Databases and Information Systems Commons^™

Fact-Checking As A Multi-Step Process: From Ambiguity Resolution To Claim Validation, Wenbo Wang

Dissertations

The spread of misinformation and disinformation has become a major concern, particularly with the rise of social media as a primary source of information for many people. Fact-checking—the process of verifying claims against credible evidence—has emerged as a critical safeguard against misinformation. Yet, the task is fraught with challenges: claims are often ambiguous, context-dependent, or composed of multiple intertwined assertions, while automated systems struggle to replicate the nuanced reasoning of human experts. This dissertation addresses these challenges by reimagining fact-checking as a multi-step, knowledge-guided process that systematically resolves ambiguity, decomposes complexity, and validates claims through structured reasoning. Additionally, the proposed …

From Neural Networks To Large Language Models: Innovations In Financial Ai, Mathematical Reasoning, And Structured Data Representation, Junyi Ye

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the evolution and application of artificial intelligence techniques across three critical domains: financial modeling, mathematical reasoning, and structured data analysis. The dissertation presents seven research projects that chart a progression from specialized neural architectures to sophisticated large language models (LLMs), contributing novel methodologies and frameworks at each stage.

In the financial domain, the research first introduces TS-Mixer, a MLP-based architecture for time-series forecasting that captures both feature relationships and temporal dependencies through a simple yet effective design, outperforming more complex models in S&P500 index prediction. The dissertation then presents DySTAGE, a dynamic graph representation learning framework that …

Towards Explainable Ai On Graph Neural Networks: Xaig, Jiaxing Zhang

Dissertations

In the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have garnered growing prominence for their adeptness in processing graph-structured data. Despite this, the interpretability of their predictions often remains elusive. The demand for transparency and explainability in complex prediction models has reached unprecedented levels. To address this, post-hoc instance-level explanation techniques have emerged, aiming to unveil the rationale behind GNN predictions. These techniques endeavor to unearth substructures that elucidate the predictive behavior of trained GNNs.

This dissertation embarks on an exploration of Explainable AI (XAI) technologies within the realm of GNNs. Amid the challenges posed by the …

Blockchain-Enabled Master Data Management, Shakhawat Hossain

Theses and Dissertations

Master Data Management (MDM) is essential for maintaining data quality, accuracy, consistency, and governance within organizations. However, traditional centralized MDM systems continue to face challenges related to data integrity, security, and scalability. This research presents a blockchain-enabled MDM framework designed to overcome these limitations by leveraging blockchain’s decentralized, immutable, and secure architecture. The study aims to identify and address the shortcomings of conventional MDM practices, examine the applicability of blockchain technology in enhancing these systems, and develop a functional prototype to validate the proposed model. The framework incorporates decentralized review mechanisms that improve auditability and ensure trusted data verification by …

Selected Artificial Intelligence Provisions In U.S. Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

The 2025 Fiscal Year National Defense Authorization Act contains multiple provisions relating to artificial intelligence (AI). These congressionally mandated provisions direct various sections of the Department of Defense (DOD) and individual U.S. armed service branches to execute congressional intent for AI policymaking. Examples of such intent include identifying and planning DOD's AI workforce, demonstrating AI biotechnology applications for national security, improving the human usability of AI systems, and establishing an AI security center. This presentation will note that reports on these initiatives must be prepared for relevant congressional oversight committees, and, in many cases, are in many cases, publicly released …

A Computational Method For Detecting Compound Promiscuity In Early-Stage Pharmaceutical Discovery, John Allen Ringer

Computer Science ETDs

Modern drug discovery and chemical biology research relies heavily on analyzing bioassay data. One of the many challenges in bioassay data analysis is identifying false trails, i.e., chemical compounds which initially appear to have desirable activity but are found to be problematic upon further investigation. Badapple (the BioAssay-Data Associative Promiscuity Pattern Learning Engine) was created over ten years ago to help researchers identify promiscuous compounds and thus avoid a common source of these false trails. Through an effort involving software engineering, cheminformatics, and biomedical data science we have developed Badapple 2.0, which incorporates updated assay records and expanded data semantics. …

