Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces Commons^™

A Multimodal Approach To Sarcasm Detection On Social Media, Dipto Das

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In recent times, a major share of human communication takes place online. The main reason being the ease of communication on social networking sites (SNSs). Due to the variety and large number of users, SNSs have drawn the attention of the computer science (CS) community, particularly the affective computing (also known as emotional AI), information retrieval, natural language processing, and data mining groups. Researchers are trying to make computers understand the nuances of human communication including sentiment and sarcasm. Emotion or sentiment detection requires more insights about the communication than it does for factual information retrieval. Sarcasm detection is particularly …

An Introduction To Declarative Programming In Clips And Prolog, Jack L. Watkin, Adam C. Volk, Saverio Perugini

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We provide a brief introduction to CLIPS—a declarative/logic programming language for implementing expert systems—and PROLOG—a declarative/logic programming language based on first-order, predicate calculus. Unlike imperative languages in which the programmer specifies how to compute a solution to a problem, in a declarative language, the programmer specifies what they what to find, and the system uses a search strategy built into the language. We also briefly discuss applications of CLIPS and PROLOG.

Grammar-Based Procedurally Generated Village Creation Tool, Kevin Matthew Graves

Computer Engineering

This project is a 3D village generator tool for Unity. It consists of three components: a building, mountain, and river generator. All of these generators use grammar-based procedural generation in order to create a unique and logical village and landscape each time the program is run.

Grant Anon Minigames Extension, Justin Robbins

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Grant Anon system was designed to be a casualized version of the real-time strategy genre, a genre usually known for its difficulty and competitiveness because of Starcraft II, the most popular game in the genre. Grant Anon was designed as part of a capstone project, and this report details the extension that was created to add an additional element designed to make it easier for any player to enjoy Grant Anon: minigames. These minigames serve to reduce the skill needed to participate effectively in Grant Anon. This is accomplished by providing an alternative means of gaining an advantage over …

A Virtual Reality System For Practicing Conversation Skills For Children With Autism, Natalia Stewart Rosenfield, Kathleen Lamkin, Jennifer Re, Kendra Day, Louanne E. Boyd, Erik J. Linstead

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We describe a virtual reality environment, Bob’s Fish Shop, which provides a system where users diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can practice social interactions in a safe and controlled environment. A case study is presented which suggests such an environment can provide the opportunity for users to build the skills necessary to carry out a conversation without the fear of negative social consequences present in the physical world. Through the repetition and analysis of these virtual interactions, users can improve social and conversational understanding.

3d Procedural Maze & Cave Generation, Jacob Sharp

Student Scholar Showcase

The goal of this project is to generate a maze or cave procedurally so that a player may be able to explore infinitely without a reoccurring pattern. The project also utilizes Virtual Reality (VR); the user will be able to put on a VR Headset and become more immersed in a procedural environment. One of the challenges that needed to be overcome was simple random number generators did not generate natural looking worlds. Introducing VR to the project created the additional challenge of preventing the user from becoming motion sick. These challenges were both addressed through many hours of research …

Exploring The Relationships Of Email Overload, Stress And Burnout In Social Workers, Lisa M. Lowrie

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Technostress is the inability to cope with information and communication technology which may result in stress and burnout. Email overload, stress, and burnout among social workers is a phenomenon that may impact retention in social and human service organizations. This mixed methods design uses the transactional theory of stress as the theoretical framework for measuring the relationship of email overload (email invasion, email volume, and email rapid response extraction) to stress and burnout in the social work workforce. This dissertation also explores the generational cohort, gender, and social work degree as predictors of email overload. Participants in this study were …

Developing A Contemporary And Innovative Operating Systems Course, Saverio Perugini, David J. Wright

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This birds-of-a-feather provides a discussion forum to foster innovation in teaching operating systems (os) at the undergraduate level. This birds-of-a-feather seeks to generate discussion and ideas around pedagogy for os and, in particular, how we might develop a contemporary and innovative model, in both content and delivery, for an os course—that plays a central role in a cs curriculum—and addresses significant issues of misalignment between existing os courses and employee professional skills and knowledge requirements. We would like to exchange ideas regarding a re-conceptualized course model of os curriculum and related pedagogy, especially in the areas of mobile OSs and …

