Theses and Dissertations - Department of Computer Science

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Computer Science by Author "Brown, David B."

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    Creation of crash-countermeasure police patrol routes targeting hotspot road segments
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Steil, Dana Andrew; Parrish, Allen Scott; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This dissertation addresses the problem of expressing, executing, evaluating, and engaging patrol routing algorithms that target event hotspots on roadways. An "event hotspot" is a location that is over-represented in some event occurrence, such as crashes, citations or any other event of interest. Recommended patrol routes can be used by organizations such as police agencies, emergency medical responders, and taxi services who patrol roadway segments at proper times to assist or deter their target events. Patrol routing algorithms are used to specify the movements of simulated mobile agents on a roadway system. The patrol algorithms are first expressed using TURN, Technique for Ultimate Route Navigation, our extensible domain specific language (DSL) created for this purpose. Algorithms specified using TURN syntax are then executed and evaluated in a custom simulation environment. Patrol routing algorithms deemed _t for a specific context are then engaged by users via a web-based geographic information systems (GIS) portal. In this dissertation details of the patrol routing model are followed by two case studies. The first case study evaluates agent response times to events when dispatched from region-based staging points. The second case study evaluates several nondeterministic highway patrol routing algorithms according to four metrics: response times, network coverage, hotspot coverage, and hotspot exposure. The case study results demonstrate the applicability of the patrol routing system.
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    Improving intelligent analytics through guidance: analysis and refinement of patterns of use and recommendation methods for data mining and analytics systems
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2019) Pate, Jeremy; Dixon, Brandon; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    In conjunction with the proliferation of data collection applications, systems that provide functionality to analyze and mine this resource also increase in count and complexity. As a part of this growth, understanding how users navigate these systems, and how that navigation influences the resulting extracted information and subsequent decisions becomes a critical component of their design. A central theme of improving the understanding of user behavior and tools for their support within these systems focuses the effort to gain a context-aware view of analytics system optimization. Through distinct, but interwoven, articles this research examines the specific characteristics of usage patterns of a specific example of these types of systems, construction of and educational support system for new and existing users, and a decision-tree supported workflow optimization recommender system. These components combine to yield a method for guided intelligent analytics that uses behavior, system knowledge, and workflow optimization to improve the user experience and promote efficiency of use for systems of this type.
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    Law enforcement deployment algorithms: historic sharing approaches and results
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Elliott, Terry Beau; Smith, Randy K.; Atkison, Travis Levestis; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Law Enforcement must be vigilant in utilizing their limited resources to address both criminal activity and traffic safety. Past research has concentrated on determining optimal routes for law enforcement entities under simplifying assumptions. This dissertation presents a taxonomy of these law enforcement resource deployments and routing methods in order to provide a stronger foundation for algorithms that consider both criminal activity and traffic safety in optimally allocating available resources. This dissertation also introduces a method for comparing of deployment strategies using simulation-based algorithm to cover nodes throughout a county, and it presents the results of several example comparisons.
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    Mailtrust: attribute-based dynamic encrypted email
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Hudnall, Matthew; Vrbsky, Susan V.; Parrish, Allen Scott; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    E-mail is generally regarded as an insecure method of electronic communication for numerous reasons. Most notably, the default does not guarantee the authentic identity of either the intended sender or receiver of a message, nor does it guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of the message. While these problems can partially be addressed with commonly utilized technologies involving certificates and e-mail client plugins, current practice is insufficient for high-security applications, such as classified communications among clients of different email systems. The research presented here leverages “Trustmarks” (which were developed primarily to support efficient single sign on in a federated environment) to support secure e-mails between multiple systems where there are particularly stringent confidentiality and integrity requirements. Such a system could increase the ability of users at disparate organizations to communicate without fear that sensitive information might intentionally or accidentally be disclosed. Although there are many barriers to adoption, such a system might also eventually reduce the reliance on separate communication networks and systems for classified communications.