From Data To Action: An Adaptable Crosstabs Template For Participatory Survey Data Analysis, Natalia Pinzon, Vikram Koundinya, William O'R Dowling, Ryan Galt

Journal of Extension

We present a practical and accessible template for quantitative survey data analysis designed for non-academic researchers in order to facilitate engagement from community collaborators. The template, created in Google Sheets, is mainly for computing cross-tabulations, but it also displays frequency distributions and p-values for determining statistical significance. The template allows collaborators to record their observations and questions, promoting an efficient yet interactive review process and fostering a democratic analysis environment. Based on our own experience using this template for a data party, we highlight its effectiveness in promoting collaborative data interpretation, decision-making, and the actionable use of survey findings.

Analytics Insights From Text: Machine Learning, Ai, And Sentiment Analysis On Beige Books, Charlie Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Business analytics is about drawing actionable insights from data. These distinct but connected essays represent a novel approach to explore how natural language processing (NLP) advances and machine learning can transform unstructured text data into actionable conclusions. Essay 1 provides a broad framework. Essay 2 strengthens the sentiment analysis with the most recent artificial intelligence methodologies for capturing nuanced sentiment in complex texts. Essay 3 applies those insights to forecast recessions using topics that can be readily interpreted and applied.

The research demonstrates how these methodologies can be applied to enhance understanding of the same dataset, Beige Books. Published by …

Comparative Analysis Of Regression And Random Forest Models For Player Performance Prediction In The Mls, Joshua Clement Madeti

Senior Honors Theses

Advanced technology and analytics have transformed the world and have benefited several industries throughout, the sport industry being one of them. Data is constantly generated during sports and requires post-game or post-season analysis which is crucial to team and player success. In this paper, the researcher will focus on the impact of analytics on soccer and soccer players. With over three billion active fans, soccer is the most famous sport in the world yet, when it comes to analytics, it is lagging. The thesis includes a comparative study of multiple linear regression and random forest regression to explore whether these …

Learning Behaviors In Physics-Informed Deep Learning, Alex Glover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physics-informed deep learning is a methodology in artificial intelligence aimed at combating the large training data requirement and the barrier of domain awareness that deep learning architectures commonly face in applications. Stochastic modeling integrated into the predictive models provides that domain knowledge. Variations of the Intelligent Driving Model impact the learning behaviors of the joint-training architecture. This thesis examines the effect of substituting the standard linear Intelligent Driving Model with a modified nonlinear version, as applied to real human driving behavior on the I-80 interstate. The experimentation also critically evaluates the complications that impede the viability of this architecture in …

Computer Vision In Soccer: Yolov11 Analytics Engine For Quantifying Game Strategy, Connor S. Maurer

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Single-shot object detection capabilities significantly reduce computational overhead for real-time computer vision in sports analytics at 60 FPS. YOLO11’s lightweight CNN gives promising accuracy while meeting the low-latency demand of dynamic soccer matches. As data-driven approaches take over the sport of soccer, efficient player tracking systems become critical for informing coach’s strategies. I prototype the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process of data collected from a single- shot detection program and evaluate its viability for estimating player fatigue. YOLO11 detects players, the ball, and other characteristics, with the output transformed by homography to estimate the positions in the real world. These …

Towards Reliable Ml: Data Attribution And Adversarial Robustness, Xiaosen Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Modern machine learning (ML) models achieve remarkable success, but face critical reliability challenges. This thesis advances two pillars of reliable ML systems: interpretability through data attribution and robustness against adversarial threats.

In the first part, we develop novel data attribution methods to elucidate the data-model relationship. We establish the critical role of memorization in model generalization through token-level influence analysis, extend sample-level attribution to diffusion models with effective approximation techniques, and introduce REGMIX, a group-level approach that predicts data mixture performance using small-scale experiments. These contributions provide practitioners with scalable tools to audit training data impacts across modalities.

