A communication model of broadcast in wormhole-routed networks on-chip

This paper presents a novel analytical model to compute communication latency of broadcast as the most fundamental collective communication operation. The novelty of the model lies in its ability to predict the broadcast communication latency in wormhole-routed architectures employing asynchronous multi-port routers scheme. The model is applied to the Quarc NoC and its validity is verified by comparing the model predictions against the results obtained from a discrete-event simulator developed using OMNET++

Parents Accidentally Substitute Similar Sounding Sibling Names More Often then Dissimilar Names

Zenzi M. Griffin, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of AmericaZenzi M. Griffin, Thomas Wangerman, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of AmericaWhen parents select similar sounding names for their children, do they set themselves up for more speech errors in the future? Questionnaire data from 334 respondents suggest that they do. Respondents whose names shared initial or final sounds with a sibling’s reported that their parents accidentally called them by the sibling’s name more often than those without such name overlap. Having a sibling of the same gender, similar appearance, or similar age was also associated with more frequent name substitutions. Almost all other name substitutions by parents involved other family members and over 5% of respondents reported a parent substituting the name of a pet, which suggests a strong role for social and situational cues in retrieving personal names for direct address. To the extent that retrieval cues are shared with other people or animals, other names become available and may substitute for the intended name, particularly when names sound similar.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0318456. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.PsychologyEmail: [email protected]

Challenges of deploying a scalable user generated content platform for young people

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 39).ScratchR, a user generated content management platform, was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. ScratchR lets users share projects developed with the Scratch programming language. This thesis involves technical improvements made to ScratchR from August 2007 to August 2008. Improvements include the addition of a comment reply system, the improvement of the gallery system, the addition of AJAX functionality, the creation of administration tools and the addition of a peer review system for comments and tags. These features augment the user experience of the Scratch online community by improving usability and by creating a friendlier online learning environment.by Han Xu.M.Eng

Improving driving training with a handheld performance support system

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. [39]).The handheld computer Driver Trainer application is an element of a new training program by the transportation company to improve the safety of new truck drivers. Its aim is to aid trainers objectively evaluate truck drivers in the on-the-road driving portion of the newly planned training centers using the custom handheld device. The application will automate part of the evaluation process by using Telematics data to find driver mistakes, and to simplify the recording process for non-telematics related incidents. This thesis discusses the design of the support system and the interface of the handheld computer application.by Xia Liu.M.Eng

Electric vehicle drive-by-wire solution for distributed steering, braking and throttle control

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.In this paper, we propose CityCarControl, a system to manage the steering, braking, and throttle of a new class of intra-city electric vehicles. These vehicles have a focus on extreme light-weight and a small parking footprint. In order to maximize maneuverability within a city environment, we show the feasibility of omnidirectional steering, and the integration of a folding chassis. Furthermore, we apply traditionally programming best-practice techniques to simplify the design of the control system. Specifically, we present the concept of a modular, fail-silent wheel-robot with a standardized API responsible for controlling steering, braking and throttle within the vehicle.by Thomas B. Brown.M.Eng

Supply chain strategy in post-earthquake Haiti

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. [41]-[42]).Introduction: Partners In Health (PIH) is an international, non-profit healthcare organization with operations in several countries on multiple continents. PIH focuses on providing healthcare treatment to people living in some of the poorest places in the world, and has been operating in Haiti since 1985. At that time, PIH established a small community clinic in the central Haiti village of Cange. Today that facility has grown to become an entire medical complex, featuring a 104-bed, full-service hospital with two operating rooms, adult and pediatric wards, and clinics treating a variety of diseases and issues, from women's health to infectious diseases. In addition, Zamni Lasante ("Partners In Health" in Haitian Creyeol) has also expanded its operations to 11 other sites across Haiti's Central Plateau and beyond (Figure 1). Today, ZL ranks as one of the largest nongovernmental health care providers in Haiti - serving a catchment area of 1.2 million across the Central Plateau and the Lower Artibonite. ZL employs over 4,000 people, almost all of them Haitians, including doctors, nurses and community health workers (Zamni Lasante/ Haiti). From its beginnings 25 years ago, PIH/ZL has grown tremendously, and recent years have been no exception. Since 2004, patient encounters have increased almost threefold, from 0.9 million to 2.6 million, and the number of clinical sites has almost doubled. This growth has corresponded to an increase in drugs and supplies. In 2006, approximately 1000 m3 of drugs and supplies were moved through the system. Only two years later, in 2008, that number had more than doubled to 2200 m3 . This significant increase has greatly strained the underlying supply chain.by Scott C. Alexander.M.Eng.in Logistic

