Game or Simulation Implementation

Student will design/will have previously designed a video game or simulation, including any necessary modeling and mechanics. They will then implement the game using their preferred language (although Unity or Python will be strongly recommended). While this project is written with a traditional video game in mind, students may also consider implementing a serious game (a game that attempts to teach something) or a simulation under very similar guidelines. This specific project can be done in association with a professor from IMED and it may be recommended that the student undertake a Project I designing the game specifically with an IMED design expert. This project COULD be undertaken individually or as a grou

Manually Coding a Neural Network

Student will study/will have previously studied the basis of neural networks including perceptrons, layering, gradient descent, and backpropogation. They will then implement one or more perceptron types (step, linear, sigmoid, tanh) and implement a simple neural network. This specific project can be tackled from either a machine learning or software engineering approach (using object-oriented design principles)

Enterprise-Level Database Implementation

The student will design/already have designed an application requiring a robust database solution. This application may be a website, an app, a game, or a traditional application. The student will then design and implement a normalized database to accommodate the application using best practices, including assuring database normalization and designing and implementing appropriate stored procedures and function

Phase II SpacEscape Mobile Game for Learning Space Science 2020 Report

This project is the phase II of the awarded 2019 Presidential Research Grant Project SpacEscape (PRG 2020-07; https://www.harrisburgu.edu/spacescape/). By working with teachers and students from Mechanicsburg School District, Susquehanna Township Middle school, Crossroads Middle School, and Pequea Valley High school, the research team published the mobile science learning game SpacEscape to Google Play Store, introduced the game to more than 1,000 middle school students even during the pandemic, collected more data to understand how learner conduct problem-solving using mobile games, and presented the research at the Games for Change 2020 Virtual Conference to more than 500 attendees. In this report, we will share the activities, findings, and future research of the project

SERT: A Transfomer Based Model for Spatio-Temporal Sensor Data with Missing Values for Environmental Monitoring

Environmental monitoring is crucial to our understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. The availability of large-scale spatio-temporal data from sources such as sensors and satellites allows us to develop sophisticated models for forecasting and understanding key drivers. However, the data collected from sensors often contain missing values due to faulty equipment or maintenance issues. The missing values rarely occur simultaneously leading to data that are multivariate misaligned sparse time series. We propose two models that are capable of performing multivariate spatio-temporal forecasting while handling missing data naturally without the need for imputation. The first model is a transformer-based model, which we name SERT (Spatio-temporal Encoder Representations from Transformers). The second is a simpler model named SST-ANN (Sparse Spatio-Temporal Artificial Neural Network) which is capable of providing interpretable results. We conduct extensive experiments on two different datasets for multivariate spatio-temporal forecasting and show that our models have competitive or superior performance to those at the state-of-the-art.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

The influence of organic alkalinity on the carbonate system in coastal waters

Total alkalinity (TA) is one of the four main carbonate system variables and is a conventionally measured parameter used to characterise marine water carbonate chemistry. It is an important indicator of a waterbody's buffering capacity and a measure of its ability to resist acidification, a matter of growing concern in the marine environment. Although TA is primarily associated with the inorganic components of seawater such as bicarbonate, there is a growing consensus that dissolved organic matter (DOM) can significantly contribute to TA in coastal waters. This organic fraction of TA (OrgAlk) is typically deemed negligible and is not accounted for in conventional TA expressions. However, omission of OrgAlk can lead to the propagation of errors in subsequent carbonate system calculations and to misinterpretation of key carbonate chemistry descriptors such as calcium carbonate saturation states. Here we provide an overview of OrgAlk contributions to TA and investigate the implications of its omission in carbonate system studies conducted in coastal waters. We examine the prevalence of OrgAlk across both coastal and pelagic waters using publicly available carbonate system data products, such as GLODAP and GOMECC. Current measures to account for, incorporate and characterise the contribution of OrgAlk to TA are also critically examined

חוקוק – 2014: דוח ראשוני [Huqoq – 2014: Preliminary Report]

During the month of June 2014, a fourth season of excavations was conducted at Horbat Huqoq in eastern Galilee (License No. G-16/2014; map ref. 245198/754556; Magness 2012; Magness et al. 2013; Magness et al. 2014). The excavations were undertaken and underwritten by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brigham Young University (Utah), Trinity University (Texas) and the University of Toronto (Canada). Additional funding was provided by Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.), The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology (S. Bishop) and private donors. The excavation was directed by J. Magness, with the assistance of S. Kisilevitz (assistant director), M. Golan (administration), C. Spigel, M. Grey, and B. Gordon (area supervision), T. De’adle (consultant on the modern village), B. Coussens (assistant area supervisor), J. Bucko (surveying), J. Haberman (field photography), M. Robinson-Mohr (registration), D. Schindler (ceramics), K. Britt (mosaics), M. Belmaker (rodent remains), J. George (paleobotany), C. Swan (glass), N. Elkins (numismatics), P. Flesher (computer data and educational program), R. Mohr (drawing), V. Pirsky (drafting), O. Cohen (site conservation) and M. Lavie (cleaning and conservation of artifacts). Most of the volunteers were undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S.A. and Canada

Geochemical mapping of a blue carbon zone: investigation of the influence of riverine input on tidal affected zones in Bull Island

Bull Island (BI) is a coastal sand spit that formed as an unintended consequence of the construction of two walls, built over 200 years ago in Dublin Port, Ireland to alleviate silting of the shipping route. A large lagoon, on the land side of the island was separated in 1964 by the construction of a causeway to produce two separate lagoons that are now impacted by different water sources. Here we investigate the influence of riverine inputs on the two adjacent but unconnected tidal wetland lagoons. The South lagoon (SL) is supplied by tidal water passing through the eutrophic R. Liffey and R. Tolka estuary zones, while the North Lagoon (NL) is supplied by seawater and to a lesser degree, freshwater from the R. Liffey plume. Within each of these zones a clear ecotone exists between the mudflats (MF) and vegetated saltmarshes (SM). We determined the quantity and distributions of bulk geochemical characteristics across BI’s sediments, including total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), metals, and also, 16 individual polyromantic hydrocarbon’s (PAH’s) as an indication of anthropogenic input. Primary focus was placed on studying the blue carbon sediments of the lagoon zones. Significant differences in analytical results showed major influences exerted on sediment geochemistry within each lagoon. This study highlights the ability of a functioning coastal wetland to flourish and sequester elevated levels of carbon, metals and pollutants under the constraints of increasing anthropogenic impact. As the inadvertent result of geo-engineering, BI and its environs is a very important site to investigate the potential of artificially constructed wetlands to act as blue carbon reservoirs