Other Computer Sciences Commons^™

Using Ai For Qualitative Labeling: Consistency And Comparisons, James Mcintyre

Honors Program Theses

This paper details a research study evaluating AI's ability to perform qualitative deductive coding. Multiple AI models were utilized and compared against three human coders and one expert coder. A series of 107 statements were sourced from a group discussion for a qualitative impact assessment of an organization. The AI models were provided these statements and directed to code them using the Community Capitals Framework. Two generations of AI models were evaluated. Overall, the AI achieved a fair level of agreement with the human annotators, but the alignment was far from perfect. Newer AI models did not increase agreement with …

The Impact Of Dissolved Organic Matter On Photodegradation Rates, Byproduct Formations, And Degradation Pathways For Two Neonicotinoid Insecticides In Simulated River Waters, Josephus F. Borsuah, Tiffany L. Messer, Daniel D. Snow, Steven D. Comfort, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt

UK CARES Faculty Publications

The influences of dissolved organic matter (DOM) on neonicotinoid photochemical degradation and product formation in natural waters remain unclear, potentially impacting the sustainability of river systems. Therefore, our overall objective was to investigate the photodegradation mechanisms and phototransformation byproducts of two neonicotinoid pesticides, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, under simulated sunlight at the microcosm scale, to assess the implications of DOM for insecticide degradation in rivers. Direct and indirect photolysis were investigated using twelve water matrices to identify possible reaction pathways with two DOM sources and three quenching agents. Imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and potential degradants were measured, and reaction pathways identified. The photodegradation …

(Meta-)Physical Artworks: Digital Augmentation In Art Observation, Macy A. Toppan

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Augmented art— the subgenre of art that incorporates physical and digital artwork— is a rapidly growing field driven by advancing technology and a new generation for whom that tech is a given. Yet the presence of media like augmented and virtual reality in exhibition remains a controversial subject. Rather than focusing on the many theoretical debates about whether digital pieces can qualify as "good" art, we study it in practice through the eyes of the casual art observer. This paper highlights the audience in a within-participant study that asked viewers to take in a physical sculpture intentionally built with virtual …

Reducing Uncertainty In Sea-Level Rise Prediction: A Spatial-Variability-Aware Approach, Subhankar Ghosh, Shuai An, Arun Sharma, Jayant Gupta, Shashi Shekhar, Aneesh Subramanian

I-GUIDE Forum

Given multi-model ensemble climate projections, the goal is to accurately and reliably predict future sea-level rise while lowering the uncertainty. This problem is important because sea-level rise affects millions of people in coastal communities and beyond due to climate change's impacts on polar ice sheets and the ocean. This problem is challenging due to spatial variability and unknowns such as possible tipping points (e.g., collapse of Greenland or West Antarctic ice-shelf), climate feedback loops (e.g., clouds, permafrost thawing), future policy decisions, and human actions. Most existing climate modeling approaches use the same set of weights globally, during either regression or …

All Hands On Deck: Choosing Virtual End Effector Representations To Improve Near Field Object Manipulation Interactions In Extended Reality, Roshan Venkatakrishnan

All Dissertations

Extended reality, or "XR", is the adopted umbrella term that is heavily gaining traction to collectively describe Virtual reality (VR), Augmented reality (AR), and Mixed reality (MR) technologies. Together, these technologies extend the reality that we experience either by creating a fully immersive experience like in VR or by blending in the virtual and "real" worlds like in AR and MR.

The sustained success of XR in the workplace largely hinges on its ability to facilitate efficient user interactions. Similar to interacting with objects in the real world, users in XR typically interact with virtual integrants like objects, menus, windows, …

The Effects Of Primary And Secondary Task Workloads On Cybersickness In Immersive Virtual Active Exploration Experiences, Rohith Venkatakrishnan

All Dissertations

Virtual reality (VR) technology promises to transform humanity. The technology enables users to explore and interact with computer-generated environments that can be simulated to approximate or deviate from reality. This creates an endless number of ways to propitiously apply the technology in our lives. It follows that large technological conglomerates are pushing for the widespread adoption of VR, financing the creation of the Metaverse - a hypothetical representation of the next iteration of the internet.

