Computer Sciences Commons^™

Visual Code: Breaking The Binary, Jacob Johannesen, Andrew Adriance

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This project seeks to create an accessible programming language that is more visually based. Although some solutions exist, namely MIT’s Scratch, nothing has caught up to the mobile age. This proj- ect aims to reframe creating a game or app into the context of tell- ing a story, putting character creation first. By researching sto- ry-telling and how people learn, and by applying technical and user interface design knowledge, this project intends to deliver a soft- ware solution that opens introductory coding education to more people.

Skewer: Sentiment Knowledge Extraction With Entity Recognition, Christopher James Wu

Master's Theses

The California state legislature introduces approximately 5,000 new bills each legislative session. While the legislative hearings are recorded on video, the recordings are not easily accessible to the public. The lack of official transcripts or summaries also increases the effort required to gain meaningful insight from those recordings. Therefore, the news media and the general population are largely oblivious to what transpires during legislative sessions.

Digital Democracy, a project started by the Cal Poly Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, is an online platform created to bring transparency to the California legislature. It features a searchable database of state …

Categorizing Blog Spam, Brandon Bevans

Master's Theses

The internet has matured into the focal point of our era. Its ecosystem is vast, complex, and in many regards unaccounted for. One of the most prevalent aspects of the internet is spam. Similar to the rest of the internet, spam has evolved from simply meaning ‘unwanted emails’ to a blanket term that encompasses any unsolicited or illegitimate content that appears in the wide range of media that exists on the internet.

Many forms of spam permeate the internet, and spam architects continue to develop tools and methods to avoid detection. On the other side, cyber security engineers continue to …

Teaching Numerical Methods In The Context Of Galaxy Mergers, Maria Kourjanskaia

Physics

Methods of teaching numerical methods to solve ordinary differential equations in the context of galaxy mergers were explored. The research published in a paper by Toomre and Toomre in 1972 describing the formation of galactic tails and bridges from close tidal interactions was adapted into a project targeting undergraduate physics students. Typically undergraduate physics students only take one Computational Physics class in which various techniques and algorithms are taught. Although it is important to study computational physics techniques, it is just as important to apply this knowledge to a problem that is representative of what computational physics researchers are investigating …

Predicting Changes To Source Code, Justin James Roll

Master's Theses

Organizations typically use issue tracking systems (ITS) such as Jira to plan software releases and assign requirements to developers. Organizations typically also use source control management (SCM) repositories such as Git to track historical changes to a code-base. These ITS and SCM repositories contain valuable data that remains largely untapped. As developers churn through an organization, it becomes expensive for developers to spend time determining which software artifact must be modified to implement a requirement. In this work we created, developed, tested and evaluated a tool called Class Change Predictor, otherwise known as CCP, for predicting which class will implement …

Venncafe, Daniel Johnson, Christopher Clark, Jonathan Amireh

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Our senior project involved creating a simple dating application and service. From other dating applications, we observed that the logistics of scheduling a first date are a tedious way to start a conversation with someone you've never met. The main concept of our application was that it would use user schedule availability and their favorite cafes to automatically plan optimal dates.

We started the project with the intent of...

• Working through the entire development cycle of a large project as a team

• Devising techniques for determining overlapping preferences, especially when handling large amounts of location and time data

• Exploring different …

  ---

  Go to article

Reducing Costs In Human Assisted Speech Transcription, Justin Rovin

Master's Theses

The only official documentation of the lawmaking process at the California Legislature is unedited video recordings of committee hearings, bill texts, votes and analyses. While the bills resulting from these hearings are clear, using video recordings to understand how a bill was created is far too laborious for the average citizen. To increase public transparency, a service that provides easier access to the bill creation process was needed. In response to this need, the Digital Democracy initiative was established at Cal Poly by the Honorable Sam Blakeslee, former California State Senator and founder of the Institute for Advanced Technology and …

Semantic Document Clustering Using A Similarity Graph, Lubomir Stanchev

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Document clustering addresses the problem of identifying groups of similar documents without human supervision. Unlike most existing solutions that perform document clustering based on keywords matching, we propose an algorithm that considers the meaning of the terms in the documents. For example, a document that contains the words "dog" and "cat" multiple times may be placed in the same category as a document that contains the word "pet" even if the two documents share only noise words in common. Our semantic clustering algorithm is based on a similarity graph that stores the degree of semantic relationship between terms (extracted from …

Spest – A Tool For Specification-Based Testing, Corrigan Redford Johnson

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a tool for SPEcification based teSTing (SPEST). SPEST is designed to use well known practices for automated black-box testing to reduce the burden of testing on developers. The tool uses a simple formal specification language to generate highly-readable unit tests that embody best practices for thorough software testing. Because the specification language used to generate the assertions about the code can be compiled, it can also be used to ensure that documentation describing the code is maintained during development and refactoring.

The utility and effectiveness of SPEST were validated through several exper- iments conducted with students in …

Battle Bot Ai – Patriot Bot, James Johnston

Computer Engineering

An entry in the the 'Battle Block AI' competition hosted by 'The AI Games'.