The second …

Full-Stack Web Applications: Industry Standard Frameworks, Libraries & Technologies, Yassine Chahid, Patrick Slattery

Publications and Research

This research explores emerging full-stack web development technologies across front-end, back-end, and DevSecOps domains. It evaluates modern tools including Django, React, and TypeScript—focusing on their key features such as compile-time error checking—through to the development of a web application. By examining documentation for the frameworks Node.js, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, and others, along with the deployment tools Docker and Git for version/release control, the study analyzes how these innovations speed up development, improve existing practices, and have often replaced older technologies. Cloud solutions for tasks such as authentication and deployment will also be evaluated, along with various web-application technology stacks and …

Guest Editorial: When Multimedia Meets Food: Multimedia Computing For Food Data Analysis And Applications, Weiqing Min, Shuqiang Jiang, Petia Radeva, Vladimir Pavlovic, Chong-Wah Ngo, Kiyoharu Aizawa, Wanqing Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Food is central in our life for its fundamental role in our survival, health, mood and culture. The deployment of various networks (e.g., IoT and mobile networks), devices (e.g., hyperspectral imaging devices, electronic nose/tongue), databases (e.g., nutrition tables and food compositional databases), recipe-sharing websites (e.g., Yummly and Meishijie) and social media (e.g., Twitter and Weibo) has generated unprecedented volumes of multi-modal food data. Such multi-source multi-modal food data provides new perspectives to analyze and understand food consumption via multimedia computing. Riding on the wave of AI, food-oriented multimedia computing integrates AI, multimedia technology and food science to enable a wide …

Seaexam And Seabench: Benchmarking Llms With Local Multilingual Questions In Southeast Asia, Chaoqun Liu, Wenxuan Zhang, Jiahao Ying, Mahani Aljunied, Anh Tuan Luu, Lidong Bing

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This study introduces two novel benchmarks, SeaExam and SeaBench, designed to evalu ate the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Southeast Asian (SEA) application scenarios. Unlike existing multilingual datasets primarily derived from English translations, these benchmarks are constructed based on real world scenarios from SEA regions. SeaExam draws from regional educational exams to form a comprehensive dataset that encompasses sub jects such as local history and literature. In contrast, SeaBench is crafted around multi turn, open-ended tasks that reflect daily inter actions within SEA communities. Our evalua tions demonstrate that SeaExam and SeaBench more effectively discern LLM performance on …

Disambiguart: A Neural-Based Inference Model For Knowledge Graph Disambiguation, Budhitama Subagdja, D. Shanthoshigaa, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One main challenge in constructing a knowledge graph (KG) is to deal with ambiguity. Specifically, an entity in the graph can be assigned with multiple meanings while two or more entities considered to have different meanings may actually be the same. Assigning an entity with the correct meaning may involve re-evaluation of its relevant contexts. This costly operation typically involves searching for other similar entities within the KG such that the context can be determined. In this paper, a new model called DisambiguART is proposed leveraging multi-channel matching and inference in a self-organizing neural network for sense disambiguation in knowledge …

Creating Talking Points For Client Advisers At Banks To Promote Sustainable Investing, Wewe Zi Yi, Pradeep Varakantham, Alan Megargel

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors have become key nonfinancial factors for investors to evaluate companies with respect to understanding material risks and growth opportunities. While not mandatory, companies are providing ESG reports that outline progress in different ESG metrics (six broad metrics and 15 specific ones). Client advisers (CAs) read these reports to identify key metrics of interest to investors. Given the number of companies and investment products, however, it is not feasible for CAs to read all the reports, which can sometimes run into tens or hundreds of pages). The authors have developed multiple frameworks building on leading …

Shipnavisim: Data-Driven Simulation For Real-World Maritime Navigation, Quang Anh Pham, Janaka Chathuranga Brahmanage, Akshat Kumar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Maritime traffic management in busy ports faces growing challenges due to increased vessel traffic and complex waterway interactions. Strategies such as e-navigation by the International Maritime Organization aim to enhance navigation safety through traffic digitization. Maritime traffic simulation is essential for these systems, offering a virtual environment to model, analyze, and optimize traffic flows. Unlike road traffic, there are few simulators for maritime traffic, and they often lack realism and multi-ship interactions. In this paper, we (a) present ShipNaviSim, a data-driven maritime traffic simulator that utilizes a large-scale dataset over 2 years and electronic navigation charts to model vessel movements …

“Ronaldo’S A Poser!”: How The Use Of Generative Ai Shapes Debates In Online Forums, Yuhan Zeng, Yingxuan Shi, Xuehan Huang, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Ray Lc

