The 3rd Annual Undergraduate
Research Conference
on Applied Computing
(URC 2011)
COLLEGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ZAYED UNIVERSITY
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
May 4 - 5, 2011
Book of Abstracts
Undergraduate
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Sponsors:
Undergraduate
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Undergraduate
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Table of Contents
Message from Vice President, Zayed University.............3
Message from Conference Chairs.....................................5
URC 2011 Conference Organizers......................................7
Abstracts...................................................................... ....9
Master of Science in Information Technology..............131
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Message from
Vice President
Zayed University
Welcome to Zayed University and the 3rd Annual Undergraduate Research
Conference on Applied Computing! I am pleased by the conference theme
focusing on undergraduate research, since Zayed University future plans for
further development of its research agenda were laid out in our university plan.
With the launch of the third edition of this successful conference, Zayed
University has set out on an exciting path that provides students from Zayed
University as well as universities in the region with an exceptional opportunity
to capitalize on our solid research capacity and on our ability to organize unique
collaborations to help in mobilizing research for maximum impact in the region.
Universities in the area have a great potential for collaborative research
with each other and with companies in the technology sector. I expect this
conference will serve as a forum for encouraging collaborative research. We
need to accelerate the research engine in the region and this conference is a
step in the right direction to encourage young researchers to get involved in
research projects.
Research is important not only to advance the state of knowledge, but also
to engage with the wider community in order to apply that knowledge so that
we can solve social, cultural, and economic challenges facing societies today.
University research, indeed, touches every aspect of human life.
I thank the College of Information Technology for taking the initiative to organize
this conference, and a special thanks to all the students for their contributions.
If last year’s conference is any indication, I expect this year’s conference to be
a great success.
Dr. Sulaiman Al Jassim
Vice President, Zayed University
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Message from
Conference Chairs
Welcome to the 3rd Annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Applied
Computing (URC 2011) whose objective is to provide a forum for undergraduate
students to present their research ideas and prototypes and to interact with
other young researchers, faculty members, and technology leaders from the
Arab region.
In addition to students from local institutions, this year we are particularly
excited to welcome student researchers and their faculty advisors from other
educational institutions in the Gulf region and other Arab countries, namely from
Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Contained within this booklet, you’ll find over one hundred abstracts presenting
undergraduate student research projects from many universities in the region.
The abstracts reflect the multidisciplinary character and wide spectrum of
emerging technologies.
The program contains a wide selection of events, including keynote speeches,
oral and poster presentations, a panel discussion, and an evening reception.
We will also present a total of six awards for the best three oral and poster
presentations.
We would like to thank everyone involved in this conference. Without your paper
submissions, and the volunteers who reviewed them, this conference would
not have been possible. We would also like to extend our special thanks to the
keynote speakers and members of the panel for taking the time out of their busy
schedules to participate in this conference.
We are grateful to our sponsors, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
(TRA) and Zayed University Office of Research, for their commitment to make
this event possible. Your generous contribution helped make the conference a
reality. Thank you.
Our thanks go to everyone who has contributed in making this conference
extraordinary. We would like to extend a heart-felt thank you for the rest of our
team: Zakaria Maamar, Abdallah Tubaishat, May AlTaei, May El Barachi, Mona
Bader, Nagarajan Chandrashekaran, Huwida Said, Mario Guimaraes, Hind Al
Dosari, and Arwa AlNuaimi; we couldn’t have done it without you.
Finally, we take this opportunity to thank Zayed University for providing the
needed resources.
We hope you enjoy the conference.
Conference Co-Chairs
Qusay Mahmoud and Leon Jololian
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URC 2011
Conference Organizers
The conference is organized by the College of Information Technology at Zayed
University.
Conference Co-Chairs
Qusay Mahmoud
Leon Jololian
Program Co-Chairs
Zakaria Maamar
Abdallah Tubaishat
Publications Co-Chairs
May AlTaei
Qusay Mahmoud
External Relations Chair
May AlTaei
Publicity Chair
May El Barachi
Registration Chair
Mona Bader
Awards Co-Chairs
Leon Jololian
Nagaraj Chandrashekaran
Local Arrangements Co-Chairs
Huwida Said
Mario Guimaraes
Hind Al Dosari
Arwa AlNuaimi
URC2011 Additional Reviewers
We’re grateful to the following people for
their help with the review process:
Areej AlWabil, King Saud University, KSA
Mawahib Hussein Sulieman, UAE University, UAE
Mohammad Fraiwan, Jordan University of Science
and Technology, Jordan
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Proxy Bypass and Cyber Crime Engagement:
An Exploratory Study
Bedoor N. Al Jabri, Ayesha A. Al Zaabi, Moza Shamlan Al Shamlan, Ibrahim Baggili
College of Information Technology
Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
ABSTRACT
Many countries have been employing the Internet proxy for different reasons. At the same time, activities of cyber
crime have been on the rise. The research covers an extensive literature review on global definitions and examples of
censorship, its effects, as well as perceptions and how they could be manipulated; so the technical aspect is covered
in a generalized way and so is the psychological view. This research project helps in exploring and understanding
peoples› engagement in bypassing the Internet proxy and how it can be related to cyber crime engagement. Another
issue that is covered in this study is how level of knowledge in computers relates to the engagement of proxy by pass
and cyber crime.
The different variables that are investigated in this study are self-reported proxy bypass engagement, perception of
the proxy, and self-reported cyber crime engagement. Figure 1 demonstrates the relationship between the variables
where order for the independent variable to have significant value, predictors must become apparent or valuable to
the participants:
Figure 1: Theory Diagram
Through the conducted survey, participants were asked to self-report their rate of proxy bypass and cyber crime
engagement. In addition, biased manipulation paragraphs were inserted in two of the three surveys in order to assess
the effect of this inclusion. The survey was randomly disseminated to three separate groups in which the “manipulation
page” was phrased in a manner that either advocated the employment of the proxy (Group 1), criticized it (Group 2),
or the survey was distributed without any prior effort of manipulation (Group 3, control group). The aim of the first
two groups was an attempt to create a biased opinion, in a positive or negative manner, so as to find out whether the
“manipulation page” would influence participants’ perception of the proxy.
The methodology was extensively focused on all the data that was gathered being tested for accuracy and reliance
using Cronbach alpha method and other reliability testing tools. Following the conduction of the survey, results started
to surface. The first result showed that a positive relationship between self-reported proxy bypass engagement and
self-reported cyber crime exists. Secondly, the included manipulation paragraphs had an interesting effect upon the
participants, revealing that participants without a manipulation paragraph (control group) were more revealing of their
self-reported activities. Finally, those with a better knowledge in computers were more likely to engage in cyber crime
and bypass the proxy. The final paper discusses an in-depth analysis of the findings and correlations.
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Towards a Tutorial-Based System to Assist
Children with Special Needs
Osama Almalh, Salman Raeisi, Mazen Abdulkader, Jihad Mohamad ALJA’AM
Qatar University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
P.O. Box 2713, Doha – Qatar
200403108@qu.edu.qa, 200405407@qu.edu.qa, 200407116@qu.edu.qa, jaam@qu.edu.qa
ABSTRACT
We propose to develop a communication system for children with special needs that supports collaboration, data
exploration, communication and creativity. The main objectives of our work are as follows: (1) To develop Arabic
tutorial-based system for children with moderate intellectual disability (MID) and those with moderate learning
disability (MLD). We can then unveil the hidden potential within these children and improve their skills. Shafallah center
children subject of this study can be reintegrated in normal schools and compete with their peers. We mention that
there are several eminent scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Nelson Rockefeller who have achieved stupendous
success in science and technology despite their reported with some disabilities. The contents of our tutorials are
set according to the curriculum used in Shafallah center for children with special needs. The topics include: Simple
arithmetic, Dealing with money, date and time, measurements; reading and listening of simple texts and answer the
questions, arrangement stories events using pictures, animals and plants, foods, clothes, safety and personal care.
Our tutorials give short and simple sentences with clips, images and sounds. The system allows also Arabic words
prediction and abbreviation expansion. Whenever the children begin to type a word, the system will display a list of
frequently used words that begin with those letters. The children can select the appropriate word (or images) from
the display. We can then improve the understanding and writing skills of these children; (2) To enhance the thinking
and memorization skills of children. We propose puzzles of different levels associated with the tutorials. Children can
try to solve them and improve their thinking, writing and memorization skills. Intelligent algorithms are used to guide
the children in their selection of the moves; (3) To involve parents in the learning process in addition to teachers. The
system is customizable and flexible thus allowing parents and teachers to add contents according to specific rules.
The involvement of parents in the learning process contributes positively in improving the skills of children and helps
them acquire academic skills more easily so that they can take pride in themselves. In fact, the school day is limited
and if the children can use the software at home, there is a greater possibility of use; (4) To assist the children improve
their understanding of electronic text. We integrated some tools to extract keywords from electronic text and we link
them with appropriate images, sounds and clips that will be proposed to the children. The skeleton and the interface
of the system is developed using Visual Studio.net. The system allows the teachers to create accounts, create groups,
and add students to the groups. They can also add contents using the predesigned templates. MS-Access database is
created to store and mange the contents.
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Local Search for the Satisfiability Problem
Marwa Abdullah Alshutibe, Abeer Hamad Alzuhaire
marwa.cs.imam@hotmail.com , abeer.alzuhair@yahoo.com
Supervised by:
Prof. Hachemi Ahmed Bennaceur
hachemi.bennaceur@gmail.com
Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
The Satisfiability (SAT) problem is defined by a set of conjunction clauses, where each clause is a disjunction of literals.
A literal is a positive Boolean variable or its negation. The Satisfiability problem concerns of determining whether a
total assignment exists (The assignment of each variable to TRUE or FALSE) that satisfying all clauses of the problem.
If such total assignment exists, the problem is said to be SATISFABLE (sat), otherwise it is deemed UNSATISFIABLE
(unsat). This problem was proven NP-complete and serves as a measure for other NP-complete problems. SAT has
many real applications in several fields such as electronic circuit design, timetabling, scheduling, planning, etc. The
importance of the SAT problem could be shown by the numerous researchers working on it around the world in
addition to many international SAT competitions. There are two different kinds of SAT solving strategies, those that
solve the problem in “complete way” by using various techniques, like Truth tables and Davis Putnam procedure, and
those that solve it in “incomplete way” using local search techniques, like GSAT and WalkSAT.
In this project we will shed light on the local search technique for SAT problem which is an incomplete method for
finding a solution. It is based on iteratively improving an assignment of the variables until all clauses are satisfied.
We will focus on two classes of local search algorithms. The first one is that of greedy or non-randomized algorithms
(GSAT). These algorithms proceed by changing (flipping a variable from TRUE to FALSE or inversely) the current
assignment by always trying to decrease its cost ( the number of unsatisfied clauses). The main problem of these
algorithms is the possible presence of plateaus, which are regions of the space of assignments where no local move
decreases the cost. The second class of local search algorithms, WalkSAT, has been invented to avoid this problem. In
order to escape these plateaus these algorithms called randomized local search algorithms are doing random moves.
The local search technique for SAT is a theoretical and practical problem. It found its place in artificial intelligence
and algorithm domains. It is fundamental in solving many problems in several real applications as database, robotic,
computer architecture design, automated reasoning, scheduling, etc.
In our project we look forward to finding a faster solution with less number of flipping using the best Data Structure
to improve the functioning of the two algorithms. Eventually, we try to merge the two algorithms to produce an
efficient algorithm in order to benefit from the properties of the two algorithms by combining their powerful tools and
embedding some heuristics of variable flipping.
By the end of the project we will have implemented the two algorithms and try to perform experimental evaluations of
the efficiency of the implemented algorithms by testing them on some benchmarks of the SAT competitions. Also, we
will have conducted a comparison between these algorithms .The comparison is based-on two factors: the percentage
of how many times each algorithm found a solution if one exists, and the running time.
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Avatar-Based Approach for Teaching Arabic Sign-Language
Part 2
Abeer Al-anazi, sumaya Al-Mzyd
Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Gate_1428@hotmail.com , S.almzyd@gmail.com
Advisor: Yahya O. M. Elhadj
m_e_hadj@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
Sign language is the natural mean of communication between deaf, almost as talking is for healthy persons. To
communicate with the community around them deaf need a translator in order to translate signs to equivalent words
and vice versa. To facilitate this task, computer programs have been developed to assist deaf persons acquiring their
independency.
This application was aim to help the deaf persons to be able to translate his text to the sign language, and contribute
to educate sign language to the community in order to facilitate communication with the deaf.
Methods for visualization of signs by using computers have been evolved from images to video-clips and finally to 3D
technology called Avatar. Virtual Human Signing as 3D format is designed to display the signs through the internet
or other applications. Sign-dictionary has firstly to be transformed to animated forms and stored in appropriate fileformats, using special editors allowing the manipulation of avatars. These animated-signs can then be visualized by an
application that can read the corresponding files (The avatar software). These files are very much smaller than videos
and images, thus the amount of storage space required is minimal, and the download time (or visualization time) is
very fast.
This project is the second part of project that was successes in the previous Dubai conference for students.
Our objective in this part of the project is to continue building our learning system for Arabic sign language by adding
more features. We will focus on how to sign a sequence of words structured as separate sentences, short stories,
etc. This means, development of a translator that can transform an input text to a corresponding sequence of signs.
Morphological analyzer will be used to segment the input text before a mapping takes place.
This can be done throughout the following phases:
a. Collection of new signs: our sign dictionary created in the first part need to be enlarged to include more signs for
good language coverage. We depend on Sign Dictionary Standard to create the signs.
b. Creation of sign-animations: an animated version of the new signs has to be created using the same avatar
software as previous part: eSign.
c. Selection of a morphological analyzer: an appropriate morphological analyzer will be chosen and used to
segment words in the input text.
d. Development of the translator: it’s done by call morphological
analyzer to return the root and suffix for each word, and then
assign the word and its suffix to appropriate sign depending
in sign translating rules, finally play all signs as sequences.
Main Tools used in the implementation:
eSign editor: for creating animated-version of our selected
sign-dictionary.
SigmlSigning player: for playing animated-sign files.
Java: as environment of development.
JavaScript: for programming & controlling some events in the system.
Internet Explorer: The browser that should be used.
Buckwalter: morphological analyzer to segment the input text.
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Adaptive Counter-based Broadcasting Scheme in
Mobile Ad Hoc networks
Balqess Abed Alhameed
Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan
Supervised by
Dr. Muneer Bani Yassein
masadeh@just.edu.jo
Department of Computer Science
Jordan University of Science and Technology -Jordan
ABSTRACT
Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are formed by wireless devices that communicate without necessarily using the
pre-existing network infrastructure such as base station/access point. In such a network, each mobile node operates
not only as a node but also as a router so that it can send and receive messages as well as forward messages for
others. The self-configuring nature of MANETs make them suitable for a wide variety of applications. One of the
applications of these networks is communication within groups of people with laptops and other hand-held devices.
Moreover this type of communication paradigm stimulates the desire for sharing information among mobile devices
furthermore in the situations such as disaster sites, battlefields, temporary conference meetings, uninhabited field
searching, etc., applications typically do not have central administration or infrastructure available. In such areas
where there is little or no communication infrastructure or the existing infrastructure is inconvenient to use, wireless
mobile users can communicate through the formation of a mobile ad hoc wireless network. For example, in the
network shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: A sample mobile ad hoc network
Broadcasting is a common operation in wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) that can be simply applied by
using flooding. However, this technique suffers from a number of drawbacks in terms of high redundancy, collision,
and contention. This phenomenon is known as the broadcast storm problem. Many schemes have been proposed to
address this problem. In this paper we examine the performance of counter-based scheme with adaptive threshold
to increase the reachability percentage of the transmission packets which receive the broadcast message to all
nodes with high reachability and increase the throughput of the network by using ns-2 simulations. We evaluate
the performance of our approach by comparing it with the simple flooding. Simulation results show our approach
performs better than simple flooding in the average end-to-end delay (Latency), The Packet Delivery Ratio, and
Routing Overhead.
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ALPRS: An Arabic License Plate Recognition System
for Real-Time Car Monitoring
Rana AL-Otaibi1,2, Areej AL-Hassan1, Amjad AL-Fahad1, Lamia AL-Qahtani1, Najd AL-Robie1,
Thana AL-Faris1 and Dr.Khaled Suwais1
1AL-Imam Muhammed bin Saud Islamic University, 2King Abdulaziz City for Sciences and Technology
ralotaibi@kacst.edu.sa
ABSTRACT
Most of the existing cars monitoring systems which control the entrances of governmental and private facilities
depend on a security guard that uses visual verification techniques to identify authorized cars. Human faults, such as
guards allowing unauthorized cars, may occur. Therefore, this paper presents a full automated Arabic License Plate
Recognition System (ALPRS), for Real-Time Car Monitoring. ALPRS includes a combination of edge technologies from
both fields of computer vision and decision support systems. The idea depends on developing an information system
that is responsible for monitoring cars at entrances using license plate recognition technique (LPR). LPR is an imageprocessing technique used to identify vehicles by their license plates. There are many LPR systems for processing
English, Chinese and Hindi license plates, while there is a lack in finding LPR systems that deal with Arabic license
plates.
Figure 1: Typical Structure of LPR System
Figure 2: Samples of Car Images Acquired
ALPRS starts by capturing car image and then remove possible noise using the morphological processing technique.
Consequently, the license plate extraction stage is carried out using the connected components analysis algorithm.
After that, the system will label and extract the connected components, in the binary image, to get an effective
character and number segmentation. After the extraction process, the license plate is automatically recognized using
the Support Vector Machine algorithm (SVM). Results are compared with images stored in a pre-defined database. As
a result, the decision of whether to allow or reject the car from entering the facility is generated. For the purpose of
this paper ALPRS was implemented based on Saudi license plates.
The main objectives of this project are to transform the existing non automated system to a computerized system. The
proposed system provides a fast and hands free access to facility, high security and reliability, and easily manage cars.
ALPRS was implemented using MATLAB and VB.NET .The performance of the system has been investigated on real
images captured with different resolution, and the recognition rate is found to be about 92.85%.
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Assistive Technology for People with
Hearing/Speaking Disabilities
Sara Qaffaf
Qatar University, 200758855@qu.edu.qa
Rouda Al-Kuwari, Ohood Al-Amoudi, Nada Aloraidi, Heba Dawoud, Muneera Al-Marri
and supervisors : Tarek El-Fouly, Amr Mohammad
Qatar University,
200754355@qu.edu.qa, 200758461@qu.edu.qa, 200652800@qu.edu.qa, 200654191@qu.edu.qa, 200451301@qu.edu.qa,
tarekfouly@qu.edu.qa, amrm@qu.edu.qa
ABSTRACT
The community with Hearing or Speaking Disabilities represents a significant component of the society that needs
to be well integrated in order to foster great advancements through leveraging all contributions of every member
in the society. When those people cannot read lips they usually need interpreters to help them communicate with
people who do not know sign language, and they also need an interpreter when they use phones, because the
communication will not be done easily if they are not using a special aiding devices, like a Relay Service or Instant
Messaging (IM). Building bridges of communications between Deaf and Hearing community or the different authorities
and institutions is essential, to deepen the mutual cooperation in all aspects of life. The problem could be summarized
in one question: How to construct this bridge to allow people with hearing and speaking difficulties to communicate?
This project suggests an innovative framework that contributes to the efficient integration of people with hearing
disabilities with the society by using wireless communication and mobile technology. The main goal is to give those
people privacy. Therefore, this project is completely operator independent unlike the existing solutions (Captel and
Relay Service), it depends on an extremely powerful Automatic Speech Recognition module and Text To Speech
module. The project provides two-way communication using a web server.
First, The Automatic Speech Recognition module is speaker independent, it recognizes the voice regardless of the
person’s voice characteristics, and it converts the speech to text then sends it to the server. On the other side there
will be a Text To Speech module, which will take the text sent to the application server and transmit it as speech. The
second aim is to develop an iPhone/iPad application for the hearing impaired. The application facilitates the reading
of the received text by converting it into sign language animations, which are constructed from a database. We are
currently using American Sign Language for its simplicity. Nevertheless, the application can be further developed in
other languages like Arabic sign language and British sign language. The application also assists the writing process
by developing a customized user interface for Deaf to communicate efficiently with others that includes a customized
keyboard.
Some of the various challenges we faced in this project. First, the Automatic Voice Recognition system may not
understand the person’s pronunciation; the person should speak clearly in the proper English language. Moreover, the
mobile application interface has to be highly customizable and relevant for people with Hearing/Speaking Disabilities
to simplify the use of the application for communication. Also, The full-fledge database of the whole sign language is
not available; therefore we are starting with limited dictionary of most common words.
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Provision of Wireless Services in KSA using
High Altitude Platforms
Naif S. Al-Zahrani, Faris A. Al-Malki and Mohammed N. Al-Mutawa
Taif University, Saudi Arabia.
hawi_alwaham@hotmail.com , com.eng.f@hotmail.com, m.q9@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
It is not possible to surpass the progress achieved in developed countries to bridge the digital divide with traditional
means. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is vast and rugged. Extending wireline networks to isolated areas is
economically infeasible and may be impossible. Wireless may be the unique alternative for nationwide coverage of the
territory. Although wireless could be established with terrestrial and satellite system, what is needed is an ambitious
approach alleviating the drawbacks of these traditional terrestrial and space-based communication networks. Recently
there is a great interest in a novel approach called high altitude platform (HAP) operating at an altitude of 17-22 km
in the stratospheric layer. A HAP could cover a service area of up to 400 km diameter depending on the minimum
elevation angle accepted from the user’s location. Its position in the sky would give them many of the favorable
characteristics of satellites, but without the distance penalty. Its position in the sky would also let them avoid the
radio ground scatter of terrestrially based systems, while still being
about as close as terrestrial antennas. Deploying a network of HAPs in the
sky of the Kingdom with interplatform links (IPL) will swiftly bridge the
information gap through soft infrastructure, fast start-up time, gradual
growing, on-demand capacity assignment, low capital investment as
well as low ongoing operating costs. HAPs represent a perfectly suitable
alternative infrastructure for long-term provision of broadband access to
fixed or mobile users. In addition, HAPs are particularly well-suited for
temporary provision of basic or additional capacity requirements, due
to the possibility of rapid deployment and controlling the flight path in
compliance with changing communication demands, providing network
flexibility and reconofigurability. HAPs, also, are well suited for serving
aFig. 1: An aeronautical platform-based
communication system.
remote regions with low user density, short-term large-scale events and establishment of ad-hoc networks for disaster
relief. Typical services to be offered from aerial platforms include basic voice, video and data communications, as well
as more advanced services such as telemedicine, news gathering, localization and navigation, news and emergency
message broadcasting, videoconferencing, remote sensing, etc.
The HAP, depicted in Fig. 1, is a helium-filled solar powered airship,
carrying the communication payload which is mainly composed of:
• Two phased-array antennas for transmission and reception.
• Processors that handle switching, transmitting and receiving
functions.
• Solar lightweight panel and fuel cells that feeds the HAP by the
required power.
Multiple GPS receivers and station-keeping technologies (electric motors
and propellers) are used to move the HAP to its desired location. Those
Fig. 2: Clarifying figure of the HAP system
will enable the HAP to remain in a fixed position in all 3-dimensions too.
Choosing an altitude of 20km, and elevation angle of 5 degree, the footprint then will be about 400km diameter. The
area of KSA that equal to 2,270,000 km² can be then covered by 18 HAP. The position of each one will be determined
depending on the population density. Figure 2 shows the semi-final installation of the HAP system over KSA.
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Swine Flu Detection Using Nearest Neighbor Generalization
Alya Al Sheraiqi and Nazar Zaki
United Arab Emirates University, 200712004@uaeu.ac.ae, nzaki@uaeu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Influenza A (H1N1) virus is a subtype of influenza ‘A’ virus and was the most common cause of human influenza (Swine
flu) in the recent years. The disease was first detected in people in Mexico and United States of America before
starting to spread up globally [1]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), swine flu is moving into the postpandemic period after being widespread in 2009. This does not mean that the disease came to its end; it means that
the disease is rather continued to circulate for some years to spread again. Being a favorite tourism destination makes
the UAE vulnerable to the swine flu which resulted in recording few conditions. To avoid the death of thousands
of people various solutions and vaccines were proposed to fight H1N1, however most of these solutions are proved
to be ineffective in advanced stages of the disease. Tedious traditional laboratory ways for detecting the disease
and the possibility of human errors in evaluating H1N1 symptoms makes the computational solutions essential.
However, most of the existing computational solutions [2] focused on classifying H1N1 depending on its evolutionary
origin. In this paper, we take different approach by proposing a method for detecting the disease based on patients’
symptoms. The method starts by extracting features which are basically the condition of the patient with respect to
a number of symptoms such as fever, runny or stuffy nose, cough, throat infection, exhaustion, and headache. The
datasets are retrieved from the H1N1 online self-assessment websites available at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/
flu-symptoms/FU00013. This data is developed by experts in the field of swine flu. Each of the 188 instants in the
dataset is a different patient condition suffers from different symptoms. According to the training dataset, the system
classifies the instances into three different classes: have
swine flu, possible to have swine flu and don’t have
swine flu. These features are then used in conjunction
with machine learning techniques to detect whether the
patient is infected, healthy or in risk to be infected.
The performances of several machine learning techniques
where analyzed and the experimental results show that
the proposed method was able to perform significantly
well when using Nearest Neighbor generalization (NNge).
The performances of several machine learning techniques
are measured in precision and recall as shown in Figure 1.
In this case, the proposed method demonstrated fast and accurate prediction results of a precision and recall equal
to 0.989 and 0.989, respectively.
Fast and accurate detection of H1N1 through its symptoms can prevent patients from reaching the last stages of the
disease. The study has also demonstrated the power of NNge in classifying H1N1 through its symptoms.
References
1. Brown, Ian H. swine, avian & human influenza viruses. Weybridge : Veterinary Laboratories Agency, 2009.
2. Pavan K. Attaluri, Ximeng Zheng, Zhengxin Chen, and Guoqing Lu. Applying machine learning techniques to classify
H1N1 viral strains occurring in 2009 flu pandemic. 6th Biotechnology & Bioinformatics Symposium (BIOT-2009),
October 9-10, 2009, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
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Twitter Trends
Alia AlBluwi, Wejdan AlThumairi, Layan AlWakeel, Maha AlQernass, Hind AlHabib
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Supervised by
Dr.Nawal AlShebel
ABSTRACT
Twitter is basically a simple and a real-time information social network that connects you with the latest information
about what you find interesting. All twitter users can send and receive tweets.
