Computer Sciences Commons^™

Hunting For Metamorphic Javascript Malware, Mangesh Musale

Master's Projects

Internet plays a major role in the propagation of malware. A recent trend is the infection of machines through web pages, often due to malicious code inserted in JavaScript. From the malware writer’s perspective, one potential advantage of JavaScript is that powerful code obfuscation techniques can be applied to evade de- tection. In this research, we analyze metamorphic JavaScript malware. We compare the effectiveness of several static detection strategies and we quantify the degree of morphing required to defeat each of these techniques.

Incorporating Privacy And Security Features In An Open Source Search Engine A Project Report Presented To, Akash Patel

Master's Projects

The aim of this project was to explore and implement various privacy and security features in an open-source search engine and enhance the security and privacy capabilities of Yioop. Yioop, an open-source PHP search engine based on GPLv3 license, is designed and developed by Dr. Chris Pollett. We have enabled a crawl, search and index mechanism for hidden services by execution of codes, which has facilitated access of the Tor network in Yioop. We have diversified the ability of the previously supported text CAPTCHA functionality in Yioop by implementing hash CAPTCHA and provided feasibility to toggle between text CAPTCHA and …

Text Summarization For Compressed Inverted Indexes And Snippets, Mangesh Dahale

Master's Projects

Text summarization is a technique to generate a concise summary of
a larger text. In search engines, Text summarization can be used for
generating compressed descriptions of web pages. For indexing, these can
be used rather than whole pages when building inverted indexes. For query
results, summaries can be used for snippet generation. In this project, we
research on several techniques of text summarization. We evaluate these
techniques for quality of the generated summary and time required to
generate it. We implement the technique chosen from the evaluation in
Yioop, an open source, PHP-based search engine.

Incorporating Wordnet In An Information Retrieval System, Shailesh Padave

Master's Projects

Query expansion is a method of modifying an initial query to enhance retrieval performance in information retrieval operations [11] . There are alternate ways to expand a user input query such as finding synonyms of words, re-weighting the query, fixing spelling mistakes, etc. [11] . In this project, we created a query rewriting algorithm, which uses synonyms for a given word for query expansion. These synonyms were chosen using WordNet, a lexical database for English [16] [15] . Similarity ranking functions and a part-of- speech tagger were written to extract the essential data from WordNet output. Various experiments were carried …

A Tiered Approach To Detect Metamorphic Malware With Hidden Markov Models, Ashwin Kalbhor

Master's Projects

Work on the use of hidden Markov models (HMM) to detect viruses has been carried out previously with good results [2], but metamorphic viruses like MetaPHOR [27] and metamorphic worms like MWOR [3] have proven to be able to evade detection techniques based on HMMs. The dueling HMM approach looks to detect such viruses by training an HMM model for each of the metamorphic virus / worm families. The tests and the results from these have shown that this approach has been able to detect the metamorphic MetaPHOR virus with reasonable accuracy but with significantly more overhead. This paper presents …

Application Of Message Passing And Sinkhorn Balancing Algorithms For Probabilistic Graphical Models, Lakshmi Ananthagopal

Master's Projects

Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) allow us to map real world scenarios to a
declarative representation and use it as a basis for predictive analysis. It is a framework that
allows us to express complex probability distributions in a simple way. PGMs can be applied to a
variety of scenarios wherein a model is built to reflect the conditional dependencies between
random variables and then used to simulate the interactions between them to draw conclusions.
The framework further provides many algorithms to analyze these models and extract
information.
One of the applications of PGMs is in solving mathematical puzzles such as …

Big Data Analysis Using Neuro-Fuzzy System, Amir Eibagi

Master's Projects

This project addresses big data classification using hybrid Intelligence
Classification System. Hybrid Intelligence classification system is a system that
combines at least two intelligent technologies. Specifically, the focus of this project is to
apply hybrid Neuro-Fuzzy system to the IBM Watson data and Innocentive
Trustworthiness challenge data for prediction and classification. Neural network are low-
level computational structure which has ability to learn and performs well on the raw
data. On the other hand, fuzzy logic deals with reasoning on higher level using If-then
rules and linguistic variables. So combining these two methods can provide us with a
very powerful …