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online debates can enhance critical thinking but may escalate into hostile attacks. As humans are increasingly reliant on Generative AI (GenAI) in writing tasks, we need to understand how people utilize GenAI in online debates. To examine the patterns of writing behavior while making arguments with GenAI, we created an online forum for soccer fans to engage in turn-based and free debates in a post format with the assistance of ChatGPT, arguing on the topic of "Messi vs Ronaldo". After 13 sessions of two-part study and semi-structured interviews with 39 participants, we conducted content and thematic analyses to integrate insights …

Iot In Sustainability And Iot In The Ai And Metaverse Age, Yuzhou Qian, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a modern technology that has gained large popularity and is still developing. Connecting heterogeneous devices, such as phones, vehicles, and household appliances, IoT has brought convenience to our lives. Further, IoT plays a significant role in enhancing environmental sustainability. It provides timely data about different devices and enables users and managers to directly control the objects. IoT can optimize the existing energy systems and promote the usage of renewable technologies. In this paper, we discuss how IoT supports green initiatives (i.e., how it is applied in different sectors), how it can be "green" itself …

Improving Image Quality In Electrical Capacitance Tomography Using Otsu Thresholding, Josiah Nombo

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is an imaging technique used in industrial process monitoring, particularly for monitoring and measuring the composition of multiphase flows. Despite its widespread application, the commonly used Linear Back Projection (LBP) algorithm often produces low-quality images due to its limited ability to handle high permittivity contrasts and nonlinearities. This study investigates the use of Otsu thresholding as a post-processing technique to enhance ECT image quality. By maximizing inter-class variance in the image histogram, Otsu thresholding improves contrast, clarity, and structural definition, enabling more effective segmentation of oil and gas components in multiphase flows. The proposed Otsu-based reconstruction …

A Critical Realist Erp Implementation In Zimbabwean Mining Industry Organisations, Jairos Mukwenha

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This research uses a critical realist framework to examine the factors influencing the success of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation in Zimbabwean mining industry organisations. From the perspective of critical realism, the mining industry in Zimbabwe faces a complex interplay of opportunities and obstacles while implementing ERP systems. The deployment of ERP in mining firms is critically examined in this paper, emphasising how these systems might improve operational efficiency while considering Zimbabwe's particular socioeconomic circumstances. By exploring underlying structures, mechanisms, and outcomes, the research aims to identify critical challenges and opportunities and develop practical recommendations for improving ERP adoption …

Design And Performance Analysis Of Fiber Bragg Grating Temperature Sensor For Industrial Processes Sensing Applications, Paul Stone Stone Brown Macheso S.B.

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor has become a widespread sensing device because of its small size, passive design, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and direct ability to measure physical properties like temperature and strain. Recently, femtosecond infrared laser processing and regeneration techniques have resulted in the development of stable high-temperature gratings, which are a powerful tool in smart factories, an aspect of the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and show promise for application in harsh environments like high pressure, high temperature, or ionizing radiation. The development of stable high-temperature gratings that can withstand harsh environmental factors like high temperatures, pressures, and …

Development Of Fuzzy Ontology For Explainable Artificial Intelligence For Decision-Making In Fuzzy Environment, Pavel Kosov

Chemical Technology, Control and Management

In modern artificial intelligence systems, there is an acute need to understand the decision-making logic of "black box" algorithms. Our research proposes an innovative method for increasing the transparency of such systems through the formalization of fuzzy explanatory mechanisms. We have developed an extension of existing ontological approaches by introducing the concept of fuzziness into the structure of explanatory properties, which allows overcoming the fundamental limitations of traditional XAI methods. The proposed formalization is based on the theory of collective mental models and principles of fuzzy logic, providing a more accurate reflection of uncertainty and subjectivity in expert knowledge. Our …

The Attitudes And Perspectives Of Laboratory Professionals On The Use Of Machine Learning Combined With Maldi For Viral Identification: A Qualitative Study, Grace Johnson

Honors Projects

The use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) with machine learning (ML) has been proposed by numerous studies as a novel approach for viral identification. However, the development and implementation of this instrumentation is still in its early stages, and laboratory professionals' perspectives on its feasibility, accuracy, implementation, and effect on current laboratory operating procedures remain underexplored.