The foundation of Twitter is short messages commonly referred to as “tweets”. A trending topic is a word, phrase or
topic that is posted (tweeted) multiple times on Twitter social network service.
Twitter trends are the way to see the hottest topics, news, products and events discussed around the world in real
time and get the highest rating view according to most users interacts with.
Twitter allow users from several countries and cities to see their
related trends such as USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Spain, Italy, and
India… etc. here is an image captured from Twitter.com describes
a group of countries which twitter support their trends, user can
select any of these countries to display their related trends
The problem is that twitter website doesn’t support trends for
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia; it doesn’t allow users in KSA to see
their trending topics and deal with. The reason behind absence
of trends in KSA is because the small number of tweets traded
between local users. In addition, through our researches we did
not find someone who developed trends for KSA on twitter, or
even previous sufficient solutions. Here, the idea came to be one
of the first who develops trends for Saudi Arabia.
From this point we came with our project idea. We decided to
build a website (an online system) that will display KSA trends, by
collecting all tweets from KSA users. We chose this online method
because the browser applications can be accessed by everyone from everywhere.
In order to make it clearer, here is the explanation of our system. First, we should monitor the most tweets that
Saudi users interact with. Second, withdrawn these tweets, and then watch the most frequent tweets that got users
attention. Finally, we will filter these selected tweets and convert them to top10 trends to be displayed on our website.
This way we will be able to view the trends, and allow users to do comparison between the trends of KSA and trends
in the worldwide.
The importance of our project lies behind the people’s interest and the benefits they may get. It has been found that
the number of Twitter users had reached 200 million users around the world, generating 65 million tweets a day and
handling over 800,000 search queries per day, as they prefer to see news on one of the most popular websites such as
Twitter. On the other hand, trends in Saudi Arabia can serve many groups; Marketers, researchers, and businesses that
are interested in monitoring Saudi markets, users, and how they target them and spread their businesses through
these trends. Twitter is one of the biggest beneficiaries of our project as they explained to us previously.
In conclusion, the goal of our project is to analyze content and properties of Twitter Saudi community. We will
determine the extent to which we can accomplish the tasks required in the specified period.
18
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Intelligent Transport Systems:
Traffic and Speed Monitoring System using Wireless Sensor Networks
Turki Felemban, Turki Milibary, Emad Felemban
College of Computer and Information Systems
Umm Al Qura University
ABSTRACT
Based on many studies, speeding is the main cause of accidents on highways and in city roads. Law enforcement
authorities enforce speed limit using traditional speed guns and speeding traps. Recent high tech solutions use
automated cameras and speed guns to report speed violations. The problem with these approaches is the coverage
area where only a small area of the roads are usually covered as trap points. In this project, we plan to use wireless
sensor networks to create a solution for monitoring speed violations across a section of a road and not through
a single point. The section of the road can be a highway, in city routes or small streets. In addition to monitoring
the speed in the section, the solution also can alert law enforcement about congestions in roads which will help in
preventing delays and accidents.
Time Measurements
and Counting
Data
Forwarding
Data Collection and
Decision making
Figure 1: Main components of the Project
Figure 2:Traffic Monitoring Scenario
Figure 3:Speed Monitoring Scenario
For the implementation of this project, we are using the generic Telos-B sensor motes and TinyOS as an operating
system. We assume that every car has a sensor node able to communicate with road side network devices. We justify
this assumption by knowing that late models cars are hi tech and have many communication devices ( GPS, Bluetooth,
mobile phone signal, etc) that could be utilized to track, detect and communicate with the car. Our approach is to
have two sensor motes at the beginning and the end of a road section. When cars enters the section, the sensor mote
records the time of entrance and increment a counter representing the number of cars inside the section. At the other
end, sensors records the time of exit and decrement the car counters. Law enforcement are notified when a car cross
this section in a shorter time than estimated by the idle speed limit. Also, they are notified once the counter reaches a
threshold indicating that a congestion is most likely to build up in designated section of the road.
19
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Intelligent Transport Systems:
Real-Time Accidents Notification System using Wireless
Sensor Networks
Mosab Khayat, Anas Daghistani and Emad Felemban
College of Computer and Information Systems
Umm Al Qura University
ABSTRACT
Based on recent studies, road accidents lead the causes of deaths in the Arabian Gulf region. Law enforcement accidents
notification time greatly depends on the interactivity of the victims and witnesses. It might take couple of minutes until
the victims realize the situation, look for their phones and call the police or until the witnesses find a safe place, stop
his car and call the ambulance. In this situation, every second count to save the life of a victim or protect others from
consequent accidents. There are couple of GPS-based automated accidents notification systems such as ONSTAR that
are useful in such cases. However, those systems only works for cars subscribed to the service. Moreover, it inherits the
limitation of GPS based systems such as poor signal quality within high building areas, no signal in tunnels and under
bridges. In this project, we are implementing a real-time accidents notification system using wireless sensor network by
automating the notification process and eliminating the human factor using easy to deploy road side networks that can
cover all areas including tunnels, under bridges and high raise areas.
Figure 1: Illustration of Accident Notification System
For the implementation of this project, we are using the generic Telos-B sensor motes and TinyOS as an operating system.
We assume that every car has an accelerometer equipped sensor node that is able to communicate with road side
network devices. We justify this assumption by knowing that late models cars are hi tech and have many communication
devices ( GPS, Bluetooth, mobile phone signal, etc) that could be utilized to track, detect and communicate with the
car. Our approach is to have two sensor motes distributed on road side. Once an accident occurs detected by the
accelerometer in the sensors, distress messages containing cars’ information is sent to the road side network which
delivers them to the nearest law enforcement office. In our project, we can extract information like location, number
of cars involved in the accidents, speed at which cars were running and other information to predict the severity of the
accidents. These data will help in providing a fast accidents response time to increase the safety in highways. In future
prototypes, we can connect these sensors to air bag deployment sensors for more accurate results.
20
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Indoor Framework for Patient and Medical Staff
Tracking using RFID-based System
Abrar Dalgamouni, Reham Alhalees, Sara El-Orfali, Samah Salam, Tarek Elfouly, and Amr Mohamed
Department of computer science and engineering
Qatar University
P.O.Box 2713, Doha, Qatar
Email: {tarekfouly, amrm}@qu.edu.qa
ABSTRACT
In convalesces period of patients’ recovery, patients are allowed to leave their room and do some activities in the
hospital. For this reason, some hospitals have special buildings for activities. It is important for the medical staff to
track the patients so that they can provide fast medical treatment when a patient accidently needs it. That’s make
indoor localization of both patients and medical staff one of the new systems that are being employed in health care
systems. Localization is achieved by using an algorithm called trilateration. This algorithm uses Received Signal Strength
Indicator (RSSI) values in order to calculate the position of an object. In this paper, Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID)s were used to get Link Quality Indication (LQI) values that will be converted to RSSI values. Several indoor
experiments have been done on the RSSI readings to show how accurate the system is. Results showed that an average
error of 50% has appeared which is initially acceptable. To increase the accuracy of the system more experiments are
required by getting more RSSI readings and
apply them on the algorithm. The following
figure shows the expected final system and
illustrates Patient Monitoring & Tracking
Network (PMTN), Medical Staff Network
(MSN), and WPMIT Application Server
(WAS).
Challenges in managing the smooth process
of patient care (especially those in critical
situations) and utilizing technology that
enhance health care were the motivation of
this project. Generally, helping patients and
saving their lives is the main concern of the
proposed framework. Localizing the patients would help doctors to respond fast to solve urgent cases by monitoring
vital signs. In other words with patients often scheduled for multiple procedures, or patients recovering from cardiac
surgery, real time monitoring and location tracking become crucial in detecting and addressing adverse events as
soon as they happen. With such system hospitals can improve and increase the level of health care by being more
organized in the process of collecting data. As a result, this system is implemented to provide a stored database, which
is continuously updated with the patients’ information. It alerts the medical staff with sudden events and emergencies
in order to response in a fast manner.
In this project, localization was achieved using RFID network through the use of LQI values supplied by the RFID tags
as part of the patient and medical staff RFID network. To improve the accuracy of the system RFID network with a
higher sending rate should be used. For the system described, more work could be done to improve the system’s
accuracy. Tracking system can be extended to include medical staff position localization. This will help optimize the
care process by finding the appropriate medical staff that is qualified to provide the medical assistance where it is best
needed. The web application can be improved by adding security features in it, for instance, forcing the user to provide
login name and password to make sure that the access is restricted to the medical staff only.
21
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Detecting Spam Emails using Machine Learning Techniques
Azza Al Houqani and Nazar Zaki
United Arab Emirates University, 200714631@uaeu.ac.ae, nzaki@uaeu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Email is a very common tool of sharing, communicating and exchanging information through the internet. It provides
a great way of sending million of advertisements at no cost for the sender. This result in getting unwanted emails
that are known as spam or junk emails. Spam emails are annoying to most users; they waste time in deleting them,
consume traffic between servers that caused delay in delivering legitimate e-mail and waste space in the email overall
size. In the UAE it has been recently recorded that over 80 million spam attacks received daily 2010, which is a
huge increase when compared to 2009 where it was under 20 million. To solve this problem several computational
techniques have been developed. However, the nature and structure of the spam emails differ from region to another
which makes it necessary to develop our own spam detector system.
In this paper, we propose a method for spam email detection. The
method starts by extracting features from 513 English personal emails
(229 spam emails and 172 legitimate emails) which characterized the
type of spam emails usually sent to this region. Emails with graphics
or attachments are ignored in this case. A java program was built to
automatically scan each email and extract 11 different attributes which
are related to keywords appear in the email. These features are then
used in conjunction with several machine learning techniques to detect
whether each email in the testing dataset is spam or legitimate. The
overall algorithm is shown in Figure 1.
The performances of several machine learning techniques (shown in
Figure 2) were analyzed and the experimental results show that the
proposed method was able to perform significantly well when using
Support vector machine (SVM) technique with true positive rate (spam emails that were classified as spam) accuracy
of 84%. It has been observed that SVM perform the best with setting the parameters in a way that the kernel type is
linear and using 5 fold cross validation. The result of correct classified instances was 83.97%. Furthermore, precision
was approximately 0.829 and about 0.84 for recall. Moreover, area under ROC which is frequently used as a measure
for the effectiveness of diagnostic markers was 0.716. However, Naïve bayes technique was superior in terms of lowest
false positive rate and ROC. The success of the proposed method is due to the meaningful features extracted and the
usage of powerful machine learning tools such as Decision Tree, Neural Network (RBF Network), SVM, Naïve Bayes,
KStar and Nearest Neighbour (NNge).
Figure 1: Illustration of Accident Notification System
22
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
UAE GIS-based Road Accidents Analyzer using Google
Maps API
Fatema Sayed Almusawi, Aisha Salim Almutawa, and Dr. Oualid (Walid) Ben Ali
University of Sharjah
20721732@ sharjah.ac.ae, 20720669@ sharjah.ac.ae, OAli@sharjah.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Increasing road accidents and fatalities has made “Road Safety” a major issue, with more accidents, health facilities
are overloaded and nation is suffering economic loss. This makes it very important to understand the traffic flow,
incident scenarios, etc. before application of any hardcore planning. Application of GIS in road accidents analysis can
help in understanding the traffic scenario and hence provision of smart solutions. A road section might experience
many accidents over a period which might be due to driver’s error, faulty road design, environmental factors, etc.
Analysis of road section can be carried out by using GIS technology. The UAE continues to experience rapid growth,
which is characterized by increasing population, trade, vehicle ownership and traffic movements. These factors have
increased road accidents over the past few years. In our research, we try to benefit from GIS technology to develop
an application which can be used (1) to record the exact locations of road accidents in UAE and (2) to analyze the
data in order to determine which road section is a faulty in other words hazardous location. This application can be
used as a decision tool to help decision makers to make decisions and take actions concerning the road safety in
this country in order to decrease the rate of traffic accidents. Our web-based application is based on two main types
of data: (i) spatial data (the exact location of the accident) will be saved on Google Maps database through Google
Maps API and (ii) the non-spatial data (type of the accident, cause of the accident, involved people, etc.) will be saved
in a classical entity-relationship database. We have selected Google Maps as GIS to store the spatial data (through
Google Maps API) because we don’t hold a GIS data of the UAE and because Google Maps is a free database that
can be update/programmed through Google Maps API using programming languages such as JavaScript or ASP. Our
application contains two main modules: The first one is a reporting module where the user reports a road accident and
the second one is an analysis module which can be used to analyze the accidents data and to help the user to take
strategic decisions and actions. The application users, especially the Police and transportation agencies, can benefit
a lot from our application.
The architecture of the application is presented in the following figure:
Application Architecture
23
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Classifying Pima Indian Diabetes Using
Machine Learning Techniques
Hajar Alreyami1 and Nazar Zaki2
1,2 United Arab Emirates University, [2007135821; nzaki2]@uaeu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Diabetes is recognized as a disease causing an inability to control the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood and it’s
currently the fastest growing exhausting disease in the world. According to a statistics released by the Imperial
College London Diabetes Centre at the Arab Health Congress show, the UAE has the world’s second highest number
of diabetes cases per capita with about 19.5 per cent of the UAE’s population. It’s inefficient to use the traditional
manual data analysis anymore in the modern hospitals and medical community as medical information system
become larger and larger. It has been proven that introducing machine learning (ML) into medical analysis have some
benefits such as increasing diagnostic accuracy, reducing costs and reducing human resources. However, deciding
which ML technique to be suitable in recognizing diabetic from non-diabetic patients is yet to be solved. In this paper
we utilized the standard Pima Indian Diabetes dataset in conjunction with several ML techniques such as Decision
Tree (D-Tree), RBF Neural Network, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naïve Bayes, KStar and Nearest Neighbour (NNge).
The features which were used in conjunction with the above mentioned ML techniques are retrieved from the UCI
Machine Learning Repository. This data set is extracted from a larger database originally owned by the National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. It’s a collection of medical diagnostic reports from female
population who are at least 21 years old and living near Phoenix, Arizona and USA. The dataset contains 768 instances
with 8 attribute values (number of pregnancy, glucose, blood pressure, skin fold thickness, serum insulin, body mass
index, diabetes pedigree function, age) and two possible classes (Diabetic or non-Diabetic) as shown in Figure 1.
The performances of the above mentioned ML techniques
with different parameters settings (kernel type, cost, crossvalidation fold, etc) were analyzed. Several evaluation
measures were used such as precision, recall and overall
accuracy and the results indicated that SVM is superior
in terms of the classification ability and efficiency. SVM
is a set of related supervised learning methods used for
classification and regression analysis. The standard SVM
predict the class for each input of a set and determine
which of two possible classes the input is a member
of. The SVM was able to achieve an overall accuracy
of 77.60%, precision of 0.771 and recall of 0.776. The
performance of all the ML techniques is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Performance comparison of different ML techniques
Method/Weighted Avg TP Rate FP Rate Precision Recall F-Measure ROC Area Accuracy
SVM
0.776
0.319
0.771
0.776
0.769
0.728
77.60%
Dtree
0.712
0.338
0.715
0.712
0.713
0.729
71.22%
Naïve Bays
0.764
0.306
0.76
0.764
0.761
0.818
76.43%
RBF Network
0.738
0.334
0.734
0.738
0.735
0.781
73.83%
KStar
0.697
0.415
0.685
0.697
0.686
0.718
69.66%
NNge
0.74
0.32
0.738
0.74
0.739
0.71
73.96%
BayesNet
0.747
0.317
0.744
0.747
0.745
0.804
74.74%
24
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Auto Embauche
Kripa Raj Devkishin1 , Amandeep Singh Saini1 and Sophia Rahaman2
Manipal University Dubai,
krisp_5@hotmail.com, amandeep_16_2005@hotmail.com, sophia@manipaldubai.com
1 Student, Manipal University, Dubai
2 Faculty, Manipal University, Dubai
ABSTRACT
In the last few decades the great advancements and innovations in
technology have changed the way business is done in today’s world.
Technology has prevailed in almost every sector of the business world
getting tasks done faster and efficiently. One such sector where
technology can be used for carrying out tasks efficiently and effectively
would be a system to enable hiring of a vehicle. Basically the manual
procedure for hiring a vehicle is a time taking task that has to be backed
with apt resources. It is difficult and a strenuous task to keep track of the operational details of such a system. We
propose to develop a solution that would aid in operational
management and at the same time reduce the overhead
cost and time spent in carrying out various tasks for such a
system. The Auto Embauche is an automobile hiring system
developed for renting out vehicles quickly and effortlessly to
customers. The proposed system is a completely integrated
online system, which serves the registered users. The user
can book any kind of vehicle for a required period as well as
keep track of them. It facilitates viewing the types and details
of vehicles being hired. It also allows the users to mark their
destination location on the map provided so as to reduce the
communication costs in the process. The booked vehicles can be tracked by the customers using a personalized
scheduler. In today’s fast world where it’s difficult to meet deadlines, the system would provide with a beneficial
feature to send a reminder to the customer via email or SMS. This project can be easily used in the process of
decision making. Different types of reports may be generated which would aid the management to take apt decision.
This in turn would reduce
the time delay and reflect
positively on the company’s
work
standards
influence
the
and
economical
state of the company. The
purpose of the system is to
facilitate its users anywhere,
anytime, anyplace with just
a connection to the internet.
It proposes that future work
could be done on the system
to implement it as an entire
and
complete
application
for vehicle management for
smart phone users.
25
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
iDiet
Sendos Nezar Mohamad, Dr. Oualid (Walid) Ben Ali
University of Sharjah
U00011605@sharjah.ac.ae, OAli@sharjah.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Countless health problems nowadays are directly linked to, and mainly caused by obesity. It is not only a cosmetic
problem; it is a real threat, and a crucial cause of death. Being 40% overweight doubles the chances to die earlier
than being a normal-weight person. The reason behind this is that obesity can be the main cause of numerous serious
medical conditions, including: Heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, breathing problems,
etc. Doctors came to an understanding that the number of health problems one might have is directly proportional to
their overweight. Moreover, being overweight or obese places you at increased risk for chronic disease compared to
normal-weight individuals. These people can gain significant health benefits from losing weight.
What we are trying to achieve in our research project, is to develop an easy way (application) to help people achieving
and maintaining healthy lifestyle and ideal weight in an easy way. The idea of this project came from the need of
healthy and obese individuals to have a guide that helps them find out the exact need of their bodies from calories
and macronutrients each day. Not only that, because many available applications can do so. This software is going to
suggest a meal plan that matches the amount of calories calculated for each person individually.
The application will:
- Tell the users if they are in the range of healthy weight, underweight, overweight or obese phase; accordingly,
it will either increase the amount of calories needed (if underweight) or decrease the amount of calories
needed (if overweight) to facilitate further weight loss, and encourage reaching a healthier weight. All of
the calculations in the application are based on scientific equations, and are approved by the World Health
Organization (WHO).
- Going to ask users to provide their weight, height, gender, age and physical activity level. According to
the numbers given, some calculations are going to be done, and the amount of calories that need to be
consumed per day will be calculated. According to the amount of calories, the number of servings from each
food group will be provided, and will also suggest some meal plans.
- Concentrate on Arabic foods, and will also be in two languages “Arabic and English”, as almost all diet
applications are not available in Arabic, and it is a little hard for older people to translate them.
- Be so EASY to use, even for people who are not familiar with soft wares, or even for new dieters, it does not
need any background in nutrition and macronutrients needs.
There already exists many applications to calculate calorie needs, and others that provides meal plans for the amount
of calories you desire, but there is no such an application that will do both. iDiet that we are proposing can do both!
And that’s not the only unique feature. In other application, most meal plans are based on western foods, where in
ours, we are going to include foods that matches what people consume in the Arab world.
We think that iDiet is going to be an effective guide for many people if developed and used in academic and scientific
ways. In the future, the application can be updated to be used by diabetic, hypertensive and even people with renal
problems.
26
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
OpenAPI WEBOS
Ayman R. Awartani
College of Information Technology – Computer Science
An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
ayman.awartani@gmail.com
Supervised by:
Dr.Bahjat Qazzaz
ABSTRACT
OpenAPI WEBOS is a web application that allows the users to do most of their tasks online with no need to regular
OS, and will be open for developers to contribute and introduce more efficient applications. OpenAPI WEBOS will be
connected with a cloud space for each user.
Users can install registered apps through AppStore, which is basically very similar to iPhone AppStore.
WEBOS is responsible for fetching app from a 3rd party automatically, and connect the result with the core API as
follows:
OS API would help the developer to build Apps faster, and more reliable and produce more convenience UI, and allow
the developer to interact with user’s files.
Users are working on cloud, and by this they can share, send, and
collaborate works and data. This could also be used for entertainments
and games.
OPENAPI WEBOS will be portable and cross platform, no need for special
device or special OS. You can reach your files from anywhere smartphone,
PC, Linux….
By introducing HTML5 a lot of dreams may comes to true in WEB OS world.
27
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
UAE Crime Mapping Using Google Maps API
Zahra’s Hatem Hawas and Dr. Oualid (Walid) Ben Ali
University of Sharjah
20721458@sharjah.ac.ae, OAli@sharjah.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
The growing potential of GIS for supporting policing and crime reduction is now being recognized by broader
community. GIS can be employed at different levels to support operational policing, tactical crime mapping, detection,
and wider-ranging strategic analyses. GIS helps crime analysis in many ways. The foremost use it to map crime
occurrences, visualize them, and analyze them. This allows low enforcement agencies to understand exactly where
crime is occurring as well as determine if there are any patterns. Areas of high crime density are known as hot spots.
Hot spot analysis is a valuable tool as it allows police to not only identify areas of high crime but also explore variables
that are affecting crime patterns. With this information, law enforcement agencies can be more efficient in their
fighting tactics from increasing patrols around such locations or by proactive measures in these hot spots.
UAE continues to experience rapid growth, which is characterized by increasing population, trade, etc. Most of the
population in UAE are immigrants and coming from all over the world. This situation has increased the number of
crime occurrences in the country. Several years ago, crime fighting became a serious concern for many people and
government in order to reduce the crime incidences.
In our research project, we want to benefit from the advantages of GIS in order to develop a first prototype of Crime
mapping tool which can be used to (1) record crime occurrences in the country, (2) save the exact location of the
occurrence on the GIS map of the country, and (3) analyze the data and report the results in order to make strategic
decisions by the law enforcement agencies in the UAE, example the Police. The web-based application is based on
two main types of data: (i) spatial data (the exact location of the crime occurrence) will be saved on Google Maps
Database through Google Maps API and (ii) the non-spatial data (type of the crime, involved people, etc.) will be saved
in a classical entity-relationship database. We have selected Google Maps API as GIS to store the spatial data because
we don’t hold a GIS of the UAE and because Google Maps is a free GIS Database that can be updated/programmed
using programming languages such as JavaScript or ASP through Google Maps API. Our application contains two main
modules: The first one is a reporting module where the user reports a crime occurrence and the second one is an
analysis module which can be used to analyze the crime occurrences and to help the user to take strategic decisions
and actions. The application users, especially the Police, can benefit a lot from our application.
The architecture of the application is presented in the following figure:
Application Architecture
Used rsources:
* GIS and Crime Mapping, Spencer P. Chainey (The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, UCL, UK) and Jerry H. Ratcliffe
(Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, USA)
* Crime Analyst, ESRI: http://www.esri.com/library/brochures/pdfs/crime-analysis.pdf
* Crime Mapping: GIS Goes Mainstream: http://gislounge.com/crime-mapping-gis-goes-mainstream/
28
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Cooling the Airbus A380, The World’s Largest Airliner
Brendan S. Aranjo, Ben R. Hughes, Hassam N. Chaudhry
Heriot Watt University Dubai Campus,
bsa13@hw.ac.uk, b.r.hughes@hw.ac.uk
Supervised by:
Dr.Bahjat Qazzaz
ABSTRACT
‘Cooling The Airbus A380 – The World’s Largest Airliner’ was proposed in conjunction with Emirates Engineering. The
hot climate of Dubai and the size of the A380 cause major cooling issues with the aircraft when on ramp at concourse
being prepared for flight and when in the hanger under maintenance.
When the aircraft is in the air, the wind cools the skin of the aircraft and the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) cools the cabin.
But when the aircraft is stationary on the ground and the APU switched off, external cooling needs to be provided.
Emirates Engineering provides cooling with external Pre Conditioned Air (PCA) supply units which goes through long
ducting before reaching the cabin. Because of the sheer size of the aircraft, this cooling method is inadequate to
cool the aircraft even with an additional PCA unit attached. The same problem is faced while the aircraft is under
maintenance in the hangar. During maintenance, pre conditioned air from the units is supplied directly into the cabin
through the doors. Substantial cooling is lost from the ducting due to the PCA unit being more than 75 meters away
from the aircraft.
Boeing and Airbus limit the temperature and airflow that Emirates Engineering is allowed to supply via the PCA
connections.
To understand why current cooling methods are insufficient and to investigate where the cooling is lost, Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was done on a model of the aircraft cabin, and the cooling load of the aircraft cabin
was calculated so that accordingly the required amount of cooling calculated can be delivered without any waste of
energy or space around the aircraft. A Computer Aided Design (CAD) model of the aircraft cabin was created using a 3D
CAD software, Solid Edge ST. Using Solid Edge ST, cabin models of a section of the upper deck and lower deck of the
aircraft were created after extensive research was done to acquire accurate dimensions of the Emirates Airbus A380
cabin and the seating program.
CFD Analysis was done on the CAD models using the Ansys12.1 software provided by the University.
Using the FLUENT commercial code from Ansys 12.1, the airflow through the aircraft cabin was analyzed and the
change in velocity and temperature through the cabin was predicted for the initial velocity inlet boundary conditions
of the PCA units used by Emirates. From the results acquired, the loss of cooling through the cabin was investigated
and the required temperature and airflow needed to cool the aircraft cabin was calculated. The existing system used
delivers air at 11.6°C after which the cabin temperature is still at a high temperature of 31°C.
It was concluded that the inlet temperature of the air should be at -18°C using the existing system, where the air is
delivered at 6.5kg/s, to cool the cabin to 22°C. Therefore the required specifications to propose a new successful
cooling system have been acquired.
Figure 1: Temperature contours on a
section of the Business Class cabin
seats (iso view), showing the change
in temperature across the seats after
the required cooling is distributed.
