ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Preparing for professional practice: course evaluation and implications
Authors: J. Turns
Venue: Proceedings of the 30th Annual Frontiers in Education - Volume 02 (2000)

One goal of engineering schools is to prepare students to become engineering practitioners. At the University of Washington, we have been conducting a variety of research projects devoted to the concurrent goals of (a) articulating what it means to prepare students to become engineering practitioners, (b) assessing students' preparedness for being engineering practitioners, and (c) designing and evaluating activities that promote student preparation in areas that are potentially overlooked in traditional curricula. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of a two-credit course designed during the summer of 1999 and taught during the fall of 1999. In particular, we describe the motivations behind the course design, the primary components of the course design, and the outcome of an empirical and extensive student-based evaluation of the course. In addition, we discuss the possible implications of the evaluation results.
Simultaneous English-Japanese spoken language translation based on incremental dependency parsing and transfer
Authors: Koichiro Ryu, Shigeki Matsubara, Yasuyoshi Inagaki
Venue: Proceedings of the COLING/ACL on Main conference poster sessions (2006)

This paper proposes a method for incrementally translating English spoken language into Japanese. To realize simultaneous translation between languages with different word order, such as English and Japanese, our method utilizes the feature that the word order of a target language is flexible. To resolve the problem of generating a grammatically incorrect sentence, our method uses dependency structures and Japanese dependency constraints to determine the word order of a translation. Moreover, by considering the fact that the inversion of predicate expressions occurs more frequently in Japanese spoken language, our method takes advantage of a predicate inversion to resolve the problem that Japanese has the predicate at the end of a sentence. Furthermore, our method includes the function of canceling an inversion by restating a predicate when the translation is incomprehensible due to the inversion. We implement a prototype translation system and conduct an experiment with all 578 sentences in the ATIS corpus. The results indicate improvements in comparison to two other methods.
Congestion-aware video streaming over peer-to-peer networks
Authors: Bernd Girod
Venue:  (2006)

Peer-to-peer video streaming will enable large scale television distribution, in real time, over the Internet. In this type of system, viewers contribute their resources to the network to act as relays for the media streams and no dedicated infrastructure is required. As packets are exchanged between unreliable peers, it is particularly challenging to achieve high video quality and low end-to-end delay. The contribution of this work is to present adaptive video coding and streaming techniques which improve the performance of conventional client-server systems and extend them to enhance peer-to-peer multicast. In throughput-limited environments, network congestion precludes low-latency applications, such as interactive video streaming. We analyze this effect through a rate-distortion model which captures the impact of self-generated congestion on the decoded video quality of a stream. In addition, we introduce the concept of congestion-distortion optimized (CoDiO) packet scheduling, which determines which packets should be sent, and at which time, to achieve the highest decoded video quality while avoiding the creation of unnecessary congestion. We analyze the error-resilience properties of H.264 SP and SI frames, which provide the ability of creating flexible pre-encoded representations where the robustness can be adapted to varying network conditions. We derive the coding efficiency of these pictures and compare it to that of I and P pictures. We present an adaptive SI insertion algorithm and identify scenarios where it is beneficial compared to streaming with periodic I frames. Distortion-optimized packet scheduling is extended to the case of peer-to-peer multicast, where viewers are used as real-time relays for a media stream. We present a prioritization scheme which transmits in priority the most important video packets to the receivers which will serve, in turn, the largest set of peers. This algorithm is combined with a distortion-optimized retransmission scheduler which operates at the receivers and adapts to the video content to request the most important missing packets first. Experiments carried out over simulated networks with hundreds of peers show the advantage of adaptive scheduling for low-latency streaming.
Scalability Modeling For Deterministic Particle Transport Solvers
Authors: Mohamed Dahmani, Robert Roy
Venue: International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications (2006)

In this paper, we propose a new parallel solver for the large-scale 3D neutron transport problems used in nuclear reactor simulations. Modern large-memory computers have made possible direct application of transport methods to large-scale computational models. However, many numerical acceleration techniques common to lattice transport codes are not applicable to heterogeneous geometry, especially high-dominance ratio when eigenvalue problems are solved. Consequently, large heterogeneous reactor problems have remained computationally intensive and impractical for routine engineering applications. Based on the characteristics method, this new code solves the transport equation by following neutron tracks. Due to the excessive number of these tracks in the demanding context of 3D large-scale calculations, the parallelization of the solver is the only way to obtain a fast solution. The parallelization is based on distributing a group of tracks, generated by a common ray tracing procedure, on several processors. An analytical model for the communication/ computation ratio is presented in order to predict the specific performance on different kind of architectures. A scalability analysis based on the isoefficiency function is performed on our parallel code when we increase the size of the problem and the number of processors. Tests are done to validate the analytical model by comparing the results to those given by the empirical tests. Results show that our parallel code is scalable and portable.
On estimating random amplitude chirp signals
Authors: O. Besson
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 03 (1999)

