Creating and Securing User Provided Scripts in a Browser Environment

Description
Many companies wish to create a personalized experience for customers using their websites. For many services that might mean changing the icon on a sign in page; however, as computers become more powerful and customers expect more from the services

Many companies wish to create a personalized experience for customers using their websites. For many services that might mean changing the icon on a sign in page; however, as computers become more powerful and customers expect more from the services they use, companies are starting to investigate ways of running personalized code for their customers. Sadly, one big problem with this trend is that it is very new. This leads to many problems such as the lack of technologies fit for a certain scenario, the flooding of new technologies in only a specific field, and the overall general confusion in implementing a novel technology like this. This is why I believe that compounding a list of different technologies, each with a list of pros and cons, example implementations to give a feel of the technology, as well as benchmarks of each method to allow for individuals and companies to create better websites and services for their customers. I will also be going through a history of available technologies to give an idea on how this technology used to be used for, how it is used today, and how I believe it will be used in the future.
Date Created
2024-05
Agent

Building Black Youth Foundation - Uplifting and Educating Through Inclusivity and Games

Description
This project was a look into how a child's education can be strengthened using not only gamification, but also with a more inclusive curriculum to better include and represent students of all backgrounds. Five games were created using Unity, a

This project was a look into how a child's education can be strengthened using not only gamification, but also with a more inclusive curriculum to better include and represent students of all backgrounds. Five games were created using Unity, a free game development software, and with regard to the following subjects, reading, math, music, science, and art. When applicable, the games taught about the cultures of Caribbean and African countries, for example, the art history of Jamaica. Testers played through all games and the number of questions missed as well as time spent on each subject were collected.
Date Created
2023-12
Agent

Automotive UI Design and Effects on Human Computer Interaction

Description

Consumer automotive vehicles have been an essential part of daily life for many over several decades. Many people also find that the multimedia screens found in the center consoles of many modern vehicles are robust enough to complete a certain

Consumer automotive vehicles have been an essential part of daily life for many over several decades. Many people also find that the multimedia screens found in the center consoles of many modern vehicles are robust enough to complete a certain number of tasks, such as navigating to a destination, playing music, or taking a phone call. As a result, it is important for designers to look into their decisions and how they might affect the overall experience a person has while interacting with multimedia screen as they are driving a vehicle. This study aims to look into how existing design decisions present themselves in the multimedia screens of modern vehicles and which principles of design users favor when interacting with the systems. With 188 participants and three vehicles tested, including the 2019 Toyota Highlander equipped with native software, the 2019 Hyundai Sonata equipped with Android Auto, and the 2020 Hyundai Elantra equipped with Apple CarPlay, it was found that design principles found in Human Computer Interaction, such as Gestalt principles, are relevant in allowing for a more positive, enjoyable experience in completing tasks such as navigation, playing music, and taking a phone call.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Sizing-Up in the Cyber Space - Large Scale Cyber Exercises in the 21st Century

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Description

This thesis explores how large scale cyber exercises work in the 21st century, going in-depth on Exercise Cyber Shield, the Department of Defense’s largest unclassified cyber defense exercise run by the Army National Guard. It highlights why these cyber exercises

This thesis explores how large scale cyber exercises work in the 21st century, going in-depth on Exercise Cyber Shield, the Department of Defense’s largest unclassified cyber defense exercise run by the Army National Guard. It highlights why these cyber exercises are so relevant, going over several large scale cyber attacks that have occurred in the past year and the impact they caused. This research aims to illuminate the intricacies around cyber exercise assessment involving manual vs automated scoring systems; this is brought back to work on creating an automated scoring engine for Exercise Cyber Shield. This thesis provides an inside look behind the scenes of the operations of the largest unclassified cyber defense exercise in the United States, including conversations with the Exercise Officer-In-Charge of Cyber Shield as well as a cyber exercise expert working on assessment of Exercise Cyber Shield, and the research also includes information from past final reports for Cyber Shield. Issues that these large scale cyber exercises have faced over the years are brought to light, and attempts at solutions are discussed.

Date Created
2021-12
Agent

Real-Time Affective Support to Promote Learner’s Engagement

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Description
Research has shown that the learning processes can be enriched and enhanced with the presence of affective interventions. The goal of this dissertation was to design, implement, and evaluate an affective agent that provides affective support in real-time in order

Research has shown that the learning processes can be enriched and enhanced with the presence of affective interventions. The goal of this dissertation was to design, implement, and evaluate an affective agent that provides affective support in real-time in order to enrich the student’s learning experience and performance by inducing and/or maintaining a productive learning path. This work combined research and best practices from affective computing, intelligent tutoring systems, and educational technology to address the design and implementation of an affective agent and corresponding pedagogical interventions. It included the incorporation of the affective agent into an Exploratory Learning Environment (ELE) adapted for this research.

A gendered, three-dimensional, animated, human-like character accompanied by text- and speech-based dialogue visually represented the proposed affective agent. The agent’s pedagogical interventions considered inputs from the ELE (interface, model building, and performance events) and from the user (emotional and cognitive events). The user’s emotional events captured by biometric sensors and processed by a decision-level fusion algorithm for a multimodal system in combination with the events from the ELE informed the production-rule-based behavior engine to define and trigger pedagogical interventions. The pedagogical interventions were focused on affective dimensions and occurred in the form of affective dialogue prompts and animations.

An experiment was conducted to assess the impact of the affective agent, Hope, on the student’s learning experience and performance. In terms of the student’s learning experience, the effect of the agent was analyzed in four components: perception of the instructional material, perception of the usefulness of the agent, ELE usability, and the affective responses from the agent triggered by the student’s affective states.

Additionally, in terms of the student’s performance, the effect of the agent was analyzed in five components: tasks completed, time spent solving a task, planning time while solving a task, usage of the provided help, and attempts to successfully complete a task. The findings from the experiment did not provide the anticipated results related to the effect of the agent; however, the results provided insights to improve diverse components in the design of affective agents as well as for the design of the behavior engines and algorithms to detect, represent, and handle affective information.
Date Created
2018
Agent