Figure 2: Velocity streamlines through
a section of the Business Class cabin
(side view), showing the change in
velocity across the cabin after the
required cooling is distributed.
29
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Quick Overview of Service-Oriented Architecture
Alya Saeed, Eman Ali, Hawra Ghanim, Khuloud musabh, Mariam Ahmed, and Zakaria Maamar
College of Information Technology
Zayed University
PO BOX 19282, Dubai, U.A.E
u2603564@zu.ac.ae, u26.5171@zu.ac.ae, u2607420@zu.ac.ae, u2609679@zu.ac.ae, u2605587@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Today’s organizations face various challenges due to regular changes in business requirements, which results in
changes in these organizations’ IT systems. Knowing that these systems are usually distributed and heterogeneous,
making these systems work together has always been a challenge for IT practitioners. Indeed these practitioners have
to understand the capacities and limitations of each system so they can deploy business processes whose execution
spreads over these systems and hence, is capable to cross organization boundaries. Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA) has recently been hailed for its appropriateness for tackling this challenge. SOA exposes IT systems through a
set of loosely coupled services and is built upon the following principle: I offer services that somebody might need and
I require services that somebody might have. To achieve a successful adoption of SOA and quick return of investment
of this adoption, there exist number of design principles that define the way services should be developed, used,
and maintained. These principles include loose coupling, reusability, abstraction, and composition. Loose coupling
is seen as the core principle of SOA which refers to the components of a system that depend on each other to the
least extent and can be easily broken. This facilitates changes include adding, removing, reconfiguring, modifying
components in a system. To see the benefits of SOA adoption, Web services are among the technologies that
implement SOA principles. A Web service is XML-based designed to support interoperable application-to-application
interactions using widely accepted and used standards, for instance Web Services Description Language (WSDL) for
description needs, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) for discovery needs, Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP) for binding needs, and Extensible Markup Language (XML) for defining messages. These standards
facilitate the communication between clients and services across a wide variety of platforms and applications over
the Internet. To understand the use of these standards, Web services are defined and described using WSDL in order
for developers to use these services. UDDI serves as a way of discovering Web services. UDDI provides organizations
with the available Web services that they need. The communication between the clients and Web services is done
using XML-based messages. SOAP which is a communication protocol is used for interchanging these messages.
As part of our capstone project we aim at experiencing the design and development of applications based on Web
services. Two deliverables are expected out of this project: report and proof of concept. The report will cover different
aspects related to SOA, Web services, SOA governance, Web services composition, and Web services Security. The
proof of concept will correspond to a student/course registration system to manage students’/courses’ records. In
order to develop and deploy our Web services, we will use NetBeans IDE, JDK, and application server such as Tomcat
Web server, GlassFish Server, or Oracle WebLogic Server. To develop our database for students’/courses’ records, the
needed tools are MySQL database server, JDBC Driver, and MySQL Connector.
30
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Multi-purpose Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis
System
Hussein Mohsen, Karim Jahed, and Marwan Fawaz
Lebanese American University, hussein.mohsen@lau.edu.lb, karim.jahed@lau.edu.lb, marwan.fawaz@lau.edu.lb
ABSTRACT
The software system includes applications that employ Speech Recognition (speech-to-text) and Speech Synthesis
(text-to-speech) technologies. The input of the system is speech signal, and can also be typed text. The output can be
voice signal or text, along with GUI forms. The applications are:
• Dictionary: looks up for the meaning of the input speech/text.
• Calculator: returns the result of the input speech/text mathematical expression.
• News Reader: returns the news as speech/text.
• Speech-based Search Engine: searches for results for the speech/text input.
The significance of this system is based on the fact that it provides a fast retrieval of information and can also be used
by people with physical challenge as well. Fast retrieval of information can be attained by adding few databases that
can save information obtained by previous Web queries. Also, the system has an object oriented architecture, which
makes it easy to extend with more applications. Many additional applications are being under implementation. These
applications include weather forecasting application, social networks (Facebook and YouTube) access applications,
movie guide, and some others. The diagram below shows the typical structure of a typical application. The second
bottom figure shows a screenshot of the main menu of the system.
The unique feature of this application is the integration of different modules for speech recognition and synthesis
and of a collection of different applications together in one system that has a user friendly interface. This makes it
accessible to a very wide audience of different academic levels, ages, physical status, and occupations.
However, the precision of the system is limited by the effectiveness of the Speech Recognition subsystem, the amount
of training and the size of the possible vocabulary required.
31
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Monitoring 6LowPAN Networks using Z-Monitor
Hanan Abdulaziz Mohammad Al-Souly, Nada Daloh Mohammad Al-Elaiwi
Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, st-hanan.alsoli@coins.csrlab.org, st-nada.alelaiwi@coins.csrlab.org
Supervised by: Dr.Anis Koubaa
ABSTRACT
Low-power wireless personal area networks (LoWPANs) comprise devices that are conforming to the IEEE 802.15.4
standard. Typically, a LoWPAN includes devices that work together to connect the physical environment to real-world
applications, e.g. wireless sensors. In some applications of wireless sensor network which are based on LOWPANs
there is an urgent need to ensure reliability of data, to make networks faster, smarter, and more reliable. In a nutshell,
we want to maximize the network performance. To get all of that, we must have a monitoring tool for IEEE 802.15.4.
An example of that tool is Z-monitor. Z-Monitor (ZM) is a free tool for monitoring and controlling IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless
Personal Area Networks (WPANs). It is compatible with the open source official TinyOS which is the implementation
of the IEEE 802.15.4 recently released by the TinyOS 15.4 WG. It has also been tested and validated with the open-ZB
implementation. Currently, Z-Monitor is available only for TelosB motes platform. The motivation behind Z-Monitor is
the fact that commercial products for monitoring and testing IEEE 802.15.4 compliant LOWPANs are too expensive
and typically require special sniffing hardware. In addition, other generic purpose sniffers such as WireShark and
Ethereal are not specifically designed for IEEE 802.15.4 compliant networks and to provide a convenient solution
for researchers and students
for
developing,
debugging
and deploying wireless sensor
network applications based on
6LowPAN which is standard
that integrates IPv6 into low
power wireless devices such
as
wireless
sensor
nodes.
This work makes part of the
Z-Monitor project funded by
the Deanship of Research at
Al-Imam Mohamed bin Saud
University, and directed by Dr.
Anis Koubaa. It is continuation
of two previous graduation
projects developed by Ahmed
Figure 1: Z-Monitor 2.0 GUI.
Al-Dakhil and Mossab Al-Sania and other partners from different countries, mainly CES Research Lab in Tunisia and
CISTER Research Unit in Portugal. They create the previous versions of Z-Monitor 1.0 and 2.0 which are include a GUI
of Z-Monitor and offer some features such as sniffing the packets, display it in the GUI, draw the topology of the WSN
(only Star topology), provide a timeline for the sniffed packets, provide protocol analyzer and packet statistics and
decode 6LowPAN packets based on BLIP which is the implementation of 6LowPAN in TinyOS as you see in figure 1. The
objective of our project is to extend Z-Monitor software to monitor 6LowPAN traffic. For that purpose, we reorganize
the current code of Z-Monitor to have better modularity and extensibility. In particular, we separate the monitoring
and packet decoding operation from the Graphical User Interface (GUI), add some advanced packet filtering options
for traffic analysis, traffic dump into XML format and WireShark format and support multi-hop topologies. We believe
that Z-Monitor will be of a great interest for the TinyOS research community. So, for the future, Z-Monitor can be
extend to support other protocols such as ZigBee network layer and adding advanced filtering options.
32
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
I-Architect: A Virtual Reality CAD System
Randa T. Abu Snaineh,Alalia’a Khalifah, Mostafa Z. Ali, Ayad Salhieh
Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan
randasn@hotmail.com, aloosh1961@yahoo.com, mzali@just.edu.jo, Salhieh@just.edu.jo
Robert G. Reynolds
Wayne State University, USA
Robert.reynolds@wayne.edu
ABSTRACT
Current architecture projects are characterized by interim partnerships between multi-punitive teams with varying
levels of information handling capability and progression maturity. This involves a planning phase, design phase and
a phase of formation of structures of all types. The final product development process in architecture is normally
structured as a chronological chain of activities in which each action is separated in space and time and where the
target design information is communicated via traditional files – like 2D drawings which is error prone and slow and
reflects the functional perspective of the carried project by architects, who used to draw many rough drafts of any
certain model in the past before implementing it in reality, and after a long fine-tuning process of drafts going through
approvals of many designers and the owner, the final design is decided.
In operations involved in architecture and construction it is not often easy at all to achieve the described target
situation. In practice due to difficulty or otherwise too much time-consuming communication people tend to
minimize all required communication with other participants in the process. This situation is a big challenge for the
development community. An obvious solution is to provide an easy-to-use communication for all stakeholders in
constructing models for architects. The desirable overall target system is one where all those involved from clients
to designers would have a good understanding of the model object at any time, and without trouble. Virtual Reality
(VR) technology is suited for this purpose that will enhance the learning process, reduce lead
times and increase efficiency of architectural
students through our prototype system that
can be used to aid architectural students
to form scenes from scratch, import scenes
from a 3D software like AutoCAD for editing
and better manipulation, or both, with the
advantage of a better experience, and a more
flexible interaction with any scene. The idea is
illustrated in figure 1.
This project presents a part of an ongoing
research, with two modules, that intends to
improve architects’ construction education
through the use of virtual reality for Computer
Aided Design (CAD) modeling (a 3D design of
such environments plus time) of construction
processes. This funded project intends to
Figure 1: Kit-of-parts used on a sample constructed site
implement CAD modeling into undergraduate Architectural Engineering Curriculum that will provide an interactive
learning environment for simulation, visualization and modeling of constructed sites. The proposed system intends to
be a base for experimenting with the use of immersive virtual reality through which our created tool allows construction
engineering students to interactively generate sequence of modules for a project in an immersive environment. This
tool will provide a Java-based environment for sporadically creating and renovating newly created or imported models
from a dxf-formatted CAD file. The system will serve as a flexible toolkit that will have most of the CAD operations and
utilities in addition to have students able to manipulate designs in an immersive environment. A second group will
handle the module creation of a Knowledge-Based System for verification of operations, guided tours with different
levels of information.
33
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Diagnosing ADHD with Eye Tracking Technologies
Afnan Al-Ghaith, Huda Al-Atwi, Sara Al-Khalaf, Refah Al-Subaie, Haifa Al-Omran, Zainab Al-Mousa.
Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Project Supervised by Dr. Areej Al-Wabil
ABSTRACT
This poster describes the design and development of a screening system for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity
Disorders (ADHD). Diagnosing ADHD is a complex process that requires a team of specialists and considerable effort
that often involves monitoring people for one week or more in order to diagnose them. Professionals in the field often
complain from the lack of devoted technical tools or programs that can accurately measure behaviors of individuals to
help them in this process. In our local context, ADHD specialists suffer from the absence of Arabic interface programs
that support them in diagnosis and screening of ADHD. Developing a system that attracts but doesn’t distract ADHD
people, and combining that with a friendly interface that helps specialists regardless of their proficiency in computers
is a challenge. This project aims to address these issues by developing a screening program that provides objective
measures of visual attention for individuals with ADHD. Based on the measures known to be provided by eye tracking
methods, we developed an ADHD diagnostic tool that connects to Tobii Eye tracker devices. This eye tracker is a
device that can measure the eyes’ positions and permits comprehensive measurement of the eyes movement paths,
and estimates the direction of gaze of a person- relative to a monitor. By using this technology, the system enables
specialists to conduct rapid and accurate screening of people suspected as having ADHD. This software component
allows the specialists to run three major tests for subjects, these tests measure the following: Test1: visual attention
when the system displays a grid of static images, Test2: visual attention when the system displays a grid of static and
dynamic images, and Test3: smooth pursuit test when the subject views an animated object.
Before starting the session, to the system begins with calibration in which subjects follow moving circles on the
screen with their eyes. The calibration process enables the Eyetracker to capture the subject’s eyes characteristic, and
validate the subject’s position. Specialists can determine test durations from 1 second up to 5 minutes. In the first
two visual attention tests, specialists can use the default image or upload new ones. Specialists guide subjects to
focus on a selected object
in the grid. During the test,
the eye tracker captures
the subject’s gaze data,
which is recorded in a text
file. The processing of the
test results depends on x
and y-coordinates and time
stamps of the subject’s
gaze. According to this data
, fixation will be identified
in corresponding location
Figure 1 Test 1 or Test 2 Result.
on the grid. After that, for
every object in the grid, we
can calculate the number and the percentage of fixations, duration of fixations, and the mean of fixation durations.
Attention duration on objects of interest can help specialists determine the likelihood of subjects with ADHD. In
addition to these results, the system generates visualizations representing the results in graphical forms, which are
heat maps and gaze plots. Gaze plots will display fixations in the order of subject’s gaze movements. The third test
measures smooth pursuit, which is the duration of subject’s eyes following an animated ball, the smooth pursuit is the
continuous movement that slowly rotates the eyes to compensate for motion of the visual object. The system allows
specialists to customize the color, radius, and speed of the animated object. The system does not diagnose ADHD
people but it helps specialists to obtain objective measures of visual attention.
34
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Design and Development of a Zakat Expert System
Alia Mohammad, Amna Ahmad, Haifa Hassan, Suad Rashid, and Zakaria Maamar
College of Information technology, Zayed University, UAE
u2607546@zu.ac.ae, u2608027@zu.ac.ae , u2608392@zu.ac.ae, u2523729@zu.ac.ae , zakaria.maamar@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
In today’s business world making decisions has a major impact on the future of organizations. Some decisions turn
out beneficial, while others turn out unfavorable. As a result supporting those people who have to make decisions
through systems is of paramount of importance. These systems are usually referred to as Experts Systems (ESs) and
aim at mimicking experts’ reasoning process by providing responses to users’ questions. ESs are used in different
domains such as medicine, engineering, geology, computer science, business, law, and education. An ES is defined as
a software system that consists of two main components: knowledge base and inference engine. The knowledge base
uses facts to represent knowledge, and the inference engine executes rules upon these facts to provide responses.
A user interface is usually developed to ensure the interactions between users and the ES. A rule is considered as a
conditional statement that links given conditions to actions or results. Like other information systems, designers
of expert systems are assisted with design methods such as KADS (Knowledge Acquisition and Documentation
Structuring) and development tools such as Jess ( Java expert system shells). KADS is a modeling framework that
covers all aspects of knowledge-based applications. KADS supports most features of a knowledge-based systems
development project, including: project management, knowledge analysis and modeling, knowledge system design,
organizational analysis, knowledge acquisition, analysis of system integration issues, and capture of user requirements.
The KADS methodology is a result-oriented rather than process-oriented. It describes the expert systems development
from two perspectives; result and project management. The former is a set of models of different aspects of the KBS
and its environment, which are continuously improved during a project life cycle. Jess program is completely written
in Java. Jess is an interpreter for the Jess language, a rule-based expert systems that can be strongly coupled to code
written in the powerful, portable Java language. Jess, The Java Expert System Shell. Livermore, CA: Sandia National
Laboratories). In our capstone project we aim at developing an ES for the domain of Zakat (obligatory charity). Zakat
is one of the Islam’s five pillars and is “a way of purification for the souls and properties of the wealthy man and
the poor man at one and the same time, and it is success for the one who pays it”. Different things are eligible for
Zakat such as money savings, gold, silver, animals, and plants. Each type is subject to different conditions and rules.
Muslims need to know these rules so that they can calculate their payment of Zakat correctly. ESs will be very helpful
in calculating Zakat. By asking the user some questions about his wealth the system calculates the amount of Zakat
that she should pay.
References:
Friedman-Hill, E. J. (1998). Jess, The Java Expert System Shell. Retrieved Mar 27,2010 from
http://www.xs4all.nl/~synotix/robbieng/docs/jess43doc.html
Hallaq. M. S. (2007). FIQH. Riyadh: King Fahad National Library.
Schreiber. G. (2000). KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING AND MANGEMENT. London: England.
Terry. H. Expert Systems.(2002). Retrieved Mar 27,2010 from www.pcai.c
35
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Case Study on Dubai E-Government
(A Force to Change)
Amna Al Nuaimi, Shama Al Kendi, and Fahim Akhter
U2608222@zu.ac.ae, U2403777@zu.ac.ae, fahim.akhter@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
The use of web services has increased dramatically in the last couple of years. People tend to use the World Wide Web
to do their shopping, paying bills and money transactions. To cope with this new communication style, governments
have to adopt the World Wide Web to have a direct and an easier connection with their citizens. Specialized web
departments were created to develop web applications to provide services such as money transaction and billing
systems. Those services are to provide efficiency and to save both the client’s and the department’s time. Those
kinds of governments who upgrade their services and convert to an electronic are called e-Governments as what
Dubai Government. So in order to be successful, e-government people have to get over these barriers by involving the
end-users in the very first building, prototyping and implementing process. In this research the Dubai E-government
directions will be discussed in terms of the services that are provided to the three categories: Business, citizen,
individuals. In addition to the challenges that faced the implementation and how did Dubai e-government overcome
them, the legal barriers, examples of e-services and ways of improving them throughout the years of experience, how
was the main goal met throughout the last 10 years and finally advices and lessons learned from the beginning till
these days.
As a first step, a survey was held at Zayed University to illustrate the effect of shifting to an e-government, the most
used e-services, in addition to the privacy trust issue and the satisfaction regarding the services from the users’
side. Our target was the whole university community, from different nationalities and ages, students to workers and
instructors, in order to cover a diverse range. The results of the survey and a link to the survey are provided in Table 1.
Table 1. E-Government usage survey results
Question
Percentage of each answer
Total answers
1. On scale of ( very satisfying 1→5 very unsatisfying), how
would you rate Dubai
E-government services ?
- 1 →76%
- 2 →14 %
- 3 →6%
- 4 →3%
- 5 →1%
250
2. About the privacy of the information you
provide while using e-government services, you:
- Trust that your information is protected → 92%
- Worry about your information privacy → 8%
3. How did the shift from traditional government to
e-government affect you? And how?
- Positively → 78%
- Neutral → 20%
- Negatively → 2%
4. Among the following governmental websites which
provides several e-services, which one do you use most:
- Roads and Transport Authority →34%
- Dubai Health Authority → 4%
- Dubai Municipality → 9%
- Dubai Courts → 2%
- Dubai Electricity and Water Authority →14%
- Dubai Police → 37%
The result of the first question indicates the satisfactory level of the e-services regarding the users. The highest
percentage of answer was very satisfying but it still needs more improvement and continuous maintenance to reach a
higher user satisfaction level. In the second question most of the users answered that they trust the privacy of their
information which is an indicator that they are comfortable with the use of e-services. Thirdly, regarding the effect of
the shift from a traditional government to an e-government, the replies were between the mostly positive. And the
final question showed that the most used e-services are Dubai police and Roads and Transport Authority services.
That demonstrates the high effectiveness of these two services and that the users are very satisfied while using them
as they resolved an issue.
36
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
“eHelp”: A Finger Tracking and Gesture Interface
for the Disabled
Begum, A.1, Kazi, M.1, Vasudevan, S.1 and Akre, V.2
Manipal University, Dubai
ayisha.pcfreak@gmail.com, mummu_jem@hotmail.com, swarup21@gmail.com , vishwesh@manipaldubai.com
1Students, BSc (ISM), Department of Information Technology, Manipal University Dubai
2Senior Lecturer, Department of Information Technology, Manipal University Dubai
ABSTRACT
In this digital era, the gap between human and computer interaction is narrowing with emerging technologies
being developed and experimented through diverse methods. One of these technologies includes the Nintendo Wii
Remote, which has brought a revolution in gaming technology. In the gaming arena, the Wii Remote emits signals
that are sensed by the infrared sensors in the Wii console. The Wii console deciphers these produced signals into
game movements. The Wii Remote has recently gained attention for its application on the computer. By connecting
it through Bluetooth, it can be turned into a receiver for infrared signals to enable “finger-tracking”. This project has
been inspired by the growing opportunities that this technology presents. With the use of Wii remote and a few
other tools, a simple interface can be provided between the user and the computer. One example of this interface
is the control of the mouse cursor through the motion of the fingers. This overrides the single cursor by making it a
multi-touch technology. The purpose of this project is to provide an easy interface for the disabled to communicate
with their caretakers’ through simple finger motion and gestures. These gestures help them to communicate their
needs or requirements. The Nintendo Wii controller uses accelerometer technology to detect gestures. The data is
retrieved as timed triplet (ax, ay, az) representing X, Y and Z-axes. The Wii remote acts as an infrared camera. The
user will wear reflective tapes on their fingertips and should be approximately 3-5 feet away from the Wii remote. The
console should be placed at around 45-degree angle. The infrared signal detected by the console will be analyzed
and filtered using an API. Gestures that need to be tracked are pre-defined. Thus, everytime a finger gesture from the
user is made; it is compared with the previously collected data. The application consists of two modes: training and
recognition mode. The training mode consists of performing the to-be-recognized gesture repeatedly. This procedure
trains the system to correctly identify pre-defined gestures – thus triggering the transition to the recognition mode.
Once the gestures have been recorded in the training mode, the recognition mode matches the gestures made with
the recorded data through the calculated probabilities. The application recognizes the gesture made by the disabled
person and sends the corresponding meaning of the gesture to their caretaker, who maybe at a different location.
The respective message will be displayed on the caretaker’s monitoring screen informing them about the needs of the
disabled and thus enabling the caretakers to provide help.
Fig 1.Working of the e-Help Gesture Interface
37
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
An Effective User Interface Design
for an Interactive Virtual Museum:
Case Study of Dubai Interactive Digital Museum
Ayesha Bin Hazaim, Fatima Almarzoqi, Hassa Alamri, Maliha Bastaki
Zayed University, u2607449@zu.ac.ae, u2608155@zu.ac.ae, u2721324@zu.ac.ae, u2621468@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Interactive digital or virtual museums are becoming more popular, accessible and usable by many groups of people
nowadays. This kind of museum is exists only online and accessible through the web. It is also known as an online
museum, electronic museum or Web museum. Digital Museums allow user to take a virtual tour of the museum
contents and display it in an interactive fashion. Users will be able to view and rotate objects in different contexts and
positions. Visitors can browse through the Dubai museum collections using the chronological approach, based on
region, historical period, and area of interest.
This paper presents a new user interface design for an interactive virtual museum: special case Dubai Museum. A survey
of several world digital museums have been examined and studied such as European virtual museum, Iraq virtual
museum, Japan virtual museum, and virtual Egyptian museum to help researchers understand the existing features
of an existing and common user interface design. A partially functional prototype of the newly proposed interface for
an interactive virtual museum will be developed to be used for user studies and usability testing purposes. A full
usability and accessibility study will be planned, designed, and conducted using Eye Tracking methodology. As part
of research methodology will use both quantitative and qualitative approach. Data and feedback on well-defined
user performance and preference pertaining the new system functionality and features and interface will be collected
and analyzed from the study to measure the usefulness, effectiveness, efficiency of the new interface design. Based
on the findings of the study, a set of final recommendations well be developed in this regard. An additional benefits
of developing new Dubai interactive museum is to help international visitors by providing them with virtual and
easy access to the valuable UAE museum collections. It will also help in promoting knowledge, heritage and cultural
information sharing cross people around the globe.
38
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
An Experience to Develop an Environmental
Web Portal for Qatar
Abdlah A. Sabri, Mohamad H. Abbasi and Abusin Rahama, Jihad Mohamad ALJA'AM
Qatar University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
P.O. Box 2713, Doha – Qatar
200306759@qu.edu.qa, 200306418@qu.edu.qa, 200306697@qu.edu.qa, jaam@qu.edu.qa
ABSTRACT
A web portal plays currently an important role to give detailed information about a specific domain. Many modern
countries have developed their portals which offer many useful information and electronic services to their inhabitants
and visitors. A web portal contributes largely to build a knowledge based society. The state of Qatar is moving from
an oil and gas industry to a knowledge provider industry. In addition to that, Qatar aims to be an attractive country
for thousands of workers and tourists. Protecting the environment is one of the main aim of Qatar 2030 vision. Many
environmental protection projects have been initiated in different sectors of the country. The oil and gas companies
have set important plans to reduce the pollution (water, air, co2 reduction, etc). Schools, universities and social entities
have launched new projects to plant trees, flowers and herbs in different areas of the countries. The local municipal
council ALBALADI launched also many contests for the best home gardens. Other private and public organizations
(banks, ministries, cars inspection company, etc) have also their own projects. It is then very important to group all the
information about these projects in one site and to be the main point of access to information. Our work consists of
developing a web portal about the environmental projects in Qatar. We will show our experience in: (1) data collection;
(2) site development; (3) interfacing; (4) calendar of events etc.
39
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Image Classification and Clustering Using Various
Algorithms
Alaa B. Elmasry
Al-Ain University of Science and Technology / College of Engineering and IT
Al-Ain, UAE
lulubassam25@hotmail.com
KEYWORDS: Classification; Clustering; Image Data; Feature Extraction; Bayesian Theory; Decision Trees; SVM; K-Means
ABSTRACT
With the growth of modern societies, a huge amount of data is collected everyday and needs to be analyzed and
interpreted using powerful means in order to help in decision making. Data mining deals with (hidden) knowledge
discovery in a set of data related to a specific domain. Data mining is the ultimate and the most important phase
in the knowledge discovery process. Data Mining is part of knowledge discovery process. Data mining is seen as a
step in an iterative knowledge discovery process with the following main steps: Data Cleaning, Data Integration, Data
Selection, Data Transformation, Data Mining, Pattern Evaluation and Knowledge Representation & deployment. Data
Mining and knowledge discovery have been applied in various domains including Business transactions, Medical and
Personal Data, Games, Digital Media, CAD and Software Engineering Data, Virtual World, Text reports and Memos
(E-mail messages), Etc. recently there have been increasing interest to apply data mining on image and multimedia
data [1, 2].
Data mining functions are diversified. The most common
ones are Classification, Clustering, Characterization,
Association Analysis, Forecasting, etc. In this paper, we are
interested in particular in classification applied to a set of
textured images. Texture, as it plays a very important role
in visual perception, has been extensively studied and used
in the image and multimedia community to carry various
research tasks including classification, clustering, retrieval,
etc. [1, 2, 3].
Figure 1. Sample of images from Brodatz database.
