department of computing sciences september 28, 2009

An Introduction and Orientation to Faculty

Projects & InterestsDepartment of Computing Sciences

September 28, 2009

Faculty consists of both full-time and part-time members

Interests range from theoretical foundations to practical applications

Some research is sponsored Actively seek external sponsorship and

partnership Interdisciplinary research promoted

Overview

LIKES (Beck) Ensemble (Cassel) Distributed Expertise (Cassel, Way) Proximity Structures (Damian) SHAPE (Gehlot, Way) ViCS: The Sequel (Beck, Klassner) Robotics and Embedded Programming

(Peyton-Jones, Klassner)

Funded Projects

CCLI: SOA (Gehlot, Way) CCLI: Databases (Goelman) SoCS: Systems Thinking and Conflict

Resolution (Beck, Gehlot, Wang) CRADA: (Way, Gehlot)

Under Review

SBIR w/ SIMIS (Johnny Garcia) w/ Lockheed (Lindsay Matteo) w/ Navy (John Lamb) w/ Army (Eric Clark)

Under Discussion

Research Topics and Projects Sampler

Research Topics (1) Programming languages and systems

control for Mindstorm robots.

Research Topics (2) Contexts for optimum web search

strategies.

Research Topics (3) Algorithm taxonomy: examples from

traditional games.

Research Topics (4) Web site taxonomy and focused design

principles.

Research Topics (5) Packing spheres into an ellipsoid: heuristic

search strategies.

Research Topics (6) Code optimization: 20Kb vs. 20Mb program

space.

Research Topics (6) Non-visual interfaces.

Research Topics (7) Virtual reality in interdisciplinary projects.

Research Topics (8) Web services: development, description,

deployment.

Research Topics (9) Constructing and maintaining wireless

network topologies.

Research Topics (10) Folding and unfolding polyhedra.

Research Topics (11) Programming games and applications for

the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Pathway Modeling

Research Topics (12)

Patient Safety

Research Topics (13)

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Research Topics (14)

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PMEI AeroSat

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Position reporting, situational awareness

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Dr. Robert BeckProjects

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

Packing Problems

Pack n equally sized spheres into the unit sphere and calculate the radius of the small spheres as a function of n.◦ Alternatively, use an ellipsoid of revolution instead

of the unit sphere◦ Alternatively, solve the problems in two dimensions◦ Use a heuristic approach◦ Use a genetic algorithm

Mathematical Structures on the Web Strategies for calculating, storing, and

viewing mathematical structures such as:◦ Finite rings◦ Small Lie algebras◦ Lie algebra representations

Web Site Design Categories of web sites Design principles for a particular category Systematic evaluation against design

principles Automatic measurements

Dr. Lillian (Boots) Cassel

Projects

Networks Information Retrieval Digital Libraries Image Management Recent projects

◦ NSDL◦ Ontology◦ CPATH

Interests and Projects

NSF- Fund and set direction- Outreach & communications to stakeholders

Projects Pathways- Provide resources, - Provide user services, services, research content stewardship

Core Integration - Integrate Projects - Partner with Pathways- Operations- Outreach & communications

Policy Committee NVC- Represent community - Strategic advice- Prioritize issues with CI to NSF and CI

Standing Committees- Content, Evaluation, Sustainability, Technology- Coordinate/engage community

FUND

BUILD

ADVISE

NSDL

Users- Students, Faculty- K-12- Undergraduate, Graduate- Researchers- Librarians- Anyone interested in STEM

Stakeholders

Resources, Services

Feedback, AskNSDL, Annotations

Standards, Services

Resources, Services

Information

Feedback, Funds

Contributors- Publishers- Universities- Libraries & Museums- Government- Corporations- Anyone interested in DLs

Sponsors/Funders- Government / Legislative- Corporations- Foundations- Anyone interested in NSDL

NSDL overview

Ensemble The Pathway for Computing Education Broadening the role to encompass all that a

modern library is◦ Repository◦ Preservation center◦ Meeting place for project teams◦ Place to think, explore ideas, browse …

The Components and the Issues Fedora repository Drupal front end Federated search Group work support Merged calendars Fine grained access More…

The Computing Ontology A comprehensive representation of all

of the computing discipline(s) All relevant terms and the relationships

between and among them Applications

◦Curriculum development◦Curriculum description◦Research classification◦Browsing the field as a whole

An example of a small section of the ontology for use in demonstrating the place of “hashing” in many areas of computing.

Dr. Mirela DamianProjects

Devices communicate via radio

No centralized control

No fixed infrastructure

Subject to moving

Limited resources (memory, battery)

Research Area: Ad-Hoc Networks

Research Topic: Topology Control

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Topology Control: reduce overall power consumption and interference while maintaining network connectivity.

Research Area: Topology Control

Research Topic: Smart Antennas• Conventional antennas are omnidirectional.