An Interactive, Graphical Simulator For Teaching Operating Systems, Joshua W. Buck, Saverio Perugini

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We demonstrate a graphical simulation tool for visually and interactively exploring the processing of a variety of events handled by an operating system when running a program. Our graphical simulator is available for use on the web by both instructors and students for purposes of pedagogy. Instructors can use it for live demonstrations of course concepts in class, while students can use it outside of class to explore the concepts. The graphical simulation tool is implemented using the React library for the fancy ui elements of the Node.js framework and is available as a web application at https://cpudemo.azurewebsites.net. The goals …

A New Way To Detect Cyberattacks Extracting Changes In Register Values From Radio-Frequency Side Channels, Ronald A. Riley, James T. Graham, Ryan M. Fuller, Rusty O. Baldwin, Ashwin Fisher

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Everything (IoE) have driven processors into nearly every powered de- vice, from thermostats to refrigerators to light bulbs. From a security perspective, the IoT and IoE create a new layer of sig- nals and systems that can provide insight into the internal opera- tions of a device via analog side channels. Our research focuses on leveraging these analog side channels in IoT/IoE processors to detect intrusions. Our goal is to defend against cyberattacks that insert malware into IoT devices by detecting deviations in the code running on their processors from known …

Snap Scholar: The User Experience Of Engaging With Academic Research Through A Tappable Stories Medium, Ieva Burk

CMC Senior Theses

With the shift to learn and consume information through our mobile devices, most academic research is still only presented in long-form text. The Stanford Scholar Initiative has explored the segment of content creation and consumption of academic research through video. However, there has been another popular shift in presenting information from various social media platforms and media outlets in the past few years. Snapchat and Instagram have introduced the concept of tappable “Stories” that have gained popularity in the realm of content consumption.

To accelerate the growth of the creation of these research talks, I propose an alternative to video: …

Predicting Public Opinion On Drug Legalization: Social Media Analysis And Consumption Trends, Farahnaz Golrooy Motlagh, Saeedeh Shekarpour, Amit Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Michael L. Raymer

Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this paper, we focus on the collection and analysis of relevant Twitter data on a state-by-state basis for (i) measuring public opinion on marijuana legalization by mining sentiment in Twitter data and (ii) determining the usage trends for six distinct types of marijuana. We overcome the challenges posed by the informal and ungrammatical nature of tweets to analyze a corpus of 306,835 relevant tweets collected over the four-month period, preceding the November 2015 Ohio Marijuana Legalization ballot and the four months after the election for all states in the US. Our analysis revealed two key insights: (i) the people …

Reachability Analysis For Neural Feedback Systems Using Regressive Polynomial Rule Inference, Souradeep Dutta, Xin Chen, Sriram Sankaranarayanan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present an approach to construct reachable set overapproxi- mations for continuous-time dynamical systems controlled using neural network feedback systems. Feedforward deep neural net- works are now widely used as a means for learning control laws through techniques such as reinforcement learning and data-driven predictive control. However, the learning algorithms for these net- works do not guarantee correctness properties on the resulting closed-loop systems. Our approach seeks to construct overapproxi- mate reachable sets by integrating a Taylor model-based flowpipe construction scheme for continuous differential equations with an approach that replaces the neural network feedback law for a small subset of …

A Critical Review Of Current Approaches And Practices In Computing Ethics Education, Sophia Farquhar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Recent scandals caused by the results of negligent, malicious, or shortsighted software development practices highlight the need for software developers to consider the ethical implications of their work. Computing ethics has historically been a marginalized area within computing disciplines, so educators in these disciplines do not have a common background for teaching the topic. Computing ethics education, although often a required part of coursework, can vary widely in the method of implementation from university to university.

In this report I summarize the insights I gained from interviewing four educators from three different institutions on their pedagogical approaches to computing ethics. …

Queue: A Mobile Application For Collaborative Music Playlists, Vlad Mirea

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper focuses on the design and development of the mobile application “Queue”. Queue is an app for creating music playlists that anyone can add songs to while a host controls playback. The app connects to music streaming services such as Spotify to allow users access to their favorite songs while providing functionality not found in those services.