We are interested in classifying and clustering a set of textures into various classes and clusters. Classification is a
supervised data mining function that groups data into pre-defined classes as opposed to clustering which is a nonsupervised data mining function that groups data into non-predefined clusters. First, we apply three (3) models to
these images in order to extract useful features that represent the textural content of these images [6, 7]. Then we
apply classification techniques namely Bayesian classification, decision trees, and support vector machines as well
as the K-means clustering algorithm to classify and cluster images. Experimentations, done using Oracle Data Miner
(ODM) [4] show interesting results.
Sample of images used in the project from Brodatz database [5]
are given in Figure 1 and sample of classification results obtained
using Bayesian classification, decision trees (DT), and support
vector machines (SVM) are given in Table 1. The results obtained
suggest that, for classification, although all three (3) classification
techniques have an acceptable performance, Support Vector
Machines (SVM) provide the best performance while for clustering,
the results obtained suggest that the K-means algorithm performs
well except in cases where data is not homogeneous.
IMAGE_ID
D1-1
BAYES
D1
Decision Trees
D1
SVM
D1
D1-8
D1
D1
D1
D28-8
D28
D10
D28
D28-1
D112
D10
D28
D105-1
D106
D76
D105
D105-8
D105
D10
D105
Table 1. Sample of classification results.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper is based on a graduation project done by Mrs. Alaa B. Elmasry at Al-Ain University of Science and Technology, UAE, under the supervision
of Dr. Noureddine Abbadeni, currently at King Saud University, KSA, and Prof. Mihyar Hesson from Al-Ain University.
REFERENCES
[1] D.T. Larose: Discovering Knowledge in Data: An Introduction to Data Mining. John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
[2] P.N. Tan, M. Steinbach, and V. Kumar: Introduction to Data Mining. Addison-Wesley, 2005.
[3] O. R. Zaiane: Introduction to Data Mining. Research report, University of Alberta, 1999.
[4] Oracle Corporation: Oracle Data Mining 10gR2 - Tutorial. Oracle Corporation, 2006.
[5] Brodatz database: http://www.ux.uis.no/~tranden/brodatz.html
[6] N. Abbadeni: Computational Perceptual Features for Texture Representation and Retrieval. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (IEEE TIP),
20 (1): 236-246, January 2011.
[7] N. Abbadeni: Texture Representation and Retrieval Using the Causal Autoregressive Model. Journal of Visual Communication and Image
Representation (JVCR), Elsevier, 21(7):651-664, October 2010.
40
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Facial Surface Alignment and Recognition based on
Structured Patterns
Naoufel Werghi , Mohamed Khamis Naqbi, Harish Bhaskar
Department of Computer Engineering, Khalifa University
Naoufel,Werghi@kustar.ac.ae, 1829@kustar.ac.ae , harish.bhaskar.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
The context of this project is face recognition. Face recognition is the process of identifying a person using his image
as biometric data. 3D image-based face recognition is expected to overcome many problems facing the traditional
2D face recognition, such as the lack of explicit shape information, and pose and lighting variation. However, as a
relatively new technology, a number of challenges still exist that limit the performance of the current 3D facial imagebased recognition system. Among these challenges how to represent the facial shape to ensure effective and efficient
matching but face instances. A standard paradigm of face matching is aligning their corresponding surfaces and
evaluating to what extent they do overlap. This procedure requires computing the geometric transformation, composed
of a rotation and translation that brings the two facial surfaces into a same coordinate system. This method raises
the fundamental correspondence problem, that is finding points in one face that anatomically correspond to other
points in the other face. To address this problem we propose a method that exploits the ordered structure of some
facial patterns in order to establish large number of valid correspondences. We design and implemented the extraction
process of these facial patterns, we employed them successfully for aligning facial surfaces (See figure below), and
currently we are investigating the final stage, which is their application for face recognition. We are using a public
database that includes the scans of 100 faces.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure: a: extraction of the structured pattern in two faces at different views. (b) selection of the largest pattern in
each face. (c) computation of the transformation that aligns these two largest patters. (d) repeating the task (c) for
all the patterns and using the resulting transformation to align the two surfaces.
The process starts by extracting concentric rings around the nose tip. From them we derive discrete contours composed
of the triangle facets’ centers in each ring. Theses contours exhibit some irregularities inherited from the raw triangular
mesh. To address this problem, we apply a basic spatial smoothing followed by an arc-length parameterization. Next,
we parameterize the contours using the inverse map, with a natural cubic spline interpolation. Finally we extract
from the spline curves a uniformly sampled discrete contours. The circular arrangement of the points within these
contours is used to establish valid correspondences between two facial instances. These correspondences are then
used to align them.
41
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Cloud Computing in Healthcare
Aisha Alshahrani, Noha ALnabit
Prince Sultan University, aisha.alshahrani@gmail.com , alnabit.nous@gmail.com
CIS Department - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
In the past few years, the usage of the technology cloud computing has been amazingly increasing among verity
of areas, such as e-business, social networks, educations …etc. That propagation is mainly due to valuable and
outstanding features that this technology offers. We can define Cloud Computing as providing resources as services
over the internet so instead of the users having to keep them in a local serves which require significant amount of
storage and usually are expensive, they can rent a space from a cloud computing providers .Also in this case, the user
will only be concerned about the services needed and the implementation details are kept abstracted.
The healthcare industry is continuously developing and the amount of health data that need to be stored and
professionally managed is massively increasing. Therefore, the need for more storage to keep the data, smart
techniques to handle them is very important. Also with all the technology and increasing awareness among patient
the ability to remotely access to them is becoming more and more sufficient. Cloud computing give the best answers
for these demands with it web-based resources. As mentioned before, with cloud computer web-based feature, a
huge amount of the expenses that was required for the actual physical infrastructure and for storing the data will
be cut. Also cloud computing provide more reliability and failure recovery than regular systems. Another future that
satisfies client needs is providing easy to user interfaces for verity of users and giving them the ability to access their
records remotely.
With all these promising features, healthcare organizations are still hesitating toward adapting the cloud. The reasons
behind that are mainly privacy, security and reliability concerns. For privacy, health organizations must follow certain
strict regulation to protect patient record. Also patient are yet concerned about who is going to access their records
and how are they used. For security they are worried of malicious hacks and security breaches. And finally the fact that
it relies on connection arias concerns about what if the connection are lost. Yet Cloud computing has found solution
for many of these concerns whether by adding more feature to increase security and privacy such as increasing the
level of encryption, authentication and authorization, or by providing a backup connection in case of a failure.
Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault are prominent systems that are example for cloud computing which are
used for healthcare purposes. Google Health with its easy-to-use interface and cohesive left hand navigation, tabs,
and profile, smooth the data entry and increase the usability of the system. In the other hand Microsoft had some
trouble some with the navigation where all terms in medical jargon and the irregularity among data entry elements.
But provided a desirable feature where more details can be easily added. For security aspect both systems proved
their capability of providing highly security and privacy tools.
Finally, cloud computing technology provide an almost excellence solution to improve the healthcare industries
by decreasing the cost and increasing the usability and reliability. Also, it is the one of the latest inventions in the
healthcare IT which introduces great services to all health system members and helps them to develop the health
environment over the world. In this paper we discuss how cloud computing is used in healthcare.
42
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
IT Standards in the UAE
Sumaya Suliman, Maitha Al Khamisi, Shaikha Abdulsalam, Amena Saleem, Aisha Awadh Al Hemari, Amna Saeed , Asma Mohamed,
Rahma Mohamed and Iman Al Amri, Dr. Manar Abu Talib, Dr. May El Barachi, Adel Khelifi
U2520010@zu.ac.ae, U2520171@zu.ac.ae, U2520246@zu.ac.ae, U2520272@zu.ac.ae, U2520354@zu.ac.ae, U2521147@zu.ac.ae,
U2521413@zu.ac.ae, U2600625@zu.ac.ae, U2520912@zu.ac.ae, manar.abutalib@zu.ac.ae, may.elbarachi@zu.ac.ae, a.khelifi@alhosnu.ae
Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
ABSTRACT
IT Standards in the UAE is a research project that conducted for a year under the supervision of Dr. Manar Abu Talib
and Dr. May El Barachi from Zayed University and Dr. Adel Khelifi, the Canadian ISO member from Al Hosn University.
The goal of the project is to help the organizations in the UAE to harmonize their IT standards. Standards play an
important role in our lives as they ensure a high level of quality, safety, reliability, and efficiency to the products and
the services.
We were able to:
- Survey more than 95 organizations in the UAE
- Develop the "Guide to Success" booklet which includes real case studies of how to get certified.
- Conduct interviews with ESMA, GASCO, ADSIC and Injazat in order to have a complete study on the innovative
use of IT standards in the UAE.
Moreover, we wanted to raise the awareness about using IT standards through the development of IT Standards
Application about the main IT standards for the main standard organizations such as ISO, IEC, IEEE and ITU. Finally,we
developed a complete web application about the IT standards since ESMA seeks to focus its resources on IT field.
The survey measures and evaluates the use of standards in the UAE. It contains 13 questions if the organization is
using the IT standards and 6 questions if the organizations are not using them. The survey has been distributed
among 95 organizations within the UAE. These organizations are from seven different sectors which are; Oil Sector,
Health Sector, Banks, Ministers & Government, Heavy Industries, IT Organizations, and Travel agencies.
The “Guide To Success” booklet has been prepared to highlight the best practices of organizations that implemented
ISO standards such as (i.e. ISO 27001 and ISO 20000). It contains five case studies about organizations located in
the UAE, which are: ESMA, ADSIC, Injazat Data Systems, GASCO and Nbiz Infosol. The guide is designed as a source
of information that helps the organizations to understand how they can apply standards (i.e. ISO standards). It
simplifies the standards’ implementation procedures, works the way that the organizations want, and makes the
ISO certification possible. It could encourage different the organizations to implement the IT standards processes to
improve the performance of their information system which, in turn, will help in gaining the customer satisfactions.
This booklet shows that the IT standards will hold a very important role in enhancing different information systems
and business practices in the UAE organizations within the next couple of years.
IT Standard Application is the first step to raise user’s awareness about the main IT standards. IT becomes one of the
important aspects in education, health care, marketing, banks, trading and almost everywhere. Therefore, the user
need an application to get detailed information about the needed IT standards of different categories. IT Standards
Application presents a total of 260 IT standards of four main standard organizations: ISO, IEC, IEEE and ITU. The
strong link between the IT and the other fields in human life makes this application useful and required currently and
in the future. Also, IT Standards application will raise the user’s awareness about the main IT standards and how
they have been used in the reality. This subject is still new in the UAE and there are many people, who have a narrow
idea about the IT and the international standards. The application will save time and effort by providing an easy and
a quick search of the specified standards. It acts as a effective resource for further researches and practices. In
addition, the application contains functional features and options such as printing, changing the application theme,
transferring the information to Excel file and searching for a particular standard of a particular IT category. We believe
that the use of IT Standards Application will be more in the future as the UAE focus to reach to the globalization and
enhances its new resources and industries.
IT Standards Web Application is to be added to ESMA’s official website. These web pages were designed using
Microsoft Visual Web developer 2005. Several categories of the IT standards have been added such as: Networking
standards, Software Quality standards and Security standards . Also, the user can view a detailed description of each
standard in the list. In authorized users can view a list that contains the names of all organizations who participated
in the survey. These organizations are listed depending on different sectors like: Oil sector, Health sector, Banks,
Heavy Industries, Travel Agencies, IT Companies and Government and Ministries. The web application is easy to use
and friendly designed.
43
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Autism Screening With Eye Tracking (ASET)
Reem Al-Salloom, Buthainah Al-Dosary, Maha Al-Hendi
Wea’am Al-Rashed, Sadeen Al-Harbi, Reham Makashen
King Saud University
ralsalloom@student.ksu.edu.sa, baldosary@student.ksu.edu.sa, malhendi@student.ksu.edu.sa
wal-rashed@student.ksu.edu.sa, sal_harbi2@student.ksu.edu.sa, rmakashen@student.ksu.edu.sa
Project Supervised by Dr. Areej Al-Wabil
ABSTRACT
Diagnosing autism is a challenge to professionals in medical, psychological, and rehabilitation domains. In contrast
to physical disabilities that are visible and measurable, autism remains a mystery to many professions. One of the
most challenging aspects of autism for doctors and parents is the lack of a definitive tool for diagnosing the Autism
Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children. Autism cannot be diagnosed exclusively with medical tests; screening and
diagnosis involves clinical examinations, observation and evaluations. If autism is diagnosed late in an individual’s life,
intervention is often less effective than with early diagnosis. Social and emotional deficits are the features that appear
to be unique in ASD, whereas communication defects and repetitive behavior patterns also occur in other disorders
(Schultz, 2005). Distinct patterns of visual attention in examining faces reveal the key problems that children with ASD
experience in visual communication. When a child is not tracking the most informative parts of the face (eyes, nose
and mouth), very little can be gathered with respect to other people's emotions. We developed the ASET program to
examine the viewing patterns exhibited by children with ASD and measures the eye gaze intensity and patterns for
each individual.
We have developed software that collaborates with an eye
tracker and uses it in the screening of children as shown in
Figure1. Eye tracking is a new technology that is used for
measuring the point of gaze ("where we are looking at on
the screen"). It uses a combination of an eye- tracker device
and gaze analysis software.
Initially the software gathers the child’s demographic data
that include indices which are commonly used by specialists’
for screening, such as Social Impairment (SI), Communication
Impairment (CI), Restricted and Repetitive Behavior and
Interests (RRBI), and Development Age. Then, a specialist
designs a session by selecting the number of stimuli and
their duration to be presented to the child. These stimuli
include both frontal faces and social scenes. The eye tracker
then returns the gaze data to be filtered and analyzed
Figure 1 : A child during a screening session
depending on the number and duration of each stimuli’s
exposure. Finally, ASET presents the results of each stimuli in the form of visual maps of subjects’ visual attention
(e.g. heat maps that show the aggregation of attention distribution, gaze plots that demonstrate the gaze path, and
statistical charts which present the number and duration of fixations and mean fixation duration). These visual maps
show the distribution of attention on key areas in the stimuli such as eyes and mouth. Screening is based on whether
the amount of attention allocated to these areas is below normal thresholds.
ASET uses facial processing prior to running the screening sessions in order to determine the areas of interest (AOIs)
in the face for each session stimuli (i.e. eyes , mouth). Facial processing in ASET includes three steps. First, images are
uploaded from a file or a database. Second, images are scanned to extract the face in the image and exclude any nonrelated areas such as image background. Finally, once the face is extracted the system will localize the features (eyes
and mouth). Stimuli in sessions also include images of social scenes where the area of interests- the side view of each
face and the path gaze between the two subjects- are predefined and do not require any pre-processing.
Reference:
(Schultz , 2005), Robert T. Schultz," Developmental deficits in social perception in autism:the role of the amygdala
and fusiform face area," 2005. [Accessed: 19 May 2010]
44
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Monitoring Memory Streams: Assistive Technology for
Alzheimer's Patients
Hala Al-Muhanna, Rawan Al-Wabil, Hailah Al-Mazrua, Noura Al-Fadhel, Lubna Al-Hinti, and Noura Al-Zamel
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Halmohana@student.ksu.edu.sa, Ral-wabel1@student.ksu.edu.sa, Hal-Mazrou1@student.ksu.edu.sa, Nalfadhel@student.
ksu.edu.sa, Lal-hinti@student.ksu.edu.sa, Nalzamel1@student.ksu.edu.sa
Supervised by, Dr.Areej Al-Wabil
ABSTRACT
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia [1]. It is one of the many diseases that are getting
the world's attention nowadays because it has affected increasingly large numbers of people in the last few years,
It has been estimated to affect approximately 50,000 people in Saudi Arabia [2], it’s also considered to be the sixth
main cause of death in the United States [3], AD is very hard to detect in its early stages, although there have been a
lot of studies to try and create a tool to diagnose it. But so far, AD remains an incurable disease. Usually people who
suffer from Alzheimer's are elderly people; they could be our parents, grandparents or someone we love, having the
disease would have a great impact on their life leading them to feel hopeless, dependent and unable to cope due to
the continuous confusion and memory loss.
The Monitoring Memory Streams system is an application addressed to help Alzheimer’s individuals’ caregivers in
measuring the memory decline. Monitoring Memory Streams will provide tests that accurately measure the memory
progressive decline for AD individuals, by implementing a photo database of the AD individual’s relatives, friends,
familiar places and surrounding objects, and an audio database to store the voices of the people who are close and
familiar to them. We also used the user centered design approach in the requirements elicitation and specification
since our intended users are people with disabilities to help us understand the appropriate requirements for those
targeted users. Also Monitoring Memory Streams will include an Arabic user interface that will be used with native
Arab users, who have design considerations specific to their culture and unique language. Figure1 depicts how the
system works.
In addition to measuring the memory decline the application will also help in slowing down the memory decline by
keeping the brain active as a part of memory therapy. Moreover it will generate reports of Alzheimer's individual's
performance to enable the specialists to follow up with their memory decline or stability. And to add some
entertainment to the application the AD individual or caregiver can browse either the photo/audio without feeling the
pressure that comes while running the test. Furthermore, Monitoring Memory Streams is not only limited for people
with Alzheimer but it will also help people with memory loss in general.
By this process we will reduce the burden and effort to be made by the caregivers -also known as the second or hidden
victim of AD- in taking care of their beloved ones, while at the same time keeping an accurate track throughout a
long period of time. The photos and audio clips used in the tests are to be uploaded by the user. Monitoring Memory
Streams is expected to be used at home or clinic by the AD individuals with the help of their caregivers or specialists.
To make Monitoring Memory Streams more attractive, appealing, and easy to be used by our targeted users, it will be
developed for multi-touch tablet-computer, which is mainly known as a platform for audio and visual media.
Monitoring Memory Streams is currently under development, and it is expected to be available and tested by June,
2011.
References:
[1] Alzheimer’s Association, “What is Alzheimer's,” Alzheimer's Association, April, 2010. [Online]. Available: http://
www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp
[2] Turkey Mansour, “," ألف مسن سعودي50 الزهامير مرض " اخلرف" الذي يعاني منهAl-Riyadh Newspaper, June 9, 2010. [Online].
Available: http://www.alriyadh.com/2010/06/09/article533201.html
[3] Toni Williams, “Alzheimer’s Disease Supersedes Diabetes as Sixth Leading Cause of Death in The United
States,” Alzheimer's Association, June, 2008. [Online]. Available: http://www.alz.org/national/documents/
release_061208_sixth_final.pdf
45
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Data Security in Cloud Computing
Amal AlKadi, Hanouf AlYahya
Prince Sultan University, amalkadi@gmail.com, hanouf777@gmail.com
CIS Department - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
This research discusses data security in cloud computing. Our goal was to help companies looking to move their data
to the cloud to have a clear understanding of the risks associated with cloud computing and the benefits of cloud
computing and look at one of the vendor’s security measures.
Cloud computing is one of the new trends that a lot of companies are shifting towards. According to Gartner researches,
cloud computing is one of four trends that will transform information technology and the way business is conducted.
One of the reasons that limit the expansion of cloud computing to all business functions is the data security concern.
The concerns of data security are increasing due to the ongoing development of the Internet and the ease of data
sharing and communication. Data security is critical in all aspects of our lives; banking information, personal files and
businesses almost all of those are processed using technologies and through network communication.
In this research, we first introduce data security and cloud computing by defining the terms and introducing their
importance in addition to discussing the data lifecycle and the level of risks associated with each stage. We discuss
the services offered by major cloud computing service providers, such as, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. We then
move to discuss data security technologies and techniques, which are authentication, access control, and audit. After
that we start discussing data security in cloud computing by addressing most of the threats or concerns that may
occur when using could computing which are Unknown risk profile, Malicious insiders, Shared technology issues,
Data loss and leakage, Insecure interfaces and APIs, Account or service hijacking, and Abuse use of cloud computing.
Each of these threats is clarified, with a definition of it, which type of the cloud platforms do they affect and how can
cloud computing customers minimize the level of the threat. After discussing all major issues we will talk about some
possible technical solutions such as encryption and private clouds. Then we introduce one of the clouds computing
service provider (Amazon Web Services) and we discuss in details their security measures. The last part in the research
is about the security benefits of cloud computing. We conclude that security cloud computing needs a few more years
to be solid. A lot of researches have been conducted to introduce new ways of securing the clouds and the data.
46
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Mufasseh: A Modern Arabic Dictionary
Safaa Dhanhani, Fatimah Ramsi, and Saada Mansori
Faculty of Information Technology
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE
{200613166, 200613255, 200632024}@uaeu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Our research involved the investigation of issues associated with young learner dictionaries and the development
of such a dictionary. Gaining competence in the Arabic language is a challenge even for native speakers, due the
complexity of the language and its morphology. In addition, current Arabic dictionaries in printed and electronic forms
are not user- friendly. The goal of this project was to develop an interactive linguistic skills–acquisition environment
for children in order to make them learn more vocabulary in an enjoyable way. Visualizing ideas is an effective learning
technique that enhances learning, since dynamic pictorial presentations have a lasting impact on children’s memory.
The basic premise of our project is to focus on the child’s view of the universe to enable him/her to navigate in a virtual
world where he/she can explore the places and their objects. Immersing the children in an animated universe and
gradually challenging them will attract them and encourage them to search and learn.
Our approach consisted of several stages: (1) assessment of the state of the art; (2) paper prototype development; (3)
requirements engineering; (4) object-oriented design; and (5) system implementation and testing. In the assessment
stage, we identified a set of attractive dictionary features of various languages and we elaborated a comparison based
on these features. Major features of foreign electronic dictionaries we considered are interactivity, search by image,
search by category, search by themes, word search, and thesaurus search. Electronic Arabic dictionaries were also
included. This investigation allowed us to select major features that enhance the ease of building one’s vocabulary. As
an exercise to explore various scenarios and to elicit requirements, we developed a paper prototype that explores the
child’s universe in a lively fashion. Subsequently, we laid the foundations by capturing the requirements, developing
the use-cases, and describing the structure and behavior of the system using object-oriented concepts. A working
prototyping that simulates exploration was built. This prototype illustrates the navigation process from a big picture
(the universe) to close-ups (objects of interest). Once the user focuses on an object, then several game-like functions
become available, e.g., matching, spelling, and animating the corresponding picture/word/sound. Currently we are
developing the full-fledged system using the Flash Builder technology.
The contributions of our research address a much needed learning tool, i.e., an electronic Arabic dictionary that is
not only easy and intuitive to use, but provides a game-like environment to encourage children to explore on their
own. Such a tool makes children become independent self-learners, thus enriching their linguistic skills. Its online
availability will benefit Arabic as well as non-Arabic speakers.
Figure 1 navigation scenario: village display
47
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Development of Target-Interception
Autonomous Robot System
Maryam Mohamed Al-Shehhi, Khadija Ibrahim Al Hosani,
Maryam Saeed Al-Tenaij, Khawla Saleh Al-Mansoori
Faculty of Information Technology
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE
{200708335, 200701606, 200708051, 200708094}@uaeu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Our research addresses issues associated with the design, formal specification and implementation of an autonomous
robot system that is capable of chasing a maneuvering target while avoiding obstacles. Thus, we describe our approach
to developing such a system and summarize our major contributions to the development of hybrid systems.
Just like other mobile communication and computing devices, autonomous robots are becoming an essential part of
our everyday lives. These robots are built to perform tasks that can imitate human activities as well as handle some
boring and dangerous tasks. Examples range from vacuum cleaners, to dangerous landscape explorers, to museum
tour guides, etc. Designing this kind of autonomous robot-based systems requires methodologies that provide a high
level of formality to ensure safety and reliability.
Autonomous robots are critical hybrid systems that require a high degree of safety and reliability. We formally addressed
these issues by: (1) decomposing the system into manageable units; (2) elaborating a structural and behavioral design
of each unit; (3) developing specifications; and (4) implementing and testing a prototype. To effectively manage the
complexity of the problem, we decomposed the robot system into several subsystems: the perceptual subsystem, the
planning subsystem: the acting subsystem and the monitor. The behavior of the robot perceptual system is defined
as the result of communication between the processes emitter, receiver, timer, and map-builder. Our robot system has
three main subsystems: the perceptual system, the planning system and the acting system. The perceptual system
uses sonar sensor technology to scan the area, define its features, and generate a map. This map shows the robot’s
position, the target’s position and the environment’s features. The planning system uses the information from the
perceptual system to find the most suitable path to reach the target. While tracking the target, the robot engages
into four different modes: move-to-goal mode, move-to-intermediate-goal mode, obstacle-avoidance mode and pathsmoothing mode. The planning system sets the robot’s mode according to the map. The acting system controls the
movement of the robot and moves according to the planning system’s directives. There is also a coordinator system
that manages the communication between the three main subsystems. Based on a set of requirements for each
of these subsystems, we developed a design and a specification. The design consists of use-case diagrams, UML
class diagrams, state charts and sequence diagrams. We used the Z specification language to formally express the
structure and behavior formal specification. Finally, we implement a software simulation of the system to demonstrate
the feasibility of our approach.
The major contributions of our research are the design and specification of the structure and the behavior of an
autonomous target tracking and interception system using UML and Z. Our formal approach provides a way to
demonstrate that our product exhibits critical properties such as safety and reliability. A 3D simulation software of the
autonomous robot system is currently under development.
48
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Undoing Sending an E-mail
Amro J. Awad, Hatem S. Mashaqi, Abdirahman S. Alasow, and Ahmad T. Al-Hammouri
Jordan University of Science and Technology
amro_ja@hotmail.com, hatem902003@yahoo.com, abdirahman252@hotmail.com, hammouri@just.edu.jo
ABSTRACT
1. Introduction and motivation
Undoubtedly, almost everyone who ever used the e-mail system has wished that the e-mail client has a button labeled
with “Undo Sending” that would revoke the last (or a previous) e-mail message that was already sent. There are several
reasons to wish for such a capability. These include, but are not limited to, sending an e-mail with no subject when the
e-mail system does not warn on this event, accidentally pressing the “Send” button instead of the “Spell check” one,
erroneously sending a sensitive e-mail to a friend instead of a family member, and last but not least forgetting attaching
a necessary file.
2. Implementation details
We have modified the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) by adding a new “DELETE” command that is sent from the
SMTP client to the SMTP sever. Upon receiving the command, The SMTP server deletes the respective e-mail only when
the recipient has not already read the e-mail. Therefore, this undo functionality is opportunistic and is deployed as
“Undo if Possible.” However, in most cases, this is a very useful feature, which prevents many embarrassment situations.