Dart: Declaratively Rendering 2d Sketches In Canvas, Jesus Rocha

Master's Projects

Dart is a recent programming language for the web browser. It features structured programming through traditional class-based syntax, metaprogramming via mirror-based reflection and scriptable rendering of 2D shapes with the Canvas API. This project explores Dart as a potential host for a domain-specific language (DSL) to produce figures, like those found in entry-level programming books. The goal is for instructors or book authors to generate figures such as the ones that appear in a typical CS1/CS2 text book. Figures from the book are analyzed and a library for rendering them declaratively is developed. Dart was able to provide a convenient …

Automatic Evaluation Of Python And C Programs With Codecheck, Kiet Nguyen

Master's Projects

This project enhances the codecheck autograder by implementing automatic evaluation of C and Python programs. Two security approaches are implemented and analyzed in order to complete this goal. The first approach involves isolation by using virtualization and the second approach involves hardening of the host operating system. I describe both implementations and measure their performance levels to see which approach is more efficient.

Improving The Performance And Energy Efficiency For Mobile Cloud Computing, Seungbeom Ma

Master's Projects

Based on the worldwide high-speed networks and advanced hardware (e.g., multiple cores mobile processor, and various sensors), mobile software industries enthusiastically release advanced mobile applications. These phenomena cause mobile devices to break down the limitation of time and place. Mobile cloud computing provides the most convenient communication and effective working environment to humans. However, the fundamental hardware has technical difficulties to keep up advanced technologies and applications in mobile devices, which means that there is a gap between available hardware resource and the demand of complex applications in mobile devices. The limited hardware decreases the quality of service. Mobile Cloud …

Opinion Mining On Twitter Data Stream To Give Companies An Up-To-Date Feedback On Their Free Products, Lokmanyathilak Govindan Sankar Selvan

Master's Projects

There are lots of companies producing various products ranging from expensive to free products. There is no software product without any bug irrespective of their cost. The problem with this situation is that when people purchase a software product by paying money they are more concerned about its performance. People report to the companies if the product they purchased does not work as expected. It is not the same in the case of free products. People tend to switch to some other free product produced by different company which does the same job. The notion of this project is to …

Automating Nfc Message Sending For Good And Evil, Nikki Benecke Brandt

Master's Projects

Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging proximity wireless technology used for triggering automatic interactions between mobile devices. In standard NFC usage, one message is sent per device contact, then the devices must be physically separated and brought together again. In this paper, we present a mechanism for automatically sending multiple messages without any need to physically decouple the devices. After an introduction to NFC and related security issues, we discuss the motivation for—and an implementation of—an automation framework for sending repeated NFC messages without any need for human interaction. Then we consider how such an automated mechanism can be …

Onecareer-A Visualization Approach To Job Search Process, Avinash Anantharamu

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

Improving The Efficiency Of Tesseract Ocr Engine, Sahil Badla

Master's Projects

This project investigates the principles of optical character recognition used in the Tesseract OCR engine and techniques to improve its efficiency and runtime. Optical character recognition (OCR) method has been used in converting printed text into editable text in various applications over a variety of devices such as Scanners, computers, tablets etc. But now Mobile is taking over the computer in all the domains but OCR still remains one not so conquered field. So programmers need to improve the efficiency of the OCR system to make it run properly on Mobile devices. This paper focuses on improving the Tesseract OCR …

Simulation Modeling And Analysis Of Customs-Regulated Container Terminal Operations With Multimodal Transportation, Mariam A. Kotachi

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

World trade has been increasing dramatically in the past two decades and, as a result, container exchange has grown significantly. Consequently and to meet this increase, several container terminals are expanding and many new ones are being established. A port with one or more container terminals is considered a complex system in which many entities interact to accomplish seamless handling of containers inbound and outbound. The level of complexity is drastically heightened for container terminals containing multimodal transportation systems as they typically involve ships, rail, and trucks arriving to one or more terminals delivering containers of different sizes to several …

Web Archive Services Framework For Tighter Integration Between The Past And Present Web, Ahmed Alsum

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Web archives have contained the cultural history of the web for many years, but they still have a limited capability for access. Most of the web archiving research has focused on crawling and preservation activities, with little focus on the delivery methods. The current access methods are tightly coupled with web archive infrastructure, hard to replicate or integrate with other web archives, and do not cover all the users' needs. In this dissertation, we focus on the access methods for archived web data to enable users, third-party developers, researchers, and others to gain knowledge from the web archives. We build …

