User interface and function library for ground robot navigation

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017A web application user interface and function library were developed to enable a user to program a ground robot to navigate autonomously. The user interface includes modules for generating a grid of obstacles from a map image, setting waypoints for a path through the map, and programming a robot in a code editor to navigate autonomously. The algorithm used for navigation is an A* algorithm modified with obstacle padding to accommodate the width of the robot and path smoothing to simplify the paths. The user interface and functions were designed to be simple so that users without technical backgrounds can use them, and by doing so they can engage in the development process of human-centered robots. The navigation functions were successful in finding paths in test configurations, and the performance of the algorithms was fast enough for user interactivity up to a certain limit of grid cell sizes

User interface and function library for ground robot navigation

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017A web application user interface and function library were developed to enable a user to program a ground robot to navigate autonomously. The user interface includes modules for generating a grid of obstacles from a map image, setting waypoints for a path through the map, and programming a robot in a code editor to navigate autonomously. The algorithm used for navigation is an A* algorithm modified with obstacle padding to accommodate the width of the robot and path smoothing to simplify the paths. The user interface and functions were designed to be simple so that users without technical backgrounds can use them, and by doing so they can engage in the development process of human-centered robots. The navigation functions were successful in finding paths in test configurations, and the performance of the algorithms was fast enough for user interactivity up to a certain limit of grid cell sizes

Title IX: The End of Gender Discrimination?

Title IX has, in this day, become a topic that is both controversial and confusing. Nearly anyone in the United States today that is moderately well informed is able to relate something about Title IX and its effects. In response to an inquiry of the nature of Title IX, some would answer that Title lX is the law that requires colleges to have an equal number of athletics teams for men and women. Another person might answer that Title IX is a law that has promoted women\u27s sports to new heights, culminating in the American victory at the Women\u27s World Cup in 1999. A third person could reply that Title IX guarantees women the right to participate in athletics in college. Yet another person, in answer to the previous question, would angrily reply that Title IX is the thing that is rapidly, across the country, destroying men\u27s college athletic teams that produce little revenue, such as wrestling, swimming, and cross country. It is certain that Title IX produces a wide range of feeling from citizens across the country. Much of this wide range of feeling can be blamed on the common misinformation to be found everywhere, even in major media outlets. Proponents on both s ides of the issue strongly push the parts of Title IX law that reinforce their stance. The various sources for the regulations concerning Title IX law allow nearly everyone to be right in their opinion. It is only when one pieces together all the inputs to Title IX that a true understanding can begin to form. This study seeks to piece together this variety of information and form it into an understandable whole. It will also address the current state of affairs in Arkansas intercollegiate athletics, an arena that is not without its share of Title IX controversy. It is my hope that, at the end of this research, a more understandable and unbiased accounting of Title IX and its effects may be produced

Benefits of the Modern Classroom Project in High School Mathematics

Previous research has shown that mathematical self-efficacy is positively correlated with mathematical achievement. However, in a high school classroom setting, teachers’ effectiveness varies based on experience, education, and how they incorporate certain pedagogical practices. The Modern Classroom Project was designed to have teachers integrate self-paced learning, mastery-based learning, metacognition, and blended instructions all within one classroom; with an emphasis placed on allowing students the opportunity to understand a particular skill before attempting the next skill. Discovering what components of the Modern Classroom Project enhances student’s self-efficacy score, and mathematical achievement was the focus of the study. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was conducted in a high school geometry course with the research participants being in 8th grade. There were two stages of research for this study. The first phase was assessing students’ self-efficacy and mathematical achievement skills. Upon reviewing those scores phase two consisted of interviewing students who fell into one of the four categories high performance/high self-efficacy (High P/High SE), low performance/low self-efficacy (Low P/Low SE), high performance/low self-efficacy (High P/Low SE), or low performance/high self-efficacy (Low P/High SE). Upon the completion of the interviews, they were analyzed by the researcher and codes were established to determine what factors could contribute to a higher self-efficacy and mathematical achievement score. Those aspects included self-paced learning, collaboration, academic feedback, and goal setting. This quantitative and qualitative study found that there was an increase in students’ mathematical achievement and self-efficacy scores for students who participated in the Modern Classroom Project. The implications of these results could help high school teachers identify practices that allow students to enhance their learning and feel more confident in their ability

