Computer Sciences Commons^™

The Recursive Multi-Threaded Software Life-Cycle, Scott James Simon

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Webassess, Justin Anthony Brown

Theses : Honours

This project and research has resulted in the development of a World Wide Web (WWW) based testing system. WEBassess can be accessed and used from any point in the world that has a connection to the WWW. The WEBassess system allows for the creation and completion of tests through the WWW interface. Scoring and feedback of submitted tests is completely automated, allowing students to see their test result immediately, including visual indicators for correct and incorrect answers. These test results may then be viewed by academic staff, showing complete test details, such as unit code, test title, score, percentage, date …

The Toysim Project, Anthony Rodriguez

Theses : Honours

No abstract provided.

Does Good Project Management Ensure Successful Software Development?, Julie Lisa Eldridge

Theses : Honours

For many years the development of computer software has been plagued by poor customer satisfaction caused by missed schedules, underestimated budgets and the development of products which do not meet requirements. The ever increasing reliance on computers, as reported by Sommerville ''the result of the proliferation of computer systems into all aspects of life and business is that personal, corporate, national and international economies are [becoming] increasingly dependant on computers and software systems" ( 1992, p.2), calls for more stable software which can be developed within time and budget constraints. To achieve this, software development activities must be analysed and …

Antiplane Shear Of A Strip Containing A Staggered Array Of Rigid Line Inclusions, G. Kerr, G. Melrose, J. Tweed

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Motivated by the increased use of fibre-reinforced materials, we illustrate how the effective elastic modulus of an isotropic and homogeneous material can be increased by the insertion of rigid inclusions. Specifically we consider the two-dimensional antiplane shear problem for a strip of material. The strip is reinforced by introducing two sets of ribbon-like, rigid inclusions perpendicular to the faces of the strip. The strip is then subjected to a prescribed uniform displacement difference between its faces, see Figure 1. it should be noted that the problem posed is equivalent to that of the uniform antiplane shear problem for an infinite …

Analysis And Simulation Of A New Code Tracking Loop For Gps Multipath Mitigation, Mark C. Laxton

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes a new direct sequence spread spectrum (DS/SS) code phase tracking loop which mitigates the effects of multipath interference on code phase tracking error; such errors can translate to significant range measurement errors in DS/SS ranging systems such as Global Positioning System (GPS). The new code tracking loop, called the modified RAKE delay lock loop (MRDLL), uses maximum likelihood (ML) signal parameter estimation to determine the amplitude, carrier phase, and relative propagation delay of both a direct path and a reflected signal; a multiple correlator code phase tracking loop then exploits these ML signal estimates to remove the …

Analysis And Design Of Standard Telerobotic Control Software, Matthew L. June

Theses and Dissertations

The Robotics and Automation Center for Excellence (RACE) has defined an open telerobotics control architecture. This architecture, called the Unified Telerobotic Architecture Project (UTAP), is a proposed standard for all Air Force telerobotic systems. Implementation of UTAP will reduce the cost of robotic applications by increasing software modularity, portability, and reusability. This thesis continued the effort to prove the feasibility of UTAP. In December, 1995, 1st Lt Anchor implemented a portion of the UTAP specification on a PUMA robot. The UTAP-compliant controller exhibited some degradation in the system performance. However, the performance degradation was not fully measured. This thesis extended …

An Approach To Evaluate Software Effectiveness, Timothy J. Schalick

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) is tasked with the evaluation of operational effectiveness of new systems for the Air Force. Currently, the software analysis team within AFOTEC has no methodology to directly address the effectiveness of the software portion of these new systems. This research develops a working definition for software effectiveness, then outlines an approach to evaluate software effectiveness-- the Software Effectiveness Traceability Approach (SETA). Effectiveness is defined as the degree to which the software requirements are satisfied and is therefore application-independent. With SETA, requirements satisfaction is measured by the "degree of traceability" throughout the …

Elicitation Of Formal Software Specifications From An Object-Oriented Domain Model, Timothy Karagias

