Other Computer Sciences Commons^™

Characterizing Conflict In Wikipedia, Nathaniel Miller

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Wikipedia serves as the Internet's most widely viewed reference. In order to ensure its success, editors who create and maintain articles must resolve conflicts over appropriate article content. Previous research has measured Wikipedia conflict at two levels: single articles and categories of pages. I observe conflicts within small groups of articles, identifying their frequency, size, and intensity. Additionally, I identify individual conflicts spanning multiple articles and effects of conflict upon users' editing habits. I analyze cross-article conflict in three stages. First, I cluster a group of 1.4 million Wikipedia articles. Next, I find individual user conflicts within each article cluster …

Sensing Through The Continent: Towards Monitoring Migratory Birds Using Cellular Sensor Networks, David Anthony, William P. Bennett, Mehmet C. Vuran, Matthew B. Dwyer, Sebastian Elbaum, Anne Lacy, Mike Engels, Walter Wehtje

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

This paper presents CraneTracker, a novel sensor platform for monitoring migratory birds. The platform is designed to monitor Whooping Cranes, an endangered species that conducts an annual migration of 4, 000 km between southern Texas and north-central Canada. CraneTracker includes a rich set of sensors, a multi-modal radio, and power control circuitry for sustainable, continental-scale information delivery during migration. The need for large-scale connectivity motivates the use of cellular technology in low-cost sensor platforms augmented by a low-power transceiver for ad-hoc connectivity. This platform leads to a new class of cellular sensor networks (CSNs) for time-critical and mobile sensing applications. …

Measurement And Modeling Of Passive Surface Mount Devices On Fr4 Substrates, Rahulkumar Sadanand Koche

Dissertations and Theses

Passive components like resistors, capacitors and inductors are used in every electronic system. These are the very basic components which affect the system performance at higher frequencies and it is necessary to understand and model the behavior of these components in a very accurate manner. This work focuses on utilizing Printed Circuit Board (PCB) test boards, or fixtures, made of FR4 for characterizing Surface Mount Device (SMD) components. Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) microwave circuit simulation software was used for designing the microstrip transmission lines as well as for generating the layout for manufacturing of the PCB. SMD resistors, capacitors …

Completeness For The Coalgebraic Cover Modality, Clemens Kupke, Alexander Kurz, Yde Venema

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We study the finitary version of the coalgebraic logic introduced by L. Moss. The syntax of this logic, which is introduced uniformly with respect to a coalgebraic type functor, required to preserve weak pullbacks, extends that of classical propositional logic with a so-called coalgebraic cover modality depending on the type functor. Its semantics is defined in terms of a categorically defined relation lifting operation.

As the main contributions of our paper we introduce a derivation system, and prove that it provides a sound and complete axiomatization for the collection of coalgebraically valid inequalities. Our soundness and completeness proof is algebraic, …

Coalgebraic Logics (Dagstuhl Seminar 12411), Ernst-Erich Doberkat, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 12411 “Coalgebraic Logics”. The seminar deals with recent developments in the area of coalgebraic logic, a branch of logics which combines modal logics with coalgebraic semantics. Modal logic finds its uses when reasoning about behavioural and temporal properties of computation and communication, coalgebras have evolved into a general theory of systems. Consequently, it is natural to combine both areas for a mathematical description of system specification. Coalgebraic logics are closely related to the broader categories semantics/formal methods and verification/logic.