• Smart antennas focus the energy in one or several desired directions:

Antenna Array

Desired User

Antenna Array

Active Beam

• Benefits– Extended communication range– Reduced interference

Implications of Smart Antennas• New research problems!

– Medium Access Control Protocols– Topology Control Methods– Routing Protocols

• An integrated approach for all the above• Goal: maximize the benefits of smart

antennas

Research Area: Folding and Unfolding

Research Area: Robot Reconfiguration• Modular robots composed of smaller unit• Go from a source configuration to a target configuration without

self-intersection.

Prof. Jason (J) DobiesProjects

Red Hat Next Generation Systems Management Distributed Systems Large Environments (> 10K systems) Virtualization Java Technologies

EJB3, JSF, JBPM Linux Technologies

Cobbler, Puppet, Func Open Source Projects

CodeTurtle Automated Java project grading framework

Plugin API for project graders Code review and comments

Open Source (hosted on SourceForge) Contributions: Printing, Windows Support, Grader

Repository Technologies and Process

Subversion, Ant, JUnit Site: http://codeturtle.noopenblockers.com

Random Programming Languages Teaching Open Source

(teachingopensource.org) Women in Open Source Resumes & Interviews Certifications

SCJP, SCJD, SCWCD, RHCE

Contact Blog: http://noopenblockers.com

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

E-mail: jason.dobies@villanova.edu Freenode: jdob in #jopr, #spacewalk-devel On Campus

Dr. James DulleaProjects

Information Management Data Modeling Data Warehousing Data Mining Information Metrics

Interests and Projects

Dr. William Fleischman

Projects

Electronic Voting Machines How is it that five software engineering

teams, working independently for five companies, ‘conspired’ to produce, in every case, electronic voting devices that are uniformly prone to malfunction and vulnerable to malicious attack?

Is this a technology that we really need? Or is it a solution to a non-existent problem?

Outreach Activities

Since 1998, we have maintained a collaboration with students and teachers at Julia de Burgos Elementary School in North Philadelphia

Designed to redress some of the obstacles to learning new technologies affecting children from low income neighborhoods

This involvement began with Lance Rougeux, a 1998 graduate and alumnus of my first Ethical Issues class, who began his career as a 6th grade teacher at Julia de Burgos

Lance Rougeux

Some Highlights

The 2005 team of Jessie Byrnes, Tom Huffner, Todd McNeal, Lauren Pisciotta, and Zack Zweber presented a poster on their project at ITiCSE 2006 in Bologna

The 2007-2008 “F”-team – Will Matthaeus, Kory Kirk, John McCoey, Kate Breen, Mujtaba Talebi, George Frank, Paolo Repole, Agya Adueni, Tom Homsher, Mike Topf, Andrew Burke, and Alex Hanna – reprised the 2005 Life Expectancy Project with six eighth grade classes at Julia de Burgos

In Fall 2008, the Villanova Student Chapter of ACM, Minh Kinh Tran, Casey Burkhardt, John McCoey, A. J. Palkovic, with the indispensable assistance of Najib Nadi, rehabilitated 12 laptops purchased from Team Children, and conducted a four weekend course for 12 Julia de Burgos students

Also in 2008, Minh Kinh Tran, Casey Burkhardt, John McCoey and Najib Nadi restored the JdB mobile computer labs to use

This Year’s Project

We’ve received 20 laptops from Villanova, as part of the rollout of new equipment this past summer

We will repeat last year’s project in Spring 2010, populating these computers with Open Source software, and reprising the four weekend course with 20 JdB students

If this collaborative effort interests you, just come and talk to me…

Dr. Vijay GehlotProjects

Interests and Projects Colored Petri Nets

Applications◦ SOA Systems◦ Healthcare Workflow◦ Healthcare IT Systems◦ Biological Systems◦ Economic Systems◦ Social Systems◦ Model driven approaches◦ Safety-critical and

defense systems Formal Methods

Education

Dr. Don GoelmanProjects

Databases: conceptual modeling Databases: schema integration Databases: XML for non-majors Computer Science education Current Independent Studies

◦ Pavan Kumar Rao Cheeti: Correspondence of XML with database systems

◦ ShivanandanGoud Kommuri: Fuzzy databases◦ Rajesh Katragadda: Semi-structured databases,

design and management◦ Hao Zhang: A new way to query databases – LINQ to

SQL

Interests and Projects

Dr. Giorgi JaparidzeProjects

Computational Theory Artificial Intelligence Logic Projects

◦ Computability Logic◦ Interactive Computation

Interests and Projects

Dr. Daniel JoyceProjects

Interests and Projects Department Web Team Lead Graduate Independent Study Coordinator Research Interests

◦ Software development/engineering◦ Web programming◦ Security◦ Computer Science Education

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◦ Investigating the status of the “good guys” vs “bad guys” situation in

computer security◦ Classifying “classes” based on the signatures of their methods ...◦ What “types” of learners learn X best when approach Y is used