Intent based contextual morphing on mobile devices using localized keyword distributions

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 45).With the rise of smart phones integrated with GPS devices, we have seen the advent of location-based contextual services. "Contextual" in this sense, refers to a simple query of nearby points of interest based on the current location. This type of filtering is but the most rudimentary of what can be done with such information. Depending on if the user is at the location because of recreation or work, the phone should provide varying services appropriate for that purpose. In this thesis, I present a technique to perform inference on user purpose and an implementation of that technique in a demonstration application called Concierge. Concierge showcases how purpose can be used to provide a compelling, personal mobile experience. The application uses a Bayesian inference system with Gittins index utilizing location, past behavior, search queries, as well as other data present on the phone to make an assessment about the user's purpose. Using this data, the application assembles the most relevant applications, offers deals and discounts for appropriate nearby businesses, and shows information about the user's friends and their statues. With Concierge, the most interesting content simply appears without any user input; hence the Zero Touch Experience. I discuss how such an inference system is designed and how it was implemented in a first-stage demonstration for France Telecom/Orange and then explore the implications as it pertains to mobile applications, mobile advertisement, and social interaction.by Jong-Moon Kim.M.Eng

Efficient coordinate descent for ranking with domination loss

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38).We define a new batch coordinate-descent ranking algorithm based on a domination loss, which is designed to rank a small number of positive examples above all negatives, with a large penalty on false positives. Its objective is to learn a linear ranking function for a query with labeled training examples in order to rank documents. The derived single-coordinate updates scale linearly with respect to the number of examples. We investigate a number of modifications to the basic algorithm, including regularization, layers of examples, and feature induction. The algorithm is tested on multiple datasets and problem settings, including Microsoft's LETOR dataset, the Corel image dataset, a Google image dataset, and Reuters RCV1. Specific results vary by problem and dataset, but the algorithm generally performed similarly to existing algorithms when rated by average precision and precision at top k. It does not train as quickly as online algorithms, but offers extensions to multiple layers, and perhaps most importantly, can be used to produce extremely sparse weight vectors. When trained with feature induction, it achieves similarly competitive performance but with much more compact models.by Mark A. Stevens.M.Eng

Future scenarios for green chemical supply chains

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-54).We live in an age where industrial chemicals are central to the modem economy serving as the basis for all man-made fibers, life-science chemicals and consumer products. Owing to globalization, the industry has grown to extend its presence all over the world. Given the heavy manufacturing base and large distribution networks, the underlying supply chains are a critical component for the chemical industry. The chemical industry is capital intensive and most strategic decisions taken by firms in this industry have long-term impacts. As such, any uncertainty in the environment that affects these strategic decisions in supply chains needs to be understood before committing to the assets. In particular, sustainability related concerns have risen in importance in the past decade, and are likely to be important in the next decade (and beyond). In this thesis, we use scenario planning to understand the impact of sustainability related factors on Chemical supply chains for the year 2025. Using the literature in the field of long-range planning for the chemical industry, supply chain sustainability and scenario planning, and interviews with several experts in industry and academia, we developed three scenarios that we feel will be most applicable to understand the implications of a rather ambiguous issue of "sustainability" for chemical supply chains. Each of the three scenarios offers our end users -planners in the corporate supply chain strategy group - a framework to think about a complete and consistent set of world views regarding sustainability in which the industry must thrive.by Vibhu Arora and Sekhar Putcha.M.Eng.in Logistic