Education Research Using Data Mining and Machine Learning with Computer Science Undergraduates

In recent decades, we are witness to an explosion of technology use and integration of everyday life. The engine of technology application in every aspect of life is Computer Science (CS). Appropriate CS education to fulfill the demand from the workforce for graduates is a broad and challenging problem facing many universities. Research into this ‘supply–chain’ problem is a central focus of CS education research. As of late, Educational Data Mining (EDM) emerges as an area connecting CS education research with the goal to help students stay in their program, improve performance in their program, and graduate with a degree. We contribute to this work with several research studies and future work focusing on CS undergraduate students relating to their program success and course performance analyzed through the lens of data mining. We perform research into student success predictors beyond diversity and gender. We examine student behaviors in course load and completion. We study workforce readiness with creation of a new teaching strategy, its deployment in the classroom, and the analysis shows us relevant Software Engineering (SE) topics for computing jobs. We look at cognitive learning in the beginning CS course its relations to course performance. We use decision trees in machine learning algorithms to predict student success or failure of CS core courses using performance and semester span of core curriculum. These research areas refine pathways for CS course sequencing to improve retention, reduce time-to–graduation, and increase success in the work field

OPTIMAL IRRIGATION PIVOT LOCATION ON IRREGULARLY SHAPED FIELDS

Although annual rainfall in the Southeast is adequate, its distribution is a potential constraint to agricultural production. Farmers require production information concerning efficient use of irrigation technology adapted to regional growing conditions. Selection of optimal position, size, and number of pivots in center pivot irrigation systems poses special problems on small, irregularly shaped fields. In the southeastern United States, field size and shape are often varied and irregular. A mixed integer programming model was constructed to assist in irrigation investment decisions. The model is illustrated using irrigated peanut production in southeast Alabama. Results indicate the importance of economic engineering considerations.Farm Management,

Color camera computed tomography imaging spectrometer for improved spatial-spectral image accuracy

Computed tomography imaging spectrometers ("CTIS"s) having color focal plane array detectors are provided. The color FPA detector may comprise a digital color camera including a digital image sensor, such as a Foveon X3.RTM. digital image sensor or a Bayer color filter mosaic. In another embodiment, the CTIS includes a pattern imposed either directly on the object scene being imaged or at the field stop aperture. The use of a color FPA detector and the pattern improves the accuracy of the captured spatial and spectral information

Spatial image modulation to improve performance of computed tomography imaging spectrometer

Computed tomography imaging spectrometers ("CTIS"s) having patterns for imposing spatial structure are provided. The pattern may be imposed either directly on the object scene being imaged or at the field stop aperture. The use of the pattern improves the accuracy of the captured spatial and spectral information

Single-lens computed tomography imaging spectrometer and method of capturing spatial and spectral information

Computed tomography imaging spectrometers ("CTISs") employing a single lens are provided. The CTISs may be either transmissive or reflective, and the single lens is either configured to transmit and receive uncollimated light (in transmissive systems), or is configured to reflect and receive uncollimated light (in reflective systems). An exemplary transmissive CTIS includes a focal plane array detector, a single lens configured to transmit and receive uncollimated light, a two-dimensional grating, and a field stop aperture. An exemplary reflective CTIS includes a focal plane array detector, a single mirror configured to reflect and receive uncollimated light, a two-dimensional grating, and a field stop aperture

Spatial Modulation Improves Performance in CTIS

Suitably formulated spatial modulation of a scene imaged by a computed-tomography imaging spectrometer (CTIS) has been found to be useful as a means of improving the imaging performance of the CTIS. As used here, "spatial modulation" signifies the imposition of additional, artificial structure on a scene from within the CTIS optics. The basic principles of a CTIS were described in "Improvements in Computed- Tomography Imaging Spectrometry" (NPO-20561) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 24, No. 12 (December 2000), page 38 and "All-Reflective Computed-Tomography Imaging Spectrometers" (NPO-20836), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 26, No. 11 (November 2002), page 7a. To recapitulate: A CTIS offers capabilities for imaging a scene with spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution. The spectral disperser in a CTIS is a two-dimensional diffraction grating. It is positioned between two relay lenses (or on one of two relay mirrors) in a video imaging system. If the disperser were removed, the system would produce ordinary images of the scene in its field of view. In the presence of the grating, the image on the focal plane of the system contains both spectral and spatial information because the multiple diffraction orders of the grating give rise to multiple, spectrally dispersed images of the scene. By use of algorithms adapted from computed tomography, the image on the focal plane can be processed into an image cube a three-dimensional collection of data on the image intensity as a function of the two spatial dimensions (x and y) in the scene and of wavelength (lambda). Thus, both spectrally and spatially resolved information on the scene at a given instant of time can be obtained, without scanning, from a single snapshot; this is what makes the CTIS such a potentially powerful tool for spatially, spectrally, and temporally resolved imaging. A CTIS performs poorly in imaging some types of scenes in particular, scenes that contain little spatial or spectral variation. The computed spectra of such scenes tend to approximate correct values to within acceptably small errors near the edges of the field of view but to be poor approximations away from the edges. The additional structure imposed on a scene according to the present method enables the CTIS algorithms to reconstruct acceptable approximations of the spectral data throughout the scene