Graduate Independent Studies see

http://csc.villanova.edu/academics/gradIS for info about◦ Topics◦ Advisors◦ Academic Integrity◦ Procedures

Dr. Frank KlassnerProjects

Web-Based Software Systems Artificial Intelligence Signal Processing Robotics iPhone Applications Virtual Reality

Interests and Projects

Dr. Anany LevitinProjects

Algorithms Data and Information Algorithms and Puzzles

Interests and Projects

Dr. Paula MatuszekProjects

Artificial Intelligence◦ knowledge-based systems◦ ontologies and the semantic web◦ natural language processing, text mining,

information extraction Social computing

◦ knowledge capture and sharing◦ AI uses in social computing◦ use of virtual worlds in industry and education

Interests and Projects

Prof. Najib NadiProjects

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

Interests and Projects

Dr. Mary-Angela Papalaskari

Projects

Artificial Intelligence: - Augmented reality - Conversational agents - Reasoning with incomplete information  - Neural nets (*most recent independent study) - Learning finite state automata

Computational Biology - phylogenetic trees

Computer Science Education: - Teaching and learning computer science through service to the community - Computing for non-CS majors - Computer science through media computation - PACSE: Philadelphia Area Computer Science Educators

Interests and Projects

Dr. Thomas WayProjects

Collaboration when expertise is distributed

Develop an interactive interface to the computing ontology to support this work

Host workshops to develop, collaborate, and disseminate this work

CPATH: Distributed Expertise

Faculty A

Faculty B

Expert

FacilitatorRemote expert is A

Remote expert is BCooperating experts

Department of Computing Sciences 77

ACT Lab Research GroupsApplied Computing Technology Laboratory

Director of Research

Dr. Tom Way

Com. Sci.

Education

High Perf.

Computing

Rehab. Engineeri

ng

Simulation & Tools

Information

Fluency

Databases

Other Groups..

.

Nanotech.

Department of Computing Sciences 78

Active Projects Nanocompilers & Nanocomputers (Comp.

Nanotech) Modeling & Simulation (Comp. Nanotech) w/ Dr.

Gehlot Distributed Expertise (CS Education) w/ Dr. Cassel

SNITCH plagiarism analyzer (Sim & Tools)

Green Computing (Green Comp.)

Using Magic to Teach CS (CS Education)

Speech Recog. for note-taking (Rehab Engr)

Info. literacy using science satire (Info. Fluency)

ACT Lab (CS Education)

Department of Computing Sciences 79

Back-burner Projects Underrepresentation of advantaged

women in Computer Science (CS Educ)

Talking picture frame (Entert. Tech)

Internet safety for parents (Info. Fluency)

Automatic image description (Rehab. Engr.)

Many other ideas

actlab.csc.villanova.edu

Prof. Barbara Zimmerman

Projects

Blogging in Higher Education Can we use blogging in large lecture

sections? Can Blogging be used to solicit opinions of

shy students? Can Blogging make students aware of

controversial issues? Do students feel freer to express

themselves using the computer?

Blogging and Other Disciplines Blogging has been effective in one

Computer Science class over multiple terms◦ Students comment on the various effects of

technology, both current and future This semester blogging will be introduced in

one Biology class◦ “Should there be a Universal DNA database”?

Blogging Next Steps Hard statistics are needed How to measure the worth of the responses

◦ The responses are opinions◦ Has thought gone into the response?

Survey data has been collected from 50 students◦ Analysis of the survey data needs to be done

Find other fields where blogging can be used◦ Collect and analyze data from results

Digital Library Mike Zimmerman of Biology is working with

Lillian Cassel Mike’s research is in paleopathology, the

study of the evidence of disease in ancient remains

His career has involved fieldwork in Alaska and Egypt and museum studies in Austria, Canada and the United States

Digital Library The raw materials of his papers and books

have been provided. Over 100 of his published papers will be

placed in the digital library plus references to his 3 books

The digital library will make all of this work accessible to researchers everywhere via the Internet.

Prof. Catherine Helwig

Projects

Develop algorithm visualizations along with mini-tutorials for computer aided instruction in Data Structure and Algorithm classes.

Visualizations as a mini-tutorial with animations portraying different parts of the algorithm.

Sample of five animations of ADT’s (and looking for more) http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~helwig/index1.html

Graph algorithms at http://algoviz.org/fieldreports AlgoViz.org is supported by the National Science

Foundation under a grant

Algorithm Visualizations for Teaching and Learning

J2 Micro Edition (J2ME) which is the version of the Java 2.1 platform that is designed for use with smaller devices such as PDA’s, mobile phones etc.

Since the size of small devices varies greatly, there are two profiles provided by the J2ME. The first,CLDC configuration , has a unique profile for Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP toolkit).

Lab for Data Structures and Algorithms III developing a small app for the Blackberry.

Developing applications (games) on Mobile Phones and Small Devices