Computer Science Clinic
The Aerospace Corporation
Firewall “Tunnel” Implementation Over BEE
Liaisons: Ray Simms ’02 CMC, Joseph Betser
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: Nicolas Hertl (PM), William Berriel, Chip Bradford, Richard Fujiyama
In the world of Intrusion Detection there is a need for a common message format and transport protocol so that different organizations can collaborate. This allows for the easy correlation, display, and long term storage of intrusion information. This year’s project builds on the work of previous intrusion detection Clinics. It provides for messages to securely pass through firewalls using a newly specified BEEP (Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol) profile called Tunnel.
Music Similarity and Recommendation
Liaison: Nicholas Seet ’99
Advisor: Melissa O’Neill
Students: Paul Ruvolo (PM), Brad Poon, Elizabeth Schoof, Nicholas Taylor
The Auditude Clinic team has investigated content-based similarity relationships between musical performances. Similarity is a complex concept involving many judgments. Our team has focused our attention on a combination of rhythm, timbre, and apparent loudness. We have developed software that extracts these features from a recording and uses them to categorize new music, to make recommendations, and to generate playlists that arrange music in a sequence with smooth transitions between songs.
The Boeing Company/ATM
Design and Prototype of a Low-Cost Weather Information System for General Aviation
Liaisons: James Hanson ’64, Paul Mallasch
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Paul Paradise (PM), Luke Hunter, Kyle Kuypers, Rafael Vasquez
Boeing ATM has tasked us with the design and implementation of a proof-of-concept design for delivering weather data to aircraft pilots in-flight. Using a Pocket PC PDA as a hardware architecture and a custom client and server, we are able to deliver METAR (Meteorological Reports) and NEXRAD (NEXt-generation RADar) to pilots. Our current implementation uses 802.11b wireless technology for the communication, but is ideally suited for satellite-based broadcast as a final product.
The Green Media Toolshed
Development of a Community-Supported Media-Contact Database
Liaisons: Carl Coryell-Martin ’97, Mark Huberty ’00
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Chris Spritke (PM), Marissa Anderson, Ben Frantzdale, John Suarez
In order to effectively deal with a high reporter turnover rate, the Green Media Toolshed team’s goal was to develop a community-supported media-contact database that is economically viable for non-profit organizations by minimizing the need for a large research staff. The team implemented and assessed the effectiveness of user and data quality metrics, as well as automated checking tools, to coordinate the efforts of a network of volunteer data checkers.
Kofax Image Products, Inc.
Design of an Automated Email Response System
Liaison: Eric Huang ’02
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: John Sander, Pomona (PM), Ryan Crabb, Jeffrey Jirsa, Joe Malone
The goal of the Kofax Clinic Project is to design and construct a system that can learn by example to provide candidate responses to customer service questions. The system learns to respond to incoming E-mail by first observing human responses. Then as new questions are asked to the customer service staff the system will suggest possible answers by drawing on responses to similar questions that the system has previously seen.
Automatic Form Recognition, Alignment, and Extraction
Liaison: Kurt Rapelje
Advisor: Zachary Dodds
Students: Brandt Erickson (PM), Josh Kline, Jessica Lee, Jonathan Shriver, Robert Strickland
The LaserFiche project involves creating a software tool that automatically matches the image of a filled-in paper form to a corresponding blank template from a database. This tool permits a document-processing system to handle a large set of mixed forms without requiring a human to identify each one. Once an input form is identified, an anchoring step aligns and extracts the user’s input in order to improve the performance of additional form processing.
Thirty-second Animated Public Service Announcement
Liaisons: Gilbert “Magu” Sanches, Mike Meyka
Advisor: Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Alisa Decker, CMC (PM), Mira Stoilova, Rosie Wacha, Joanna Wu
The purpose of the Magulandia Studio Clinic project is to create a 30-second public service announcement addressing road rage. The team will use Maya, a 3D computer graphics animation tool used in movies such as Shrek, to build the necessary models and animate a short sequence for the PSA. The animation style utilizes exaggerated characters and scenery. The sequence will use personifications of cars and animals to make a comic point about the need to control one’s temper on the road.
