Matching Items (12)
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- All Subjects: Computer Engineering
- All Subjects: Educational technology
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Bansal, Ajay
Description
Smart home system (SHS) is a kind of information system aiming at realizing home automation. The SHS can connect with almost any kind of electronic/electric device used in a home so that they can be controlled and monitored centrally. Today's technology also allows the home owners to control and monitor the SHS installed in their homes remotely. This is typically realized by giving the SHS network access ability. Although the SHS's network access ability brings a lot of conveniences to the home owners, it also makes the SHS facing more security threats than ever before. As a result, when designing a SHS, the security threats it might face should be given careful considerations. System security threats can be solved properly by understanding them and knowing the parts in the system that should be protected against them first. This leads to the idea of solving the security threats a SHS might face from the requirements engineering level. Following this idea, this paper proposes a systematic approach to generate the security requirements specifications for the SHS. It can be viewed as the first step toward the complete SHS security requirements engineering process.
ContributorsXu, Rongcao (Author) / Ghazarian, Arbi (Thesis advisor) / Bansal, Ajay (Committee member) / Lindquist, Timothy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The world’s population is currently 9% visually impaired. Medical sciences do not have a biological fix that can cure this visual impairment. Visually impaired people are currently being assisted with biological fixes or assistive devices. The current assistive devices are limited in size as well as resolution. This thesis presents the development and experimental validation of a control system for a new vibrotactile haptic display that is currently in development. In order to allow the vibrotactile haptic display to be used to represent motion, the control system must be able to change the image displayed at a rate of at least 30 frames/second. In order to achieve this, this thesis introduces and investigates the use of three improvements: threading, change filtering, and wave libraries. Through these methods, it is determined that an average of 40 frames/second can be achieved.
ContributorsKIM, KENDRA (Author) / Sodemann, Angela (Thesis advisor) / Robertson, John (Committee member) / Bansal, Ajay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Graph theory is a critical component of computer science and software engineering, with algorithms concerning graph traversal and comprehension powering much of the largest problems in both industry and research. Engineers and researchers often have an accurate view of their target graph, however they struggle to implement a correct, and efficient, search over that graph.
To facilitate rapid, correct, efficient, and intuitive development of graph based solutions we propose a new programming language construct - the search statement. Given a supra-root node, a procedure which determines the children of a given parent node, and optional definitions of the fail-fast acceptance or rejection of a solution, the search statement can conduct a search over any graph or network. Structurally, this statement is modelled after the common switch statement and is put into a largely imperative/procedural context to allow for immediate and intuitive development by most programmers. The Go programming language has been used as a foundation and proof-of-concept of the search statement. A Go compiler is provided which implements this construct.
To facilitate rapid, correct, efficient, and intuitive development of graph based solutions we propose a new programming language construct - the search statement. Given a supra-root node, a procedure which determines the children of a given parent node, and optional definitions of the fail-fast acceptance or rejection of a solution, the search statement can conduct a search over any graph or network. Structurally, this statement is modelled after the common switch statement and is put into a largely imperative/procedural context to allow for immediate and intuitive development by most programmers. The Go programming language has been used as a foundation and proof-of-concept of the search statement. A Go compiler is provided which implements this construct.
ContributorsHenderson, Christopher (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Lindquist, Timothy (Committee member) / Acuna, Ruben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Academia is not what it used to be. In today’s fast-paced world, requirements
are constantly changing, and adapting to these changes in an academic curriculum
can be challenging. Given a specific aspect of a domain, there can be various levels of
proficiency that can be achieved by the students. Considering the wide array of needs,
diverse groups need customized course curriculum. The need for having an archetype
to design a course focusing on the outcomes paved the way for Outcome-based
Education (OBE). OBE focuses on the outcomes as opposed to the traditional way of
following a process [23]. According to D. Clark, the major reason for the creation of
Bloom’s taxonomy was not only to stimulate and inspire a higher quality of thinking
in academia – incorporating not just the basic fact-learning and application, but also
to evaluate and analyze on the facts and its applications [7]. Instructional Module
Development System (IMODS) is the culmination of both these models – Bloom’s
Taxonomy and OBE. It is an open-source web-based software that has been
developed on the principles of OBE and Bloom’s Taxonomy. It guides an instructor,
step-by-step, through an outcomes-based process as they define the learning
objectives, the content to be covered and develop an instruction and assessment plan.
The tool also provides the user with a repository of techniques based on the choices
made by them regarding the level of learning while defining the objectives. This helps
in maintaining alignment among all the components of the course design. The tool
also generates documentation to support the course design and provide feedback
when the course is lacking in certain aspects.
