DePauw University: REU -> Research Projects

DePauw University: Research Experiences for Undergraduates -> Projects

	Research Project Descriptions
	The following are examples of the types of research projects which will likely be conducted this summer. The exact projects carried out will depend on faculty interest and the background of the selected students. Each project will require a blend of theoretical and applied work.

	Time Synchronization for Wireless Sensor Networks: Professor Khadija Stewart
	Wireless sensor networks (WSN's) are a cluster of wireless and often mobile devices, called nodes, which are set up within an environment to monitor its conditions and communicate with each other or a base station. In order for sensor networks to be useful, they must be able to effectively communicate with one another. This requires that all the nodes in the network be synchronized in time. The purpose of this project is to develop a Time Synchronization Protocol for these networks. For this project, we will be using a network simulator that is written in C++. Students should have some C++ experience and should have completed at least Computer Science 1 and Computer Science 2.

	Automatic Text Summarization using Word Graphs: Professor Scott Thede
	Automated multi-document text summarization is the generation of a summary of a set of documents by a computer. The summary should contain the key information from the document set with minimal redundancy. We have developed a program named PARE (originally standing for Pruner And Redundancy Eliminator) that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) and a back end program for multi-document summarization. This summarization is done using a unique word graph approach modeled after PageRank, the algorithm used to rank pages for the Google search engine. We will be continuing work this summer in developing and testing the PARE system. Particularly, we will continue the work (begun last summer) of rewriting PARE to run on multiple processors simultaneously. We hope that this will speed up the performance of the program. We will also begin work on the anaphora resolution module (anaphora resolution involves replacing pronouns and other anaphora with their referents). PARE is implemented in Java, so Java programming experience is necessary for this project.

	Development Environment for Teaching a Functional Programming Language with Multimedia Support: Professor Brian Howard
	Multimedia applications are a rich source of projects for an introductory computing course, since the generation and manipulation of images and sounds provide a compelling demonstration of the power of a computer to process large amounts of data. One particularly attractive feature of these projects from our point of view is that they fit very well with a group of computer languages known as the functional programming paradigm. The FUNNIE Project (http://funnie.sourceforge.net/) began at DePauw in the summer of 2003, with the goal of developing a functional programming environment that is specifically tuned to the needs of the first or second programming course; the language it supports is HasCl, a variant of the standard lazy functional language Haskell. In 2007, the project shifted to exploring the Scala language (http://www.scala-lang.org/), which is more like a hybrid of Haskell and Java. In 2009, we will continue to develop libraries for functional graphics, animation, and music within Scala, and seek to embed them in a development environment similar to FUNNIE. Activities will include designing and implementing these Scala libraries and the environment, creating demonstration projects and potential exercises making use of the system, documenting the extensions, and creating help materials. Prior experience with Java to at least the CS2 level is important; experience with a functional language is preferred but not required.

	A Virtual Reality Simulator of the ENIAC: Professor Douglas Harms
	This project is based on the ENIAC, which was built in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania and is generally considered to be the world's first general purpose programmable electronic computer. The ENIAC occupied a 40 by 60 foot room, was 8 feet tall, 3 feet deep, and 80 feet long, and was programmed using patch cords, knobs, and switches. This project involves developing a virtual reality simulator of the ENIAC where a participant will don a head-mounted display and be able to virtually walk around the ENIAC, watch it work, and interact with it (e.g., turn a knob) using a data glove. Students participating in this project will help research the design and operation of the ENIAC, implement a simulator of the ENIAC, and implement the virtual reality graphics environment. Familiarity with OpenGL and C++ is a plus.

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