessary to implement various features of their apps, which is difficult to acquire due to the incompleteness of Android documentation. To address this problem, we present a novel permission recommendation system named PerRec for Android apps. PerRec leverages mining-based techniques and data …