Accessing thermoplastic processing windows in metallic glasses using rapid capacitive discharge

The ability of the rapid-capacitive discharge approach to access optimal viscosity ranges in metallic glasses for thermoplastic processing is explored. Using high-speed thermal imaging, the heating uniformity and stability against crystallization of Zr_(35)Ti_(30)Cu_7.5Be_(27.5) metallic glass heated deeply into the supercooled region is investigated. The method enables homogeneous volumetric heating of bulk samples throughout the entire supercooled liquid region at high rates (~10^5 K/s) sufficient to bypass crystallization throughout. The crystallization onsets at temperatures in the vicinity of the “crystallization nose” were identified and a Time-Temperature-Transformation diagram is constructed, revealing a “critical heating rate” for the metallic glass of ~1000 K/s. Thermoplastic process windows in the optimal viscosity range of 10^0–10^4 Pa·s are identified, being confined between the glass relaxation and the eutectic crystallization transition. Within this process window, near-net forging of a fine precision metallic glass part is demonstrated

Proposal for a zero-gravity toilet facility for the space station

This proposed toilet facility has a straightforward design. It has few moving parts and is easily maintained. Air and water flow provide sanitary movement of the waste. The toilet's chambers are coated with Teflon which, along with the water flow, makes it self-cleaning. An added disinfectant called Betadiene kills any bacteria that may form on the chamber walls. The chair is contoured to take into account the neutral body position and the necessary strain position for defecation. Restraints at the ankles, knees, and midsection hold the body in the chair. The waste is stored in discs of Gortex material which are inside a replaceable storage chamber. This chamber can be removed, capped and stored until eventual return to earth

Volume holographic spectral imaging

We report on a volume holographic imaging spectrometer (VHIS) system which allows retrieval of a scene's two-dimensional spatial information as well as its spectral information. This is performed using a transmission volume hologram and a simple rotary scanning mechanism. The system has the advantages of high spectral and spatial resolutions and the potential of single-shot, four-dimensional (3D spatial plus 1D spectral) imaging by recording multiple volume holograms in the same material. Also, due to the transmission diffraction geometry, the system automatically eliminates the stray excitation light from the captured signal. We give theoretical analysis of the performance and experimental demonstration using fluorescent CdSe/ZeS quantum dots. The measured quantum dots spectra agree well with the spectra obtained using a conventional spectrometer

Factors affecting ammonium uptake in streams - an inter-biome perspective

The Lotic Intersite Nitrogen experiment (LINX) was a coordinated study of the relationships between North American biomes and factors governing ammonium uptake in streams. Our objective was to relate inter-biome variability of ammonium uptake to physical, chemical and biological processes. 2. Data were collected from 11 streams ranging from arctic to tropical and from desert to rainforest. Measurements at each site included physical, hydraulic and chemical characteristics, biological parameters, whole-stream metabolism and ammonium uptake. Ammonium uptake was measured by injection of \u275~-ammonium and downstream measurements of 15N-ammonium concentration. 3. We found no general, statistically significant relationships that explained the variability in ammonium uptake among sites. However, this approach does not account for the multiple mechanisms of ammonium uptake in streams. When we estimated biological demand for inorganic nitrogen based on our measurements of in-stream metabolism, we found good correspondence between calculated nitrogen demand and measured assimilative nitrogen uptake. 4. Nitrogen uptake varied little among sites, reflecting metabolic compensation in streams in a variety of distinctly different biomes (autotrophic production is high where allochthonous inputs are relatively low and vice versa). 5. Both autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolism require nitrogen and these biotic processes dominate inorganic nitrogen retention in streams. Factors that affect the relative balance of autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolism indirectly control inorganic nitrogen uptake