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to provide automated support for the generation of formal software specifications would lead to decreased software development time. By eliciting the needed information from a software developer and harvesting the proper parts of a domain model, a software specifications document could be created. This research establishes the feasibility of producing customized software specifications based on an object-oriented domain model. The research was conducted in three phases. The first phase was to define the requirements for the Elicitor Harvester. Those requirements were balanced between the capabilities of the existing Knowledge Based Software Engineering (KBSE) software used at AFIT and …

Integrating The Capability Maturity Model For Software And The Quality Air Force Criteria, Marshall B. Messamore

Theses and Dissertations

As defense budgets decrease and it is required to do more with less, the Air Force has chosen to use the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) as the basis for implementing quality principles. The Air Force program is known as Quality Air Force (QAF), and the criteria are referred to as the QAF criteria DEPA95b. At about the same time the Department of the Air Force implemented QAF, the software leaders in the Air Force adopted the Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM) as the internal standard for Air Force software organizations MOSE9l. Software organizations strapped with both sets …

Calibration Of The Softcost-R Software Cost Model To The Space And Missile Systems Center (Smc) Software Database (Swdb), Steven V. Southwell

Theses and Dissertations

The rising number and importance of Department of Defense software developments, when combined with declining defense budgets, has resulted in a critical need to accurately plan and manage software development costs and schedules. Unfortunately, the increasing size, complexity, and diversity of these software developments has made accurate estimating problematic. Uncalibrated software cost models have not generally produced reliable results due to generic default parameters and improper usage. The default parameters cannot hope to accurately represent and predict the wide variability of software efforts to which the models are being applied. However, some of the models have achieved improved accuracy by …

Calibration Of The Checkpoint Model To The Space And Missile Systems Center (Smc) Software Database (Swdb), Karen R. Mertes

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the effect of calibration on the performance of the CHECKPOINT Version 2.3.1 software cost estimating model. Data used for input into the model were drawn from the FY 95 USAF SMC Software Database (SWDB) Version 2.1. A comparison was made between the model's accuracy before and after calibration. This was done using records which were not used in calibration, referred to as validation points. A comparison of calibration points, both before and after, was done in order to assess whether calibration results in more consistency within the data set used. Six measures such as magnitude of relative …

Koala: An Object-Agent Design System, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper describes KOALA, a design system with primary focus on the predesign stage of architectural design. KOALA combines object-agent technology with high level representation to form a partnership between the human designer and the computer-based design environment. A diverse taxonomy of agents including Domain agents. Space agents, and Monitor agents work in a collaborative fashion to provide the human designer with expert evaluation and assistance in developing a design solution. Spaces, in their roles as agents attempt to formulate various design solutions based on individual perspectives through negotiation with other agents. The result is a highly interactive design environment …

An Investigation Of Software Reliability Models, Pamela Elaine Bowman

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Many software reliability models have been promoted in the literature in an attempt to provide a meaningful response to the growing need to know the reliability of software during and after the development process. However, there are well-founded concerns as to the accuracy of the individual model, as well as to the choice of which model to use for a particular program. A recent experiment based on the debugging history of a partially debugged program used a gold version to label a debugging graph from replicated data. This experiment concluded that presenting the replicated data to the models in a …

Formal Transformations From Graphically-Based Object-Oriented Representations To Theory-Based Specifications, Scott A. Deloach

Theses and Dissertations

Formal software specification has long been touted as a way to increase the quality and reliability of software; however, it remains an intricate, manually intensive activity. An alternative to using formal specifications is to use graphically-based, semi-formal specifications such as those used in many object-oriented specification methodologies. While semi-formal specifications are generally easier to develop and understand, they lack the rigor and precision of formal specification techniques. The basic premise of this investigation is that formal software specifications can be constructed using correctness preserving transformations from graphically-based object-oriented representations. In this investigation, object-oriented specifications defined using Rumbaugh's Object Modeling Technique …

Software Engineering And Hypermedia Application Design: The Classic Life Cycle Vs. Relationship Management Methodology, Stacy Lukins

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

A System For Structured Management Of Hypermedia Resources For The World Wide Web, Kevin L. Marlowe

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The World Wide Web (WWW) is arguably the preferred method for disseminating information across the Internet. Most of the work to support the advancement of WWW technology has focused on servers used in storing and retrieving information, browsers for viewing this information, and editors or filters for creating the information.