Evolved Design Of A Nonlinear Proportional Integral Derivative (Npid) Controller, Shubham Chopra

Dissertations and Theses

This research presents a solution to the problem of tuning a PID controller for a nonlinear system. Many systems in industrial applications use a PID controller to control a plant or the process. Conventional PID controllers work in linear systems but are less effective when the plant or the process is nonlinear because PID controllers cannot adapt the gain parameters as needed. In this research we design a Nonlinear PID (NPID) controller using a fuzzy logic system based on the Mamdani type Fuzzy Inference System to control three different DC motor systems. This fuzzy system is responsible for adapting the …

Android Memory Capture And Applications For Security And Privacy, Joseph T. Sylve

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Android operating system is quickly becoming the most popular platform for mobiledevices. As Android’s use increases, so does the need for both forensic and privacy toolsdesigned for the platform. This thesis presents the first methodology and toolset for acquiringfull physical memory images from Android devices, a proposed methodology for forensicallysecuring both volatile and non-volatile storage, and details of a vulnerability discovered by theauthor that allows the bypass of the Android security model and enables applications to acquirearbitrary permissions.

Investigating The Role Of The Internet In Women And Minority Stem Participation: A Case Study Of Two Florida Engineering Programs, Arland Nguema Ndong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite our awareness of the fascination modern humans have with the Internet, little is known about how and why colleges and universities create and maintain Websites. At the most general level, in this case study, I hypothesize that university Websites serve as communication and marketing tools in attracting students. At the most specific level, I postulate that civil engineering programs with Web pages depicting images of women and minorities would be more successful in recruiting and retaining women and students of color than civil engineering programs with Web pages displaying fewer or no images of women and minorities. The primary …

Automatic Content Generation For Video Self Modeling, Ju Shen, Anusha Raghunathan, Sen-Ching S. Cheung, Ravi R. Patel

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Video self modeling (VSM) is a behavioral intervention technique in which a learner models a target behavior by watching a video of him or herself. Its effectiveness in rehabilitation and education has been repeatedly demonstrated but technical challenges remain in creating video contents that depict previously unseen behaviors. In this paper, we propose a novel system that re-renders new talking-head sequences suitable to be used for VSM treatment of patients with voice disorder. After the raw footage is captured, a new speech track is either synthesized using text-to-speech or selected based on voice similarity from a database of clean speeches. …

Social Network Leverage Search, Payal Gupta

Master's Projects

Social networks are at an all time high, nowadays. They make the world a smaller place to live in. People can stay in touch with friends and can make new friends on these social networks which traditionally were not possible without internet service. The possibilities provided by social networks enable vast and immediate contact. People tend to spend lot of time on the social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter peeping into their friend‟s accounts and trying to stay connected with the world.
However, recently people have started closing their accounts on these famous social networks after having been irritated …

A Theoretical Model Of Multi-Agent Quantum Computing, F. Matthew Mihelic

Faculty Publications

The best design for practical quantum computing is one that emulates the multi-agent quantum logic function of natural biological systems. Such systems are theorized to be based upon a quantum gate formed by a nucleic acid Szilard engine (NASE) that converts Shannon entropy of encountered molecules into useful work of nucleic acid geometric reconfiguration. This theoretical mechanism is logically and thermodynamically reversible in this special case because it is literally constructed out of the (nucleic acid) information necessary for its function, thereby allowing the nucleic acid Szilard engine to function reversibly because, since the information by which it functions exists …

Onboard Video Stabilization For Unmanned Air Vehicles, Nicholas Stewart Cross

Master's Theses

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) enable the observation of hazardous areas without endangering a pilot. Observational capabilities are provided by on-board video cameras and images are relayed to remote operators for analysis. However, vibration and wind cause video camera mounts to move and can introduce unintended motion that makes video analysis more difficult. Video stabilization is a process that attempts to remove unwanted movement from a video input to provide a clearer picture. 

This thesis presents an onboard video stabilization solution that removes high-frequency jitter, displays output at 20 frames per second (FPS), and runs on a Blackfin embedded processor. Any …

Symbolic Quantum Circuit Simplification In Sympy, Matthew Curry

Physics

In the field of quantum information science, one can design a series of quantum logic operations known as a circuit. Circuits are the basis for quantum computations in quantum computing. As circuits will most likely be designed from a logical standpoint, there could exist mathematical redundancies which will lead to a larger circuit than necessary. These redundancies are computationally expensive, and there is a need for them to be found and eliminated to simplify the circuit. We present our research on finding the rules for simplifying circuits and its implementation in SymPy.