Even with VR technology's continuous growth, its widespread adoption remains long overdue. This can largely be attributed to an affliction called cybersickness, an analog to …

The Locals Casino As A Social Network – Can An Interconnected Community Of Players Detect Differences In Hold?, Jason D. Fiege, Anastasia (Stasi) D. Baran

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract

It is difficult for individual players to detect differences in theoretical hold between slot machines without playing an unrealistically large number of games. This difficulty occurs because the fractional loss incurred by a player converges only slowly to the theoretical hold in the presence of volatility designed into slot pay tables. Nevertheless, many operators believe that players can detect changes in hold or differences compared to competition, especially in a locals casino market, and therefore resist increasing holds. Instead of investigating whether individual players can detect differences in hold, we ask whether a population of casino regulars who share …

Creating Project Contrast: A Video Game Exploring Consciousness And Qualia, Pierce Papke

Honors Projects

Project Contrast is a video game that explores how the unique traits inherent to video games might engage reflective player responses to qualitative experience. Project Contrast does this through suspension of disbelief, avatar projection, presence, player agency in storytelling, visual perception, functional gameplay, and art. Considering the difficulty in researching qualitative experience due to its subjectivity and circular explanations, I created Project Contrast not to analyze qualia, though that was my original hope. I instead created Project Contrast as an avenue for player self-reflection and learning about qualitative experience. While video games might be just code and art on a …

Analyzing Motivation And Sense Of Belonging Belonging In Cs1 Review Sessions, Cory Longenecker

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

The Computer Science Department at James Madison University has a Teaching Assistant program which aims to help students succeed in early-level Computer Science courses. Part of this program is a review session, the Fourth Hour, which provides students extra help on the concepts taught each week in class. Historically, attendance at this review session has been low. Because of this, the study aimed to increase attendance by motivating students through interventions, primarily offering quiz retakes to students who attended. Additionally, this study looked at the reported sense of belonging for participants who attended.

We made three conclusions from survey data …

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Caitlyn Aldersea, Justin Bravo, Sam Allen, Anna Block, Connor Block, Emma Buechler, Maria De Los Angeles Bustillos, Arianna Carlson, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Noah Craver, Kate Dillon, Muskan Fatima, Angel Fernandes, Emma Finch, Colleen Cassidy, Amy Fishman, Andrea Francis, Stacia Fritz, Simran Gill, Emma Gries, Rylie Hansen, Shannon Powers, Jacqueline Martinez, Zachary Harker, Ashley Hasty, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Kathleen Hopps, Adelaide Kerenick, Colin Kleckner, Ci Koehring, Elijah Kruger, Braden Krumholz, Maddie Leake, Lyneé Alves, Seraphina Loukas, Yatzari Lozano Vazquez, Haley Maki, Emily Martinez, Sierra Mckinney, Audrey Mitchell, Kipling Newman, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Andrew Nguyen, Stevie Ostman, Casandra Pearson, Alexandra Penney, Julia Gielczynski, Tyler Ball, Anna Rini, Christina Rorres, Simon Ruland, Helayna Schafer, Emma Sellers, Sarah Schuller, Claire Shaver, Kevin Summers, Isabella Shaw, Madison Sinar, Claudia Pena, Apshara Siwakoti, Carter Sorensen, Madi Sousa, Anna Sparling, Alexandra Revier, Brandon Thierry, Dylan Tyree, Maggie Williams, Lauren Wols

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

DU Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works

Predicting The Pebcak: A Quantitative Analysis Of How Cybersecurity Education, Literacy, And Awareness Affect Individual Preparedness., Annie Goodman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This essay explores the relationship between individuals' cybersecurity education, literacy, awareness, and preparedness. While cybersecurity is often associated with complex hacking scenarios, the majority of data breaches and cyber-attacks result from individuals inadvertently falling prey to phishing emails and malware. The lack of standardized education and training in cybersecurity, coupled with the rapid expansion of technology diversity, raises concerns about individuals' cybersecurity preparedness. As individuals are the first line of defense and the weakest link in cybersecurity, understanding the influence of education, literacy, and awareness on their adherence to best practices is crucial. This work aims to survey a diverse …

Counterventions: A Reparative Reflection On Interventionist Hci, Rua Mae Williams, Louanne E. Boyd, Juan E. Gilbert

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Research in HCI applied to clinical interventions relies on normative assumptions about which bodies and minds are healthy, valuable, and desirable. To disrupt this normalizing drive in HCI, we define a “counterventional approach” to intervention technology design informed by critical scholarship and community perspectives. This approach is meant to unsettle normative assumptions of intervention as urgent, necessary, and curative. We begin with a historical overview of intervention in HCI and its critics. Then, through reparative readings of past HCI projects in autism intervention, we illustrate the emergent principles of a counterventional approach and how it may manifest research outcomes that …

A Graphical User Interface Using Spatiotemporal Interpolation To Determine Fine Particulate Matter Values In The United States, Kelly M. Entrekin

Honors College Theses

Fine particulate matter or PM2.5 can be described as a pollution particle that has a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. These pollution particle values are measured by monitoring sites installed across the United States throughout the year. While these values are helpful, a lot of areas are not accounted for as scientists are not able to measure all of the United States. Some of these unmeasured regions could be reaching high PM2.5 values over time without being aware of it. These high values can be dangerous by causing or worsening health conditions, such as cardiovascular and lung diseases. Within …