It is not just enough to come up with a model that theoretically facilitates
effective result-oriented course design. There should be facts, experiments and proof
that any model succeeds in achieving what it aims to achieve. And thus, there are two
research objectives of this thesis: (i) design a feature for course design feedback and
evaluate its effectiveness; (ii) evaluate the usefulness of a tool like IMODS on various
aspects – (a) the effectiveness of the tool in educating instructors on OBE; (b) the
effectiveness of the tool in providing appropriate and efficient pedagogy and
assessment techniques; (c) the effectiveness of the tool in building the learning
objectives; (d) effectiveness of the tool in document generation; (e) Usability of the
tool; (f) the effectiveness of OBE on course design and expected student outcomes.
The thesis presents a detailed algorithm for course design feedback, its pseudocode, a
description and proof of the correctness of the feature, methods used for evaluation
of the tool, experiments for evaluation and analysis of the obtained results.
are constantly changing, and adapting to these changes in an academic curriculum
can be challenging. Given a specific aspect of a domain, there can be various levels of
proficiency that can be achieved by the students. Considering the wide array of needs,
diverse groups need customized course curriculum. The need for having an archetype
to design a course focusing on the outcomes paved the way for Outcome-based
Education (OBE). OBE focuses on the outcomes as opposed to the traditional way of
following a process [23]. According to D. Clark, the major reason for the creation of
Bloom’s taxonomy was not only to stimulate and inspire a higher quality of thinking
in academia – incorporating not just the basic fact-learning and application, but also
to evaluate and analyze on the facts and its applications [7]. Instructional Module
Development System (IMODS) is the culmination of both these models – Bloom’s
Taxonomy and OBE. It is an open-source web-based software that has been
developed on the principles of OBE and Bloom’s Taxonomy. It guides an instructor,
step-by-step, through an outcomes-based process as they define the learning
objectives, the content to be covered and develop an instruction and assessment plan.
The tool also provides the user with a repository of techniques based on the choices
made by them regarding the level of learning while defining the objectives. This helps
in maintaining alignment among all the components of the course design. The tool
also generates documentation to support the course design and provide feedback
when the course is lacking in certain aspects.
It is not just enough to come up with a model that theoretically facilitates
effective result-oriented course design. There should be facts, experiments and proof
that any model succeeds in achieving what it aims to achieve. And thus, there are two
research objectives of this thesis: (i) design a feature for course design feedback and
evaluate its effectiveness; (ii) evaluate the usefulness of a tool like IMODS on various
aspects – (a) the effectiveness of the tool in educating instructors on OBE; (b) the
effectiveness of the tool in providing appropriate and efficient pedagogy and
assessment techniques; (c) the effectiveness of the tool in building the learning
objectives; (d) effectiveness of the tool in document generation; (e) Usability of the
tool; (f) the effectiveness of OBE on course design and expected student outcomes.
The thesis presents a detailed algorithm for course design feedback, its pseudocode, a
description and proof of the correctness of the feature, methods used for evaluation
of the tool, experiments for evaluation and analysis of the obtained results.
ContributorsRaj, Vaishnavi (Author) / Bansal, Srividya (Thesis advisor) / Bansal, Ajay (Committee member) / Mehlhase, Alexandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
In today's data-driven world, every datum is connected to a large amount of data. Relational databases have been proving itself a pioneer in the field of data storage and manipulation since 1970s. But more recently they have been challenged by NoSQL graph databases in handling data models which have an inherent graphical representation. Graph databases with the ability to store physical relationships between two nodes and native graph processing technique have been doing exceptionally well in graph data storage and management for applications like recommendation engines, biological modeling, network modeling, social media applications, etc.
Instructional Module Development System (IMODS) is a web-based software system that guides STEM instructors through the complex task of curriculum design, ensures tight alignment between various components of a course (i.e., learning objectives, content, assessments), and provides relevant information about research-based pedagogical and assessment strategies. The data model of IMODS is highly connected and has an inherent graphical representation between all its entities with numerous relationships between them. This thesis focuses on developing an algorithm to determine completeness of course design developed using IMODS. As part of this research objective, the study also analyzes the data model for best fit database to run these algorithms. As part of this thesis, two separate applications abstracting the data model of IMODS have been developed - one with Neo4j (graph database) and another with PostgreSQL (relational database). The research objectives of the thesis are as follows: (i) evaluate the performance of Neo4j and PostgreSQL in handling complex queries that will be fired throughout the life cycle of the course design process; (ii) devise an algorithm to determine the completeness of a course design developed using IMODS. This thesis presents the process of creating data model for PostgreSQL and converting it into a graph data model to be abstracted by Neo4j, creating SQL and CYPHER scripts for undertaking experiments on both platforms, testing and elaborate analysis of the results and evaluation of the databases in the context of IMODS.