Real Time Analytics On Digital Distraction, Kristian Welch

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Hypothesis: empirically measuring the users productivity has the potential to significantly increase their productivity. This paper is the documentation of the process of building software capable of verifying this hypothesis. Starting with the research which gives enough evidence to warrant the hypothesis, also included is commentary on the prototyping, design decisions, and iteration based on user feedback of the software.

Co-Rotational Finite Element Solid Simulation With Collisions, Patrick Riordan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper is a tutorial on how to implement a deformable solid simulation with collisions based off of Matthias Mueller's Real Time Physics Course Notes. It covers the topics continuum mechanics, finite element analysis, implicit Euler integration, and handling collision.

Mobilerp, Anthony Fata

Computer Engineering

MobilERP is a system that increases traceability of parts in a manufacturing process in a simple paperless way. The system contains three components, a desktop application, a mobile app, and a database. The mobile application allows employees to scan (using a bar code scanner) parts that they are working/finishing on during the manufacturing process. As the part goes down the assembly line, individuals will barcode scan using the app to track the progress. These changes would get updated to the database, where then the designated person can track the progress of the part as well as any problems or concerns …

Pthreads Profiler, Ryan Van Quinlan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of this senior project was to design and implement a program which would allow users to profile programs that utilize the Pthreads library. This profiler allows users to measure load balance and lock contention between threads as well as discover deadlocks. These tools can be essential to developers of multi-threaded applications, which are notoriously difficult to debug. Additionally, this tool can help find vital performance benefits by providing relative execution measurements. The profiler is written in C++ and utilizes the standard template library as well as glibc extensions.

Automated Multi-Modal Search And Rescue Using Boosted Histogram Of Oriented Gradients, Matthew A. Lienemann

Master's Theses

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provides a platform for many automated tasks and with an ever increasing advances in computing, these tasks can be more complex. The use of UAVs is expanded in this thesis with the goal of Search and Rescue (SAR), where a UAV can assist fast responders to search for a lost person and relay possible search areas back to SAR teams. To identify a person from an aerial perspective, low-level Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) feature descriptors are used over a segmented region, provided from thermal data, to increase classification speed. This thesis also introduces a dataset …

Simulations Of Hl-Lhc Crab Cavity Noise Using Headtail, Stanley Steeper

Physics

The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (Hi-Lumi LHC) upgrade -- scheduled to be completed by 2025 -- will improve the existing LHC in many ways. One such upgrade is the addition of Crab Cavities (CCs). The CCs are resonant structures that provide strong transverse kicks to the circulating clouds of particles around each interaction region. As such, the CCs result in a head-on collision of the clouds and a large increase in event rate, leading to reduced statistical uncertainty and potentially faster discoveries. However, the CC field will be modulated by phase and amplitude noise which can have detrimental effects …

Rfid Microscope Lab, Patricia Carranza

Computer Engineering

The RFID Microscope Lab is a new exhibit created for the San Luis Obispo Children's Museum. The goal of the project is to create a modern, interactive exhibit that will teach children about different natural specimens through the use of technology. A computer, custom software, and RFID technology, will be used to display facts, microscopic images, and short videos of ten different specimens.

Using Data Visualization Software To Aid In The Analysis Of Geographical Data, Matthew R. Evers, Inzamam Rahaman

STAR Program Research Presentations

NASA Web World Wind (Web WW) is designed to visualize and manage geographical data. As a first implementation of visualization and analysis, we designed an application to map earthquake data onto the globe. Portions of this code were merged with application monitoring magnetic field anomalies possibly associated with earthquake precursor activity. Web WW enabled the visualization of the directional vectors from this data to point to the source location of the earthquake. We also developed a prototype urban management application which utilizes OpenStreetMaps to provide simple features such as route navigation, geographical and services information in an area of interest. …

Mapping Open Water Bodeis With Optical Remote Sensing, Mary Ellen O'Donnell, Erika Podest

STAR Program Research Presentations

There is interest in mapping open water bodies using remote sensing data. Coverage and persistence of open water is currently a poorly measured variable due to its spatial and temporal variability across landscapes, especially in remote areas. The presence and persistence of open water is one of the primary indicators of conditions suitable for mosquito breeding habitats. Predicting the risk of mosquito caused disease outbreaks is a required step towards their control and eradication. Satellite observations can provide needed data to support agency decisions for deployment of preventative measures and control resources. This study, which will try to map open …

An Interactive User Interface Improves Data Visualization In R, Nathan Sweem

STAR Program Research Presentations

An interactive user interface application was created using the R statistical computing environment and the Shiny package to visualize historical data on the performance of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Historical data for these funds is scraped from the Yahoo! Finance webpage. The application allows the user to analyze this historical data by category and fund family, which are also scraped from Yahoo! Finance. The application generates interactive plots to compare the performance of selected mutual funds and ETFs given the baseline and center determined by the user. The application has been modified to attentively match the data with …

Enhanced Presentation Of Tomographic Data, Carmen Watts Clayton, Bernice Mills, George Beffleben, Thien Vu-Nguyen

STAR Program Research Presentations

X-ray tomography yields a very large amount of data in three dimensions. Effectively displaying this data to a broad audience is a challenge. Techniques are discussed to improve presentation of movies of both 2D and 3D tomographic data using commercially available softwares.