The two specific situations where this indispensable functionality can be unsuccessful is when the recipient reads any
newly arriving e-mail instantly or when he or she is setting up a mail client (e.g., Outlook Express and Thunderbird) to
pull down e-mails via the POP3 protocol. However, a small percentage of contemporary enterprises are still using POP3
to retrieve e-mails. POP3 has mostly been replaced with the more powerful alternative IMAP4 or recently with the Webbased mail. Additionally, we believe that the probability a user reads every new e-mail instantaneously as it arrives is
small.
The working of the original mail system and the modified system is best described by the following most general
scenario; see the Figure below. Alice uses her mail client, e.g., Thunderbird, to send an e-mail to Bob. Bob’s mail server is
different from that of Alice. Alice’s mail client uses the SMTP client that communicates with the SMTP server of her mail
server. Then, Alice’s mail server invokes the SMTP client that communicates with the SMTP server of Bob’s mail server
to deliver the e-mail to Bob’s mailbox. Bob uses his client to retrieve emails. In this example, Bob’s mail client uses the
IMAP4 client that communicates with the IMAP4 server of his mail server. Now, suppose Alice wants to revoke the
e-mail she just sent to Bob. Her modified mail client sends a DELETE command with sufficient information to identify a
specific message to be deleted (e.g., subject, date, and/or full message text). Recognizing that the e-mail to be deleted
is on another mail server, Alice’s mail server relays the DELETE command to the Bob’s mail server. Since Bob’s mail server
keeps track of read and unread messages, it deletes the specified e-mail if Bob has not yet read it. Finally, Alice would
receive a notification of whether the deletion was unsuccessful in the same manner one would receive a notification
when an e-mail cannot be delivered
to a recipient for whatever reasons.
We have chosen the hmailserver
to test, validate, and evaluate the
proposed modification because
hmailserver is open source; it
supports all mail protocols, i.e.,
SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and Web mail.
3. Related work
Currently, there exist two ad-hoc mechanisms to provide this necessary feature. First, in the Gmail mail service and
in the Outlook mail client, each e-mail message is held in an output queue for a given amount of delay time. The
maximum amount of the configurable delay is 20 seconds. Therefore, if the sender does not act before the 20
seconds, the message is sent to its destination and cannot be undone. Note that such delaying feature can still
be used along side with our proposed solution, which can still work beyond the 20 second limit as long as the
recipient does not read the specific e-mail. The second mechanism is similar in spirit to our proposed solution and
is employed by Microsoft’s Exchange mail system. However, it has several disadvantages, such as, it necessitates
both the sender’s and the recipient’s mail servers to be both Microsoft Exchange, it is implemented using proprietary
protocol that might not comply with the corresponding RFCs of the mail protocols, and it has strict constraints on
which folder a message ends up in.
49
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
MAC - Layer Protocols for WiMAX-Sensor and CCTV Network
Mubark Obaid AlQahtany, Ahmed Sulyman
Department of Computer Engineering Department, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
mukobaid@gmail.com , asulyman@ksu.edu.sa
ABSTRACT
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is expected to arise as the main Broadband Wireless Access
(BWA) technology providing voice, data and video services with different type of QoS (Quality of Service). Although
different type of QoS classes had been defined by the IEEE 802.16 standard, the scheduling architecture is left to be
vendor specific. Designing an efficient scheduling algorithm provide high throughput and minimum delay is challenging
for system developers. In this research, we describe the WiMAX technological features like how it’s physical and MAC
layer was designed and frame structure to be add new non WiMAX user (sensor, CCTV or both) to WiMAX network.
And give non WiMAX user high priority to send data (no big reserve in bandwidth because only alarm data). And the
result is enhancement when we apply variable slot more than fixed slot.
Our experiment is using 10 WiMAX users and two non WiMAX users with two ways for fixed and variable slot. For
fixed slot each user has slot size whatever has data or not. The frame size slot is divided by the number of user
and the slot size is still fixed until one or more user is removing out from the range of WiMAX. But for variable slot,
the frame size slot is divided by the number of user which he has data and the process is check after any slot if the
number of user which have data increase or decrease and modify the slot size. The highest priority is for non WiMAX
users with variable slot. When all non WiMAX users is finishing his data, the WiMAX user start sending data with
variable slot and for any slot the process check if any non WiMAX user have data the process give him priority for
sending data. We separate non WiMAX user from WiMAX user and we explain the difference between two algorithms
for scheduling, Strict-Priority and Round-Robin algorithm with variable slot size. The RR algorithm is better than SP
algorithm; because all non WiMAX users start sending in RR algorithm, but in SP algorithm only one non WiMAX user
start sending until finish his data, then the second is start to send (sensor or CCTV is very important information like
alarm and must be sending his data immediately). We implemented our experiment with Matlab program. Figure 1
illustrates the difference between fixed slot and variable slot for 12 users. We see the enhancement is increase up to
50% percentage like user number 4.
Figure 1 Last slot number for sending data, 12 users
For future work, we are going to expand this research to by Increase non WiMAX user and increase throughput by
modifying the slot size instantaneous for the last slot when the last slot is less then slot size
50
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Prevention IP Address Spoofing Using ACLs and
uRPF in Watch Mode
Zainab Ali Al-ojaili 1 , Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
zaao2007@hotmail.com 1, faizal.h@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Computer security is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of your computer. Prevention measures
help you to stop unauthorized users from accessing any part of your computer system. In this project aimed to study
and experiment the issue IP address spoofing prevention using ACLs and URPF and experiment. Access Control Lists
(ACLs) Configuring IP ACLs to prevent IP address spoofing using CLI. (ACLs) prevent spoofed packets passing through
the router. In unicast Reverse path forwarding (uRPF) is a technique used in modern routers for the purposes of
ensuring loop-free forwarding of multicast packets in multicast routing and to help prevent IP address spoofing in
uincast routing.
The exhibit shown below is the directions of configuration in which routers are directed as per the NAT scenario, the
task is to enable uRPF checks and IP address filtering on outside to filter out using ACL and the networks are RFC
1918 and RFC 3330. Yet exempt some networks from verification. Additionally, all spoofing attempts should be logged
Create additional interfaces Loopback1 and Loopback2 on R2 with specific IP addresses. It do not advertise the new
Loopbacks into any routing protocol and disable BGP on R1 to stop receiving default route. Create access-list 100 on R1
and permit network which is not targeted to attack. Deny and log everything else is configured. Similarly the network
is configured uRPF on R1, using Serial and FR interfaces. Apply access-list 100 as uRPF ACL.
At the same time the recommendations of RFC2627, ingress filtering should be performed, to deny “illegal” IP
addresses.
That is, only our network is permitted from inside, and “our” networks are denied as sources on outside also, it’s a
good idea to filter out ICMP redirect messages and disable IP source routing. The experiment pay special attention
not to block source address 0.0.0.0 on inside interface, since DHCP usually uses it to send requests. As per RFC 2627
deny packets sourced from specific network. Create extended access-lists to filter out ICMP redirects and permit UDP
packets from 0.0.0.0/32 to R1’s address port BOOTPs implemented via Ethernet interface and FR interfaces.
This is a great benefit to the internet backbone as blocking packets from obviously bogus source addresses helps to
cut down on IP address spoofing which is commonly used in DoS, DDoS and network scanning to obfuscate the source
of the scan. The procedure we used to experiment using we will use Graphical Network Simulator (GNS3) that allows
emulation of complex network. The system has the capability to determine if the packets are coming from within the
system or from an outside source. This method can be enhanced by disconnecting the source routing on the network
to prevent hackers from exploiting some of the spoofing capabilities. The result of these experiment observed using
different troubleshooting method. The study of this network paves to optimize the network from attack.
51
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
An Arabic Sign Language Computer Interface
Using the Xbox Kinect
Hosam Ershaed, Ibrahim Al-Alali, Hamzeh Al-Kofahi, Natheer Khasawneh, and Mohammad Fraiwan
Jordan University of Science and Technology, hhirshaed09@cit.just.edu.jo, alali@live.de, hoalkofahi09@cit.just.edu.jo, natheer@just.
edu.jo, mafraiwan@just.edu.jo
ABSTRACT
The Xbox Kinect sensor kit hit the U.S. market on November of 2010 as a hands-free, Controller-free gaming console
sensor extension, which provides full-body playing capabilities. The Kinect sensor lays down a strong foundation
for the development of applications that goes much farther than computer gaming. It provides full-body 3D motion
capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities, along with open source libraries that allow access to
the data gathered and processed by the Kinect and its sophisticated software. In this project, we are developing a
computer interface that captures commands in Arabic sign language, analyzes those commands, and performs the
computer functions intended by those sign language commands.
With the proliferation and pervasiveness of speech-based systems (e.g., car GPS navigation devices, it is becoming
clear that speech-challenged individuals are being left out of this technology trend. Our system aims at closing this
technology gap, and provide equal share of the technology benefits to all individuals regardless of their needs. The
system will be applied to the Jordanian sign language (JSL), which is a variant of the Arabic sign language.
JSL is the primary language used by most deaf people in the Jordan. It consists of two distinct forms of communication.
In the first form, called signing, gestures are used to communicate the approximately over 1000 most common words.
In the second form, called finger spelling, the fingers on a single hand are used to spell out more obscure words and
proper nouns. In addition, there are two constructs used to add depth to communication in ASL. Facial expressions
can be employed to distinguish between statements, questions, and directives. In this project, a complete system will
be constructed to recognize the hand movement and facial expressions. The hand movement along with the facial
expressions will be tracked using the Kinect sensor.
The recorded data, from both the facial expression data, and hand and fingers data will be further analyzed to
recognize the signing and the finger spelling. The analysis part will consist of 4 major sections, pre-processing of the
collected Kinect data, segmentation to extract the time event, features extraction, and classification.
• Pre-processing: Normally raw data suffers from noise
and inferences. In this step we will try to eliminate this.
• Segmentation: In this part, the onset and the offset
time will be determined to extract the time event from
and sequence of events.
• Features extraction: The recorded data for both facial
expression and hand movement will be in a form of a
time series. It is not efficient to use the entire time series
for pattern recognition; instead features or parameters
will be extracted from the raw data and uses them for
classification and pattern recognition.
• Classification: This is the last part of the implementation
and it employs a kind of artificial intelligent methods for Figure 1 Last slot number for sending data, 12 users
classifications. Other methods are also available and will
be explored to find the optimum and accurate method.
Figure 1 shows the successful detection of the “hello” gesture
by our system. In order to enable the detection of more
gestures, words, and signals, it is imperative that we identify
and distinguish the various fingers in the hand, as shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 2. Detection of fingers
52
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Virtual Mouse - Human Eye Controlled
Assistive Mouse Movements
Sultan Ahmed ALSharif, Harish Bhaskar, and Youssef Iraqi
Khalifa University, UAE
{1846, harish.bhaskar, youssef.iraqi}@kustar.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Human eye controlled computer interaction systems are particularly well known for providing an efficient medium for
communication from humans to computer in a way that closely replicates natural human communication. A few of such
systems have been proposed in the literature for the purposes of assistive technologies such as mouse control, keyboard
and voice input. However, they are limited by their incapacity to handle microsaccades (small movements of the pupil),
changes in the target’s position and
Figure 1 System Block Diagram
the need for special hardware interface. Therefore the deployment of such systems has often been inaccurate, unreliable and
rather expensive. In this paper, we propose a convenient mechanism of controlling mouse movements to assist people who
have physical disabilities to use the computer. Our proposed virtual mouse system incorporates several functionalities such
as acquisition, face detection, eye detection, calibration, mouse pointer localization and mouse movements. We present
a new eye detection method (model based detection framework), based on combined local and global shape models
for deformable object matching. We engage this system, closely integrated with face detection, to simultaneously detect
both the eyes using a point distribution model. The main advantage of detecting both eyes is to help increase the system
robustness and reliability. In addition, it also helps determining the distance of the target from the screen thereby allowing
compensation for slight changes in the targets position. Finally, we also use the localization
of one eye to correct the tracked location for the other. We employ a color based particle
filtering mechanism to track the eye ball across the different frames of the video and the
predicted/tracked eye location is further calibrated and input into the mouse movement
control application program interface. Our system will run in real time with the ability to
provide functionalities such as mouse movement, and mouse click. The system will provide
the user with a friendly interface to control the system parameters and fine tuning. The
proposed virtual mouse system will overcome a number of limitations that other systems
have, such as high cost, efficiency, reliability, health risks and other inconvenience. In Figure
2, we demonstrate some preliminary results of our system. The plot shows the location of
the mouse pointer as computed by our system compared to its original expected location.
Here, we also show the results of comparing our model based on the output from one eye
against the outputs from both the eyes (where the location of one eye corrects the other).
We anticipate that the project will play an important role in progressing the research within
eye detection, tracking and gaze detection and at the same time provide a natural means
Figure 2 Results
for physically disabled users to interact with the computer. We also trust that the project will
play a critical role in industries as it will provide computers that support eye tracking features to give customers with physical
disability the opportunity to use them. Furthermore, the proposed software can also be used by regular users to augment
and speedup human-computer interaction.
53
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Efficient Artificial Neural Network Design for Recognizing Iris Data
Based on Intensity Reflected and Saved in the Eye Print Image
Maliha Hussain, Maha Abu-Anab
maliha_hussain@hotmail.com, maha.ennab@yahoo.com
Supervised by
Dr. Ghada AlHudhud, ghudhud@pscw.psu.edu.sa
Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Nowadays in different areas of Biometrics, iris recognition has been taken into consideration by researchers as one
of the common methods of identification like passwords, credit cards or keys. Although the human iris is small, it has
enormous pattern variability. Iris pattern recognition as a novel biometric technology has great advantages such as
variability, stability and security which can be used for differentiating the individuals and groups. Features extracted
from the human iris can be used in iris based recognition system that can be of great importance for the real-time
applications. Iris scans have been used in several international airports for the rapid processing of passengers through
immigration which have pre-registered their iris images.
Artificial neural networks are mathematical models inspired by the functioning of biological neurons. There are
numerous variations in how the neuron is modeled. In some cases, these models correspond closely to biological
neurons for the purpose of recognizing patterns. The network consists of an input layer, an output layer, and one or
more hidden layer, Figure 1. Each layer consists of multiple artificial neurons;
these artificial neurons are connected to other neurons in adjacent layers.
Since these networks contain many interacting non-linear neurons in multiple
layers, the networks can capture relatively complex phenomenon. Learning
occurs through the adjustment of the path weights and node biases. The most
common method used for the adjustment is back-propagation. In this method,
the weights are adjusted to minimize the squared difference between the
model output and the desired output for an observation in the data set. The
squared error is then propagated backward though the network and used to
adjust the weights and biases.
Our model implies recognizing eye print patterns for three different ethnic
backgrounds based on the intensity saved for 150 samples of eye prints. The
novelty of our model in classifying and recognizing patterns is based on extracting the intensity features from the
eye print images and accordingly passing these features for all samples through our designed neural network. The
examination results have demonstrated high performance in terms of a recognition error = 0.01.
To begin estimating the network, the weights and biases are usually initialized with random values. The observations
are then input to the network and parameters are adjusted using the following methods. First, an observation is
presented
to
the
input layer and an
output generated. The
difference
between
the network's output
and the desired output
provides the error that
is back-propagated to
adjust the weights.
Then,
the
next
observation of the data
is presented and more
adjustments made. This method is used to start the gradient descent process (since it leads to a fast descent of
the error surface) . Running the simulation of the neural network, the results are plotted below with MSE= 0.0098
compared to the target error .01, Figure 2.
54
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Face Recognition on Surveillance Images
Rubayat Mosharraf Khan, and Irantha Udayanga Muthukuamarana
American University of Sharjah, b00023797@aus.edu, b00020181@aus.edu
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this research paper was to obtain a solution to identify an individual from a network of
Surveillance cameras in an Airport or public place. When the face recognition software finds our subject of interest; it
will output the location of the subject’s location or a list of most likely locations where the candidate may be present
(depending on the likelihood probability). In general, the face recognition process consists of four stages; Acquisition
of the Database, Face Detection or Segmentation, Feature Extraction and Classification.
In the initial job was to analyze different methods that were researched for each of these categories and benchmark
their works. In the Acquisition of the database, the nature of their existence in terms of face recognition was examined.
In the beginning, the ORL Database (AT&T faces) database helped in determining, which feature extraction method
and classifier to be used for obtaining the best average recognition rate. Later on, the SCFace database was acquired
during Feb 2010, which fulfilled our purpose of a much richer surveillance database. It had a database of clear mug
shots including some rotations and database of 8 different surveillance cameras to test the algorithm. It would also
provide us feedback to our algorithm because of the availability on other researchers for this topic.
For the Face detection or segmentation, a manual face-cropping algorithm was devised as a result of our focus on
the identification algorithm during the feature extraction and classification stages. This method was employed to
remove totally all the redundant information such as the hair, the clothes and the background to minimize error in the
identification process. Next, these manually cropped faces were normalized to a median size of all the cropped faces.
The next step followed the Feature Extraction method by a simple Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) method and was
prepared for the classification stage. By this stage the features of the images have been extracted into a ‘Training
Matrix’, which were used in classification. In addition, Classification stage includes a broad range of decision-theoretic
approaches to the identification of images. For the surveillance system, the classifiers used were based on statistical
inferences for identification of a person in a surveillance image with respect to the person’s feature extracted full
frontal mug shot. The kNN (k Nearest Neighbor) Classifier was used, using the Euclidian Distance and Cosine Distance,
as well as Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier was used, which created subclasses for classification. The
preliminary investigations were done on the ORL Database and results showed that optimum average recognition
rates - In comparison to the tests inferred on the ORL (AT&T faces) databases, the results obtained were high – 90%
and 95%, for DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) and PCA (Principal Component Analysis) respectively. However this
algorithm performed poorly with the SCFace database for different distances, thus the kNN using cosine distance and
Linear Discriminant analysis was used to refine the recognition rate. The initial benchmark recognition rate on the
SCface Database was 8% using PCA; however, we managed to improve the recognition rate up to nearly 60% by using
all the previous mentioned algorithms as well as introducing Cosine Distance Classifier which in turn improved the
overall average recognition rate by 15% in comparison to Euclidian Distance Classifier.
55
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Improving Holy Quran Recitation Using Speech
Recognition Technology
Rawan Olayan, Rihab Bahabri, Eptesam Alsanea, and Lateefa Alsayari
Dr.Yehya Elhadj, Dr.Mai Fadel
King Abdulaziz University, rere_olian@hotmail.com, roola_alassola@hotmail.com, smily_sooma@yahoo.com, l_0632956@
yahoo.com. maifadel@yahoo.co.uk
Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University, m_e_hadj@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
All Muslims long to recite the Holy Quran (HQ) in the appropriate way by applying Tajweed rules, this requires continuous
practice, and amendment of trainers. As attending lessons frequently poses time, cost, and transportation problems
to the learner, it would be of great beneficial to have a ubiquitous HQ trainer.
As a step to fulfill the aforementioned need, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology has been used in
our research project to develop a system for recognizing the special sounds of the HQ recitation. Our aims include
recognizing the pronunciation of phonemes of Arabic letters, in addition to the corresponding geminates for each
Arabic constant and vowel, and exploring the performance
of the same developed system in the recognition of more
sophisticated Quranic sounds of Arabic letters, called
allophones, which represent occurrences of Tajweed rules.
It is common in ASR research projects to use Hidden
Markov Model Toolkit (HTK), and apply the Mel-frequency
Ceptral Coefficient (MFCC) in extracting features of each
sound unit from sound files, and use the Hidden Markov
Model (HMM) to build the mathematical model that is
used in the recognition process. In our research, we have
applied these techniques and tools in the special area of
HQ recitation. To address the specifics of this area, we
used a new labeling speech scheme developed by Dr. Yahya
Elhadj that is specifically developed to represent Arabic
sounds instead of using a universal scheme. In addition,
the prototype of the HMM was defined using Gaussian
Mixture Model (GMM). Another special aspect of our research is experimenting with sounds at the allophone level.
Our sample data that is used to train the system and test it was taken from the Quranic speech database that was
built by Dr. Elhadj. We focused on 137 verses of 6 suras selected from the thirtieth chapter and recited by a single male
recitor, as we are developing a speaker-dependent ASR system.
The phonemes experiments were designed to recognize the pronunciation of phonemes, whereas the allophones
experiments addressed the recognition of the pronunciation of allophones. Preparing the HMM for training included
specifying it with a 3-state topology, in addition to specifying the number of GMM to be used –ranging from 1 to 10.
In each experiment, half of the HMMs were trained using bootstrap procedure, and the other half using flat start
procedure.
The best results of the phonemes experiments showed that the recognizer is able to recognize approximately 90% of
the phonemes, with accuracy of 62%. The best results in the allophones experiments showed that the recognizer is
able to recognize approximately 86% of the allophone, with accuracy of 58%. The results also showed - in both sets of
experiments- that training the HMMs using bootstrap procedure produced higher system performance than using flat
start procedure especially when increasing the number of GMM.
Finally, as a subsidiary aim of this research, a user-friendly interface that is integrated with the HTK was developed,
to facilitate testing the recitation by recording the recitation and then display the statistical results that represent the
recognizer’s performance.
56
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
e-pharm Assist
1Sean Mistry, 2Mrs. Sophia Rahaman,
Manipal University, Dubai - UAE
seanmistry@gmail.com, sophia@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
For decades, man has toiled away in laboratories in desperate
search for a cure to life claiming viruses that lurk among
us undetected. Several procedures, inventions, miraculous
chemicals and vaccinations have been developed over the years
in order to defend ourselves in the never ending battle between
virus and antibody. And with the advancement of technology
we have been able to achieve unbelievable feats such us robot
surgery, laser eye surgery, organ transplant, artificial organ
implants and so much more. Miraculous drugs have come
round into production to provide immunity and relief from the
deadliest of viruses. Many times, elderly citizens residing on
their own do not have the means to reach a pharmacy in time in
the event of a health crisis. Inaccessibility of proper medication
in due time has led to situations go from bad to worse within
seconds. Even so, with modern technology, there are many
flaws in the current distribution system of pharmaceuticals.
Therefore, our aim is to eradicate even the slightest chance of
medication not being within reach, should the need arise. Every
household these days has a subscription to Internet services and
our aim is to provide access to pharmacies and medicine at any
given time through our software which is connected via the web
to pharmacies nearby. Human life is priceless, and our focus is to
eliminate the slightest possibility of it being lost due to inadequacy
of any form of medical accessibility or availability. The software
is designed to be quick and easy to use without any complicated
menu navigation. It will feature an easy to use interface. It will
contain information of and access to all pharmacies within a 50 km
radius and also provide access to available doctors, dependent on
the severity of the patient’s case. The user will have the option to
input the name of the drug he requires and also a prescription
id which will be cross verified with the doctor’s database in
order to assure that the correct strength and dosage of the
drug is delivered. If the patient is not sure which drug to take,
then he/she will be provided with a simple form to enter the
symptoms and any medical conditions that need mentioning.
An in-house doctor will diagnose the mentioned details and
will personally visit the sick person along with the appropriate
medication and take further measures if necessary, such as
calling for an ambulance. Delivery of medicine will be free to
elderly citizens above the age of 60, which will be clarified in
the initial steps of the software. Approximate time of delivery
based on distance from home will be displayed along with a
quickly generated transaction receipt for the customer’s record.
There will be a prompt to enter a medical insurance company
name and number so that people who are covered will not be charged, after being cross verified with the company
database. After all, what good is any miraculous drug if it doesn’t reach you on time?
57
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Data Mining and Information Security
Reham Jarman, Barea'a Alsa'awi, Maha Alazizy
College of Computer and Information Sciences
Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia
207410244@pscw.psu.edu.sa, 207410251@ pscw.psu.edu.sa, 120067042@ pscw.psu.edu.sa
ABSTRACT
According to MTI Technology review magazine, data mining is going to be one of the most 10 sectors that is going to
change the world in the future. Many giant companies entered this sector recently like Oracle and IBM by supplying
software or models used to serve data mining. Also there are many companies interested with the security of data
mining like Cisco Company. But, what makes all these companies interesting in data mining? What is behind the
big profit gained from data mining companies?.Many standards and rules was added recently to help improving the
information security .These standards are figured and controlled by strong organizations and sometimes governments
like International Organization for Standardization (ISO) .Lets take the ISO27001 for managing the information security
as an example .We are going to talk about a new powerful technology that helps firms and companies focus on the
important information in their warehouses. This technology is data mining, which is extracting information from large
data sets. The future of data mining is bright and portentous ¡and growing very fast to reach web and text mining
.Many researches are done recently to serve the future knowledge of the data mining. Data mining allows businesses
to make positive knowledge decisions by its tools which predict future trends and behaviors. Data mining tools help
finding predictive information that experts may miss because it lies outside their expectation.
We will try to link between two important and new aspects for data which are the security of these data and the
extracting of it or what is known as data mining. The technique of data mining comes with the huge size of databases
used now. This will increase the risk of losing or damaging these data warehouses .Then it comes the need of more
security management to guarantee your data reliability, privacy, integrity, etc. Information security was known as an
old definition used in the Second World War, but it becomes a large sector because of the revolution of technologies.
The security of information avoids risks not only for individuals also for organizations, business companies and the
most important governments.
Lots of institutions are spending more resources on developing their data mining skills and by doing and looking for
new research on data mining. Privacy Preserving Data Mining (PPDM) is the most popular example of these researches.
Our research focuses on the security side of the data mining, shows the solutions for controlling access to private data
and control actions on accessible private data. There are some cases we discussed in this research regarding to the
security of information within data mining. Can we have information with a totally secure side or the security process
will not stop? In short words, we will start by explaining data mining mentioning the most common techniques. Then,
we will move to talk about data warehouse. After that, we will go deeply into the data security sector. And finally, we
will move to the relation between data mining and information security, and ideas used for more security information
on data mining.
58
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Next Generation e-Wallet – A Conceptual Outline
1Faaria Mariam, 2Shippy Harish Hotchandani, 3Sophia Rahaman,
Manipal University, Dubai - UAE
Faaria.mariam@gmail.com , Shippy90@hotmail.com , Sophia@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
In the past years there has been a significant convergence of multiple advanced technologies. The Internet has
created a new economic ecosystem, the e-Commerce marketplace making it virtual economic Main Street of the
world. Electronic commerce or in short e-commerce, refers to business activities
like selling and purchasing of products and services carried out over electronic
systems like the Internet and computer networks. The greatest and the most
important advantage of e-commerce, is that
it enables a business entity or an individual to
reach the global market at their convenience.