This paper considers the problem of estimating the parameters of chirp signals with randomly time-varying amplitude. Two methods for solving this problem are presented. First, a nonlinear least-squares approach (NLS) is proposed. It is shown that by minimizing the NLS criterion with respect to all samples of the time-varying amplitude, the problem reduces to a two-dimensional maximization problem. A theoretical analysis of the NLS estimator is presented and an expression for its asymptotic variance is derived. It is shown that the NLS estimator has a variance very close to the Cramer-Rao bound. The second approach combines the principles behind the high-order ambiguity function (HAF) and the NLS approach. It provides a computationally simpler but suboptimum estimator. A statistical analysis of this estimator is also carried out. Numerical examples attest to the validity of the theoretical analysis and establish a comparison between the two proposed methods.
From prosodic trees to syntactic trees
Authors: Andi Wu, Kirk Lowery
Venue: Proceedings of the COLING/ACL on Main conference poster sessions (2006)

This paper describes an ongoing effort to parse the Hebrew Bible. The parser consults the bracketing information extracted from the cantillation marks of the Masoetic text. We first constructed a cantillation treebank which encodes the prosodic structures of the text. It was found that many of the prosodic boundaries in the cantillation trees correspond, directly or indirectly, to the phrase boundaries of the syntactic trees we are trying to build. All the useful boundary information was then extracted to help the parser make syntactic decisions, either serving as hard constraints in rule application or used probabilistically in tree ranking. This has greatly improved the accuracy and efficiency of the parser and reduced the amount of manual work in building a Hebrew treebank.
Improved watermark robustness via spectrum equalization
Authors: Te-Shen Liang
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2000. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 04 (2000)

We describe and analyze an effective solution that can improve robustness for a large class of transform-domain watermarking algorithms. We present the concept of spectrum equalization for image watermarking and discuss its rationale and advantages. We demonstrate that if the watermark signal is embedded in a host image having a flat or equalized spectrum, the overall performance of the underlying algorithm can be significantly enhanced. The proposed idea is exemplified using a well-known spread-spectrum approach, and the experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness.
What Can the \pi-calculus Tell Us About the Mondex Purse System?
Authors: Cliff B. Jones, Ken G. Pierce
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Conference on Engineering Complex Computer Systems (2007)

This paper looks at the wider system surrounding a "Mondex" electronic purse. It does this from a process-oriented perspective using the \pi-calculus. Our model includes the issuing of purses by an authorised bank and the decisions of cardholders to participate in transactions.
Privacy-Preserving Data Linkage and Geocoding: Current Approaches and Research Directions
Authors: Peter Christen
Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Data Mining - Workshops (2006)

Data linkage is the task of matching and aggregating records that relate to the same entity from one or more data sets. A related technique is geocoding, the matching of ad- dresses to their geographic locations. As data linkage is often based on personal information (like names and ad- dresses), privacy and confidentiality are of paramount im- portance. In this paper we present an overview of current approaches to privacy-preserving data linkage, and dis- cuss their limitations. Using real-world scenarios we illus- trate the significance of developing improved techniques for automated, large scale and distributed privacy-preserving linking and geocoding. We then discuss four core research areas that need to be addressed in order to make linking and geocoding of large confidential data collections feasible.
VR Interaction in Real-Time between Avatar with Voice and Gesture Recognition System
Authors: Shunji Uchino, Norihiro Abe, Kazuaki Tanaka, Tetsuya Yagi, Hirokazu Taki, Shoujie He
Venue: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops - Volume 02 (2007)

In this research, a dialog environment between human and virtual agent has been constructed. With the commercial off-the-shelf VR technologies, special devices such as data glove have to be used for the interaction. But this is difficult to manipulate objects. If there is a helper who has direct access to objects in a virtual space, we may ask him. The question, however, is how to communicate with the helper. This paper presents a solution to the question. The basic idea is to utilize speech recognition and gesture recognition systems. Experimental results have proved the effectiveness of the approach in terms of facilitating man-machine interaction and communication. The environment constructed in this research allows a user to communicate by talking and showing gestures to a personified agent in virtual environment. A user can use his/her finger to point at a virtual object and ask the agent to manipulate the virtual object.
An introduction to computing for engineers: new approaches to content and pedagogy
Authors: J. L. Zachary
Venue: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Frontiers in Education - Volume 01 (1996)