Simple Macro: Addon For World Of Warcraft, Yemane Gebreyesus

Computer Engineering

This senior project was started to try and solve a problem within World of Warcraft. That particular problem is the underdeveloped default macro interface, which Simple Macro aims to remedy by creating a more user-friendly interface that is accessible by a wider audience. It employs a click through method of accessing and editing data to reduce the amount of typing necessary. The addon also has a feature to specifically help players that want to change a target in certain groups of macros all at once. The project was developed in both Lua and XML.

Dynamic Voxel Based Terrain Generation, Thomas Sanford

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This project is an implementation of an editable terrain system. By maintaining an octree of volumetric data and performing the mesh creation on the GPU, the program can allow for free editing of the surroundings which is then reflected in real time. This allows for real time applications to have terrain that can change depending on how the user interacts with it.

Multiplayer Browser-Based Game Utilizing Javascript And Webgl Frameworks, Cy Tan, Benjamin Naftali, Matthew Tong, Vincent Chan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of our project is to make an online large-scale multiplayer game with persistent user data. This will involve real-time player interaction and many customization options. This game will be a massively-multiplayer online tactics role-playing game (MMOTRPG), a genre that has been insufficiently explored. This area of browser-based massive multiplayer games is also a platform of gaming that has yet to realize the capabilities of modern browsers and the level of interaction and graphics they now support.

The scope of our project does not encompass the complete feature set we have intended for the game, but rather a technical …

Resound.Fm, Matthew Bleifer

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of this senior project was to create a social platform for people to share and discover the music they love. Current music streaming technologies lack an effective tool for helping users find new music. The personal element of music that used to exist in the days that people gathered around record players or shared mixtapes has been lost online and Resound.fm seeks to bring it back. Resound.fm is a Ruby on Rails web application, which uses some of the latest web technologies and design patterns to create a powerful new music discovery experience online. The project was completed …

'Fo Fighter: 2d Real-Time Game, Cary Dobeck

Computer Engineering

‘FO Fighter is a 2D real-time game for Android and iOS mobile devices. The game utilizes the motion sensors and touch screens built within these devices to give the player a great amount of control over their character’s position and firing direction. This control allows for a reactive environment set in outer space, where gravity is determined by the device’s orientation, while the player must dodge, fight and destroy multiple enemy fighters on each planet in the solar system. ‘FO Fighter has been tested throughout its development cycle on numerous devices on both the Android and iOS platforms, with testers …

Geospatial Data Modeling To Support Energy Pipeline Integrity Management, Austin Wylie

Master's Theses

Several hundred thousand miles of energy pipelines span the whole of North America -- responsible for carrying the natural gas and liquid petroleum that power the continent's homes and economies. These pipelines, so crucial to everyday goings-on, are closely monitored by various operating companies to ensure they perform safely and smoothly.

Happenings like earthquakes, erosion, and extreme weather, however -- and human factors like vehicle traffic and construction -- all pose threats to pipeline integrity. As such, there is a tremendous need to measure and indicate useful, actionable data for each region of interest, and operators often use computer-based decision …

Calculating Staircase Slope From A Single Image, Nicholas Joseph Clarke

Master's Theses

Realistic modeling of a 3D environment has grown in popularity due to the increasing realm of practical applications. Whether for practical navigation purposes, entertainment value, or architectural standardization, the ability to determine the dimensions of a room is becoming more and more important. One of the trickier, but critical, features within any multistory environment is the staircase. Staircases are difficult to model because of their uneven surface and various depth aspects. Coupling this need is a variety of ways to reach this goal. Unfortunately, many such methods rely upon specialized sensory equipment, multiple calibrated cameras, or other such impractical setups. …

Moxel Dags: Connecting Material Information To High Resolution Sparse Voxel Dags, Brent Robert Williams

Master's Theses

As time goes on, the demand for higher resolution and more visually rich images only increases. Unfortunately, creating these more realistic computer graphics is pushing our computational resources to their limits.

In realistic rendering, one of the common ways 3D objects are represented is as volumetric elements called voxels. Traditionally, voxel data structures are known for their high memory requirements. One of the standard ways these requirements are minimized is by storing the voxels in a sparse voxel octree (SVO). Very recently, a method called High Resolution Sparse Voxel DAGs was presented that can store binary voxel data orders of …

Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prediction Through Heart Rate Variability Analysis, Luke Joseph Plewa

Master's Theses

The increase in popularity for wearable technologies (see: Apple Watch and Microsoft Band) has opened the door for an Internet of Things solution to healthcare. One of the most prevalent healthcare problems today is the poor survival rate of out-of hospital sudden cardiac arrests (9.5% on 360,000 cases in the USA in 2013). It has been proven that heart rate derived features can give an early indicator of sudden cardiac arrest, and that providing an early warning has the potential to save many lives. Many of these new wearable devices are capable of providing this warning through their heart rate …