Disability And The Web: Why Website Accessibility Matters, Vivienne Conway

InfoSci@ECU Seminars

With Australia now transitioning to WCAG 2.0, accessibility has become a critical area requiring a far greater emphasis in the next couple of years. The Australian Human Rights Commission has argued that all Australian websites should meet WCAG 2.0 AA by December 2014. In this presentation, Vivienne will discuss important findings from her study of public library web site accessibility. She will also provide insights into her current PhD investigation and give a first hand account of the Hyderabad conference and global efforts on web site accessibility.

Roundtable On Australian National Data Service, Mathew Wyatt, Julia Gross, Toby Burrows, Salim Taleb

InfoSci@ECU Seminars

The Australian National Data Service (ANDS) (http://ands.org.au/index.html) provides funding to foster partnerships and build infrastructure to enable better local data management in Australian universities and research institutions. Begun in 2008, ANDS has received $72 million of Commonwealth funding. ANDS aims to establish infrastructure and services for an Australian research data commons in which research data with enduring value and the potential for reuse, is preserved and managed for continuing accessibility.

An Introductory Educational Board Game For Use In Early Computer Science Education, Tyler Moore

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Early computer science education should be necessary in high school curricula, but often it becomes inextricably linked to the act of programming instead of the study of the principles of computation. In order to divest computer science from programming a new teaching medium is needed, and early research into games as teaching tools shows some positive results when used properly. In order to find a better way to teach early computer science concepts I have designed and implemented a board game which illustrates and defines a few necessary computer science terms and mechanics. I had reasonable success in the classroom, …

Determining The Effects Of Technology On Children, Kristina E. Hatch

Senior Honors Projects

Determining the Effects of Technology on Children

Kristina Hatch

Faculty Sponser: Timothy Henry, Computer Science and Statistics

Technology has become an essential part of Americans’ daily lives, affecting our communications, mail, relationships, the management of our bills and finances. As we have become more immersed in the benefits and capabilities of these constantly developing technologies, children as well as adults have become avid users. Laptops and cell phones are specially developed for preteens. Software and game companies have been targeting children in their game development. Video games have become common entertainment for children as young as four. Children today can …

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of A Campus Computing Grid, Preston M. Smith

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Any major research institution has a substantial number of computer systems on its campus, often in the scale of tens of thousands. Given that a large amount of scientific computing is appropriate for execution in an opportunistic environment, a campus grid is an inexpensive way to build a powerful computational resource. What is missing, though, is a model for making an informed decision on the cost-effectives of a campus grid. In this thesis, the author describes a model for measuring the costs and benefits of building a campus computing resource based on the institution’s existing investment in computing hardware.

For …

A Modeling And Simulation Framework For Electrokinetic Nanoparticle Treatment, James Phillips

Doctoral Dissertations

The focus of this research is to model and provide a simulation framework for the packing of differently sized spheres within a hard boundary. The novel contributions of this dissertation are the cylinders of influence (COI) method and sectoring method implementations. The impetus for this research stems from modeling electrokinetic nanoparticle (EN) treatment, which packs concrete pores with differently sized nanoparticles. We show an improved speed of the simulation compared to previously published results of EN treatment simulation while obtaining similar porosity reduction results. We mainly focused on readily, commercially available particle sizes of 2 nm and 20 nm particles, …

Collaborative Strategic Board Games As A Site For Distributed Computational Thinking, Matthew Berland, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the idea that contemporary strategic board games represent an informal, interactional context in which complex computational thinking takes place. When games are collaborative – that is, a game requires that players work in joint pursuit of a shared goal – the computational thinking is easily observed as distributed across several participants. This raises the possibility that a focus on such board games are profitable for those who wish to understand computational thinking and learning in situ. This paper introduces a coding scheme, applies it to the recorded discourse of three groups of game players, and provides qualitative …