Instructional Module Development System (IMODS) is a web-based software system that guides STEM instructors through the complex task of curriculum design, ensures tight alignment between various components of a course (i.e., learning objectives, content, assessments), and provides relevant information about research-based pedagogical and assessment strategies. The data model of IMODS is highly connected and has an inherent graphical representation between all its entities with numerous relationships between them. This thesis focuses on developing an algorithm to determine completeness of course design developed using IMODS. As part of this research objective, the study also analyzes the data model for best fit database to run these algorithms. As part of this thesis, two separate applications abstracting the data model of IMODS have been developed - one with Neo4j (graph database) and another with PostgreSQL (relational database). The research objectives of the thesis are as follows: (i) evaluate the performance of Neo4j and PostgreSQL in handling complex queries that will be fired throughout the life cycle of the course design process; (ii) devise an algorithm to determine the completeness of a course design developed using IMODS. This thesis presents the process of creating data model for PostgreSQL and converting it into a graph data model to be abstracted by Neo4j, creating SQL and CYPHER scripts for undertaking experiments on both platforms, testing and elaborate analysis of the results and evaluation of the databases in the context of IMODS.
ContributorsSaha, Abir Lal (Author) / Bansal, Srividya (Thesis advisor) / Bansal, Ajay (Committee member) / Gonzalez-Sanchez, Javier (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Image processing has changed the way we store, view and share images. One important component of sharing images over the networks is image compression. Lossy image compression techniques compromise the quality of images to reduce their size. To ensure that the distortion of images due to image compression is not highly detectable by humans, the perceived quality of an image needs to be maintained over a certain threshold. Determining this threshold is best done using human subjects, but that is impractical in real-world scenarios. As a solution to this issue, image quality assessment (IQA) algorithms are used to automatically compute a fidelity score of an image.
However, poor performance of IQA algorithms has been observed due to complex statistical computations involved. General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU) programming is one of the solutions proposed to optimize the performance of these algorithms.
This thesis presents a Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) based optimized implementation of full reference IQA algorithm, Visual Signal to Noise Ratio (VSNR) that uses M-level 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) with 9/7 biorthogonal filters among other statistical computations. The presented implementation is tested upon four different image quality databases containing images with multiple distortions and sizes ranging from 512 x 512 to 1600 x 1280. The CUDA implementation of VSNR shows a speedup of over 32x for 1600 x 1280 images. It is observed that the speedup scales with the increase in size of images. The results showed that the implementation is fast enough to use VSNR on high definition videos with a frame rate of 60 fps. This work presents the optimizations made due to the use of GPU’s constant memory and reuse of allocated memory on the GPU. Also, it shows the performance improvement using profiler driven GPGPU development in CUDA. The presented implementation can be deployed in production combined with existing applications.
However, poor performance of IQA algorithms has been observed due to complex statistical computations involved. General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU) programming is one of the solutions proposed to optimize the performance of these algorithms.
This thesis presents a Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) based optimized implementation of full reference IQA algorithm, Visual Signal to Noise Ratio (VSNR) that uses M-level 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) with 9/7 biorthogonal filters among other statistical computations. The presented implementation is tested upon four different image quality databases containing images with multiple distortions and sizes ranging from 512 x 512 to 1600 x 1280. The CUDA implementation of VSNR shows a speedup of over 32x for 1600 x 1280 images. It is observed that the speedup scales with the increase in size of images. The results showed that the implementation is fast enough to use VSNR on high definition videos with a frame rate of 60 fps. This work presents the optimizations made due to the use of GPU’s constant memory and reuse of allocated memory on the GPU. Also, it shows the performance improvement using profiler driven GPGPU development in CUDA. The presented implementation can be deployed in production combined with existing applications.
ContributorsGupta, Ayush (Author) / Sohoni, Sohum (Thesis advisor) / Amresh, Ashish (Committee member) / Bansal, Ajay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
There exists extensive research on the use of twisty puzzles, such as the Rubik's Cube, in educational contexts to assist in developing critical thinking skills and in teaching abstract concepts, such as group theory. However, the existing research does not consider the use of twisty puzzles in developing language proficiency. Furthermore, there remain methodological issues in integrating standard twisty puzzles into a class curriculum due to the ease with which erroneous cube twists occur, leading to a puzzle scramble that deviates from the intended teaching goal. To address these issues, an extensive examination of the "smart cube" market took place in order to determine whether a device that virtualizes twisty puzzles while maintaining the intuitive tactility of manipulating such puzzles can be employed both to fill the language education void and to mitigate the potential frustration experienced by students who unintentionally scramble a puzzle due to executing the wrong moves. This examination revealed the presence of Bluetooth smart cubes, which are capable of interfacing with a companion web or mobile application that visualizes and reacts to puzzle manipulations. This examination also revealed the presence of a device called the WOWCube, which is a 2x2x2 smart cube entertainment system that has 24 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens, one for each face's square, enabling better integration of the application with the puzzle hardware. Developing applications both for the Bluetooth smart cube using React Native and for the WOWCube demonstrated the higher feasibility of developing with the WOWCube due to its streamlined development kit as well as its ability to tie the application to the device hardware, enhancing the tactile immersion of the players with the application itself. Using the WOWCube, a word puzzle game featuring three game modes was implemented to assist in teaching players English vocabulary. Due to its incorporation of features that enable dynamic puzzle generation and resetting, players who participated in a user survey found that the game was compelling and that it exercised their critical thinking skills. This demonstrates the feasibility of smart cube applications in both critical thinking and language skills.
