▼ With the rapid growth of Cloud Computing, the use of Clouds in educational settings can provide great opportunities for Computer Science students to improve their learning outcomes. In this thesis, we introduce Cloud-Based Education architecture (CBE) as well as Cloud-Based Education for Computer Science (CBE-CS) and propose an automated CBE-CS ecosystem for implementation. This research employs the Cloud as a learning environment for teaching Computer Science courses by removing the locality constraints, while simultaneously improving students' understanding of the material provided through practical experience with the finer details and subjects’ complexities. In addition, this study includes a comparison between Cloud-based virtual classrooms and the traditional e-learning system to highlight the advantages of using Clouds in such a setting. We argue that by deploying Computer Science courses on the Cloud, the institution, administrators, faculty, and the students would gain significant advantages from the new educational setting. The infrastructure buildup, the software updating and licenses managements, the hardware configurations, the infrastructure space, maintenance, and power consumption, and many other issues will be either eliminated or minimized using the Cloud technology. On the other hand, the number of enrolled students is likely to increase since the Cloud will increase the availability of the needed resources for interactive education of larger number of students; it can deliver advanced technology for hands-on training, and can increase the readiness of the students for job market. The CBE-CS approach is more likely to allow faculty to better demonstrate the subjects' complexities to the students by renting he needed facilities whenever it is desired. The research also identified several potential Computer Science courses which could be launched and taught through Clouds. In addition, the selected courses have been classified based on three well-known levels of the Cloud services: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Subsequently, we propose to build a framework for CSE-CS considering the service layers and the selected courses. The proposed CBE-CS framework is intended to be integrated in a Virtual Classroom Ecosystem for Computer Sciences based on Cloud Computing referred to as VCE-CS. This ecosystem is scalable, available, reliable, and cost effective. Examples from selected pilot courses (i.e., Database, Operating System, Network, and Parallel Programming) are discussed. This research describes VCE-CS and argues for the benefits of such systems. Advisors/Committee Members: Rajaei, Hassan.

▼ This work investigated the effects of interface closeness on abstract problem solving and learning. Interface closeness is the degree to which an action performed via the interface differs from the action performed to achieve the desired result in the natural world. Interface closeness has numerous theoretical problem solving and learning benefits, though empirical investigations have found weak and conflicting results. A comparative study between interfaces at three levels of closeness (mouse, touchscreen,and tangible) on a novel abstract problem solving task was conducted. We found that the tangible interface was significantly slower than both the mouse and touchscreen interfaces. However, the touchscreen and tangible interfaces were shown to be significantly more efficient than the mouse interface in problem solving across a number of measures. Overall, it was shown that the touchscreen condition was the best interface, but also that closer interfaces in general offer significant benefit over the traditional mouse interface on abstract problem solving and learning. Advisors/Committee Members: Poor, G. Michael.

▼ Data mining algorithms help reveal hidden information in a repository. Distributed mining algorithms meet this need by distributing data and computation. One of the mostimportant issues of these algorithms is how to safely mine the data. Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC), a framework for safe mining of distributed data, provides some security promises of the computation. This thesis addresses certain aspects of SMC including the role of Hamiltonian and edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles. We formalize the notion of trust in a network and show thatcertain network configurations are better than others. We propose and analyze an algorithm for id assignment in networks that outperforms an existing algorithm. Advisors/Committee Members: Kresman, Ray.

▼ In this thesis we propose the paradigm for video-based interaction in virtual training environment; explore and develop image recognition techniques to estimate the position of user’s head and hands; and use this data to control virtual 3D avatar. Moreover, we target to develop a cost efficient system using only cross-platform and freely available software components, establishing interaction via common hardware (computer, monocular web-cam), and an ordinary internet channel. Consequently we aim increasing accessibility and cost efficiency of the system and avoidance of expensive instruments for essential interaction in virtual space. The results of this work are the following: the method for estimation the hand positions; the proposed design solutions for the system; the proof of concepts based on the two test cases (“Ball game” and “Chemistry lab”); and the discussion regarding the advantages, limitations and possible future research on the video-based interactions in the virtual environments. Advisors/Committee Members: Rajaei, Hassan.