We Have Always Been Virtual: Gilles Deleuze And The Computer-Generated Image, Hugh Mccabe

Conference papers

The use of computer-generated imagery is becoming increasingly ubiquitous across many fields including media, advertising, architecture and art. This represents a fundamental shift within visual culture, as imagery can now be produced routinely by means of rendering algorithms based on spatial representations. We propose that the account of the image provided by Gilles Deleuze in his books on cinema provides a rich philosophical framework for understanding such contemporary imaging practices. By providing a Deleuzian reading of James Kajiya's 1986 rendering equation we argue that there is a tacit ontology of the image underwriting both Deleuze’s work on cinema and current …

Mobile Application: Peril, Michael Prough

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In today’s world, phones and computers are widely used for various purposes, whether it would be using social media or using it for work. As they have become more popular, these devices have improved and continue to evolve, and as such, they have a wider range of uses. One such popular use of these devices is for entertainment, which includes watching content online or playing video games. With the rise of entertainment applications, I decided that I should learn how to make these applications. I ultimately decided on creating a video game for android systems which incorporated features from platformer …

Project Management Madness: 3 Key Programs For Communication, Personal Tasks And Large Projects, Rachel S. Evans

Presentations

No matter what member of a team you are, be it content editor, web designer, database manager or systems administrator, getting things done and meeting goals depends largely on how you communicate with one another, handle your time and effectively collaborate on small and big projects. This session will use our own team's preferred platforms to show specific examples of how we are managing our taskflow across three different programs to tackle business as usual, short and long term work, and major special projects.

The three programs that will be compared for pros, cons, and their integration with one another …

The Design Of An Emerging/Multi-Paradigm Programming Languages Course, Saverio Perugini

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present the design of a new special topics course, Emerging/Multi-paradigm Languages, on the recent trend toward more dynamic, multi-paradigm languages. To foster course adoption, we discuss the design of the course, which includes language presentations/papers and culminating, ��inal projects/papers. The goal of this article is to inspire and facilitate course adoption.

Developing A Contemporary Operating Systems Course, Saverio Perugini, David J. Wright

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The objective of this tutorial presentation is to foster innovation in the teaching of operating systems (os) at the undergraduate level as part of a three-year NSF-funded IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education) project titled “Engaged Student Learning: Reconceptualizing and Evaluating a Core Computer Science Course for Active Learning and STEM Student Success” (2017–2020).

An Application Of The Actor Model Of Concurrency In Python: A Euclidean Rhythm Music Sequencer, Daniel P. Prince, Saverio Perugini

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present a real-time sequencer, implementing the Euclidean rhythm algorithm, for creative generation of drum sequences by musicians or producers. We use the Actor model of concurrency to simplify the communication required for interactivity and musical timing, and generator comprehensions and higher-order functions to simplify the implementation of the Euclidean rhythm algorithm. The resulting application sends Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data interactively to another application for sound generation.

Chameleon: A Customizable Language For Teaching Programming Languages, Saverio Perugini, Jack L. Watkin

Computer Science Faculty Publications

ChAmElEoN is a programming language for teaching students the concepts and implementation of computer languages. We describe its syntax and semantics, the educational aspects involved in the implementation of a variety of interpreters for it, its malleability, and student feedback to inspire its use for teaching languages.

Topographic Maps: Image Processing And Path-Finding, Calin Washington

Master's Theses

Topographic maps are an invaluable tool for planning routes through unfamiliar terrain. However, accurately planning routes on topographic maps is a time- consuming and error-prone task. One factor is the difficulty of interpreting the map itself, which requires prior knowledge and practice. Another factor is the difficulty of making choices between possible routes that have different trade-offs between length and the terrain they traverse.