The descriptive and analytical powers of computation must be exploited in engineering education. Unfortunately, the introductory programming classes that are taken by engineering majors often suffer from two failings. First, they frequently ignore the context in which programming is actually done. Second, they are most often designed for students planning to major in computer science. We have developed a new introductory programming course designed expressly for engineering majors. It is supported by the recently-published textbook Introduction to Scientific Programming and by a Web site containing interactive online material.
A Noise Fading Technique for Images Highly Corrupted with Impulse Noise
Authors: S. Indu, Chaveli Ramesh
Venue: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computing: Theory and Applications (2007)

A novel noise fading technique based on noise detection and median filtering is proposed in this paper. This technique can be used for denoising the images extremely corrupted with impulse noise. This paper introduces a spike detection technique (SDT) and pixel restoring median filter (PRMF) for denoising the corrupted images. The SDT is used for discriminating between corrupted and uncorrupted image pixels. The corrupted pixels are restored using PRMF technique. Our iterative denoising technique is repeated until the corrupted pixels in the recovered image reduce to zero. The performance of our denoising scheme is evaluated with salt and pepper noise and also with random impulse noise for different standard images. It is observed that the proposed denoising scheme outperforms all existing impulse-denoising schemes. This technique can also be used for color image impulse noise removal. This technique can remove very high noise up to 98% and the images denoised with our method shows improvement in terms of visual quality, PSNR value and mutual information. This scheme prevents image blurring and is computationally simple. Hence it is suitable for real-time applications.
Neutrality and ruggedness in robot landscapes
Authors: T. Smith, A. Philippides, P. Husbands, M. O'Shea
Venue: Proceedings of the Evolutionary Computation on 2002. CEC '02. Proceedings of the 2002 Congress - Volume 02 (2002)

The twin fitness landscape properties of neutrality and ruggedness are crucial to the dynamics of evolutionary optimisation. In this paper, we investigate the interplay between these two properties in a complex evolutionary robotics fitness landscape, through the introduction of four robot controller architecture models; the GasNet, uniform, dispersed and plexus models. We show that, in isolation, neither added neutrality or decreased ruggedness (coupling) in the models produces increase in the speed of evolution. However, both effects in conjunction produce a significant increase in the speed of evolution.
API Design Matters
Authors: Michi Henning
Venue: Queue (2007)

Why changing APIs might become a criminal offense. After more than 25 years as a software engineer, I still find myself underestimating the time it will take to complete a particular programming task. Sometimes, the resulting schedule slip is caused by my own shortcomings: as I dig into a problem, I simply discover that it is a lot harder than I initially thought, so the problem takes longer to solvesuch is life as a programmer. Just as often I know exactly what I want to achieve and how to achieve it, but it still takes far longer than anticipated. When that happens, it is usually because I am struggling with an API that seems to do its level best to throw rocks in my path and make my life difficult. What I find telling is that, after 25 years of progress in software engineering, this still happens. Worse, recent APIs implemented in modern programming languages make the same mistakes as their two-decade-old counterparts written in C. There seems to be something elusive about API design that, despite many years of progress, we have yet to master.
hMouse: Head Tracking Driven Virtual Computer Mouse
Authors: Yun Fu, Thomas S. Huang
Venue: Proceedings of the Eighth IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision (2007)

A novel head tracking driven camera mouse system, called "hMouse", is developed for manipulating hand-free perceptual user interfaces. The system consists of a robust real-time head tracker, a head pose/motion estimator, and a virtual mouse control module. For the hMouse tracker, we propose a 2D detection/tracking complementary switching strategy with an interactive loop. Based on the reliable tracking results, hMouse calculates the user's head roll, tilt, yaw, scaling, horizontal, and vertical motion for further mouse control. Cursor position is navigated and fine tuned by calculating the relative position of tracking window in image space and the user's head tilt or yaw rotation. After mouse cursor is navigated to the desired location, head roll rotation triggers virtual mouse button clicks. Experimental results demonstrate that hMouse succeeds under the circumstances of user jumping, extreme movement, large degree rotation, turning around, hand/object occlusion, part face out of camera shooting region, and multi-user occlusion. It provides alternative solutions for convenient device control, which encourages the application of interactive computer games, machine guidance, robot control, and machine access for disabilities and elders.
Self-stabilizing protocols for distributed systems
Authors: Pradip Srimani
Venue:  (2006)