A Computer-Based Approach For Identifying Student Conceptual Change, Junchao Yan

Open Access Theses

Misconceptions are commonly encountered in many areas of science and engineering where a to-be-learned concept conflicts with prior knowledge. Conceptual change is an approach for identifying and repairing the misconceptions. One of the ways to promote student conceptual change is providing students with ontological schema training. However, assessment of conceptual change relies on qualitative analysis of student responses. With the exponential growth of qualitative data in the form of graphical representations or written responses, the process of data analysis relying on human experts has become time-consuming and costly. This study took the advantages of natural language processing and machine learning …

Just Noticeable Difference Survey Of Computer Generated Imagery Using Normal Maps, Michael Edward Hoerter

Open Access Theses

Normal maps are widely used as a resource-efficient means of simulating detailed topology on 3D surfaces in the gaming, simulation, and film industries. However, as surface mesh density increases, it is unknown at what level of density these increases become no longer perceivable, and whether normal maps significantly affect this threshold. This study examined at what point participants were unable to discern differences between one level of mesh density and another using an adapted staircase model. Participants identified this threshold for five different organic character models. The averages of each of these thresholds were taken and compared against the results …

Usability Testing Of The M.A.E.G.U.S. Serious Game, James He

Open Access Theses

Interpreting raw data in serious games and simulations can be a time consuming and uninteresting task without visualizations. This study proposes one possible solution for an interface that incorporates data visualizations for Whittinghill and Nataraja's (2013) MAEGUS simulation, a serious game used to increase the retention of wind energy and solar energy concepts in students, while still being fun. After the interface was designed and developed, a think aloud usability test was conducted to answer the following research questions: how do students use a series of information visualizations to operate a multi-variate game-based simulation and what are some the usability …

Senescence: An Aging Based Character Simulation Framework, Suren Deepak Rajasekaran

Open Access Theses

The 'Senescence' framework is a character simulation plug-in for Maya that can be used for rigging and skinning muscle deformer based humanoid characters with support for aging. The framework was developed using Python, Maya Embedded Language and PyQt. The main targeted users for this framework are the Character Technical Directors, Technical Artists, Riggers and Animators from the production pipeline of Visual Effects Studios. The characters that were simulated using 'Senescence' were studied using a survey to understand how well the intended age was perceived by the audience. The results of the survey could not reject one of our null hypotheses …

The Role Of App Development And Mobile Computing In Motivating The Secondary Mathematics Classroom, Jennifer Lee Marquez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

An increasing amount of high school students are interested in developing their own mobile application. Incorporating mobile development into the classroom can increase student engagement in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In this paper I present a study done with a group of sophomore level students who created their own mathematics apps with no programming experience. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge gained and motivational appeal of secondary mathematics students taught basic state of Texas exam concepts with the use of the proposed mobile development labs. Students in this study used algebraic and …

Semantic Similarity Based Information Retrieval As Applied To Moocs, Krishna Nitin Tenali

Master's Projects

Over the last few years there has been a significant development in the e-learning industry that provides online courses to the public. Due to the drastic improvement in technology and the Internet, this form of education reaches many people across boundaries. There is vast set of courses currently provided by various sources, which range from the latest technologies in the field of computer science to any topic in history. Since the invention of e-learning, there has been constant improvement of user friendly tools to enhance the learning process. In the span of the last three years, many websites have come …

Attribute Selection Methods In Rough Set Theory, Xiaohan Li

Master's Projects

Attribute selection for rough sets is an NP-hard problem, in which fast heuristic algorithms are needed to find reducts. In this project, two reduct methods for rough set were implemented: particle swarm optimization and Johnson’s method. Both algorithms were evaluated with five different benchmarks from the KEEL repository. The results obtained from both implementations were compared with results obtained by the ROSETTA software using the same benchmarks. The results show that the implementations achieve better correction rates than ROSETTA.