▼ Current technology is more than capable of providing a secure authentication process, but users are limited in their ability to remember difficult passwords or make judgments about security. In this thesis, both of these problems were tackled in the design of a new picture-password system. Studies in computer security, password usability, and cognitive psychology were referenced throughout the design process. The new system was tested against character passwords of equal complexity and recall was measured over an eight-day period. The results of the study show that a picture password system which accepts input without respect to order can be both secure and memorable. Picture passwords were randomly assigned from a password space of almost 29 billion (2.899 × 10 10) and were remembered by all fifteen of the picture-group participants eight days later, whereas character passwords were not universally remembered. In addition, the study found that a substantial number of failed inputs by users are repeats of previous inputs in the same session. This reduces the number of distinct guesses users can make when authentication systems limit the number of allowed failed logins (known as account lockout). A protocol was developed to ignore these duplicate inputs in a way which incurs almost no security risk and improves usability. Advisors/Committee Members: Hutchings, Dugald R.

▼ The concept of an effective enumeration of all possible computer programs is a foundation of computability theory. To achieve an effective enumeration an indexing is applied to order the elements, or programs, of the model language. This thesis demonstrates a practical and computationally easy indexing of a model of computation often used in introductory computability courses, the language of while programs. Advisors/Committee Members: Dunning, Larry.

▼ Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) may allow users to have more direct interaction with systems when compared to traditional graphical user interfaces (GUIs). However, the full range of applications where TUIs can be utilized in practice is unclear. To resolve this problem, the benefits of TUIs must be analyzed and matched to an application domain where they hold advantages over more traditional systems. Since TUIs require users to use their hands in order to interact with the system, there is the possibility for these systems to leverage motor leaning to perform specific tasks. This work explored how motor learning can be used to create a tangible password system. A novel tangible password system was created and a small study conducted in order to identify future research objectives. Results show that users were successful in using the system to input their password and were able to recall their password after being removed from the system for a brief period of time. Advisors/Committee Members: Poor, Dr. G. Michael.

▼ Privacy preserving data mining seeks to allow users to share data while ensuring individual and corporate privacy concerns are addressed. Recently algorithms have been introduced to maintain privacy even when all but two parties collude. However, exogenous information and unwanted statistical disclosure can weaken collusion requirements and allow for approximation of sensitive information. Our work builds upon previous algorithms, putting cycle-partitioned secure sum into the mathematical framework of edge-disjoint Hamiltonian cycles and providing an additional anonymous “opt-out” procedure to help prevent unwanted statistical disclosure. Advisors/Committee Members: Kresman, Ray Iyer.

▼ This study was a combination and continuation of previous studies done by BGSU graduate students and faculty. It explored the use of interactive 3D stereo graphics as a component in the delivery of instructions for a construction task and compared this to a non-stereo version as well as a paper-based approach. The principal goal was to determine the relative effectiveness of the three approaches as measured by time to completion and accuracy. A secondary goal was to determine the role of inherent object complexity on performance as measured by time to completion. In terms of accuracy, the results show no signicant differences between any of the presentations. However, they also show that subjects in the stereo condition were the slowest, with paper being slightly faster and non-stereo being the best overall. Further, an analysis of time (in seconds) per rotation reveals that the subjects in the stereo condition rotated the models less frequently than subjects in the non-stereo condition. In terms of inherent object complexity, larger amounts of space between parts of an object increases construction time. Advisors/Committee Members: Zimmerman, Guy.

▼ In this thesis, an automated technique, G-snake, for segmenting the coronal loops from intensity images of the Sun's corona is studied. G-snake involves use of the active contour model (snake) based on the Gaussian-like coronal loop cross-sectional intensity profiles. It also utilizes the principal component analysis in the snake process. We study the effectiveness of G-snake using synthetic datasets as well as real coronal images. Advisors/Committee Members: Lee, Dr. Jong Kwan.