Self-stabilizing is a paradigm for providing fault tolerance in distributed systems. Self-stabilizing systems converge to legitimate states from any given initial state. The objective of a self-stabilizing protocol is to reach a legitimate state having some desired global property and to do this using only local knowledge. Five self-stabilizing protocols are presented, including Synchronous Minimal Dominating Set, Tree Leader Election, Global Offensive/Defensive Alliance, Minimal Weakly Connected Dominating Set, and Publish/Subscribe in P2P networks.
Defeating TCP/IP stack fingerprinting
Authors: Matthew Smart, G. Robert Malan, Farnam Jahanian
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th conference on USENIX Security Symposium - Volume 9 (2000)

This paper describes the design and implementation of a TCP/IP stack fingerprint scrubber. The fingerprint scrubber is a new tool to restrict a remote user's ability to determine the operating system of another host on the network. Allowing entire subnetworks to be remotely scanned and characterized opens up security vulnerabilities. Specifically, operating system exploits can be efficiently run against a pre-scanned network because exploits will usually only work against a specific operating system or software running on that platform. The fingerprint scrubber works at both the network and transport layers to convert ambiguous traffic from a heterogeneous group of hosts into sanitized packets that do not reveal clues about the hosts' operating systems. This paper evaluates the performance of a fingerprint scrubber implemented in the FreeBSD kernel and looks at the limitations of this approach.
Homography-based 2D Visual Tracking and Servoing
Authors: S. Benhimane, E. Malis
Venue: International Journal of Robotics Research (2007)

The objective of this paper is to propose a new homography-based approach to image-based visual tracking and servoing. The visual tracking algorithm proposed in the paper is based on a new efficient second-order minimization method. Theoretical analysis and comparative experiments with other tracking approaches show that the proposed method has a higher convergence rate than standard first-order minimization techniques. Therefore, it is well adapted to real-time robotic applications. The output of the visual tracking is a homography linking the current and the reference image of a planar target. Using the homography, a task function isomorphic to the camera pose has been designed. A new image-based control law is proposed which does not need any measure of the 3D structure of the observed target (e.g. the normal to the plane). The theoretical proof of the existence of the isomorphism between the task function and the camera pose and the theoretical proof of the stability of the control law are provided. The experimental results, obtained with a 6 d.o.f. robot, show the advantages of the proposed method with respect to the existing approaches.
High Performance Evolutionary Computing
Authors: Edwin Nunez, Edwin Roger Banks, Paul Agarwal, Marshall McBride, Ron Liedel
Venue: Proceedings of the HPCMP Users Group Conference (2006)

Evolutionary computing (EC) comprises a family of global optimization techniques that start with a random population of potential solutions and then evolve more fit solutions over many generations. To accomplish this increase in fitness, EC uses basic operations like selection, recombination, and mutation. Because of its compute- intensive nature, EC research is an obvious candidate for hosting on HPC clusters or systems. EC requires high performance computers (HPC) because the selection process needs to evaluate the fitness of each member of a population of solutions, so the more fit individuals may propagate their characteristics to the next generation of solutions. This requirement becomes even more acute because the evaluation process must be iterated over a very large number of generations. In this paper, we provide a general overview of EC, its applicability to a broad range of problems. In particular, we focus on some subclasses of EC known as genetic programming (GP), genetic algorithms (GA), hybrids, and other EC forms. This paper also discusses the architectural issues of hosting EC on a HPC cluster, and the related issue of population management. Two possible EC architectures are presented: (1) a single chromosome evaluator that treats a pool of cluster nodes as evaluators for an individual solution, and (2) a parallel evolver that manages a sub-population of solutions at each node. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach will be discussed. EC may be applied to a wide variety of problems. Applications of EC include schedule optimization, robotic navigation, image enhancement/processing, discrimination of buried unexploded ordnance, discovery of innovative electronic filter and controller designs, lens design optimization, radar response modeling, and many more. EC excels at solving high-dimensional and non-linear problems.
Implementation and Usage of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Authors: Frederick J. Riggins, Bill C. Hardgrave
Venue: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2007)

Whether to solve specific business problems or comply with trading partner mandates, many companies are now engaged in pilot projects using radio frequency identification (RFID). RFID dramatically increases the potential for organizations to collect data about any tagable entity, which has implications for supply chain logistics, customer relationship management, health care systems, human resource management, and privacy/intellectual property policies. However, in many cases the adoption issues and the business case are not well understood for this emerging technology. This mini-track includes three papers on the Implementation and Usage of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in today's organization and emphasizes the building of an on-going research tradition in this area.