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Space Systems Division
Software Hardening in Space-Based Systems
Liaisons: Craig Snow, Kevin Romero
Advisor: Christopher Stone
Students: Andrew Klose (PM), Eric Angell, James Simmons, Marty Weiner
Current space-based digital electronics lag their commercial counterparts by several generations. The physical hardening process required to protect these components from exoatmospheric radiation events is both costly and time-consuming. This project examines the feasibility of implementing a software-based alternative to this process. Specifically, we examine the question of whether the increased processing power and memory capacity of commercially available components provide sufficient resources for software-implemented detection of radiation effects.
Sandia National Laboratories
Implementation of and Experimenting With a Clustering Tool
Liaison: Kevin Boyack
Advisor: Belinda Thom
Students: Avani Gadani (PM), Daniel Lowd, Brian Roney, Eric Wu
The goal of the Sandia National Laboratories Computer Science Clinic project was to create a tool for simultaneously visualizing several different reductions of multi-dimensional data sets. We also analyzed these sets using geometric techniques and clustering. To assess clustering fitness, we implemented validity metrics that quantitatively compare solutions and algorithms in various ways. The tool was given to Sandia and was used to analyze data sets ranging from journal citations to popular music.
Extensible Data Management for Semiconductor Design-for-Testability
Liaisons: Robert Varney, Gary Borsos
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Kristal Pollack (PM), Michael Bailey, Annie Chang, Peter Tempest
Teradyne’s DFT (Design for Testability) Software Group is developing a software system which enables semiconductor manufacturers to exploit DFTtechnologies in order to reduce test costs, accelerate time to market, and enhance yield. However, to make the best use of DFT, semiconductor manufacturers must also be able to easily manage and interpret the automatically generated test results along with existing semiconductor design information and new information produced by DFT diagnosis tools. This clinic project has created a Java and XML/XSLT based system to meet this need.
Test Data Management System
Liaison: Robert Varney
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Micah Garside-White (PM), Conor Sen, Ryan Gibson, Adrian Mettler
The Clinic team designed and prototyped a system with web-based interfaces for managing data from high-performance automated semiconductor test equipment based on distributed persistent data storage. Our system enables users of a test service to query and process results from a wide range of geographic sites using interfaces that decouple test equipment specifics. The system is entirely based on the emergent Java Two Enterprise Edition (J2EE) framework and includes capabilities for fault tolerance and recovery. This project was completed during a ten week full-time effort during the summer of 2002.
The Aerospace Corporation
Digital Feedforward Linearizer for High Power Radio Frequency Amplifiers
Liaison: Samuel Osofsky ’85
Advisors: Ruye Wang, Jon Strauss
Students: Aaron Stratton (PM), Genevieve Breed, Michael Linderman, Galway O’Mahony, Colin Jemmott
Gain linearity is critical in communications amplifiers, but comes at the expense of efficiency. Traditional linearization systems rely heavily on analog components that significantly reduce system efficiency and can not be adjusted to compensate for component or environmental variation. The Clinic team has developed a digital implementation of a feedforward control system that improves amplifier linearity without these limitations. The team’s prototype is the first working high speed digital implementation of this concept.
Aseptico International, Inc.
Reengineering HandiDam’s© Manufacturing Process
Liaison: Doug Kazen
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Colin Choi (PM), Florence Shaffer, Joseluis Espinosa, Michael Reynolds
HandiDam© is the most significant innovation in rubber dam technology to come along in years. The Clinic team is faced with the task of reengineering its manufacturing process so that Aseptico can produce them with greater cost and time efficiency. The team will also design and integrate a quality control device that filters out the units that do not meet Aseptico’s standards.
Beckman Coulter, Inc.
Increasing the Number of Simultaneous Analytical Reactions by Distinguishing Magnetically Labeled Reaction Carriers
Liaison: Michael Bell
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin
Students: Ryan Jackson (PM), Gigi Au, Lydia Son, Tonya Icenogle
The Beckman Coulter Clinic team was asked to provide a means for distinguishing superparamagnetically labeled micrometer-sized spheres as they travel through a flow cytometer. By adding a new parameter, such as magnetism, the company would increase the number of analytical reactions that can be carried out simultaneously and detected in bead-based multiplexing. The team has investigated several methods of detection, simulated the best method and conducted proof-of-concept experimentation.