This
has
extended
its
potential
to
the
banking and financial sector via the Internet,
Smartphones and networking devices providing
user friendly interfaces & applications. iPhone
is a Smartphone which has popularized the use
of touch screen as a primary interface for mobile
phones. Apart from providing basic facilities like
internet connectivity, messaging it provides a
wide variety of features which have been broadly
classified into categories like hardware, media
and applications. Technically, the iPhone works
as a media player and a web browser providing applications which are easily
available and downloadable. The e-Wallet is one such application provided by
the iPhone. This is an emerging concept which allows the user to store personal
banking information securely, giving them access to their accounts anywhere
and anytime. This acts as a “mobile pocket bank” serving as an electronic wallet
that holds passwords, PINs, user names in a secured password protected and
encrypted environment on the mobile device. This application maintains multiple
account types [both debit & credit] enabling people across the globe access their
account details securely through smartphones. The e-Wallet provides a physical
independent, virtual environment to its users making banking an effective and
efficient online process. The objective of our research is to study the functionality
of e-Wallet, its benefits and contributions to the finance and telecommunication
industry through a framework. Our study intendeds to analyze the security issues,
drawbacks of this system, and recommends policies for a better enhanced system
in order to provide a safe and secure environment to its users. This will be the next generation - “Anytime, anywhere
banking indeed”.
59
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Real-time Detection, Tracking and Reaction to Moving
Objects at High Speeds
Mohammed AlTayer
American University in Dubai, Mohammed.AlTayer@mymail.aud.edu
Milad Bejjani, Muhammed El-Jabari, Reham Helmi, Reza Khosravani
American University in Dubai
Milad.Bejjani@mymail.aud.edu, Muhammed.ElJabari@mymail.aud.edu, Reham.Helmi@mymail.aud.edu, rkhosravani@aud.edu
ABSTRACT
In this research, we design, implement and test a real-time detection and tracking system of fast moving objects
based on a video stream, and a laser pointing system to react/defend against the threat. Applications of this research
are widespread, and range from military applications such as anti-rocket system, to airport security such as tracking a
specific person in a crowd, and even entertainment lighting system where the lights follow the objects on the stage.
Figure 1 shows the diagram of our experiment. The detection part of the system is based on image processing of a
video stream from a fast camera. To detect movements, subsequent frames from the video are subtracted from each
other. The subtracted images will indicate whether any motion exists or not. A moving object appears as white pixels
while the non-moving parts of the image remain as black. A non-linear filter is then applied to the subtracted image to
remove the noise. Then using a fast algorithm, the center of mass of the moving object is found by summing the number
of one’s in the binary matrix representing the moving object. From the changes in the center of mass, the position,
speed and direction of the moving object is estimated. This information is then sent to a microcontroller at a different
location which controls a reaction system—in our case a laser pointing system. The laser pointing device is mounted on
a pan/tilt module which is controlled by two stepper motors, and the laser pointer will track the moving object as long
as it is within the view
of
the
camera.
The
microcontroller predicts
the
of
future
the
position
object
and
calculates the angles
of the laser pointing
system. These angles
are then converted to
the appropriate number
of steps needed for
two
The
stepper
motors.
microcontroller
connects to the motors
through a high-speed
RS-485 connection. One
critical challenge is the
calibration between the
angles defined by the
microcontroller and the
Figure 1: The diagram of Moving Object Detection System
angles of the stepper motors. This calibration will be performed through mathematical calculations and experimental
testing. The camera in our system can operate at 120 fps which enables us to detect moving objects as fast as 100s of
km/s. Our reaction system is based on fast and accurate stepper motors which can react within milliseconds time. The
detection and prediction algorithms are developed by keeping efficiency and calculation speed in mind. Overall, this
research demonstrates undergraduate students’ ability to design, implement and test sophisticated applied projects
at universities in U.A.E.
60
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Prospective Application of Artificial Intelligence in Mobile
Based Services
Prospective Application of Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Based Services
URC
Noopur Desai, Ahmed Ali Mohamed , M I Jawid Nazir
Manipal University, naina1691@gmail.com, ahmedalli2007@hotmail.com, jawid_nazir@manipaldubai.com
Noopur Desai, Ahmed Ali Mohamed , M I Jawid Nazir
ABSTRACT
Manipal University, naina1691@gmail.com,
ahmedalli2007@hotmail.com, jawid_nazir@manipaldubai.com
Artificial Intelligence is defined as the study and design of intelligent agents that perceives system’s environment
and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. The telecommunications industry has been a fertile field of
ABSTRACT
application for AI. Some of the world's first practical expert systems in AI were employed to improve operations and
maintenance
of telecommunications
and services.
Future
are very complex,
Artificial Intelligence
is definednetworks
as the study
and design
oftelecommunication
intelligent agentsservices
that perceives
system’sand
environment
and
field of
ofapplication
overcoming for
these
role in theexpert
widespread
promulgation
of employed
new services.
AI.difficulties
Some ofand
theplaying
world'sa major
first practical
systems
in AI were
to Currently,
improve operations and
telecommunications
networks
and
services. Future
services
are very
AImaintenance
is being used of
in mobiles
as an automatic
telephone
interpretation
systemtelecommunication
that transforms a spoken
dialogue
fromcomplex, and if
they
are to language
be promulgated
to a wide
audience they
will require a But,
much
user interface.
AI isholds
the
speaker’s
to the listener’s
automatically
and simultaneously.
theeasier
main question
that arises
how the promise of
these
difficulties
and
major
role
promulgation
new services.
toovercoming
construct new
environments
that
areplaying
suitable.a The
main
aiminofthe
thiswidespread
research is to
construct newof
environments
andCurrently, AI is
being
used
in
mobiles
as
an
automatic
telephone
interpretation
system
that
transforms
a
spoken
dialogue from the
to able to give mobile phones a new meaning, which could be done by developing a software that turns a phone into
speaker’s
language
to
the
listener’s
automatically
and
simultaneously.
But,
the
main
question
that
arises is how to
a thoughtful personal assistant that understands peoples interests and helps find fun things to do. For this purpose
construct new environments that are suitable. The main aim of this research is to construct new environments and to able
the first and foremost step would be to identify the likes and dislikes of the user which could be done through feeds
to give mobile phones a new meaning, which could be done by developing a software that turns a phone into a
that allow transference of text between applications on the Internet or by searching SMS’s received or sent word by
thoughtful personal assistant that understands peoples interests and helps find fun things to do. For this purpose the first
word
identifying
keywords
a frequency
of those
words.
After
identifiedfeeds that allow
andand
foremost
stepcertain
wouldpredefined
be to identify
the and
likesmaintaining
and dislikes
of the user
which
could
be having
done through
these
likes
they
firstly
need
to
be
stored
on
a
database
after
which
certain
coordinates
need
to
be
set
on
the word
GPS by word and
transference of text between applications on the Internet or by searching SMS’s received or sent
system
to identify
locations
of the person’s
interests
in the locality
showing
notifying
when
the interest
identifying
certain
predefined
keywords
and maintaining
a and
frequency
oforthose
words.
After
having places
identified these likes
are
available
the area
person
also as soon
the person
the GPSneed
system
they
ablesystem
to
they
firstlyinneed
to bethe
stored
on isa in
database
after as
which
certainopens
coordinates
to be
setshould
on thebeGPS
to identify
locations
the person’s
interests
in the
locality
and
showing
or people
notifying
when
interest
placessince
are available in the
locate
placesofbased
on the area
they want
to search.
This
would
help the
to be
well the
aware
of locations,
the general
person report
is in also
as the person
opens of
theroutes.
GPS system
should
be success
able to in
locate
places based on the
asarea
per the
70%as
of soon
UAE population
is unaware
This willthey
also be
a major
the youth
area
they
want
to
search.
This
would
help
the
people
to
be
well
aware
of
locations,
since
as
per
the
general
as it will show them every spot in the area where they can find some place of their interest. This will even help the report 70% of
UAE in
population
isroam
unaware
willthe
also
bedescribed
a major in
success
in theItyouth
it useful
will show
them every spot in
visitors
the country
freelyof
asroutes.
they willThis
be have
area
their hand.
also is as
very
to locate
the
area
where
they
can
find
some
place
of
their
interest.
This
will
even
help
the
visitors
in
the
country
roam freely as
any public transport locations such as bus stops, metro stations or abra (ferry) stations and also shows you hospitals,
they will be have the area described in their hand. It also is very useful to locate any public transport locations such as
medical centers, police stations, ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of interiors, or embassies.
bus stops, metro stations or abra (ferry) stations and also shows you hospitals, medical centers, police stations, ministry
of foreign affairs, ministry of interiors, or embassies.
if takes
they are
to be promulgated
to a wide
audience of
theysuccess.
will require
a much
easier user interface.
AI holds
thebeen
promise
actions
that maximize
its chances
The
telecommunications
industry
has
a fertile
Database
GPS
AI
Zayed University
61
May 4-5, 2011, Dubai, UAE
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Adding “Agility” to Open Source Software Development:
An Exploratory Study
Deepika Satyarajan1, Dr. S. K. Pandey2 and Vishwesh Laxmikant Akre2
deepuvarun@hotmail.com , skpandey@manipaldubai.com, vishwesh@manipaldubai.com
1Student, Manipal University Dubai
2Faculty, Manipal University Dubai
ABSTRACT
Agile Software Development (ASD) is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and
incremental approach to software development. The requirements as well as solutions evolve through collaboration
between self-organizing and cross-functional teams in a cost effective way. Open Source Software Development
(OOSD) develops software through efforts of large, globally distributed communities of developers collaborating
primarily through the internet. These developers tend to work parallel, with different individuals/groups working on
different aspects of the software simultaneously. Open Source Software Development communities often exploit the
power of peer review to facilitate the debugging process, better articulate system requirements, and speed up the
process of feature enhancement. In theory, agility and open source are very different concepts, the latter being just a
licensing paradigm with implications for code reuse and redistribution, whereas the former emphasizes rapid delivery
of operational software. Any software development process can incorporate agility if it adheres most of the principles.
The manifesto of Agile Software Development and its principles were thoroughly reviewed and a comparative analysis
of Open Source Software Development processes was conducted. It was found that there are many drivers which
enable the leverage of agility in Open Source Software Development. At the same time, some barriers, which make
certain agile principles difficult to be incorporated in Open Source Software Development, were identified. This
research paper presents the findings of the exploratory study to introduce a level of agility to Open Source Software
Development.
62
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Does The Excessive Use of Computer Affect The Human
Health Disorder: An Empirical
Nusreen Moideen, Suman Rathod, Yash Punjabi, Vishwesh Akre, Aftab Haider Rizvi
Manipal University, silverdoe_27@hotmail.com, sumanrathod@hotmail.co.uk, punjabiy@hotmail.com, vishwesh@
manipaldubai.com, aftab@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
The increased use of computers in both workplace and personal lives has brought about a rise in the number of health
concerns. Many individuals working on a computer, report a high level of health related complaints. Considerable
and growing concern exists in both the medical and scientific communities that the extended or improper use of
computers may place users at increased risk of upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS), musculoskeletal
disorders (MSD), repetitive strain injuries (RSI), carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strains, computer vision syndrome
(CVS), internet addiction, stress, depression and radiation related health problems. Repetitive strain injuries (RSI)
and musculoskeletal complaints occur frequently in adults and children, with many people reporting strains of
the hands, wrists, arms, shoulders or neck. RSI includes many disorders, the most common being Carpal Tunnel
Syndrome, caused due to extensive use of a mouse and wrong wrist postures. Visual discomfort and related
symptoms like eye strain, tired eyes, irritation, redness etc. occurring in computer users are growing health problems
and can be scientifically termed as Computer Vision Syndrome. Computer users are more stressed and depressed
than any other occupational group. Also various radiation related problems like skin rashes, abnormal reproductive
outcomes, skin aging and cancer are common. The unsatisfactory Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) record of the
corporate sector has always been highlighted. Call center and desk job involving computers report increased rates
of musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore safety is considered as an important issue, but many employers do not feel
that it is vital to the success of the companies. However, based on current evidence it is unlikely that the computer
usage causes permanent changes or damages to the visual and musculoskeletal system. This research is divided
into two phases; Phase 1 reviews the factors relating to various health disorders caused due to computer work and
providing recommendations for preventing or reducing their development. The purpose of this phase is to examine
the correlation between these types of disorders and computer work, by considering the physical workplace and
psychological factors from medical practitioner’s perspective. In the Phase 2, software will be developed to guide the
users for proper ergonomic use of computers. This software will help users to take sufficient precautions to be used
while working on computers. Bending your wrist and back, keeping the computer at a proper distance from the eyes,
not stretching yourself when moving the computer away etc. are few measures that can help when dealing with a
computer which is both a necessity and a machine at the end. The inputs for this program will be taken from the data
collected from Phase 1. This research work is limited to the findings of Phase 1 of the project.
63
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Impact of Shoes and Surfaces on the Human Foot
Azad Hamdan, Nabil Ibrik, Syed Mubashar Ali
Azad.hamdan@qatar.tamu.edu, Nabil.ibrik@qatar.tamu.edu, syed.rizvi@qatar.tamu.edu
Yasser M. Al Hamidi, Reza Tafreshi
Yasser.al-hamidi@qatar.tamu.edu, reza.tafreshi@qatar.tamu.edu
ABSTRACT
Several injuries have been attributed to the wrong use of shoes – along with wearing the wrong shoes. Lower back
pain, shin splints (which if not taken care of, can result in stress fractures), knee injuries and Achilles tendon have
been correlated with the previously mentioned. This is due to the distribution of forces on the foot – this is where
shoes differ due to size and shape. Poorly designed shoes have long been a source of pain for users due to the
increased force on sensitive regions in the foot which may affect other parts of the body (such as the spinal cord).
Even the greatest of shoes may cause injuries and pain due to their improper use. A casual sneaker should not be
used for everyday exercise, no matter how comfortable they may be. Several companies have tackled on this issue and
released shoes which they advertise as being the greatest of their kind.
Knowing the force on the foot will help us analyze the shoe and the surface; and according to what we have regarding
force distributions on feet (and their ensuing injuries); we can safely analyze and rate different shoes and surfaces.
Moreover, we will be able to add to that which shoe works best for which surface. The results of this study can have
a major significance in the field of medical and sports science. The results of the experiment can help guide aspiring
young athletes, runners and even common people who want to exercise by telling them what kinds of shoes to wear,
and what kind of surface to run on. It can also have an impact by making realize if market-available silicon insoles help
reduce stress on feet and also ankles and knees. Lastly, it can help guide females about how different heel length
effects stress on their bodies, and compare them with flat sole shoes as well.
We will be creating two insoles, based on the foot specifications of male and female test subjects. Building the insole
is basically taking an available insole and placing sensors at the right spots i.e. the ball and the heel of the foot. The
time consuming part of the project will be building the insole and designing its circuit. Multiple sets of experiments
will be conducted under different test conditions.
The results of this experiment are valuable in the field of medical and sports science. It can provide young athletes,
runners and even common people who want to exercise information on the kind of shoes to wear and what kind of
surface to run on. It can also have an impact by making realize if market-available silicon insoles help reduce stress
on feet and also ankles and knees. Lastly, it can help guide females about how different heel length effects stress on
their bodies, and compare them with flat sole shoes as well.
64
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
The Modeling and Simulation of Crowds
in Al Masjid Al Nabawi in Medina
Ibrahim Khalid Abu Saleh
Department of Industrial Engineering, Alhosn University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
URC
The Modeling and Simulation of Crowds in Al Masjid Al Nabawi in Medina
Supervised
by- Rani
A. Kady
Ali I. Mohamed
Ibrahim
Khalid
Abuand
Saleh
Department of Industrial Engineering, Alhosn University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
ABSTRACT
Supervised by- Rani A. Kady and Ali I. Mohamed
Crowd phenomenon is important in the design of public places. Every year, a growing number of Muslims visit the
ABSTRACT
Holy Mosques in Mecca and Medina. Such number presents a challenge to local officials to provide safety and security
while maintaining comfort to worshippers. Previous research shows an increasing interest in assessing major religious
Crowd phenomenon is important in the design of public places. Every year, a growing number of Muslims visit
events
the Hajj.
Unfortunately,
verySuch
limited
effort
has been
focusedtoon
evaluating
crowd safety
phenomenon
in
the such
Holy as
Mosques
in Mecca
and Medina.
number
presents
a challenge
local
officials the
to provide
and
security while
maintaining
comfort
to worshippers. Previous research shows an increasing interest in assessing
the Prophet’s
Mosque’s
(Al Masjid
Al Nabawi).
major religious events such as the Hajj. Unfortunately, very limited effort has been focused on evaluating the crowd
The phenomenon
proposed study
onMosque’s
a safety assessment
a section of the Prophet’s Mosque (Al Masjid Al Nabawi). The
in thefocuses
Prophet’s
(Al Masjid Alof
Nabawi).
purpose of the study is to implement modeling and simulation of the crowd phenomenon to come up with the best
The proposed study focuses on a safety assessment of a section of the Prophet’s Mosque (Al Masjid Al
recommendations, strategies, and solutions for the evacuation process in case of an emergency. The reason we chose
Nabawi). The purpose of the study is to implement modeling and simulation of the crowd phenomenon to come up
this with
topicthe
is best
because
such study has
never and
been
conducted
before.
One process
of the major
is thatThe
we won’t
recommendations,
strategies,
solutions
for the
evacuation
in casedifficulties
of an emergency.
be able
to we
evaluate
the topic
real evacuation
process
such
section.
Therefore,
we implemented
a simulation
reason
chose this
is because such
studyofhas
never
been conducted
before.
One of the major
difficultiesmodeling
is
that wetowon’t
able
to evaluate
of Mosque
such section.
Therefore,
implemented
a is a
technique
mimicbethe
process
basedtheonreal
realevacuation
data fromprocess
the Holy
of Medina.
The we
simulation
solution
simulation
modeling
technique
to
mimic
the
process
based
on
real
data
from
the
Holy
Mosque
of
Medina.
The
representation of a section that is mainly occupied by ladies and children (since it is the most vulnerable group to face
simulation solution is a representation of a section that is mainly occupied by ladies and children (since it is the most
challenges
in agroup
crowd).
Thechallenges
dimensions
the studied
place areof142m
in length
and
accommodates
vulnerable
to face
in aofcrowd).
The dimensions
the studied
place
are95m
142mininwidth.
length Itand
95m in
around
13500
people. The part
of the
Mosque
doors
(8 on
the length
7 on
width)
with
width.
It accommodates
around
13500
people.has
The15part
of the
Mosque
has 15and
doors
(8 the
on the
length
and2.5m
7 on wide
the each
width)
(Figure
1a).with 2.5m wide each (Figure 1a).
(a)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1: The sequence of research methodology and results
Figure 1: The sequence of research methodology and results
The study simulates people movement based on the description of other assumptions (speed, weight, direction,
The study
people
movement
the description
of other
(speed,
direction,
effect simulates
of obstacles
such as
poles andbased
cross on
trafficking)
to determine
theassumptions
total evacuation
time,weight,
find better
place effect
arrangement,
evaluate
crowd behavior
in normalthe
andtotal
panic
situations. time,
The study
started place
with aarrangement,
layout
of obstacles
suchand
as poles
andexpected
cross trafficking)
to determine
evacuation
find better
Al Masjidcrowd
Al Nabawi
imported
to anand
evacuation
simulation The
model
called
Pathfinder
The of Al
and drawing
evaluateofexpected
behavior
in normal
panic situations.
study
started
with (Figure
a layout1b).
drawing
number of occupants in normal conditions is about 1500 worshippers, distributed randomly inside the designated
Masjid Al Nabawi imported to an evacuation simulation model called Pathfinder (Figure 1b). The number of occupants
area. The speed and size of each worshipper are normally distributed. We ran the model with no delay time and with
in normal
conditions
about
1500
worshippers,
distributed
randomly
area.
The such
speed and
normally
distributedisdelay
time
(pre-evacuation
time).The
simulation
modelinside
(Figurethe
1c)designated
presents several
results
flow rateare
through
exitdistributed.
doors, number
occupants
exiting
function
ofand
timewith
(Figure
1d). Total
size as
of occupants
each worshipper
normally
Weof
ran
the model
withas
noadelay
time
normally
distributed
time to evacuate
1500 worshippers
91.8 seconds.
results presented
here aresuch
preliminary
for future
delayevacuation
time (pre-evacuation
time).The
simulationismodel
(Figure The
1c) presents
several results
as occupants
flow rate
attempts to simulate and model at a full capacity of 13500 worshippers. The study can be applied to propose a set of
through exit doors, number of occupants exiting as a function of time (Figure 1d). Total evacuation time to evacuate
evacuation plans and procedures to be implemented in an emergent situation. The study also has the potential to be
1500applied
worshippers
is 91.8
The Al
results
presented
here
arepublic
preliminary
forwhich
future
to simulate and
to a larger
scaleseconds.
of Al Masjid
Nabawi
and across
other
places in
theattempts
crowd phenomenon
model
at a full
capacitytoof
13500
The study can be applied to propose a set of evacuation plans and
presents
a challenge
safety
andworshippers.
security officials.
procedures to be implemented in an emergent situation. The study also has the potential to be applied to a larger
scaleZayed
of Al University
Masjid Al Nabawi and across other public places in which the crowd phenomenon
presents
a challenge
to
May 4-5, 2011,
Dubai,
UAE
safety and security officials.
Third Annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Applied Computing
65
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Online Text-Independent Arabic Writer Recognition
Adam Aboudan, Lara Kanbar, and Hasnaa Rabbat
American University of Sharjah, b00026642@aus.edu, g00028001@aus.edu, g00027121@aus.edu
Advised by: Dr. Khaled Assaleh
kassaleh@aus.edu
ABSTRACT
Biometrics involves methods for uniquely recognizing a person depending on intrinsic physical or behavioral traits.
Physiological traits include fingerprint, face recognition, DNA, palm print and iris recognition. On the other hand,
behavioral biometric techniques relate to the behavior of a person and includes traits such as voice and handwriting.
A text independent writer recognition system aims to identify or verify a person from his/her handwriting.
While identification of a person deals with recognizing a person from a database of writers, verification is more
concerned with confirming the identity of a claimant. Writer identification techniques can be divided into online and
offline. Offline systems take input data that is pre-written and holds no temporal information. Online systems use data
that is acquired by a device in real-time and thus contains temporal information. Therefore, for security applications,
online systems are chosen as these systems make use of dynamic features, such as the speed of writing or the tilt
of the pen while writing, as well as static features such as the curvature of the letters. The applications of such an
automated system are plentiful and include security, as in banks, airports and large institutions. The main focus in
this project is on such applications and the system is being developed accordingly.
This project develops an Arabic language recognition system since the existing
Arabic language algorithms have not been fully developed yet and research in this
area has not produced satisfactory results. As security applications are the main
purpose of such an algorithm, the algorithm being developed takes input data that
is text independent and online. For this application, a text independent system
is superior to a text-dependent one as it prevents the writer from forging his/her
identity by excessive practice of a specific sentence; a text-independent system prompts the writer to write a different
sentence each time he/she uses the system. A Wacom Intuos4 tablet, shown in Figure 1, is used to collect the writer’s
dynamic data.
In our research, the acquired data is first pre-processed to segment the words and remove any dots. A segment is
defined as the set of points from the pen-down to pen-up motion. Once the pen is in contact with the pad again, a
new segment is initialized. After pre-processing, statistical features are extracted from the raw data to form feature
vectors. Using these feature vectors, a model is created for each user during the enrollment phase, shown in Figure 2
(a). The testing, or recognition phase, involves acquiring an unknown writing sample and identifying the writer (Figure
2 (b)). Currently, the developed system is being implemented using two functional classifiers: K-Nearest Neighbor and
Neural Networks. Our main focus for the remaining period of this research is to implement more classification methods
such as GMMs and to extract more useful feature vectors. The best result achieved thus far is an identification rate of
98% for 10 users using K-NN classifier.
(a)
(b)
Figure 2: (a) Enrollment Phase, (b) Recognition Phase
Difficulties arise from the fact that the system is text-independent, meaning it has to be able to distinguish withinwriter variations (several writing samples from the same person) from between-writer variations (different writing
samples from different people). Achieving high recognition results is a source of complexity that is currently being
addressed. For the verification of a writer, the algorithm must not allow a forger to be incorrectly verified; a zero
percent tolerance will most probably present a difficulty to be achieved. Also, some existing systems nowadays
achieve quite high results at the cost of processing time; in this system, our aim is to overcome this issue by attaining
high results with the lowest processing time possible to mimic real-time systems.
66
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
An Overview of the Electrical Power Network in the
Sultanate of Oman
Heba Hassan, Khalid Bait Said, Said Al-Baraami
Dhofar University, heba_hassan@du.edu.om
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Electrical Power Network, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat, Machine Ratings.
Generation, transmission, and distribution of electrical power networks always remain one of the most challenging
fields of electrical power engineering. The astonishing technological developments nowadays are highly dependent on
safe, reliable and economical supply of electrical power. This project is crucial to increase the awareness of electrical
engineering students of the electricity sector and the power network in the Sultanate of Oman.
In this project, students should provide a descriptive overview of the electrical power network configuration in the
Sultanate of Oman including generation, transmission and distribution. Specifications, ratings of machines, devices,
equipments as well as voltage levels should be included. Special interests will be given to the power network of one
of the big cities in the Sultanate which is Muscat. It is well known that there is no much research in this area that has
been made available in literature before now. This research work involves:
• Data collection and literature survey.
• Describing
the
main
systems
that
form a power network; generation,
transmission and distribution as well
as machines, equipments and devices
involved.
• Providing
a
descriptive
layout
of
the electrical power network in the
Sultanate.
• Mentioning
the
specifications
and
ratings of electrical machines, devices
and equipments included.
• Illustrating a detailed configuration of
the power network in one of the cities in
the Sultanate (Muscat).
• Developing
an
interactive
software
program for a section of the power
Figure 1. A Futuristic Lay-out of Muscat Transmission Network by 2014
network in the Sultanate.
At the current stage of the project, students were able to collect relevant information on the generation system
of Muscat which is supplied by four different power stations, as shown in Table 1. An overview of the expected
configuration of the transmission network of Muscat, by the year 2014, is illustrated in Figure 1.