One area which has received little attention is that of actually managing this information at the local host. This thesis describes the development of a means for organizing local data prior to its publishing on the WWW, a method for gathering local pages together and preparing them for distribution, and …

On The Interaction Of Object-Oriented Design Patterns And Programming Languages, Gerald Baumgartner, Konstantin Läufer, Vincent F. Russo

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Design patterns are distilled from many real systems to catalog common programming practice. However, some object-oriented design patterns are distorted or overly complicated because of the lack of supporting programming language constructs or mechanisms. For this paper, we have analyzed several published design patterns looking for idiomatic ways of working around constraints of the implementation language. From this analysis, we lay a groundwork of general-purpose language constructs and mechanisms that, if provided by a statically typed, object-oriented language, would better support the implementation of design patterns and, transitively, benefit the construction of many real systems. In particular, our catalog of …

Towards A Model For Software Project Estimating, Stuart Hope

Theses : Honours

The use and development of software is an integral and critical part of modern industrial society. The outcomes of many software development and maintenance projects have been less than satisfactory with significant numbers being over schedule, lacking in functionality and over budget. These problems are the result of poor management of both the process and the product. One of the major problems to overcome in the management of software development projects is the ability to predict the outcomes early in the project when there are a large number of unknowns. The ability to reliably predict the outcomes in a repeatable …

Application Of Autoregressive Moving Average Linear Prediction Filters To The Characterization Of Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling, Carter N. Borst

Theses and Dissertations

Linear prediction filtering techniques have been used in studying the coupling processes between the solar wind and magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is a complex, dynamic system with at least two independent coupling methods for energy input, driven and unloading. Linear models were built and tested on the Bargatze data set, consisting of over 70 days of geomagnetic indices and solar wind data ordered in 34 intervals of increasing geomagnetic activity. Linear filtering techniques employing single-and multiple-input, autoregressive models predicted values of the magnetic index AL from solar wind data. The impulse response curves of the AL-coupling function groups showed amplitude peaks …

Data Compression Based On The Cubic B-Spline Wavelet With Uniform Two-Scale Relation, S. K. Yang, C. H. Cooke

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential artificial compression which can be achieved using an interval multiresolution analysis based on a semiorthogonal cubic B-spline wavelet. The Chui-Quak [1] spline multiresolution analysis for the finite interval has been modified [2] so as to be characterized by natural spline projection and uniform two-scale relation. Strengths and weaknesses of the semiorthogonal wavelet as regards artificial compression and data smoothing by the method of thresholding wavelet coefficients are indicated.

The Design And Implementation Of A Toolkit For The Creation Of Virtual Environments, Jesse Kinross-Smith

Theses : Honours

Virtual Reality is a field that is steadily increasing in popularity and interest. New developments in both hardware and software have empowered developers with new devices allowing faster and better quality interaction with virtual environments. However, the emphasis of research in virtual environments has been more concerned with development of new display and input devices, as opposed to the investigation of different methods of interaction that a three-dimensional environment offers. This project designs and implements a three-dimensional, interactive, virtual environment development system upon an existing three-dimensional rendering engine. The aim of the project is to allow users to generate virtual …

An Investigation Into An Effective Method Of Automatically Analysing Oracle Applications To Count Function Points, J. L. Wong

Theses : Honours

Function Point Analysis (FPA) is a synthetic software estimation metric used for computing the size and complexity of applications. It was first introduced by Allan. J. Albrecht during the mid-seventies, as a result of a lengthy research based on applications that were developed using COBOL and PL/1 programming languages. The purpose of this research· is to investigate the possibility, and the most effective method, of automatically performing a Function Point Analysis on Oracle applications that consist of Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports. The research revealed a seemingly lack of other researches on this topic. As FPA was invented a few …

Objectism 3.0: A Software Architecture For The Development Of Portable Visual Simulation Applications, Shawn M. Hannan

