Other Computer Sciences Commons^™

Low-Energy Acceleration Of Binarized Convolutional Neural Networks Using A Spin Hall Effect Based Logic-In-Memory Architecture, Ashkan Samiee, Payal Borulkar, Ronald F. Demara, Peiyi Zhao, Yu Bai

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Deep Learning (DL) offers the advantages of high accuracy performance at tasks such as image recognition, learning of complex intelligent behaviors, and large-scale information retrieval problems such as intelligent web search. To attain the benefits of DL, the high computational and energy-consumption demands imposed by the underlying processing, interconnect, and memory devices on which software-based DL executes can benefit substantially from innovative hardware implementations. Logic-in-Memory (LIM) architectures offer potential approaches to attaining such throughput goals within area and energy constraints starting with the lowest layers of the hardware stack. In this paper, we develop a Spintronic Logic-in-Memory (S-LIM) XNOR neural …

Nitrogenase Iron Protein Detection Using Neural Network, Ishan Shinde

Master's Projects

Nitrogenase Iron Protein (nifH) is the enzyme responsible for nitrogen fixation. Microbes with nifH gene are responsible for injecting reduced nitrogen into the biosphere, which is essential for all living things. Obtaining sequences from GenBank database is problematic due to annotation errors, nomenclature variation and paralogues. One possible solution could be to retrieve sequences from the GenBank database and use a sequence classifier to label the sequences. In this research, we convert sequences to images and build a nifH sequence classifier using image processing and convolutional neural network. We built a nifH classification model which can classify sequences with an …

The Effects Of Finite Precision On The Simulation Of The Double Pendulum, Rebecca Wild

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

We use mathematics to study physical problems because abstracting the information allows us to better analyze what could happen given any range and combination of parameters. The problem is that for complicated systems mathematical analysis becomes extremely cumbersome. The only effective and reasonable way to study the behavior of such systems is to simulate the event on a computer. However, the fact that the set of floating-point numbers is finite and the fact that they are unevenly distributed over the real number line raises a number of concerns when trying to simulate systems with chaotic behavior. In this research we …

Autonomous Watercraft Simulation And Programming, Nicholas J. Savino

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Automation of various modes of transportation is thought to make travel more safe and efficient. Over the past several decades advances to semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles have led to advanced autopilot systems on planes and boats and an increasing popularity of self-driving cars. We simulated the motion of an autonomous vehicle using computational models. The simulation models the motion of a small-scale watercraft, which can then be built and programmed using an Arduino Microcontroller. We examined different control methods for a simulated rescue craft to reach a target. We also examined the effects of different factors, such as various biases …

Designing Computational Biology Workflows With Perl - Part 1 & 2, Esma Yildirim

Open Educational Resources

This manual guides the instructor to combine the partial files of the virtual machine image and construct sequencer.ova file. It is accompanied by the partial files of the virtual machine image.

Designing Computational Biology Workflows With Perl - Part 2, Esma Yildirim

Open Educational Resources

This material briefly reintroduces the DNA double Helix structure, explains SNP and INDEL mutations in genes and describes FASTA, FASTQ, BAM and VCF file formats. It also explains the index creation, alignment, sorting, marking duplicates and variant calling steps of a simple preprocessing workflow and how to write a Perl script to automate the execution of these steps on a Virtual Machine Image.

Designing Computational Biology Workflows With Perl - Part 1, Esma Yildirim

Open Educational Resources

This material introduces Linux File System structures and demonstrates how to use commands to communicate with the operating system through a Terminal program. Basic program structures and system() function of Perl are discussed. A brief introduction to gene-sequencing terminology and file formats are given.

Designing Computational Biology Workflows With Perl - Part 1, Esma Yildirim

Open Educational Resources

This material introduces the AWS console interface, describes how to create an instance on AWS with the VMI provided, connect to that machine instance using the SSH protocol. Once connected, it requires the students to write a script to enter the data folder, which includes gene-sequencing input files and print the first five line of each file remotely. The same exercise can be applied if the VMI is installed on a local machine using virtualization software (e.g. Oracle VirtualBox). In this case, the Terminal program of the VMI can be used to do the exercise.