Table 1: Power Generation in Muscat Region
Steam Turbines
Gas Turbines
Net Generation Capacity
Generation Station
4
-
13
468.5 MW
Ghubrah
9
686.9 MW
Rusail
1
2
434 MW
Barka AES
2
3
681 MW
Barka SMN
67
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
The SatisfiabilityProblem and its Applications
Mashael Abdul Al-kream Al-jabri
Supervised by
Prof:Hachemi Ahmed Bennaceur
Department of Computer science
Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia
j.a.m.dream@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
The SAT problem is started by Stephen Cook-in 1971.The subject of the research reported in this thesis belongs to
the area known as Propositional Satisfiability, an area located in the intersection of Theoretical Computer Science,
Artificial Intelligence, and Mathematical Logic. The satisfiability problem (SAT) is fundamental in solving many
problems in several real applications as data base, machine vision, robotic, computer architecture design, automated
reasoning, scheduling, etc.
The significance of the SAT problem either in theory or in practice makes many researchers in the worldwide are
involved in its resolution. Besides, there are many SAT competitions in the world because the importance of SAT
problem. The next SAT 2011 competition will held in USA in period June 19th - June 22nd 2011.
SAT problem can be briefly defined as a conjunction of clauses, where each clause is a disjunction of literals. A literal
is a Boolean variable or its negation. Satisfiability is the problem of determining whether it exists a total assignment
(assignment of each variable to TRUE or FALSE) satisfying all clauses of the problem. If there exists such assignment
the problem is said SATISFABLE (sat), otherwise it is said UNSATISFIABLE (unsat). So, A SAT problem is a simple model,
defined by a set L of literals (logical variables) and a set C of clauses. The objective is to find a solution satisfying all
clauses of the problem.
The main real applications of SAT are knowledge representation and Reasoning, timetabling, map coloring, electronic
circuit design, planning, etc.
SAT solvers are based on two type of searching: local search (NP-completed search) and systematic search (complete
search).When faced with a difficult search problem, there are two approaches that can be used. In a "systematic"
approach, all possible solutions are either eliminated inferentially or examined explicitly. In a nonsystematic or "local"
approach, a variety of solutions are examined but there is no guarantee that every possibility will eventually be
considered. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Local search is often faster when it manages to find
an answer, but it doesn't always do so. Systematic methods are guaranteed to find solutions when they exist, and can
also report conclusively that no solution is possible.
The objective of this project is to study, to design and evaluate solving strategies for SAT based on the Davis-Putnam
scheme. First, we have shown through two examples, how to model reasoning and scheduling as a SAT problem. Then,
we studied the implementation of some variants of the Davis-Putnam algorithm. Finally, an experimental evaluation of
implemented algorithms will be performed on benchmarks of the SAT competitions.
The Davis-Putnam (DP) procedure is a tree-search technique which explores the whole search space of the SAT
problem. Either a solution is found (sat) or it is proved that the problem has no solution (unsat). The DP procedure
embeds unit clause rule to reduce the size of the problem at each node of the search and intelligent heuristics to
guide the search towards promising regions (regions with solutions). Our investigations are focused on an optimal
implementation of the unit clause rule using an adequate data structure facilitating its process (at each node of the
tree search we have to identify unit clauses and to assign to their literals a truth value satisfying all unit clauses and
to perform propagations of these assignments over all other non-unit clauses). It is well known that good intelligent
heuristics of selecting a non-assigned variable and truth value at each node can significantly reduce the size of the
search tree. We also intend to design intelligent heuristics exploiting the structure of the problem to guide the search
towards promising regions.
Result until this day, we approximation to end of a software implementing stage. During this month, we will test
program with some type of benchmarks and measure the effectiveness in terms of speed to find solution, number of
clauses during period of time, Memory consumed …etc.
68
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
A Ubiquitous Heritage Preservation Center
Aishah Yammahi, Huda Dhanhani, Maryam Al Tenaiji, Shayma Al Tenaiji
United Arab Emirates University, 200712120@uaeu.ac.ae, 200712121@uaeu.ac.ae, 200708122@uaeu.ac.ae, 200708146@
uaeu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is well known in tracking and indentifying areas. Many companies
are using this technology to gain the advantages of its value. We develop a cyber-physical model to integrate physical
objects into the digital Web using RFID-tagged things. The proposed integration is applied in the context of “Juma Al
Majid Cultural & Heritage Centre" in Dubai, where RFID tags are associated to relevant heritage resources to preserve
and promote physical ancient items and extend the scope of information driven by these resources.
We build a mobile application to enable visitors of Juma Al Majid Cultural & Heritage Center to enrich the exhibits’ value
of resources available in the Center.
Physical heritage resources include authentic manuscripts and valuable artworks. Given the important value of
these resources, their inspection by prospective visitors could be both protected and enriched using our proposed
solution. Indeed, manual inspection may damage their preservation and their real historical value cannot be judged or
appreciated by the actual resource only, but more importantly by its historical dimension. RFID technology can protect
and enrich the displayed exhibits by minimizing the need for physical inspection and linking the identified resources
to some related digital media. Awareness about these resources is important for their preservation but because they
made it a long way across time and possibly required expensive preservation costs, the need for their protection is
paramount to expand their future lifetime for future generations.
In addition, different visitors can have different preferences when browsing resources of the Center. Given RFID
technology capability to identify resources, a visit to the Center could be further personalized and contents’ navigation
could be further customized to meet individuals’ profiles. Besides, the proliferation of mobile devices such as handheld
RFID readers and RFID-enabled smart phones could lead to a novel digitally enriched viewing facility. Thus, we also aim
at mapping user’s profiles to preferred exhibits and manuscripts that are later recorded for future references by the
user in a post-visit step. The latter action could lead to wider awareness of the Center’s heritage preservation efforts
through sharing post-visit experiences via the Web, to the users’ social connections (such as social networks).
The main outcomes of this project are (1) to enrich a visitor experience to a heritage center like Juma Al Madjid Center
and (2) personalize in-situ visits through interactions with exhibits using handheld devices and share post-visit
experience through social networks. Our contributions to these outcomes consist in building a mobile application
to display enriched-media for REFID-tagged resources. We have completed the design part and built some of the
prototype modules of this targeted application.
The main feature that distinguishes our project from other RFID-based museum guides projects is the use of (Androidbased) personal mobile phone as a device to display, store and share the tagged information from the historical
resources instead of acquiring a certain device from the museum each time a visit is planned to the museum (such
as The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Francisco, USA). Moreover, the visitor can enjoy different multimedia types
of information (text, images and videos) displayed on the mobile device as soon as the desired tag is detected. And
finally, awareness about heritage preservation expands beyond the Center walls through the association of our
application with social networks.
69
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Evaluation and Optimization of Window Functions
to Reduce FFT Leakage
Fatma Salim Nasser Al-Ma’amary
Caledonian College of Engineering, waterflow_121@hotmail.com
Sultanate of Oman
ABSTRACT
Digital signal processing is an area of science and engineering that has developed rapidly over the past 30 years. DSP is
concerned with spectral analysis, modify or extract information from signals. It has vast areas of applications involved
in it like spectral analysis, audio processing and medical imaging etc. However, two fundamental tasks are involved
when designing DSP system, (i) analysis of input signal and (ii) design of a processing system in order to give a desire
output. The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) are very important mathematical tools
for carrying out these tasks. The FFT algorithms enable to analysis the spectral properties of a signal and eliminate the
redundant calculation. Moreover, FFT allows time domain signal processing operation to be performed equivalently
in the frequency domain. In both domains, FFT has considerable reduction computation time. In fact, FFT are mainly
useful in computing the DFT and IDFT and also
find applications in correlation analysis, digital
spectral analysis and linear filtering.
Moreover, The FFT algorithm is used to obtain
the Fourier spectrum of a periodic signal. The
transaction required to obtain a finite length
sample data generates the spectral leakage.
Multiplying the sampled signal by a weighting
window is the usual procedure to reduce leakage.
A number of windows are defined and their
properties are intensively studied in the literature.
Moreover, it has been noted that the most
researchers could not solve the problem between
frequency resolution and the spectral leakage. In other words, the spectral resolution and the spectral leakage cannot
be control independently using the conventional windows. The conventional windows are generally able to control the
spectral leakage and the frequency resolution by one parameter. In addition, the spectral leakage is reducing when
the frequency resolution is reduced and vice versa.
An earlier research which was done by Yoon and Joo (2010) could overcome the problem by using a novel window
(Butterworth window) with two parameters: cutoff frequency and order of the filter. The researchers have tried
with first order filter up to the 4th order with changing the cutoff frequency. They conclude that by reducing the
cutoff frequency and increasing the order of the filter, the spectral leakage is reduces without the loss of resolution
experienced by the conventional window function.
In this research the Yoon and Joo conclusion is to be proved. Since, the earlier researchers have done their study with
up to the 4th order, this research is going to be done with up to 10th order even though the complexity is going to
be increased. In other words, up to the 10th order of the Butterworth filter is going to clearly analyzed and compared
with the conventional window. Moreover, hardware implementation is going to be done using the TMS320C6701 DSP
Microprocessor and PC with compatible data acquisition board DAQ.
However, any specialized spectral scheme that requires the imaginary part of a window function’s spectrum to be
all zero will not work with the Butterworth window because as it is well known that Butterworth windows are not
symmetrical. In fact, this leads to further research on solving the tradeoff problem between the spectral leakage and
frequency resolution for symmetrical applications.
70
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Development of the Neighborhood Al-Doherah
the Old City of Riyadh
Khalid Shaya AlQahtany, Mohammad Alhussayen
Department of Architecture and planning Department, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
archksq@hotmail.com, malhussayen@ksu.edu.sa
ABSTRACT
Urban development and the preservation of heritage buildings and rehabilitation this project will provide the new
central urban area and multi-function through the re-design (RD) and re-zone (RZ) and Habilitating Five residential
buildings ancient heritage. And find new public space will help to expand and strengthen its role as a center of urban
life.
The study site is:
- District Al-Doherah: (Study area is located in the southern part of the city of Riyadh, specifically Region AlDoherah).
- Urban fabric: (Off the physical fabric of the old city of Riyadh, which formed the current region, which exist
outside the walls is an area of the Suwailem door and Al-Doherah door. The effect of radiation through the fabric
of the main roads and the presence of many of the features of the old city at the site and why the presence of
heritage buildings dating back to the community of the fourteenth century).
Studies related to research are Field studies. (Issued from the Municipality the city of Riyadh), Historical books.
(Books on the history of the Riyadh city), and Access to books specialism. (Book Building Rasim Badran - related
research studies, heritage).
Many steps to develop the site:
- Optical scanning of the entire site and took the most important parameters affecting the Site.
- Conduct a survey of studies and took a census and usages of the buildings.
- Decision-making design on the site and determining the uses and identify the decisions of the demolition and
maintenance of the buildings.
- begin to identify spaces for rehabilitation, and design.
The Site before start design neighboring buildings in good condition needs some repairs, dilapidated buildings and
dilapidated, Narrow corridors are organic, some finished and some of them continuously as figure 1. And we Removal
of dilapidated buildings and to provide an intermediate in the project, Reuse of adjacent buildings and use of heritage
restaurant offers cuisine of Najd, - Exploitation of some dilapidated buildings rehabilitated and make it clear example
explains the details of Najdi architecture (Arch)and terraces adjacent to the visitors and meditators in this architectural
monuments resulting we have the possibility to set up events in the vacuum resulting from the rehabilitation and The
use of architectural elements Najd and Todifaa in the arena and buildings as figure 2 .
Results:
- Continuity local architecture in
the best form and show a bright
renewed.
- Maintaining the basics of green
architecture
techniques
and
the elimination of polluting the
environment.
- Diversification in the uses of the
place creates a natural atmosphere
for the entire region definitions and
Figure 1: the site before study
characteristics
71
Figure 2: the site after study
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
e-Fashion: A new Approach to Online Apparel Shopping
Sneha Bhatia1, Namrata Muthreja1 and Vishwesh L Akre2
1Students of BSc(ISM), Manipal University Dubai
2Faculty, Manipal University Dubai
s-bhatia@hotmail.com, cool_me_n@hotmail.com , vishwesh@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
Electronic Commerce (eCommerce) has grown in size and acceptance worldwide. It no longer remains as an exclusive
privilege of few western countries but rather has found its way to be accepted by many eastern countries and less
developed economies in both hemispheres. Business – to – Consumer (B2C) eCommerce has entered many business
segments including retail sectors such as book sellers, toy sellers, consumer and corporate electronic retailers and so
on. Latest rage in eCommerce is the apparel selling i.e. online apparel shopping. Online apparel shopping is the process
whereby consumers directly buy garments or apparels from a vendor in real-time environment over the Internet. This is
done using electronic commerce and evokes the physical analogy of buying garments at a bricks-and-mortar retailer
or in a shopping mall. Online shoppers can purchase garments or apparel s and the same are delivered right to their
door step with the best handling and shipping services. Moreover, online garment stores provide shoppers with ability
for price comparisons, color choice, customization, etc. As the concept became more and more popular, the online
apparel vendors started using latest technological innovations to gain competitive advantage. Virtual Dressing rooms
are one such technological innovative solution which has been used by online garment vendors. Virtual dressing room
allows the at home shopper to virtually try on garments. Some of Virtual Dressing rooms include Video Virtual Dressing
Rooms, Motion Detector Virtual Dressing Rooms and Webcam Virtual Dressing Rooms. Video technology is one of the
first advances in virtual dressing rooms. By employing video technology, the at home shopper can get a realistic and
lively view of the apparel they like. An innovative method in virtual dressing room is of utilizing motion detectors to
create a touch free screen. Using this technology, it is possible to create a virtual dressing room with touch free screen.
An online web cam virtual dressing room allows consumers, sitting at home, to virtually try on clothes on their own
by using a web cam. Authors have studied these current techniques and identified important future prospects in
them which can be collectively used to design innovative solutions. This paper presents the proposed solution. The
purpose of this paper is to identify the research of the various technologies and propose a 3D solution in the online
apparel shopping websites for the betterment of the customers and providing a better picture about the apparel by
developing Three Dimensional (3D) models as per customer’s size inputs for better fitting decisions. The robotic 3D
prototype is formed based on various measurements in order to accurately present the shopper with a 3D model
body style match. The requested garments and motion data are downloaded and are then loaded into the scene
using the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) loader. After the user enters their measurements, the body and
garments are resized accordingly. Once the match is made, the consumer can virtually try on different sizes of clothes
to determine the best fit. The design of the prototype is discussed in this paper.
Keywords:
Online Apparel Shopping
E-Commerce
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
72
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Image-based System for Real time Smoke Detection
Abdullah Al-Musned, Adi Al-Jarbo, Majed Al-Olayan, Hesham Al-Otabi
Al-Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University
majedalolayan@gmail.com
Supervised by: Dr. Khaled Suwais
ABSTRACT
Fire accident usually causes economical and ecological damage as well as endangering people’s lives. To avoid the
fire’s disasters, many early fire-detection techniques have been explored. Most of the existing techniques are based
on particle sampling, temperature sampling, relative humidity sampling, air transparency testing and ultraviolet and
infrared fire detectors. However, smoke is one of the important signs to detect the fire immediately; and it is the first
warning indicator of fires.
By analyzing an image, which contains millions pixels, we can detect a fire. Image-based smoke detection methods
often use color and motion information to detect smoke from digital images. The smoke color will range from whitebluish to white when the temperature of the smoke is low. On the other hand, the smoke color will range from black
grayish to black when the temperature rises until it catches fire.
Image processing techniques for smoke detection have become a hot topic in computer vision during the last decade.
Several detection algorithms have been proposed in literature and they lead to a large amount of techniques that can
be used to detect the presence of fire at an early stage. The current smoke sensors suffer from the transport delay
of the smoke from the fire to the sensor. In addition, sensor cannot distinguish between fire and cigarette smoke.
In this project, we evaluated existing techniques and proposed an improved smoke detection algorithm. We aimed to
design a fast detection technique for detecting the fire at the early stage. In our method we used target extraction,
color analysis and block subtraction algorithms. Experiments on a set of images showed that our method is fast and
accurate in detecting smoke.
The algorithm works as the follows: First, extract the target by subtracting the current and base images, and then
analyze the image based on the colors of the target. If the colors in the range of smoke’s color, the system will
perform two parallel processes, the block proportion (which counts the percentage of the changed pixels) and the
overall intensity analysis (which works by performing the curve fitting process to calculate the area of the curve. The
detection is based on the differences in the area of the curve between the base image and current image.
73
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Online Shopping Security and Customer
Satisfaction – An Exploratory Study
Aarti Goplani, Aftab Haider Rizvi and Vishwesh Akre
Manipal University, Dubai, UAE
cutegal80@hotmail.com, aftab@manipaldubai.com , vishwesh@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
The World Wide Web (WWW) has become the new platform for commerce and has given new definition to online
marketing. In the current scenario many people are buying and selling their product through this medium. Online
shopping has opened new avenues for people who are living in remote areas and find it difficult to shop in traditional
markets. Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-Commerce, consists of the buying and selling of products
or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. When people buy products
through e-Commerce website, the process is called Online Shopping. Shopping convenience, product availability,
search tools, comparative analysis of products, reduced price, loyalty points, convenient shopping hours and after
sales services are the main factors which prompt the customers to buy online. It has been seen that both type of
shopping viz. traditional shopping and online shopping have advantages and disadvantages. In traditional shopping,
non-availability of required product and searching are the main concerns but we can search the products easily and
check their availability through e-Commerce. The best advantage with traditional shopping is ability to feel /touch /
taste /smell the product but Online Shopping has no such facility. Many studies on e-Commerce and Online Shopping
have discussed the customer concerns over the security of such transactions. Merchandisers have to be very careful
when it comes to either personal data security or card data security. Online Shopping vendors use sophisticated
security techniques such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) to ensure the safety
of e-Commerce transactions.
Authors have conducted rigorous literature review of research papers on the topics
of e-Commerce and Online Shopping and extracted factors related to same. On the basis of this literature survey,
authors have also identified the drivers and the barriers of Online Shopping. These factors were used to construct the
questionnaire survey tool to collect the data from UAE residents. Data collected were statistically analyzed to see that
how merchandisers addressing the security, website, convenience, and trust related issues and providing confidence
to customers to shop online without fear. This research will not only play a significant role in designing the strategies
for making e-shopping better but provide enough customer concern related data to merchandisers to make sure that
the e-shopping is attractive and safe in future.
74
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
iPhone Forensics vs. other Smart phones Forensics
Techniques and Crime Investigations
Hessa Humaid, Alya Yousif and Huwida Said
Zayed University, U2423037@zu.ac.ae, u2605382@zu.ac.ae, Huwida.Said@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
The smart phones are used worldwide due to its enhanced features. Features like computing capabilities, increased
storage capacity, attractive touch interface, as well as the ability to use the Wi-Fi signals anywhere, which give the user
the ability to download and upload video, pictures and programs. The uploaded features add in to the mobile phone
enjoyable features by sharing video, pictures and other data via social network websites such as Facebook, Twitter,
and other social websites. These characteristics made them very popular devices and increased their usage. Due to
the highly number of people using smart phones, it gives new meaning of digital and electronic crimes. Therefore,
investigator found that smart phones become a potential source of digital evidence in criminal investigations.
Recently, some of the crimes were detected by retrieving the data store in these smart phones. Since iPhone is one of
the most popular smart phones, researcher needs to investigate its capabilities and file structures. In addition, iPhone
forensics turned into an essential practice for forensics and security practitioners.
Investigating different types of smart phones logical backup and encryption techniques that can be used as digital
evidence in forensics investigations is a goal of this research. Different smart phones are examined; examples of
these are iPhone 3Gs, BlackBerry Bold, and Samsung Omnia II I8000. The execution is on several steps. First step
is to investigate and examine the logical backup acquisition of the iPhone 3G generation mobile device using the
Apple iTunes backup utility, BlackBerry using BlackBerry desktop manager and Mobiledite, then the Samsung Omnia
II I8000 using Mobiledite tool through an ActiveSync connections. The backup utilities will backup data from the
smart phones into a PC work station for further forensics investigations. Second, an investigation to the storage
location of social network application data will be indentified and allocated. Finally, the encryption techniques of the
allocated data will further be investigated to address the level of the security of these handheld devices and how the
user privacy will be affected. The last part is to compare storage capabilities of the new generation of Apple handheld
devices such as iPad and iPhone 4G generation.
iTunes was used to backup the iPhone 3GS. IPhone Backup Extractor software was used to determine which file of
the backup files is related to Facebook and Twitter. To extract and read some database files, the plist Editor, SQLite
Database Browser, and Hex Editor Neo were used. After the first test our findings indicate that the Twitter backup files
were not encrypted. In addition to that, the tweet received from one of the follower of the user is not encrypted, too.
“@AlyaYousif I miiissseddd u toooo 3alayaaa I swear walla nsait ench on #twitter hahahahahahahah” tweet was not
encrypted; it was easily spotted using the Hex editor (Figure1).
Within the Facebook there are five backup files categories; `com.facebook.Facebook.plist`, ‘Cookies.plist’, ‘friends.db’,
‘iTunesArtwork’, and ‘iTunesMetadata.plist’. When investigated, the ‘com.facebook.Facebook.plist’ file is encrypted.
Figure 2 is a sample of lines in “com.facebook.Facebook.plist’, ‘friends.db’ files. Two tables were allocated which are
the “friend” and “meta” database files. The friend table had several attributes such as letter, uid (userID), first_name,
last_name, name, pic_square, phone, cell and email. All the fields are in CHAR (character) format expect “uid” which
was BIGNT. Our findings show that only three fields were encrypted; phone, cell, and email. The other fields were not
encrypted (Figure3).
Figure 1: “@AlyaYousif I miiissseddd u toooo 3alayaaa I swear walla nsait ench on
#twitter hahahahahahahah” tweet.
Figure 3: the encrypted fields of ‘friend.db’ file.
Figure 2: lines in com.facebook.Facebook.plist’.
75
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Trapped in Cyber World
Nora Mohammad Al-Shaikh
Royal University for Woman
alshaikh_26@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Today the internet is being regarded as a severe addiction; not due to the large amount of time spent aimlessly surfing,
but due to the negative toll it takes on an individual, the family and his or her social life. In general there is no specific
cause that causes internet addiction, however one may begin to use the internet legitimately for important reasons,
and begin to stray into the boundaries of addiction. Physical socialization amongst peers can be overburdening at
times; such as peer pressure, therefore using the internet for socializing is more open or more restricting depending
on the person. Demographics of internet addicts can be ignorantly stated as young, and male, however with increased
ease of using technology and surfing the web, addicts include a much larger range of the population. Lack of research
results in a lack of identified causes which ultimately results in less treatment or no treatment at all. Therefore the
only treatment available to internet addicts in this time and age is the similar treatment used for food addicts. The
treatment is as follows: Identify that there is a problem, accept that there is a problem, moderately enjoin in using
the internet, which inevitably requires large amounts of self control. In addition, engaging in outdoor activities and
outdoor hobbies will help with ones will power and self control.
76
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Using Information Systems on the Courier Service
Jawaher Mohamed
Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, H00051151@hct.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Understanding best practice within a particular business sector is often a challenge that requires careful examination
of inputs, process and outputs. Due to the huge growth in technologies in recent time it is important to research and
understand different business sectors and the effect information systems has on their growth and performance.
This poster presentation will show how modern information systems are used in the courier services business sector.
Most courier enterprises nowadays uses advanced technology to handle their businesses for all the organizations
functions and processes. Information systems are the core business of courier services; they are used in every
function and every process. Examples of businesses and organizations that are part of this sector are illustrated
specifically with the results of research into how Information Management Systems help them to achieve their goals.
Since information needs are unique for different business sectors, and are even unique for individual companies in
a business sector, this paper discusses three different types of information systems and how these systems help
achieve strategic business goals.
In this poster, the technologies and systems used for carrying the services are illustrated, with different types of
Information Systems and the way they help the organization:
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) produce daily routine transactions which deal with huge amount of data.
Warehouse Management System is TPS and allows complex storage and distributions systems to be easily managed
and optimized as part of critical business processes for the courier business sector.
Management Information Systems (MIS) provide routine reports and information on firms’ performance of transactionlevel data, middle and operational level managers. FedEx uses an Enterprise Service Quality Index (ESQI); a system
that generates reports and analysis based on FedEx Enterprise Data Warehouse. This system is analyzed in term of its
ability to ensure customer satisfaction by conducting a survey and comparing the results between branches.
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are more analytical models. They support organizational unstructured and
semistructured decisions. In the past, DSS’s were Model-driven DSS answering “what-if” questions. Whereas now they
are more Data-driven using Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)and data mining to analyze large group of data.
A good example that includes multiple information systems is the one DHL uses. The “Enterprise Resource Planning”
includes several systems that manages all areas in the company. The system combines several information systems
like transaction processing system(TPS) and decision support system(DSS).
Figure 1: sample of the ERP system and how the information flows from one function to another
Warehouse Management System is one component of the ERP. With its help WMS can be conducted effortlessly and
the supply chain can be improved. It is a Transactional Processing System(TPS) that develops a multifaceted strategies
which optimize the systems used for indicators which allows complex storage and distributions systems to be easily
managed and optimized. It also does basic processes such as shipping, picking and forms management.
Each system is analyzed in terms of its ability to achieve operational excellence, customer and supplier intimacy,
effective organizational communications and better decision making.
77
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Implementation of Network Traffic Access Control using
Dynamic ACL (Lock & Key) and NBAR
Asmaa Khamis Makhalaf Bait Aradhin 1 , Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
Sajaya_25@hotmail.com 1 , faizal.h@gmail.com 2
ABSTRACT
In a communication network the security is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of network
devices. Prevention measures help you to stop unauthorized users from accessing any part of your computer system.
This project aimed to experiment Access Control with Dynamic ACL(Lock & Key) and Using NBAR to filter network
traffic issues. In Lock and Key (Dynamic ACLs) Lock and key is traffic filtering security feature that dynamically filters IP
protocol traffic. (Dynamic ACLs) was introduced in Cisco IOS Software Release 11.1. This feature is dependent on Telnet,
authentication (local or remote), and extended ACLs. Lock and key configuration starts with the application of an
extended ACL to block traffic through the router. Users that want to traverse the router are blocked by the extended
ACL until them Telnet to the router and are authenticated. In NBAR( Network-Based Application Recognition), it is truly
an amazing feature in Cisco routers. Most routers just look at traffic at Layer 3; with NBAR, routers can also look at
Layers 4 through 7. This means that a router can recognize applications. And once it can recognize the applications, it
can then take some action to ensure that the application gets higher priority, drop packets from that application, or
take some other action. NBAR currently works with Quality-of-Service (QoS) features to help ensure that the network
bandwidth is best used to fulfill your business objectives.