Analyzing Big Data With Decision Trees, Lok Kei Leong

Master's Projects

ANALYZING BIG DATA WITH DECISION TREES

Improving Smart Grid Security Using Merkle Trees, Melesio Calderón Muñoz

Master's Projects

Abstract—Presently nations worldwide are starting to convert their aging electrical power infrastructures into modern, dynamic power grids. Smart Grid offers much in the way of efficiencies and robustness to the electrical power grid, however its heavy reliance on communication networks will leave it more vulnerable to attack than present day grids. This paper looks at the threat to public key cryptography systems from a fully realized quantum computer and how this could impact the Smart Grid. We argue for the use of Merkle Trees in place of public key cryptography for authentication of devices in wireless mesh networks that are …

Predictive Analytics For Outpatient Appointments, Nang Laik Ma, Khataniar Seemanta, Dan Wu, Serene Seng Ying Ng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Healthcare is a very important industry where analytics has been applied successfully to generate insights about patients, identify bottleneck and to improve the business efficiency. In this paper, we aim to look at the patient appointment process as the hospital is experiencing high volume of ?no shows. ?No shows have a high impact on longer appointment lead time for patients, poor patient satisfaction and loss of revenue for hospital. We use data analytics to identify pattern of ?no shows, develop a statistical model to predict the probability of ?no shows and finally operationalizing the model to embed the analytics solution …

Ubiquitous Data-Centric Sensor Networks, Ting Yang, Peng Yung Woo, Zhaoxia Wang, Javid Taheri, Hoong Chor Chin, Guaqiang Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ubiquitous data-centric sensor networks (U-DCSN) are a new integrated science and technology, which focus on data instead of individual sensor nodes. The network, as a dynamic database system, can accurately acquire data, perform high-performance processing of big data, and effectively access data from different users/actuators. Due this characteristic, U-DCSN hold huge potentials on service improvement in a wide range of applications and have attracted significant attention in recent years, for example, mobile cloud and consumer electronics. The modern mobile cloud, comprised of mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, and embedded sensor nodes), provides unlimited information resources, putting “cloud into a pocket.” …

Volume 06, Kristen Gains, Amanda Willis, Holly Backer, Monika Gutierrez, Cara O'Neal, Sara Nelson, Sasha Silberman, Jessica Beardsley, Jamie Gardner, Edward Peeples, Matthew Sakach, Tess Lione, Emily Wilkins, Kelsey Holt, Jessica Page, Jamie Clift, Charles Vancampen, Gilbert Hall, Jenny Nehrt, Kasey Dye, Amanda Tharp, Jamie Leeuwrik, Ashley Mcgee, Emily Poulin, Michael Kropf, Nick Pastore, Austin Polasky, Morgan Glasco, Laura L. Kahler, Melinda L. Edwards, Brandon C. Smith, Mariah Asbell, Cabell Edmunds, Amelia D. Perry, Alyssa Hayes, Irina Boothe, Perry Bason, James Early

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross

Caught Between Folklore and the Cold War: The Americanization of Russian Children's Literature by Kristen Gains

Graphic Design by Amanda Willis

Graphic Design by Holly Backer

Prejudices in Swiss German Accents by Monika Gutierrez

Photography by Cara O'Neal

Photography by Sara Nelson

Edmund Tyrone's Long Journey through Night by Sasha Silberman

Photography by Jessica Beardsley

Photography by Jamie Gardner and Edward Peeples

The Republican Razor: The Guillotine as a Symbol of Equality by Jamie Clift

Graphic Design by Matthew Sakach

Genocide: The Lasting Effects of Gender Stratification in Rwanda By Tess Lione and Emily …

Community Discovery In Social Networks Via Heterogeneous Link Association And Fusion, Lei Meng, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Discovering social communities of web users through clustering analysis of heterogeneous link associations has drawn much attention. However, existing approaches typically require the number of clusters a prior, do not address the weighting problem for fusing heterogeneous types of links and have a heavy computational cost. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of a newly proposed heterogeneous data clustering algorithm, called Generalized Heterogeneous Fusion Adaptive Resonance Theory (GHF-ART), for discovering communities in heterogeneous social networks. Different from existing algorithms, GHF-ART performs real-time matching of patterns and one-pass learning which guarantee its low computational cost. With a vigilance parameter to …

On Modeling Community Behaviors And Sentiments In Microblogging, Tuan Anh Hoang, William Cohen, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose the CBS topic model, a probabilistic graphical model, to derive the user communities in microblogging networks based on the sentiments they express on their generated content and behaviors they adopt. As a topic model, CBS can uncover hidden topics and derive user topic distribution. In addition, our model associates topic-specific sentiments and behaviors with each user community. Notably, CBS has a general framework that accommodates multiple types of behaviors simultaneously. Our experiments on two Twitter datasets show that the CBS model can effectively mine the representative behaviors and emotional topics for each community. We also …