Chatgpt As Metamorphosis Designer For The Future Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai): A Conceptual Investigation, Amarjit Kumar Singh (Library Assistant), Dr. Pankaj Mathur (Deputy Librarian)

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore ChatGPT’s potential as an innovative designer tool for the future development of artificial intelligence. Specifically, this conceptual investigation aims to analyze ChatGPT’s capabilities as a tool for designing and developing near about human intelligent systems for futuristic used and developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Also with the helps of this paper, researchers are analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT as a tool, and identify possible areas for improvement in its development and implementation. This investigation focused on the various features and functions of ChatGPT that …

Robots Still Outnumber Humans In Web Archives In 2019, But Less Than In 2012, Himarsha R. Jayanetti, Kritika Garg, Sawood Alam, Michael L. Nelson, Michele C. Weigle

College of Sciences Posters

To identify robots and human users in web archives, we conducted a study using the access logs from the Internet Archive’s (IA) Wayback Machine in 2012 (IA2012), 2015 (IA2015), and 2019 (IA2019), and the Portuguese Web Archive (PT) in 2019 (PT2019). We identified user sessions in the access logs and classified them as human or robot based on their browsing behavior. In 2013, AlNoamany et al. [1] studied the user access patterns using IA access logs from 2012. They established four web archive user access patterns: single-page access (Dip), access to the same page at multiple archive times (Dive), access …

A Novel Parking Management In Smart City Vehicular Datacenters, Syed Rizvi, Susan Zehra, Steven Olariu

College of Sciences Posters

Researchers have shown that most vehicles spend the majority of their time parked in parking garages, lots, or driveways. During this time, their computing resources are unused and untapped. This has led to substantial interest in Vehicular Cloud, an area of research in which each vehicle acts as a computation node. The main difference between traditional cloud computing and vehicular cloud computing is the availability of nodes. In traditional clouds, nodes are available 24/7, while in vehicular clouds, nodes (vehicles) are only available while parked in parking lots. This creates a dynamic environment as vehicles enter and exit parking garages …

Murder On The Vr Express: Studying The Impact Of Thought Experiments At A Distance In Virtual Reality, Andrew Kissel, Krzysztof J. Rechowicz, John B. Shull

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Hypothetical thought experiments allow researchers to gain insights into widespread moral intuitions and provide opportunities for individuals to explore their moral commitments. Previous thought experiment studies in virtual reality (VR) required participants to come to an on-site laboratory, which possibly restricted the study population, introduced an observer effect, and made internal reflection on the participants’ part more difficult. These shortcomings are particularly crucial today, as results from such studies are increasingly impacting the development of artificial intelligence systems, self-driving cars, and other technologies. This paper explores the viability of deploying thought experiments in commercially available in-home VR headsets. We conducted …

Towards Explaining Variation In Entrainment, Andreas Weise

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Entrainment refers to the tendency of human speakers to adapt to their interlocutors to become more similar to them. This affects various dimensions and occurs in many contexts, allowing for rich applications in human-computer interaction. However, it is not exhibited by every speaker in every conversation but varies widely across features, speakers, and contexts, hindering broad application. This variation, whose guiding principles are poorly understood even after decades of entrainment research, is the subject of this thesis. We begin with a comprehensive literature review that serves as the foundation of our own work and provides a reference to guide future …

Automated Identification Of Astronauts On Board The International Space Station: A Case Study In Space Archaeology, Rao Hamza Ali, Amir Kanan Kashefi, Alice C. Gorman, Justin St. P. Walsh, Erik J. Linstead

Art Faculty Articles and Research

We develop and apply a deep learning-based computer vision pipeline to automatically identify crew members in archival photographic imagery taken on-board the International Space Station. Our approach is able to quickly tag thousands of images from public and private photo repositories without human supervision with high degrees of accuracy, including photographs where crew faces are partially obscured. Using the results of our pipeline, we carry out a large-scale network analysis of the crew, using the imagery data to provide novel insights into the social interactions among crew during their missions.

Evaluating Privacy Adaptation Presentation Methods To Support Social Media Users In Their Privacy-Related Decision-Making Process, Moses Namara

All Dissertations

Several privacy scholars have advocated for user-tailored privacy (UTP). A privacy-enhancing adaptive privacy approach to help reconcile users' lack of awareness, privacy management skills and motivation to use available platform privacy features with their need for personalized privacy support in alignment with their privacy preferences. The idea behind UTP is to measure users' privacy characteristics and behaviors, use these measurements to create a personalized model of the user's privacy preferences, and then provide adaptive support to the user in navigating and engaging with the available privacy settings---or even implement certain settings automatically on the user's behalf. To this end, most …

The Message Design Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark On The Atari 2600 & A Fan’S Map, Quick Start, And Strategy Guide, Miguel Ramlatchan, William I. Ramlatchan