The Boeing Company/ATM
Development and Validation of a Time of Arrival Model of the Loran-C Radionavigation System
Liaison: Robert Snow
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Daniel Vaughan (PM), Gautam Thatte, Jordan Taggart, Kenneth Dye
Boeing Air Traffic Management has identified the Loran-C radionavigation system as a potential backup for GPS in commercial aviation applications, provided that the accuracy of Loran-C can be increased. This project involves developing and testing a Time-of-Arrival based Loran-C model to determine the feasibility of creating a more accurate system. The model will include a least-squares positioning algorithm and improved error corrections.
The Boeing Company/Phantom Works
Wireless Power Transmission
Liaison: Mark Henley
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Brian Yoxall (PM), Trevor Gile, Andrew Mattheisen, Jason Komadina
The development of wireless power transmission technology is important for both space-based exploration and energy applications on Earth. To further this technology, a small-scale wireless power transmission system, consisting of a laser and photocell, was developed to set an end-to-end system efficiency world record. Key efficiency gains were made by acquiring highly efficient components, matching laser wavelength with the photocell bandgap energy, and precisely controlling component temperatures between 298 K and 78 K.
Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology
Portable Water Purification System for WFI Production
Liaisons: Alex Pranger ’92/93, Bill Wiesmann
Advisor: Jennifer Rossmann
Students: Judy Hsu (PM), Adam Mills, Esther Lee, Yanos Saravanos
The CIMIT team researched, designed, produced, and tested a portable water purification system that purifies potable (drinking) water to USP grade water for injection (WFI) for the production of emergency-use IV fluids. The device is a self-powered, compact filter capable of producing at least 300 ± 100 mL/hr of sterile, USP WFI grade water. The team has delivered a working prototype unit and offered detailed suggestions for further refinements.
Lip-sync Error Measurement System
Liaisons: Leon Stanger, Michael Munsell
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Matthew Erler (PM), Carl Larsen, Mark Phair, Elodie Bounmy
The DIRECTV® Clinic team will design a system for lip-sync error measurement. This system will measure an error of up to ± 200ms to within ± 1ms. Furthermore, the system will not require alteration of either the original video or audio signals. The system will use patterns within human speech to identify timing locations within the audio signal and will encode timing marks in the closed caption portion of the video signal.
Federal Aviation Administration/LED
Update and Integration of LED Airport Approach Lighting System
Liaisons: Calvin Miles, Seth Couslar
Advisor: Qimin Yang
Students: Micah Hanada (PM), Heather O’Brien, Gabriel Reyes, Pauline Boudon, Quan Quach
The Clinic team must continue development of an LED lighting system to replace the incandescent bulbs currently used for the Medium Intensity Approach Lighting System (MALSR) and the Approach Lighting System with Sequenced Flashing Lights (ALSF2). The team must integrate these LED systems into the available airport power source, collect data on LED characteristics, and provide prototypes for the MALSR and ALSF2 systems.
Federal Aviation Administration/Structure
The Analysis and Design of a Frangible Approach Lighting Structure
Liaison: Giles Strickler
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Ryan Ellis (PM), Bret Rosen, Clifford Wassman, Michelle Sakai
Airport runway lights require structural supports of varying heights, depending on the surrounding terrain. The Federal Aviation Administration currently uses structures that are frangible (break upon impact) for heights up to forty feet, and non-frangible structures for heights over forty feet. The FAA has asked the Clinic team to analyze the stability of the frangible structures in flood conditions, and also to design a more frangible structure to replace the existing non-frangible structures.
Federal Aviation Administration/Tower
Retrofit to Tilt Down Tower Design
Liaison: Gary Rixmann
Advisor: Patrick Little
Students: Benjamin Utela (PM), Matthew Keller, Jorge Escobar, Eric Swope
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has asked the Clinic team to retrofit the current tower for their Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS). The current AWOS design has a tilt-down pole, which allows access to the sensors, but is not adaptable to changes in sensor weight. The team will design, prototype, and test a retrofit modification to provide these towers with adjustable counterweighting.
ECS Modeling Process Improvement
Liaison: David Loeffelholz
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Raymond Fong (PM), Nils Napp, One Kim, Philip Vegdahl
Honeywell develops models to predict performance of thermal management systems for commercial and military aircraft. These models are systems of many stiff and non-linear algebraic equations. Current numerical solvers have limited convergence properties and require expert choice between multiple solutions.
Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring
Liaisons: Ben Ver Steeg ’98, Zach Benz
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin
Students: Ivan Samuels (PM), Karen Studarus, Alfredo Villanueva, Keith Miyake
The Clinic team has developed procedures for improving the solution algorithm and reducing the need for human intervention in the convergence process. The team will design and verify the functionality of a device to let users accurately locate their forearm tissue with respect to InLight’s existing optical measurement interface. The device must be able to consistently present the same area of tissue, within an accuracy of ±0.3 mm, to the optical measurement interface.
Irvine Ranch Water District
Deep Aquifer Treatment System (DATS) Concentrate Treatment and Recovery
Liaison: Arseny Kalinsky
Advisor: Jennifer Rossmann
Students: Markus Ong (PM), Todd Greeley, Aileen Ng, Kyle Kondo, Rose Hakim
IRWD’s DATS (Deep Aquifer Treatment System) facility uses a nanofiltration process to remove color caused by dissolved organics from deep aquifer wells. The concentrate stream from this process is currently disposed of in the sewer at a cost of about $200,000 per year. The Clinic project consists of three preliminary bench-scale screenings of potential treatment options for the recovery of the concentrate. These technologies include magnetic ion exchange, nanofiltration, and ozonation.
Drive System for an Insulin Infusion Pump
Liaison: Cary Talbot
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Hans Meyer (PM), Jonathan Grant, Shannon Kelley, Stephanie Wong
Medtronic MiniMed desired an innovative, low-cost drive system for a portable, reusable, external insulin infusion pump. The Clinic team generated fresh design alternatives and constructed a prototype of a low-cost drive system that can be used in the next generation of external insulin infusion pumps. The team designed, developed and tested a prototype drive system.
NASA Ames Research Center
Design of a SLMS for CheMin
Liaisons: David Blake, Philippe Sarrazin
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Jason Norman (PM), Adam Lutchansky, Kristen Van Horn, Andy DelCampo, Du Nguyen, Kohei Asano
The NASA Ames clinic team, at the request of the research center’s Exobiology Branch, has designed and built a sample loading and manipulation system, or SLMS, for the CHEMIN instrument, a compact combined X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence device bound for Mars. The project’s objectives include the design and manufacture of the SLMS, an X-ray-tight housing, and an X-ray beam-defining aperture system.
Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems
Material Life Characteristics for Acoustic Arrays
Liaison: Joe Krystkowiak
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Tom Galvani (PM), Elizabeth Eaton, Ethan Bodnaruk, Nikhil Reddy
Fiber optic acoustic systems are placed underwater to detect sounds from sources such as ships, submarines, and seismic activity. Currently, Northrop Grumman is developing more durable and longer lasting acoustic systems that will better withstand the harsh environment of the ocean. In order to provide their customers with effective acoustic systems with a longer service life, material selection is important in their design. The Clinic team will research, test, and report on the environmental compatibility and mechanical properties of materials used for acoustic arrays. The team will also provide clear procedures for future material testing.
Northrop Grumman Space Technology
Determining the Feasibility of Non Line-of-Sight Laser Communication
Liaison: John Brock
Adivisor: Sam Tanenbaum
Students: Christina Stratton (PM), Justin Schauer, Zamir Lalji, Gene Lee, Evan Porter
The feasibility of non-line-of-sight laser communication is investigated using a link budget that enables one to predict the performance and the sensitivity of laser communications links under a variety of operating conditions. The atmospheric models and computer programs used to predict light transmission and scattering efficiencies in the link budget are described, and the accuracy of the link budget is evaluated by comparing its predictions with preliminary experimental results obtained by the team.
Roscoe Moss Company
Bell-Swaged Pipe Extraction Device for a Hydrostatic Testing Machine
Liaisons: Regis Coyle, Oscar Jaime
Advisor: Philip Cha
Students: Thomas Both (PM), Peter Chung, Lut Au-Yeung, Anand Vemuri
Roscoe Moss utilizes a hydrostatic testing machine to check their pipes for structural integrity. The tester bells one end of the pipe by swaging it over a belling die. Because Roscoe Moss does not extract the pipe from the belling die as efficiently as desired, the Clinic team has been asked to design, fabricate, and test an extraction device that will remove the bell swaged end of the pipe from the belling die. The goal for the design is to extract the pipe more efficiently, safely, and economically than the current method used by Roscoe Moss.