ContributorsHreshchyshyn, Jacob (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Mehlhase, Alexandra (Committee member) / Baron, Tyler (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Since the early 2000s the Rubik’s Cube has seen growing usage at speedsolving competitions and as an effective tool to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) topics at hundreds of schools and universities across the world. Recently, cube manufacturers have begun embedding sensors to enable digital face tracking. The live feedback from these so called “smartcubes” enables a new wave of immersive solution tutorials and interactive educational games using the cube as a controller. Existing smartcube software has several limitations. Manufacturers’ applications support only a narrow set of puzzle form factors and application platforms, fragmenting the ecosystem. Most apps require an active internet connection for key features, limiting where users can practice with a smartcube. Finally, existing applications focus on a single 3x3x3connection, losing opportunities afforded by new form factors. This research demonstrates an open-source smartcube application which mitigates these limitations. Particular attention is given to creating an Application Programming Interface (API) for smartcube communication and building representative solve analysis tools. These innovations have included successful negotiations to re-license existing open-source Rubik’sCube software projects to support deployment on multiple platforms, particularly iOS. The resulting application supports smartcubes from three manufacturers, runs on two platforms (Android and iOS), functions entirely offline after an initial download of remote assets, demonstrates concurrent connections with up to six smartcubes, and supports all current and anticipated smartcube form factors. These foundational elements can accelerate future efforts to build smartcube applications, including automated performance feedback systems and personalized gamification of learning experiences. Such advances will hopefully enhance the Rubik’s Cube’s value both as a competitive toy and as a pedagogical tool in educational institutions worldwide.
ContributorsHale, Joseph (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Heinrichs, Robert (Committee member) / Gary, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Recommendation systems provide recommendations based on user behavior andcontent data. User behavior and content data are fed to machine learning algorithms to train
them and give recommendations to the users. These algorithms need a large amount of data
for a reasonable conversion rate. But for small applications, the available amount of data
is minimal, leading to high recommendation aberrations. Also, when an existing large
scaled application with a high amount of available data uses a new recommendation
system, it requires some time and testing to decide which recommendation algorithm is
best suited to get higher conversion rates. This learning curve costs highly when the user
base and data size are significantly high.
In this thesis, A/B testing is used with manual intervention in the decision-making
of recommendation systems. To understand the effectiveness of the recommendations, user
interaction data is compared to compare experiences. Based on the comparisons, the
experiments conclude the effectiveness of A/B testing for the recommendation system.
ContributorsVaidya, Yogesh Vinayak (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Findler, Michael (Committee member) / Chakravarthi, Bharatesh (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Plagiarism is a huge problem in a learning environment. In programming classes especially, plagiarism can be hard to detect as source codes' appearance can be easily modified without changing the intent through simple formatting changes or refactoring. There are a number of plagiarism detection tools that attempt to encode knowledge about the programming languages they support in order to better detect obscured duplicates. Many such tools do not support a large number of languages because doing so requires too much code and therefore too much maintenance. It is also difficult to add support for new languages because each language is vastly different syntactically. Tools that are more extensible often do so by reducing the features of a language that are encoded and end up closer to text comparison tools than structurally-aware program analysis tools.
Kitsune attempts to remedy these issues by tying itself to Antlr, a pre-existing language recognition tool with over 200 currently supported languages. In addition, it provides an interface through which generic manipulations can be applied to the parse tree generated by Antlr. As Kitsune relies on language-agnostic structure modifications, it can be adapted with minimal effort to provide plagiarism detection for new languages. Kitsune has been evaluated for 10 of the languages in the Antlr grammar repository with success and could easily be extended to support all of the grammars currently developed by Antlr or future grammars which are developed as new languages are written.
Kitsune attempts to remedy these issues by tying itself to Antlr, a pre-existing language recognition tool with over 200 currently supported languages. In addition, it provides an interface through which generic manipulations can be applied to the parse tree generated by Antlr. As Kitsune relies on language-agnostic structure modifications, it can be adapted with minimal effort to provide plagiarism detection for new languages. Kitsune has been evaluated for 10 of the languages in the Antlr grammar repository with success and could easily be extended to support all of the grammars currently developed by Antlr or future grammars which are developed as new languages are written.
ContributorsMonroe, Zachary Lynn (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Lindquist, Timothy (Committee member) / Acuna, Ruben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020