Designing Computational Biology Workflows With Perl - Part 2, Esma Yildirim

Open Educational Resources

This material introduces the AWS console interface, describes how to create an instance on AWS with the VMI provided and connect to that machine instance using the SSH protocol. Once connected, it requires the students to write a script to automate the tasks to create VCF files from two different sample genomes belonging to E.coli microorganisms by using the FASTA and FASTQ files in the input folder of the virtual machine. The same exercise can be applied if the VMI is installed on a local machine using virtualization software (e.g. Oracle VirtualBox). In this case, the Terminal program of the …

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 …

Hartree-Fock Implementation For Pedagogical & Research Purposes, Gary Zeri, Jerry Larue

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Often during the process of innovation and scientific advancement, experimentation is the key to increasing the current knowledge of body. Unfortunately, experimentation can often require extended periods of time as well as monetary resources to perform. The use of computational chemistry can increase the rate of scientific advancement by simulating experimental results, allowing researchers to focus on experiments whose computational counterparts show the greatest promise. Students new to the sciences are often not exposed to these methods due to their complexities. The purpose of this project is to implement the Hartree-Fock method, one type of computational chemistry method, whose programming …

Do Misperceptions Of Peer Drinking Influence Personal Drinking Behavior? Results From A Complete Social Network Of First-Year College Students, Melissa J. Cox, Angelo M. Dibello, Matthew K. Meisel, Miles Q. Ott, Shannon R. Kenney, Melissa A. Clark, Nancy P. Barnett

Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications

This study considered the influence of misperceptions of typical versus self-identified important peers' heavy drinking on personal heavy drinking intentions and frequency utilizing data from a complete social network of college students. The study sample included data from 1,313 students (44% male, 57% White, 15% Hispanic/Latinx) collected during the fall and spring semesters of their freshman year. Students provided perceived heavy drinking frequency for a typical student peer and up to 10 identified important peers. Personal past-month heavy drinking frequency was assessed for all participants at both time points. By comparing actual with perceived heavy drinking frequencies, measures of misperceptions …

A Mobile Cyber-Physical System Framework For Aiding People With Visual Impairment, Martin Goldberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It is a challenging problem for researchers and engineers in the assistive technology (AT) community to provide suitable solutions for visually impaired people (VIPs) through AT to meet orientation, navigation and mobility (ONM) needs. Given the spectrum of assistive technologies currently available for the purposes of aiding VIPs with ONM, our literature review and survey have shown that there is a reluctance to adopt these technological solutions in the VIP community.

Motivated by these findings, we think it critical to re-examine and rethink the approaches that have been taken. It is our belief that we need to take a different …

Yelp Improved : Aggregating Restaurant Reviews, Kunal Sonar

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

In the near future, online food delivery service companies would occupy a big market share in the food industry. This project aims to provide factual information from customer reviews as part of the numerous innovations in place to drive business and demands. Natural Language Processing is used to provide a comprehensive view of individual restaurants using technologies like NLTK, SpaCy, Gensim and Sklearn. Data of one million Las Vegas restaurant customer reviews is curated from the Yelp Dataset Challenge. Reviews are pre-processed, split into chunks of phrases and mapped to attributes like food, budget, service etc. These attributes are derived …

Securing Our Future Homes: Smart Home Security Issues And Solutions, Nicholas Romano

Senior Honors Theses

The Internet of Things, commonly known as IoT, is a new technology transforming businesses, individuals’ daily lives and the operation of entire countries. With more and more devices becoming equipped with IoT technology, smart homes are becoming increasingly popular. The components that make up a smart home are at risk for different types of attacks; therefore, security engineers are developing solutions to current problems and are predicting future types of attacks. This paper will analyze IoT smart home components, explain current security risks, and suggest possible solutions. According to “What is a Smart Home” (n.d.), a smart home is a …

Teaching Quantum Computing With Videos, Daniel A. Sabol, Avery Leider, Lewis Westfall, Jack Glinka

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing will likely change our world as we know it today. In bringing together fields such as quantum mechanics, mathematics, and computer science in their construction and application, quantum computers hold a promise of tremendous increase in processing power when compared to present day technology. For an educator, teaching this topic requires that consideration be given to the fact that quantum computing is not only based on hard-to-teach aspects of physics, math, and computing, but that quantum computing itself is still in the early stages of its development. What is certain is that concepts such as Shor’s and Grover’s …

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.

Orca Travel Grant Recipient An Interview With Emily Hoard, Emily Hoard

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

No abstract provided.

Cyanotech: A Strategic Audit, Trent Hoppe

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Microalgae is a fascinating group of organisms that possess a diverse array of interesting traits and benefits relevant to food, medicine, and biofuel. Extensive research behind the viability of microalgae to disrupt the market has sparked an emergent microalgae industry. Founded in 1983, one of the top microalgae companies in the world today is Cyanotech. With a 90-acre algae farm in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and two flagship microalgae products that are world leaders in their categories, Cyanotech is well- positioned be setting the course for the industry and revolutionizing the use microalgae commercially. Despite these favorable attributes, Cyanotech has been trapped …

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 …