Faculty Research Projects & Opportunities for Students

1. Faculty Research Projects & Opportunities for Students Department of Computing Sciences September 29, 2014

2. Overview • Faculty are full-time and part-time members • Interests range from theoretical foundations to practical applications • Some research is sponsored – funding for assistantships sometimes available • Actively seeking external sponsorship and partnership • Interdisciplinary research promoted • Student involvement is welcome and encouraged!

3. Devices • CAVE • Object capture rig • Oculus Rift • Google Glass • Mindstorm robots • Kinect • Raspberry Pi • Finch • IR keyboard

4. Research Outlets & Support • Conferences • Research Projects • Fun Projects • Reading Day Events • CS Ed Week Events • Sigma Xi Event • Many others • Travel funds • Equipment funds • Grad Office has some • Undergrad Office also • Department might too • Research grants as well

5. Grand Challenges of Computing CSC 9025

6. What is the “Grand Challenges of Computing” course? • CSC 9025 – Often called “Independent Study” • Mandatory for graduate students • Conduct independent research under guidance of a faculty advisor • Encouraged to tackle topics in our discipline that interest you AND your advisor • Intended for completion in a single semester • Extension to second semester possible • Keep your eyes open for interesting topics!

7. Faculty Research Interests & Activities Listen for opportunities to get involved in research

8. Dr. Tom Way Projects

9. Active Projects Parsing & Translation • Google Glass, Machine Learning & Memory • Sentiment Analysis & Tracking • Misc. NLP Parsing Projects • Tremor Filtering Wii Pointer • SNITCH plagiarism analyzer CS Education • Loosely-Coupled Interdisciplinary Teaching • Machine Learning modules • Distributed Expertise learning modules Department of Computing Sciences

10. ACT Lab Research GroupsApplied Computing Technology Laboratory Com. Sci. Education High Perf. Computing Databases Information Fluency Director of ResearchDr. Tom Way Nanotech Other Groups... Simulation & Tools Rehab. Engineering Department of Computing Sciences

11. Back-burner Projects • Nanocompilers & Nanocomputers • Using Magic to Teach CS • Green Computing • Speech Recog. for note-taking • Info. literacy using science satire • Many other ideas actlab.csc.villanova.edu click on "Idea Incubator" Department of Computing Sciences

12. Student –Ready Projects • Sentiment Analysis & Tracking • Tremor Filtering Wii Pointer • Tremor Quantification • Plagiarism detection • Fake research paper detection • Social network extraction from novels • Machine Learning education modules • Google Glass Department of Computing Sciences

13. Dr. Mirela Damian Projects

14. Research Topics • Constructing and maintaining wireless network topologies.

15. Research Topics • Folding and unfolding polyhedra.

16. Research Topics • DNA Computing: How can DNA molecules solve computational problems?

17. Dr. Daniel Joyce Projects

18. Interests and Projects • Department Web Team Lead • Programming Team Coach • Graduate Independent Study / Grand Challenges Coordinator • http://csc.villanova.edu/academics/gradIS • have contacts/ideas BEFORE your final semester starts • Research Interests • Software development/engineering • Web programming • Security • Computer Science Education • Research Project Ideas • Collecting and analyzing data related to the software development process • Report on the use of a new technology to create a system, perhaps comparing it to use of a different technology • Development Project Ideas • Camp Registration Site • Use of Kinnects

19. Prof. NajibNadi Projects

20. Interests and Projects • Systems Programming • Systems Administration • Linux • Solaris • Mac OS X • Web Application Development • Current projects: • Systems setup for upcoming programming contest • IBM ThinkPad Linux configuration for cityteam ministries • Thin Client performance analysis • VU community Dropbox

21. Dr. Robert Beck A Sampling of Projects

22. Computing in Context • Computing and music through inquiry-based learning (IBL) • More generally, IBL for computing • More specifically, strategies for using ChucK, the language of the laptop orchestra • Computational sustainability • Figuring out what this means

23. Chronozoom • Check out chronozoom.com, an open source system for displaying time lines • Create content, and enhance the content creating process • Develop programs for Big History • Investigate a 3-D timeline in the CAVE

24. Social Network Analysis • Mesh models of conflict resolution with models of systems thinking for applications to • Nation building • Co-opetition in SOA system building • Examine and model social network strategies for promoting a cause • Flash mob • Philanthropy • “Pipeline” maintenance • Map communities as social networks

25. UX of Smart Things • Interacting with the internet of things • Mobile Wallet Worth Having (MWWH) • Apple Watch • Smart home monitoring • Smart driving • Smart touring: QR codes, cell phone tours • More generally, gesture interfaces

