Retired Projects These are projects that are complete, dormant or otherwise no longer considered to be among the active and living projects. Project: Network Modeling & Simulation Purpose: Develop approaches for modeling distributed networking communications and simulate the resulting network This project is mentioned here only as it relates to any support the ACT Lab can provide to the "real" project which is part of Villanova's Center for Excellence in Enterprise Technology (CEET). CEET runs, among its research efforts, a large project that uses modeling and simulation techniques for verification of complex communications architectures. Researchers: Nagesh Javali, Surya Kuchibhotla, Pavani Kolapalli, Tao Tao Applications: Large scale distributed communications Approach: Use Colored Petri Nets and other techniques.
Conferences:
Project: Internet Safety Purpose: Develop and present a live presentation and printed material to instruct parents about Internet Safety for the family Researchers: Tom Way Description: This research focuses on the development of a presentation and corresponding web site material for the instruction of parents in principles of Internet Safety. This is a key survival skill in this age of information overload and ready access to vast amounts of information. Often children are more Internet savvy than parents, and this research will attempt to make up for that gap in knowledge. Activities: An Internet Safety presentation is available for interested groups, and has been presented a number of times in the past. Companion web site: Dr. Way's Guide to Internet Safety Project: Game Programming Platform Purpose: Develop a ready-to-use Java game programming framework to enable students to explore game playing algorithms and concepts without the need to develop a complete game Researchers: Joe Distasio Applications: Computer game design and AI education Approach: The next generation of computer game programmers are in high school and college. This research reports on the development of a platform for teaching about many of the fundamental game design issues using an accessible and hands-on approach. This Java software provides a programmer interface and basic graphics framework for the development of and experimentation with fundamental algorithms of artificial intelligence and animation. It is targeted as a student's first exposure to game development. The software implements a very basic game, with a programmer interface that allows modules to be developed and replaced. Resources:
Tasks:
Project: Information & Computing Fluency in College Curriculum Purpose: Develop an introductory level college course in information and computing fluency Researchers: Computing Fluency Working Group at Villanova Applications: Education of students in vital life skills of information and computing fluency. Description: The project has a scope and reach far beyond the ACT Lab, with the above listed department working group bearing primary responsibility. The ACT Lab serves to support the efforts of this group. This research focuses on the development of an introductory level computer science course, targeted to a general college student population, that introduces the wide range of theories, concepts and practical skills needed to become an information fluent member of society. We are seeking funding to support the development of a CS0 information fluency course, which will cover topics applicable to all college students, including the theories and practices related to:
Proposed course name: CSC 1101 - "Information Technology" Potential funding: Villanova Vital Mini-grant, etc. Project: Highly Portable Disaster Recovery Network Backbones Purpose: Develop a portable wireless network backbone node that can be quickly, easily and inexpensively deployed in a disaster recovery or other time-critical or short-duration networking scenario. Researchers: Xavier Halloran Applications: Disaster recovery, temporary workplace network support, network maintenance support, remote and autonomous network backbone design. Approach: Customize off-the-shelf wireless routers by modifying control software and antenna design. Develop autonomous and low-power support using current battery and solar panel technology. Create model and simulation of node and network behavior and conduct field experiments using multiple units. Tasks:
Project: Partial Object Inlining Purpose: Explore partial inlining within object-oriented languages Researchers: Tom Way, Vijay Gehlot Applications: Compiler optimizations for high-performance computing Description: Similar in concept to Partial Inlining is the object-oriented approach called Partial Object Inlining. Plans are to extend our Partial Inlining research from C programs into Java and C++ in the near future. Research subprojects:
Papers:
Project: Finite State Machine Simulation Purpose: Develop an educational software tool for teaching students concepts of finite state machines Researchers: Tim White Description: The concept of a finite machine is applicable to many computer science disciplines, as it expresses computing at a very fundamental level. A useful tool to gain a deeper understanding of finite state machines and automata is to visualize them. When a student can build and then run an FSM, the ideas become concrete and learning is enhanced. This research is being done in collaboration with Tim White. This project involves the implementation of an intuitive graphical interface for designing and simulating an arbitrary finite state machine. The goal is the development of a Java program that students can download and use to help in learning in courses such as Discrete Structures, and to evaluate its value as an educational tool and write up the results of that evaluation as a research paper. Resources:
Project: Digital Image Measurement Tool Purpose: Develop a software tool for performing precise measurements within a digital image displayed on a computer Researchers: Michael Cianni Applications: Criminology and crime scene investigation, etc. Approach:
DIMT - the Digital Image Measurement Tool, an innovative application
designed by Michael Cianni. The tool enables easy measurement of digital
images (distances, areas, etc.) using a collection of virtual measurement
tools. This software tool has applicability to surveying, criminal
investigation, satellite and surveillance photo interpretation, to name just a
few. Current plans are to enhance to existing tool, and conduct experimental
research to measure the tools value in one or more of the applicable user
domains. Is a digital measuring tool a valuable aide? And if so, which fields
is it likely to benefit?
Cameras:
Project: Many-Core Architectures Purpose: Develop general purpose programming language for next-generation many-core systems, in collaboration with the Carnap Project a the Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering. Researchers: Tom Way Collaborators: Carnap Project, Steven Ericsson-Zenith, Shannon Bailey, Cameron McInally Applications: Compiler optimizations for high performance computing, machine description generation for reconfigurable computing. Description: Project has the aim of fully implementing a compiler for programming in Carnap, a general purpose programming language. Carnap introduces the concept of the process oriented programming model that enables programmers to distinguish between data structures and processes acting upon those structures. The primary goal of Carnap is to ease application programming for future many-core and many-many core systems. Carnap was designed by Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith, inventor of the EASE and occam programming languages, and was involved in creation of the MPI standard (ps). Resources
Project Component Overview
Final Stages of Compiler Development - Issues and Concerns
Current Research Tasks
updated: 10/01/09 actlab.csc.villanova.edu |