This study aimed to investigate laboratory professionals’ attitudes and opinions regarding the use of MALDI-TOF-MS coupled with machine learning for viral identification, focusing on perceived benefits, barriers, and factors that would affect participants’ opinions on implementation.

A qualitative descriptive research …

The Role Of Ai In Risk Management: Benefits, Challenges, And Adoption Strategies, Lukas Ludwig

Honors Projects in Information Systems and Analytics

This study explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in risk management, focusing on its integration within business operations. The primary objective of this research is to examine both the potential benefits and associated risks of adopting AI technologies, with a specific emphasis on data security, ethical concerns, and governance. A mixed methodology was employed, combining a comprehensive literature review on AI's applications and limitations with qualitative interviews conducted with professionals from various industries, including risk management, higher education, and IT development. The findings highlight key challenges in AI adoption, such as data privacy issues, bias in AI algorithms, and …

Using Generative Artificial Intelligence To Improve Software-Defined Network Security: A Brief Survey, Anthony Smith

Honors Theses

This paper aims to explore various approaches to using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to improve network security in software-defined networking. While software-defined networks provide a more programmable infrastructure, they are not immune to network security threats. Through a combination of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies and generative AI, it is possible to facilitate improved SDN security approaches that promise enhanced network efficiency and protection. Among these approaches, generative adversarial networks (GAN) based models can be employed to generate adversarial traffic samples to train the proposed AI engines proven to be effective in detecting malicious network traffic. Additionally, generative artificial intelligence can …

Digital Thread: Bridging Macro–Micro Services In System-Of-Systems, Joshit Mohanty

Graduate Student Government Association Research Conference

Organizations and industries increasingly rely on distributed services in decentralized environments—ranging from large-scale, system-of-system architectures to fine-grained, agent-based microservices. While this distributed paradigm offers flexibility and innovation, it presents critical challenges such as interoperability gaps, inconsistent data formats, and a lack of holistic oversight. Traditional integration approaches, including ad-hoc middleware or enterprise service buses, tend to solve these issues reactively. As a result, technical debt accumulates, stakeholder misalignments persist, and scaling to new demands becomes complex.

This research proposes digital thread (DT) as the unifying framework to create an authoritative source of truth: a continuous flow of information across the …

Meta-Clustering For Specialized Language Models: Enhancing Contextual Adaptation And Mitigating Hallucinations In Diverse Healthcare Environments, Joshit Mohanty, Vaishali Vaishali, Sandeep Kumar Nayak, Sumit Lahiri

Graduate Student Government Association Research Conference

Large Language Models (LLMs) have significantly advanced conversational AI by enabling dialogic information-seeking and task execution across diverse domains. However, their extensive parameters and broad domain scope lead to “data hallucinations.” These shortcomings are particularly evident in dynamic and diverse environments like India’s healthcare sector, where myriad languages, regional practices, and cultural nuances demand specialized, localized expertise rather than one-size-fits-all generalist models. This paper introduces a meta-clustering framework that integrates Distilled Language Models (DLMs) and Small/Specialized Language Models (SLMs) with meta-learning principles to address these limitations. By drawing on evidence from works such as MedHalu and Med-HALT, the framework seeks …

Tamos: Task-Aware Multi-Agent Orchestrator System, Joshit Mohanty, Sandeep Kumar Nayak, Sumit Lahiri

Graduate Student Government Association Research Conference

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly at the core of multi-agent systems (MAS). However, the high resource demand, error propagation, and lack of adaptive evaluation mechanisms pose significant challenges in deploying these agentic solutions at scale. To address these concerns, this research proposes a Task-Aware Multi-Agent Orchestrator System designed to refine the agentic framework, categorizing tasks autonomously, assigning specialized evaluation datasets, and balancing token usage against functional effectiveness. This approach underscores robust data management, including AsyncHow, Mosaic AI, and Synthetic Preference Optimization (PO) corpora. Each dataset targets specific dimensions of agent performance, such as dynamic task decomposition and tool integration …