26. Web Site Design • Categories of web sites • Design principles for a particular category • Systematic evaluation against design principles • Automatic measurements

27. Web Site Renovation • Help nonprofit corporations, usually small ones, upgrade their web sites • Student works with “technical” person at nonprofit • Gather data for web site evaluation • Challenges • Communicating with the representatives • Developing with a variety of tools • Navigating the politics of the nonprofit

28. Cliques, etc • Finding a maximal clique (largest complete subgraph) in a given simple graph • Fred’s strategy • More generally, strategies for NP-hard problems • Involves creative programming and experimentation with heuristics

29. Dr. Lillian (Boots) Cassel Projects

30. Dr. Lillian Cassel Research interests: Digital Libraries Ensemble Marconi Museum Library Computing Ontology Resources for computing education Data Science Information and the Web Interdisciplinary Computing Interested graduate students meet at 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon, Mendel 290 Undergraduates welcome then or at other times.

31. Ensemble Computing Education Portal • Well established, but with many opportunities for refinement. • Original funding has ended, so mostly volunteer work at this time. • Opportunities for research projects as we attempt to solve some interesting problems. • Proposals under development to obtain more funding. www.computingportal.org Computing Portal Connecting Computing Educators

32. More Digital Libraries/Web Information • Marconi Museum • We have large collection of pictures • How do you make a good representation of a physical museum on the web? • Possible CAVE application, as well as regular digital library

33. Computing Ontology • Status • Still an interesting problem. • On the list of applications to develop for the CAVE • Needs people with good imaginations and creativity www.distributedexpertise.org/computingontology Computing Ontology A complete definition of the computing disciplines, in collaboration with ACM

34. Educational Resources • Earlier and Broader Access to Machine Learning • With Dr. Way, Dr. Matuszek, Dr. Papalaskari • Data Science • With Dr. Goelman, Dr. Posner (statistics)

35. Dr. William Fleischman Projects

36. Ethics • Research topics related to ethical issues and themes • Privacy, Surveillance, and Big Data • Lethal Autonomous Robotic Weapons • Electronic voting • Outreach activities

37. Dr. Vijay Gehlot Projects

38. Systems Modeling • Behind every data there is a process that generates/consumes it • To effect changes, understating of processes is crucial • Process mining • Holistic vs reductionist • Systems thinking

39. Systems

40. Model Components

41. Tools/Approaches

42. Dr. Don Goelman Projects

43. Funded Projects • Databases for Many Majors: Customizable Visualizations to Improve STEM Learning (Dietrich & Goelman) – NSF IUSE project: 9/2014 through 8/2017 • Data Computing for All: Developing an Introductory Data Science Course in Flipped Format (Cassel, Posner, Dichev, Dicheva & Goelman) – NSF IUSE project: 9/2014 through 8/2017 • Details in next slides

44. Funded Project (NSF DUE - IUSE): Customizable Visualizations • Collaborative research with Prof. S. Dietrich, Arizona State University • Enhancement of visualizations for promoting database education to diverse majors • Visualizations from the last grant: intro to relational databases and intro to querying • Add a third visualization: conceptual modeling • Add functionality for self-assessment by students • Add functionality for educators to customize the setting to diverse domains (FlashBuilder and ActionScript) • Home page: http://databasesmanymajors.faculty.asu.edu/

45. Funded Project (NSF DUE-IUSE): Data Science Course in Flipped Format • Collaborative research with Profs. L. Cassel and M. Posner, Villanova University; and Profs. C. Dichev and D. Dicheva, WSSU • Curricular development: an introductory course in data science • Pedagogical development: inverted classroom approach • Research assistance: information gathering and presentation

46. Other Interests and Projects • Databases: conceptual modeling • Databases: schema integration • Databases: XML for non-majors • Databases: NoSQL databases • Data Science and Big Data

47. Current Grand Challenge Projects • Anusha Chenreddy: NoSQL Databases • SaiViswa Teja Mitta: Object Relational Mapping • Dinesh Paladugu: Big Data and Real-Time Applications • Nagasaiteja Popuri: Distributed File Systems for Big Data – Exemplified by Hadoop

48. Current Grand Challenge Projects (continued) • MohanKumar Puttasidaiah: Big Data Processing: Applications of MapReduce and Hadoop in Industry • Swathi Vangala: Data Warehousing Solutions for Big Data • Akhila Yarlagadda: Technology and Health Care Data Management • Siva Sindhuri Yenamaladoddi: Processing and Analysis of Big Data Using Hadoop

49. Dr. GiorgiJaparidze Projects

50. Interests and Projects • Computational Theory • Logic • Projects • Computability Logic • CirquentCalculus • Interactive Computation