Sandia National Laboratories
Liaisons: Ed Tarver, James Wang
Advisor: David Harris
Students: Elizabeth Reynolds (PM), Keith Buerger, Dmitriy Kogan, Damian Small
Fourier Transform Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FT-IMS) is a technique for identifying chemical vapors such as explosives, narcotics, and chemical weaponry. Sandia is currently implementing FT-IMS on a PC running Windows and Labview software. However, the system is too slow and bulky for some applications. The Clinic team has developed a faster, portable system to perform the required signal processing and storage using hardware such as a DSP (Digital Signal Processing chip) and Compact Flash card.
Design of a GPS Data Recording System
Liaison: Scott Stickeler
Advisor: David Harris
Students: David Diaz (PM), Morgan Cross, M. Jean-Philippe Henry, Waley Tam
Obtaining a GPS position fix in certain areas can be very difficult because of weak or distorted signals. SnapTrack needs a means of gathering GPS data in the field for analysis in the laboratory. The ability to analyze the data in a laboratory will allow SnapTrack engineers to account for such difficult areas in their position location devices.
Modeling and Testing a Mid-Field Pyroshock Simulation Apparatus
Liaisons: Brian W. Childs, James Bockholt
Advisor: Ziyad Duron
Students: Anna Olsen (PM), Jeremy Watson, Greg Pomrehn, Su Hyun Jeun, Brian Brenhaug
When satellites are launched into orbit, they experience explosive shocks. Satellite components must be shown to withstand these pyroshocks before space launch. The Clinic team has been asked to develop a method to simulate pyroshock events defined by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). The team experimented with different test structures while developing two analytical models of these structures. The team collected experimental data to validate and modify the analytical models.
Engineering/Environmental Studies Joint Clinic
Center for Conservation Biology, University of California, Riverside
Development of a Remote Sensing System to Track Acorn Woodpeckers
Liaisons: Michael Allen, John Rotenberry, Mike Hamilton, Wendy Hodges
Advisors: Lori Bassman, Stephen Adolph
Students: Patricia Brock (PM), Warren Katzenstein, Heather Lane, Stephen MacVicar, Brent Rojo
The Center for Conservation Biology at UC Riverside creates remote sensor systems that monitor environmental conditions, organisms, and habitats. These remote systems allow scientists to collect significant amounts of data while minimizing disturbances to the environ-ment. The team designed and built a system of sensors that can record sounds in a given habitat. The data collected by the system is processed to identify Acorn woodpecker calls and the origin of those calls in three-dimensional space.
Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc.
Identification of Suspicious Investors
Liaisons: Matthais Blume, Walter Lee
Advisor: Henry Krieger
Students: Jonathan Nadel (PM), Brie Finger, Shea Lawrence, Michael Vrable
The USA PATRIOT Act, drafted in response to the September 11 terror attacks, mandates that banks more closely scrutinize their transactions to prevent terrorist money laundering. Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc., a pioneer in analy-tical banking software, is therefore interested in developing technology to detect if customers have any potentially questionable affiliations. More specifically, it is the task of this Clinic to create software to scan electronic text sources and discern where relationships exist between individuals.
Overture Services, Inc.
Improved Relevance Ordering for Web Search
Liaison: Dan Fain
Adivisor: Leslie Ward
Students: Erin Bodine (PM), David Gleich, Cathy Kurata, Jordon Kwan
We implement and compare the performance of three algorithms for reranking the top 50 webpages returned by a search engine for 40 individual queries. We then compare these re-rankings to human rankings. Two algorithms break webpages into topically distinct areas (Micro Information Units). The third computes a proximity score for each webpage, measuring how close the words in the query appear. Query terms appearing closer together may indicate the webpage is more relevant to that query.
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
Vibrating Beam Angular Rate Sensors
Liaisons: Robert Stewart, Ken Marino
Advisors: Peter Saeta, Robert Wolf
Students: Trevor Oliver (PM), Jon Faul, Noah Beck, Michael Price, Michael Shimogawa
Northrup Grumman is the second largest defense contractor in America, designing and producing a wide variety of technologies ranging from aircraft to sensors. Our team is performing a proof-of-concept study on using microelectrical mechanical systems (MEMS) technology to produce a vibrating beam angular rate sensor based on the Coriolis force. We will report on both the experimental and analytical results of the study.