To alleviate these difficulties, this thesis presents a system to automate the process of finding routes on scanned images of topographic maps. The system allows users to select any two points on a topographic map and …

Improving Swarm Performance By Applying Machine Learning To A New Dynamic Survey, John Taylor Jackson

Master's Theses

A company, Unanimous AI, has created a software platform that allows individuals to come together as a group or a human swarm to make decisions. These human swarms amplify the decision-making capabilities of both the individuals and the group. One way Unanimous AI increases the swarm’s collective decision-making capabilities is by limiting the swarm to more informed individuals on the given topic. The previous way Unanimous AI selected users to enter the swarm was improved upon by a new methodology that is detailed in this study. This new methodology implements a new type of survey that collects data that is …

An Investigation Of Scenic Visualization Using Virtual Reality During Rehearsal, Cyrus Jian Bonyadi

Computer Science

In this paper, we discuss the use of virtual reality as a tool for actors during the rehearsal process and assess methods to implement and continue this research in future works. During the rehearsal process, the scenic design is normally introduced to actors close to the end of rehearsals. In introducing a virtual reality environment to train actors, we hoped to help them develop a better understanding of the design at an earlier point in the process. Our investigative pilot study involves two productions in a university theatre, where we render the scenic design of the production for which our …

Survey Of Techniques For Producing Blended Images: A Case Study Using Rollins College Archives, Hannah Holman

Computer Science

The Rollins College Archives are a treasure trove of historic resources relating to the college’s history, and they are often underutilized or overlooked by both the student body and the surrounding community. In particular, historic resources are all too often excluded from work in computer science and related fields. This project aims to bridge that gap by bringing the two areas together. To that end, the goal of this project is to merge past and present by blending historic photos with input of a present day scene in order to reveal changes and juxtapositions of the same scene across eras. …

Natural Language, Mixed-Initiative Personal Assistant Agents, Joshua W. Buck, Saverio Perugini, Tam W. Nguyen

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The increasing popularity and use of personal voice assistant technologies, such as Siri and Google Now, is driving and expanding progress toward the long-term and lofty goal of using artificial intelligence to build human-computer dialog systems capable of understanding natural language. While dialog-based systems such as Siri support utterances communicated through natural language, they are limited in the flexibility they afford to the user in interacting with the system and, thus, support primarily action-requesting and information-seeking tasks. Mixed-initiative interaction, on the other hand, is a flexible interaction technique where the user and the system act as equal participants in an …

The Official Rulebook For Choice In Video Games: An Examination Of Choice In Modern Narrative Games, Tyler Paulley

Undergraduate Theses

Film, drama, and novels are each capable of telling stories in a specialized way. This thesis makes the claim that video games are the newest means of storytelling and that they can tell stories in unique and engaging ways by using choice. The first goal of this thesis is to determine how and why choice is being used by game developers by examining several modern narrative games. After this examination, it is determined that the increase of choice-driven and narrative games have had an impact on the expectations of players, the goals of video games, and on game culture itself. …

An Efficient Image Segmentation Algorithm Using Neutrosophic Graph Cut, Florentin Smarandache, Yanhui Guo, Yaman Akbulut, Abdulkadir Sengur, Rong Xia

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Segmentation is considered as an important step in image processing and computer vision applications, which divides an input image into various non-overlapping homogenous regions and helps to interpret the image more conveniently. This paper presents an efficient image segmentation algorithm using neutrosophic graph cut (NGC). An image is presented in neutrosophic set, and an indeterminacy filter is constructed using the indeterminacy value of the input image, which is defined by combining the spatial information and intensity information. The indeterminacy filter reduces the indeterminacy of the spatial and intensity information. A graph is defined on the image and the weight for …

Card Tricks: A Workflow For Scalability And Dynamic Content Creation Using Paper2d And Unreal Engine 4, Owen Gottlieb, Dakota Herold, Edward Amidon

Presentations and other scholarship

In this paper, we describe the design and technological methods of

our dynamic sprite system in Lost & Found, a table-top-to-mobile

card game designed to improve literacy regarding prosocial

aspects of religious legal systems, specifically, collaboration and

cooperation. Harnessing the capabilities of Unreal Engine’s

Paper2D system, we created a dynamic content creation pipeline

that empowered our game designers so that they could rapidly

iterate on the game’s systems and balance externally from the

engine. Utilizing the Unreal Blueprint component system we were

also able to modularize each actor during runtime as data may be

changed. The technological approach behind Lost …