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

The message design and human performance technology in video games, especially early video games have always been fascinating to me. From an instructional design perspective, the capabilities of the technology of the classic game consoles required a careful balance of achievable objectives, cognitive task analysis, guided problem solving, and message design. Raiders on the Atari is an excellent example of this balance. It is an epic adventure game, spanning 13+ distinct areas, with an inventory of items, where those hard to find items had to be used by the player to solve problems during their quest (and who would have …

Legislative Language For Success, Sanjana Gundala

Master's Theses

Legislative committee meetings are an integral part of the lawmaking process for local and state bills. The testimony presented during these meetings is a large factor in the outcome of the proposed bill. This research uses Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques to analyze testimonies from California Legislative committee meetings from 2015-2016 in order to identify what aspects of a testimony makes it successful. A testimony is considered successful if the alignment of the testimony matches the bill outcome (alignment is "For" and the bill passes or alignment is "Against" and the bill fails). The process of finding what …

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

Mapping The Covid-19 Pandemic In Staten Island, Vincenzo Mezzio

Student Theses

COVID-19 has had diverging effects in New York City. Out of the five boroughs, Staten Island has one of the largest percentages of COVID-19 cases relative to population. This research examines key social and spatial factors that contribute to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Staten Island). It asks: Which parts of Staten Island have higher rates of transmission of COVID-19? Which parts of the borough have higher population who are more vulnerable to COVID-19? What is the relationship between the location of vaccination centers with the rates of COVID-19 cases? Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this research examines the …

Jlootbox: An Agent-Based Model Of Social Influence And Gambling In Online Video Games, Lila Zayed

Honors Capstones

Loot boxes are digital treasure chests that players spend real money to purchase, wherein the contents are randomly generated. Since players spend money on the pretense they might receive something valuable, many comparisons have been drawn to gambling behavior as the reward is up to chance. To explore this phenomenon, agent-based modeling will be used to simulate this behavior. Agent-based modeling allows us to create heterogenous agents who follow simple rules so that we may observe emergent behavior in a population. An agent-based model was created using Repast Simphony for this end.

Parameters included the player’s internal decision strategy around …

Twitter's Role In An Increasingly Polarized Political Climate; A Look Into The 2020 Us Elections, Leanne Kendall

Honors Projects in Data Science

Amidst politically strained times, one might wonder what has cause such an exaggerated gap between the views of democrats and republicans. For years, research has suggested the US’s voting population is becoming increasingly politically polarized, with one of the causes being social media. This study's purpose is to understand more about the role that social media plays in the polarization of parties in the US. The study is comprised of the analysis of over 3,000,000 tweets from 9/22/2020 through 11/10/2020 that mention or are written by senate and presidential candidates. Natural language processing, network graphing, and sentiment analyses were utilized …

Considering The Context To Build Theory In Hci, Hri, And Hmc: Explicating Differences In Processes Of Communication And Socialization With Social Technologies, Andrew Gambino, Bingjie Liu

Human-Machine Communication

The proliferation and integration of social technologies has occurred quickly, and the specific technologies with which we engage are ever-changing. The dynamic nature of the development and use of social technologies is often acknowledged by researchers as a limitation. In this manuscript, however, we present a discussion on the implications of our modern technological context by focusing on processes of socialization and communication that are fundamentally different from their interpersonal corollary. These are presented and discussed with the goal of providing theoretical building blocks toward a more robust understanding of phenomena of human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, human-machine communication, and interpersonal …

Autonomous, Long-Range, Sensor Emplacement Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Adam Plowcha, Justin Bradley, Jacob Hoberg, Thomas Ammon, Mark Nail, Brittany Duncan, Carrick Detweiler

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Automated, in-ground sensor emplacement can significantly improve remote, terrestrial, data collection capabilities. Utilizing a multicopter, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for this purpose allows sensor insertion with minimal disturbance to the target site or surrounding area. However, developing an emplacement mechanism for a small multicopter, autonomy to manage the target selection and implantation process, as well as long-range deployment are challenging to address. We have developed an autonomous, multicopter UAS that can implant subsurface sensor devices. We enhanced the UAS autopilot with autonomy for target and landing zone selection, as well as ensuring the sensor is implanted properly in the ground. …

Campus Mobile History Application, Drew Adan, Christine Sears

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

Timestamp Estimation From Outdoor Scenes, Tawfiq Salem, Jisoo Hwang, Rafael Padilha

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The increasing availability of smartphones allowed people to easily capture and share images on the internet. These images are often associated with metadata, including the image capture time (timestamp) and the location where the image was captured (geolocation). The metadata associated with images provides valuable information to better understand scenes and events presented in these images. The timestamp can be manipulated intentionally to provide false information to convey a twisted version of reality. Images with manipulated timestamps are often used as a cover-up for wrongdoing or broadcasting false claims and competing views on the internet. Estimating the time of capture …