The New Grid

The New Grid seeks to provide mobile users with an additional method for off-grid communication, or communication without connection to Internet infrastructure. The motivation for this project was to find another alternative to Internet-dependent communication. Current Internet infrastructure is antiquated; it is expensive to maintain and expand, it has numerous vulnerabilities and high-impact points of failure, and can be rendered unusable for lengthy periods of time by natural disasters or other catastrophes. This current grid will eventually need to be replaced by a more modern, scalable, and adaptive infrastructure. The results of the projects research showed that implementing a library to allow for the creation of mobile peer-to-peer mesh networks could serve as a starting point for a transition from current Internet infrastructure to a more scalable, adaptive, and reliable Internet- independent network grid. Development of The New Grid largely followed the Rational Unified Process, in which the development process is split into four phases: requirements gathering, system design, implementation, and testing. Most of fall quarter was spent outlining functional requirements for the system, designing possible methods of implementation, and researching similar solutions that seek to transition mass mobile communication to a newer, more modern network grid. The New Grid differs from similar solutions because it has been implemented as a modular library. Current systems that allow for off-grid mobile connection exist as independent applications with a defined context and predetermined usability scope. We, the design team, found that implementing the system in the form of a modular library has multiple benefits. Primarily, this implementation would allow The New Grid to be deployed as widely as possible. Developers can both write applications around our library as well as include specific modules into existing applications without impacting other modules or introducing additional overhead into a system. Another benefit of deploying the system as a modular library is adaptability. The current, initial stable build of The New Grid uses Bluetooth Low Energy as its backbone for facilitating communication within large networks of mobile devices; however, this library could use any existing or future communication protocol to facilitate connection as long as a hook is written to allow The New Grid to interface with that protocol. Thus, The New Grid is not limited by which connection protocols currently exist, a property that other similar systems do not possess. The New Grid can be used in any application that requires connection between users. The most common applications would likely be messaging, file sharing, or social networking. While developers may find a variety of uses for The New Grid, its primary purpose is to facilitate reliable connection and secure data transfer in an environment with a large user base. Achieving this goal was proven feasible through research and testing the library with a small cluster of Android devices communicating solely with Bluetooth Low Energy. Expanding this group of a few phones to a larger mesh network of hundreds of devices was shown to be feasible through testing the librarys algorithms and protocols on a large network of virtual devices. As long as developers seek to create applications that allow users to communicate independent of Internet infrastructure, The New Grid will allow smartphone users to communicate off-grid and hopefully spur a switch from infrastructure-dependent mobile communication to user-centric, adaptive, and flexible connection

Developing an Information System for Assistive Technology Apps

The goal of this project was to create an easy, accessible way for Seven Hills employees to find apps to assist the various needs of their clients. To accomplish this goal, we have created the following deliverables: an assistive technology (AT) apps database, and both written and video tutorials for the database. This system currently contains over four hundred apps that are searchable by various identifiers such as name, category, and disability to name a few. It also allows users to request new apps to be added, and allows administrators to edit and delete apps. Most of the research the staff conducts are through peer review, so the system also includes rankings and comments. The tutorials are for both users and administrators, and explain how to search, edit, and maintain the database

Graphical Representations of Security Settings in Android

abstract: On Android, existing security procedures require apps to request permissions for access to sensitive resources. Only when the user approves the requested permissions will the app be installed. However, permissions are an incomplete security mechanism. In addition to a user's limited understanding of permissions, the mechanism does not account for the possibility that different permissions used together have the ability to be more dangerous than any single permission alone. Even if users did understand the nature of an app's requested permissions, this mechanism is still not enough to guarantee that a user's information is protected. Applications can potentially send or receive sensitive information from other applications without the required permissions by using intents. In other words, applications can potentially collaborate in ways unforeseen by the user, even if the user understands the permissions of each app independently. In this thesis, we present several graph-based approaches to address these issues. We determine the permissions of an app and generate scores based on our assigned value of certain resources. We analyze these scores overall, as well as in the context of the app's category as determined by Google Play. We show that these scores can be used to identify overzealous apps, as well as apps that do not properly fit within their category. We analyze potential interactions between different applications using intents, and identify several promiscuous apps with low permission scores, showing that permissions alone are not sufficient to evaluate the security risks of an app. Our analyses can form the basis of a system to assist users in identifying apps that can potentially compromise user privacy.Dissertation/ThesisPermission Scores and List of Apps considered for each category.Masters Thesis Computer Science 201