Promoting Student Success: A Program Evaluation of A Ninth Grade Transition Program

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to evaluate the impact of Morrison High School’s ninth grade transition program, the Freshman Academy, on student outcomes. Based on the outcomes, decisions will be made to determine if the Freshman Academy is meeting students’ needs or if the program elements need to be revisited to improve student achievement. Participants included teachers, school counselors, and administrators at Morrison High School in southeastern Virginia. The study employed the product component of the CIPP model of program evaluation to guide the data collection and to determine the merit, worth, and significance of the program. Quantitative data were collected using student outcome data based on GPA, attendance rates, number of discipline referrals, pass rates on Virginia Standards of Learning End of Course tests, and credits earned. Qualitative data were collected based on teacher, school counselor, and administrator interviews. Successes and challenges of the program as well as areas of recommended improvement are detailed in this study. Analysis of student outcome data revealed that students participating in the program are consistently meeting the benchmark intended outcomes for attendance, discipline, and credits earned and most students are passing the Algebra I and World Geography SOLs during the last year included in this study. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of the program elements can only assist teams in providing stronger transition programs to help students achieve the intended outcomes. Recommendations for future research and program improvement include collaboration between the Freshman Academy teachers and administrators with the eighth grade teachers and administrators at the feeder middle schools, developing a summer bridge program to target at-risk students, and increasing parental involvement and seeking their feedback on the Freshman Academy

THE TREATMENT OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE IN RELATION TO MULTIPLE THERAPIES AND THE FUTURE

Parkinson’s disease has become a growing issue worldwide and has yet to be presented with a cure. Various treatment methods have been introduced that include physical exercise, genetic therapy, pharmacological treatment, and/or alternative methods. An extended literature review was conducted evaluating numerous articles and focus was given to an ongoing research project in an effort to present current information. As a result, various routes of effective treatment have been evaluated for treating Parkinson’s diseases by observing if symptoms or the progression/prevention of the disease is hindered/reduced. Thus, a summary is given concerning what methods are effective in treating the disease. Regarding the future, suggestions are given considering what can be done to improve current methods and what other opportunities may be available. In all, this thesis presents a discussion of Parkinson’s disease in terms of its history, current methods of treatment, and future studies

ATMSeer: Increasing Transparency and Controllability in Automated Machine Learning

To relieve the pain of manually selecting machine learning algorithms and tuning hyperparameters, automated machine learning (AutoML) methods have been developed to automatically search for good models. Due to the huge model search space, it is impossible to try all models. Users tend to distrust automatic results and increase the search budget as much as they can, thereby undermining the efficiency of AutoML. To address these issues, we design and implement ATMSeer, an interactive visualization tool that supports users in refining the search space of AutoML and analyzing the results. To guide the design of ATMSeer, we derive a workflow of using AutoML based on interviews with machine learning experts. A multi-granularity visualization is proposed to enable users to monitor the AutoML process, analyze the searched models, and refine the search space in real time. We demonstrate the utility and usability of ATMSeer through two case studies, expert interviews, and a user study with 13 end users.Comment: Published in the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2019, Glasgow, Scotland U

Moving Targets: Geographically Routed Human Movement Networks

We introduce a new communication paradigm, Human-to-human Mobile Ad hoc Networking (HuManet), that exploits smartphone capabilities and human behavior to create decentralized networks for smartphone-to-smartphone message delivery. HuManets support stealth command-and-control messaging for mobile BotNets, covert channels in the presence of an observer who monitors all cellular communication, and distributed protocols for querying the state or content of targeted mobile devices. In this paper, we introduce techniques for constructing HumaNets and describe protocols for efficiently routing and addressing messages. In contrast to flooding or broadcast schemes that saturate the network and aggressively consume phone resources (e.g., batteries), our protocols exploit human mobility patterns to significantly increase communication efficiency while limiting the exposure of HuManets to mobile service providers. Our techniques leverage properties of smartphones – in particular, their highly synchronized clocks and ability to discern location information – to construct location profiles for each device. HuManets’ fully-distributed and heuristic-based routing protocols route messages towards phones with location profiles that are similar to those of the intended receiver, enabling efficient message delivery with limited effects to end-to-end latency