Theses and Dissertations

A visual simulation software architecture is a reusable design for visual simulation applications. This thesis effort was the third stage in an ongoing refinement of such an architecture, named ObjectSim. The primary goals of this stage were to improve the architecture by eliminating its dependence on two platform-specific graphics libraries (named GL and Performer, from Silicon Graphics, Inc.), and to examine the potential for expanding the architecture to accommodate distributed simulations. The effort resulted in a new version of the architecture which allows the development of visual simulation applications which take full advantage of the aforementioned libraries without calling those …

An Object-Oriented, Formal Methods Approach To Organizational Process Modeling, Vincent S. Hibdon

Theses and Dissertations

This document presents a methodology for developing an organizational process model which is based on the principles of object oriented design and formal software engineering methods. The methodology begins with the development of an object oriented Rumbaugh model (27). The Rumbaugh model is then formally specified in Z (Zed) schemas. Finally, the Z specifications are translated into an executable model in the Software Refinery Environment(TM). This model is described based on the AF wing domain and developed in this domain. The proposed methodology is then shown to produce a very general model which is extendable across almost any domain. The …

Transforming Algebraically-Based Object Models Into A Canonical Form For Design Refinement, Charles G. Beem

Theses and Dissertations

The understandability of object-oriented design techniques and the rigor of formal methods have improved the state of software development; however, both ideas have limitations. Object-oriented techniques, which are semi-formal, can still result in incorrect designs, while formal methods are complex and require an extensive mathematical background. The two approaches can be coupled, however, to produce designs that are both understandable and verifiable, and to produce executable code. This research proposes an approach where object-oriented models are first represented algebraically in a formal specification language such as LARCH and then transformed into a canonical form suitable for design refinement. In the …

Calibration Of The Software Architecture Sizing And Estimation Tool (Saset), Carl D. Vegas

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempted to analyze the effect of calibration on the performance of the SASET computer software cost estimating model. Data used for input into the model were drawn from the most current USAF SMC Software Database (SWDB). Once all the records to be used for analysis were identified, the DBMS-Calibration tool (which is part of SASET) was used to perform regression analysis on the relationship between program size (measured in SLOC) and the effort required to develop the program (measured in man-months). Productivity information reported from this tool was then input into equations used to calculate the Productivity Calibration …

Calibration Of The System Evaluation And Estimation Of Resources Software Estimation Model (Seer-Sem) For The Air Force Space And Missile Systems Center (Smc), Kolin D. Rathmann

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined whether calibration of the SEER-SEM impacted the effort estimates generated by the model for software developments- A historical database was provided by the Space and Missile System's Center Los Angeles, and used as the model's input data. The data was stratified into four usable platforms, military ground command and-control, military ground signal processing, military specification avionics, and military mobile. Each platform's data sets were split, the majority of points for calibration of the model, and the rest for model validation. The accuracy of SEER to this particular data set is limited, yet the model did respond to …

The Rotations Of Maxillary Molars, Mandibular Molars, And Maxillary First Premolars In Acceptable Occlusions, G. Kristian Hansen

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The rotation of the maxillary molars is considered important in the orthodontic treatment of malocclusions. In this study a computer analysis program was developed to examine the rotations of maxillary molars, mandibular molars, and maxillary first premolars in casts of permanent dentitions with acceptable occlusions. Ninety three sets of untreated "acceptable occlusion" models from the collection of the Foundation for Orthodontic Research (FOR) were scanned on a flat bed scanner at 600 dots per inch (dpi). The images were analyzed using custom software on a computer. Measurements were made by relating maxillary first permanent molars to the midline, the archform, …

Formal Foundations For The Specification Of Software Architecture, Mark J. Gerken

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation establishes a formal foundation for software architecture that allows for the specification of large, non-trivial software systems using well founded, consistency preserving construction techniques. Two fundamental problems were addressed: how to define and express architectures formally using the concept of theories, and how architecture theories can be practically applied in specification construction. The initial stages of this investigation sought to establish a formal, mathematical relationship between functional specifications of behavior and specifications defining system structure. Experimental results lead to the conclusion that architectures defining the structure of functional operations can be defined using functional logic, but more complex …