The scenario shown below are the instructions and topology configuration in which routers are directed as per the
NAT scenario, the task is to enable dynamic ACL(Lock and Key) and NBAR. It sets the absolute and inactive timeouts
for the remote users and to authenticate incoming telnet session, therefore setting inactivity timeout to desired
range. NBAR uses CEF globally in the R1. It Creates a map-class IMAGES on R4 on match any of HTTP URLs that are
retrieving an image file (.gif, .jpeg, .jpg) and Creates policy-map DROP_IMAGES and configure it to drop any traffic in
class IMAGES. Finally the policy map can be applied via WAN interfaces. The table describes the time out situation for
various types of traffic discussed later in this paper.
Today's applications require high performance to help ensure competitiveness in an increasingly fast-paced business
environment. The Dynamic ACL over come leave permanent openings that hackers might find and exploit are difficult
to manage in a large network can require the router to do excessive processing, depending on what's in the list
do not offer a mechanism to authenticate individual users. The NBAR help ensure performance for Mission-Critical
Applications, Improve Multiservice Performance and Reduce WAN expenses. The result of this experiment observed
using various troubleshooting method. The study of this network experiment paves to prevent the network from
attack in various network layers and unauthorized resource usage.
78
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
CineApp: A BlackBerry Application for
Finding Movies in UAE Cinemas
Ameena Jalabi, Ayesha Al Ali and Mariam Al Muraikhi
College of Information Technology
Zayed University, UAE
{U2720299,u2600330,u2720321}@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
CineApp is a BlackBerry application created for providing access to Cinemas and movie timings in the United Arab
Emirates, specifically Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This application allows users to access showings of different cinemas,
new upcoming movies, a list of the movies that are available and in which cinemas they’re currently being viewed.
CineApp is designed to help people save time and have easy, quick access to all their favorite cinemas, wherever they
are, whenever they feel like it. This application is very useful because most of the cinema websites can’t be accessed
via BlackBerry smartphones.
CineApp will be built for all the different versions of the BlackBerry smartphone and will also have a feature that allows
the user to share the application via E-Mail, Facebook, Twitter or simply by copying the link. An additional feature is
that the users can search the application for movies and rate the movies to help other users decide which movies to
watch. CineApp will get its resources from the websites of the Cinemas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which means it will be
automatically updated as the cinemas update their websites.
This application will be useful for people who are used to going to the cinemas frequently and they can check the
movies that are available easily. Teenagers, youths and adults who like to go to the cinema will use this application.
Moreover, the application supports English and Arabic.
The application has an entertainment goal. By using this application, users will be able to check new movies in the
cinema around the United Arab Emirates and which movies are available in specific cinema. Users will also be able
to book for any movie that they would like to watch. Moreover, users can save time while they check the movies from
CineApp application, especially when they spontaneously decide to go for a movie during an outing, which is common
between young generations. The following screenshots depicts the application interface.
79
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Information Management System in
Manufacturing Sector
Shaima Abdul Rahman Al Marzouqi
Higher Colleges of Technology, H00050920@hct.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
How do we know what information system to use in a specific business? How do we know if it is the optimal environment
tool to use for achieving the business goals and objectives? This paper discusses how modern information systems
are used in a one specific business manufacturing sector. The purpose of this research is to discuss Information
Systems and how they work with business process to achieve goals and competitive advantage and make appropriate
decisions.
The following systems are discussed for the manufacturing business sector, with a study of the inputs, processes
and outputs being necessary alongside an understanding of traditional models of Information Systems. Producing
complex products and generating items that are suitable for human usage without difficulties, require effectives
Information Systems to handle manufacturing process issues.
Firstly, Transaction Process Systems (TPS) carry out, step by step, the activities of daily routine processes. For example,
in factories the flow of materials can be tracked easily via TPS. It organizes and speeds up internal operations and
allows managers to monitor the updating through the system’s reports, so imagine how business practices on a
daily basis can be performed effectively without the use of this system. For instance, TPS enables a manufacturing
company to build up an online ordering system that depends on daily transactions between the company and the
customers. This interaction between both parties has
an advantage on supply chain management in a way that
reduces the participants like distributors and retailers. As a
result, the cost of merchandise will be much lower and the
opportunity for all customers to purchase in any time with
the delivery option make this operation more valuable as
well, so this system allows the production companies to be
in touch with their clients more than regular stores.
Secondly, Management Information System (MIS)
support the managing and administering of a companies’
performance to ensure that everything is on the right track.
MIS’s evaluate and compare transactions and then make
appropriate decisions. For instance, MIS is able to summarize
for a production company the annual sales for a particular product. This helps to identify the growth or reduction of
some products and lets the administrative level react immediately if the possibility of loss occurs. An example of MIS
that is used in manufacturing is called inventory control program that depends on the production schedule. It predicts
the potential production, verifies manufacturing costs and improves resources allocation scheme. The important goal
to be highlighted for these systems is the efficiency of resource management and low expenditures.
Thirdly, Decision Support System (DIS) assist managers with non-routine decisions that usually affect the whole
companies’ performance. For manufacturing companies, DSS gives a clear analysis about the negative or positive
effects on production schedules if sales increased and the impact on return on investment if the factory schedule
is delayed. The managers have to know the revenue and profit of a particular product in order to realize whether an
increase or a decrease occurred. This facility helps them to handle the problems punctually regarding the production
practices and to be in charge of controlling overproduction and underproduction issues.
The manufacturing sector is huge and an essential one. The enormous demand from the public to achieve selfsufficiency of consumer products is a real challenge. The speed, accuracy and efficiency are some factors that lead
to accomplish communities’ needs without difficulties. I think that the information systems that were created for the
manufacturing sector have a great ability to accomplish these factors successfully.
80
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Smart Closet
ALhanouf AlDayel , Noura Al-Omar , Noorah Al-Rashed , Rana AlOsaimi , Hind AlFantoukh
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Supervised by
Dr. Seham Mostefai
ABSTRACT
As technology advances, life becomes easier, and as developers we aim to achieve this goal by providing easy and
useful applications that simplify people daily tasks.
Often, our closets are full of every kind and every color of clothes but when we want to go out, we just don’t know
what to wear ! . We may don’t have time to look for a blouse with a matching color for a specific skirt, or we may
have some clothes that we bought and we totally forgot about them. Not just that, sometimes we buy a new piece of
clothes and we don’t know what to wear it with.
From all above , we find that we lost our time in trying to find matches , we may lose our money when we go to shop
for a specific piece of clothe forgetting that we have a similar one at home . So our smart closet will help users to
seek in their closets and have the right matches , perfect styles and many interesting features.
Our virtual closet aims to arrange your closet , suggests many forms of matches that it is not only from your own
closet but also from a group of big designers and specialists of the fashion in the world . Those fashion designers can
have the benefit of advertising their collections.
An important point is that this software can be improved in the future to be in real closets.
So , Smart Closet is website where you can register and have your own virtual closet , add items to it ,search it , have
matches for items and much more.
Shop owners also can add their shops items to be suggested to the users.
The smart Closet will help people in:
1- Save their time by facilitating matching and searching.
2- Save their money by helping them not to buy unnecessary items.
3- Suggesting those styles from their own closet or from other registered shops’ items.
4- Mix and match their clothes to come up with outfits.
5- Making them wear clothes of season colors and styles to follow latest fashion trends.
The smart Closet will help shop owners in:
1- Having a virtual shop that people can visit and view its’ items.
2- Advertising their shop items by suggesting them to user “when appropriate”.
For now the website is total free but it can be commercial website charging the registered shops to advertise their
items.
Finally ,our vision of the future is to see the smart closet included in every closet , with advanced technologies that
can facilitate the closet work , for example the add process could be done by simply waving to the item using special
device that saves the picture of the item and analyzes it to come up with its specifications .
81
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Implementations of Application Port-Mapping using
CBAC and Smurf Attack Mitigation Using CAR
Deena Sale Abdullah Haydar 1 , Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
deenastar33@yahoo.com 1, faizal.h@gmail.com 2
ABSTRACT
Computer security is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of your computer. Prevention
measures stop unauthorized users from accessing any part of your computer system. This project intended to study
and experiment security issues which are configuration of Application Port-Mapping with CBAC and Smurf Attack
Mitigation using CAR. In the CBAC using PAM to determine the type of inspection should be performed on a connection.
PAM enables CBAC-supported applications to be run on nonstandard ports. Using PAM, network administrators can
customize access control for specific applications and services to meet the distinct needs of their networks. The
Smurf attack is a way of generating a lot of computer network traffic to a victim host. It is a type of denial-of-service
attack. Specifically, it floods a target system via spoofed broadcast ping messages. CAR(Committed Access Rate)is a
technology developed by Cisco that allows you to specify the maximum amount of bandwidth that can be used by any
particular packet type. By using CAR you can precisely specify the maximum amount of bandwidth that can be used
by echo reply packets.
The screenshots shown below are the implementation of Port-Map and Smurf Attack mitigation. The CBAC and CAR
are the methods used for configuring in which routers are directed as per the NAT scenario. In this scenario router R1 is
configured CBAC inspection rule named INSPECT_TELNET to inspect telnet protocol. The Map ports are configured1023
and 6023 as telnet ports for networks. It has been applied with access-list INSIDE inbound to Ethernet interface on
R1. Smurf attack is performed reflecting ICMP echo packets, therefore, target network is bombed with a heavy flow of
ICMP echo-reply packets. The rules are created to limit traffic matching access-lists with 64Kbps.
The PAM to apply a non-standard port numbers for a service or application. The use of PAM when a specific host
or subnet uses a port number for an application that is different than the default port number established in the
PAM table. Similarly PAM is used when different hosts use the same port number for different applications. When
we consider the Smurf attack, there is much mitigation to reduce the risk of Smurf attack in a network, which is
outlined as follows: Turn off the forwarding of directed broadcast on all router ports or take other measures to assure
your network cannot be abused in this manner. The procedure we used to experiment using Graphical Network
Simulator (GNS3) that allows emulation of complex networks. The result of this experiment observed using various
troubleshooting method. The study of this network paves to avert the network from attack.
82
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
i-Surgeon: A Virtual-Training Environment For Innovative
Medical Education
Ala'a A. Almasri, Nancy I. Alhalaikah, alaa.ma89@yahoo.ca, nancy_alhalaika@yahoo.com
Supervisors- Mostafa Z. Ali, Ayad Salhieh, {mzali,salhieh}@just.edu.jo
Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan
ABSTRACT
Medical schools have a continuous commitment to produce qualified practitioners. This commitment is currently being
challenged by the rapid growth in knowledge, number of medical students, the high monetary cost, high risks, and
possible severe outcomes of practice errors. Traditional teaching setups, such as the mentor-apprentice, are becoming
ineffective in allowing the students to acquire medical knowledge at a competent level.
In many cases, medical doctors propose surgical procedures as part of the patient treatment, but still, thousands
of surgical errors and mistakes occur each day, there is no conclusive proof that any surgery has a 100% success
potential, no matter how easy or common it was. Success of surgical procedures demands surgeons with high caliber
in terms of knowledge, confidence, and surgical precision. Producing such proficient surgeons requires intensive
training. Traditional methods for teaching surgical procedures are ineffective where the high number of students only
learn by watching their mentors for long periods of time with minimal practical involvement. In contrast to traditional
methods of learning and training, the i-surgeon system is proposed to overcome the above mentioned challenges,
and it's designed to help trainees achieve a high level of experience using a computer program without the need of
being in the operation room.
In this project we are presenting the way to simulate the
appendix surgery 'Appendectomy', in a way that medical
students can perform the surgery upon the virtual
organs by manipulating the tools, which are integrated
in the system via the virtual reality data gloves. The tools
also provide force-feedback and collision detection to
indicate to the user when they are pushing on or moving
some organs or tissue.
The 'I surgery' is an effective assessment tool because
it provides a compression between the actions that
the user takes, with what really has to be done, this
compression is applied by building a knowledge base (KB) contains all the exact information about the surgery,
The thing that can provide an immediate judgment of the user's behavior and an appropriate correction if
anything went wrong.
Building a strong (KB) is the first step in building an efficient (VR) system, achieving this starting with collecting all
the information about the subject to be simulated. Our (KB) contains all the detailed information about the surgery,
starting from checking the patient in the table, making sure that all the tools needed are available, starting the
general anesthesia, cleaning the operation area, exploring the location of the incision … etc, reaching to the closing
of the incision. Each step should be in its simplest form because this is the right way to get our KB working properly
according to the right flow of the surgery. The outcomes of the project’s applications are expected to have significant
impact on the quality of learning, leading to a better health care quality. In the case of the i-surgeon system, it would
save disposable material, save time, eliminate the need to use cadavers or animals, enhance experience by exposing
the students to rare pathological cases. Virtually trained students are expected to become more proficient and able
to practice on real patients in a short period of time.
83
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Information Management System in Banking Sector
Aysha Salem Mohammed
Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, H00049729@hct.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Matching appropriate technology with a particular business sector’s goals is a key process and a challenge in modern
information management. People seek successful output and revenues and as a reason for that, technology has been
used more lately to be more efficient and innovative, to help managers from the operational, middle and the senior
levels make effective decisions.
This poster discusses how modern information systems are used in the banking business sector. Examples of
banks and organizations that are part of this sector are illustrated specifically with the results of research into how
Information Management Systems help them to achieve their goals. To begin a business, different components should
be considered, for example, customers, suppliers, firm's employees associated with their payments, and products as
well.
Banking is an industry that has services, for example, opening different types of account can be describe as two types
either current or saving, and deals with both individuals and companies. Islamic banks, which follows the principles
of the Islamic laws or Shariah, use Islamic economics as a guide, where paying for bank own interest, or riba, is
forbidden. It is also known as profit.
This poster session describes information systems and how Transaction Processing Systems (TPS), Management
Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) are used in the banking sector:
To begin with, a Transaction Processing
System is an information system that
serves operational managers and provides
them with daily records and track banks
daily activities, such as credit card and ATM
transactions. Automated Teller Machines
(ATM) are illustrated as an example of a TPS
that provides banks with daily transactions
processing capabilities that streamline core
business operations. In these systems,
the input is the data entry that goes in to
a process, where it is recorded, that helps
managers to observe the operations in the
bank and customers receives a copy of the
transaction as a message to his mobile phone
or bank statement, which summarizes the TPS (illustrated in Figure 1).
Secondly, Management Information Systems serve middle management and provide them with the bank's up-to-date
performance reports that are based on the Transaction Processing Systems. This type of systems is examined in terms
of its ability to forecast banks’ current and future performance. MIS is a helpful since it saves the firm's time because
the data can be accessed easily and it helps the bank to increase the work productivity.
A third system is a Decision Support Systems. These are also analyzed in this paper in terms of their ability to support
decision making at higher organizational levels. Specific examples are provided and examined. An example is core
banking system where all the information from all systems, about the clients are gathered in a database which is
constantly up to date.
To sum up, this poster demonstrates that three main systems are used to achieve operational excellence, customer
and supplier intimacy, better organizational communications and more efficient decision making. This poster is
also going to give you an idea about the original business sector and, as a final point, describe the most successful
banking business sector.
84
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Advanced Physical Activity Calorimeter
DEEPIKA SAI JONNALAGADDA, ISHA ABDULLAH AND BAYU JUARTIYONO
deepika.jonnalagadda@qatar.tamu.edu, isha.abdullah@qatar.tamu.edu, bayu.juartiyono@qatar.tamu.edu
Yasser M. Al Hamidi, Reza Tafreshi
Yasser.al-hamidi@qatar.tamu.edu, reza.tafreshi@qatar.tamu.edu
ABSTRACT
The modern Pedometers are capable of measuring distance, time and the number of steps completed. These devices
are designed specifically to aid people in tracking their daily fitness levels by displaying the number of steps on the
step counter. Unfortunately, there is no device small enough to calculate the calories burned efficiently with varying
velocity. To perform previously specified functions we designed and programmed an Advanced Physical Activity
Calorimeter, named CALFIT hereafter. The device displays the velocity and fitness levels of the person in a user friendly
way. The CALFIT aids in monitoring fitness levels as well as sets limitations on food habits based on the calories
burned.
The CALFIT was designed by using a Wiimote sensor (which contains a 3 axis (X, Y, Z) accelerometer) and a Windows
based PDA device. Furthermore, LabView PDA (an engineering software package) was used to program a function
that calculates the velocity and the number of calories burned through acceleration. The acceleration along the X-axis
was used to acquire velocity by the method of integration (this step was included in the Lab View programming). The
Wiimote and the PDA are connected using a Bluetooth connection prebuilt in both devices. The PDA device sends SMS
regarding health and fitness levels to doctors automatically after each exercise to update concerning doctors on how
well the patient is doing. One of challenges in the design was to incorporate LabVIEW programming and the sensors
into a single device. (Refer to figure 1 for further details).
Figure 1: Represents V1 for calculating the Velocity and the number of Calories burned
The main objective is to design an efficient and compact device that is available to everyone and is lightweight. The
CALFIT is a viable solution that is cost effective as well as user-friendly. It can prove to be a great asset for research
in bio-medical engineering, since it demands data analysis as well as program implementation. This device provides
an alternative measure that medical experts can rely on for patient updates. Moreover, this device would attract the
medical field, as it could be used to monitor a patient’s fitness levels and guide them to get the appropriate treatment.
This machine will be very significant in the health industry.
85
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
A Social Network Search Algorithm for Team Formation
Kareem Kamel, Noor Tubaiz, and Zaher Al Aghbari
University of Sharjah, u00014249@sharjah.ac.ae, u00010353@sharjah.ac.ae, zaher@sharjah.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and others can be used as a source to connect people
and form a team for a specific task. A social network can be visualized as a graph where the nodes represent the
individuals and the existence of an edge between any two nodes represents the efficiency of communication between
them. In our work we consider a social graph that consists of individuals (nodes) and relationships (edges). An edge
between two nodes means that the two individuals can work with each other with the minimum communication cost.
Every individual in the graph has graded skills and the task requires skilled people with certain levels of skillfulness.
For an individual to be selected for the team, their skillfulness for the given skill must be equal or higher than the
requirement of the task. So, choosing the individuals should not only match the required skills, but the respective
skill levels as well. In this work we study the problem of forming a team with the required level of skills that can
communicate effectively and efficiently to achieve a specific task. Given a social network graph G, a set of required
skills; task T that contains the required skills with their levels. The output should be G’ a connected sub-graph of G
with nodes representing individuals having the specified skills levels in T, and the edges represent the efficiency of
their collaboration.
Let us consider an example. We will assume a set of possible candidates in the network, P={A, B, C, D, E}. Given a
task T = {Network Programming (expert), Network Security (expert), GUI (novice), Electronics (advanced), Networking
(advanced)}, which is a subset of the superset X of all skills, T ⊆ X. Firstly, we compute the support candidates for
each skill S(хϳ) . We then inspect the cardinality of each set S(хϳ) and label the set with the least cardinality as (хrare) ,
i.e. хrare is the skill supported by the least number of people. In our example, we assume the rarest skill хrare is “GUI”,
with a support of two nodes, E and D. From hence forth, we will refer to a candidate with the more general term Node.
Node E possesses skill “GUI” with novice level, whilst node D possesses “GUI” with expert level.
To evaluate the possible fitness of the teams, two measures are considered, namely, Skillfulness of the team and the
Communication cost between every two nodes pi and pk. The effectiveness of a team is also a relatively general term.
One can argue that an effective team is a team with the least number of people, or a team with the highest level of
cognitive intelligence and skill. These measures of effectiveness will require us to solve other optimization problems.
We calculate the costs of each path from node prare to pi in order to determine which choice of node will minimize
the cost optimization problem. To determine the path, we traverse the network from prare to pi moving along the
edges. The weight of an edge is a pre-computed value that varies according to the ease of communication (similarity)
between two nodes. The easier it is to communicate the smaller the weight of the edge. We calculate this weight
using pairwise Jaccard distances, (pi, pk) = 1 –
. Unlike in T. Lappas, K. Liu, E. Terzi s’ “Finding a Team of Experts
in Social Networks”, the diameter is not only a measure of distance, but it is a measure of skillfulness and distance. We
redefine the magnitude of the diameter, i.e. the cost to include the skillfulness of the target node. With this in mind,
we define the path cost as the weight of the path followed from node prare to pi. Let us first define the components
contributing to the cost. The first component is what we call the Skillfulness of a node pi is the level of expertise in
a given skill, xj. The second component is the physical measurable distance of the path followed from node prare to
d(prare , pi) . These components of the cost optimization problem assess the effectiveness of the newly formed team.
We will use a bias value α to control how much weight the algorithm puts on each of the skillfulness and distance
components. The user is able to control the bias α depending on the requirements of the task . The function d(prare
, pi) is calculated using Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm. The cost of path d(prare , pi) is:
cost = (1 – α) (1 – skillfulness) + α (distance along path), cost [0,1]
Thus the cost of path P(prare , pi) becomes:
cost = (1 – α) (1 – skilllevel(pi)) + α
,
where n = number of nodes along P(prare , pi). Since the cost is needed to be between 0 and 1, we need to normalize
the value returned by the distance function by n, the number of nodes along the path P(prare , pi).
We are currently implementing a simulator to test our proposed algorithm. We are exploring the effect of the biasing
factor on team formation cost. The tests use real data from the DBLP data set. In the future, we will explore other
measures of communication cost such as the Minimum Spanning Tree and study their effects on the efficiency of the
search with respect to the Diameter cost.
86
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Implementation of TCP Intercept to Prevent DoS Attack
and Filter Traffic using Policy based Routing in
a Network Environment
Fatima Said Amer Al-Hadhre 1, Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
aljoree2020@hotmail.com 1, faizal.h@gmail.com 2
ABSTRACT
Computer security is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of your computer. Prevention measures
help you to stop unauthorized users from accessing any part of your computer system. This project experiments DOS
Attacks Prevention with TCP Intercept, Filtering Traffic Using Policy-Based Routing. In DOS Attacks Prevention with
TCP Intercept the most common attack against Service Provider IP Networks is Denial of Service (DoS). This type of
attack causes your computer to crash or to become so busy processing data that you are unable to use it, so a good
way to protect your environment from that attacks is to use TCP Intercept feature. It is a feature on routers used to
prevent and mitigate TCP SYN-flooding attacks by monitoring the rate of SYN packets and intervening inside the TCP
communication whenever necessary in order to reduce the number of incomplete TCP connections. In Policy-Based
Routing to Filter Traffic the IP packet filtering the ability to define what traffic is allowed into and out of each interface
based on filters defined by the values of source and destination IP addresses, TCP and UDP port numbers, ICMP types
and codes, and IP protocol numbers.
The exhibit shown below is the directions of configuration in which routers are directed as per the NAT scenario. The
TCP intercept feature helps prevent SYN flooding by intercepting and validating TCP connection requests as they pass
through a router which forwards them. The traffic match TCP connections to network port 80, then Configure TCP
intercept to use access list, and random drop mode. Start and stop clamping half-open sessions when their number
reaches between 1500 and 1200. Finally set inactive connection timeout to one hour. This paper discusses the Cisco
IOS software policy-based routing feature and addresses policy-based routing and its functionality. The task is to
permit small ICMP echo packets with L3 length up to 300 bytes and to Create route-map ICMP_CONTROL; with section
10 permit packets matching the access-list ICMP and having length 301-1500. Route this packets to Null0 interface
Finally apply the route-map to the interfaces. Additionally the table shows TCP intercept go off when the client interact
more ICMP packets.
The study analyze the advantage of policy based routing such as source-Based Transit Provider Selection, Quality of
Service Load Sharing and also it is a tool for forwarding and routing data packets based on policies defined by network
administrator. TCP intercept is used as a DoS prevention mechanism, or more specifically for SYN flooding. The
procedure we used to experiment is Graphical Network Simulator (GNS3) that allows emulation of complex networks
and runs operating systems in a virtual environment on your computer using Internetwork Operating Systems (IOS).
The result of this experiment observed using various troubleshooting method. The study of this network lay concrete
on to prevent the network from attack.
87
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Programmable Water Curtain
Marwa Attiya
American University in Dubai, marwa.attiya@mymail.aud.edu
ElMuzamil Eltoum, Dipak Samuel, Nithin Thaha, Reza Khosravani
American University in Dubai, elmuzamil.eltoum@mymail.aud.edu, dipak.samuel@mymail.aud.edu, nithin.thaha@mymail.
aud.edu, rkhosravani@aud.edu
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to design, implement and test a programmable water curtain that displays words
and/or pictures within streams of falling water. The water curtain will be generated by creating gaps within streams
of water which are adjacent to one another with a maximum distance of 2cm and are falling from a certain height—2
meters in our case. The gaps are formed by timely switching of many valves that control the flow of each stream of
water, and create a readable word or display an image as shown in fig. 1. The display will not be stagnant, and will
be falling down as the water stream falls down. The project encompasses several engineering disciplines including
mechanical, electrical and computer engineering. The applications of the final product include the spheres of
marketing, advertising, entertainment and decoration.
The Water curtain setup (A): The gaps display the word (B): The water streams display the word
The system initiates with a user inputting an image to the computer, where the image will be processed into a grayscale
image. The grayscale has a fixed aspect ratio that meets the pixel requirements set by the number of valves used and
the subsequent timing on those valves. These valves are industrial standard valves with extremely low response times
and high accuracy. The computer sends the bitmap image to the microcontroller which synchronizes the switching on/
off of the required valves using timers and a select row of pixels. Thus, the image will be seen as falling from the height
of the water curtain (2m). The microcontroller is interfaced to the solenoid valves using an industrial inductive load
driver which can go into its cut-off and saturation region at sufficient speeds to turn on/off the valves with negligible
propagation delay. The image itself is scaled to the number of pixels horizontally to represent the number of valves
and vertically to the number of time slices used to implement the image. Each vertical pixel currently represents a
25ms timer, which can be changed. To maintain a constant pressure across all the valves, a reservoir is placed above
the valve mount. The reservoir is filled with 6 cm of water and kept unvarying through a closed loop system of pipes
and a motor. Hence, it is a self-sustaining advertising module with water that is re-used.
The system uses computer processing to control an Electro-Mechanical set of components that have hydraulic
considerations. The main challenge lies on system synchronization and management, since it encapsulates several
aspects of computer, electrical, and fluid mechanical engineering. Also the quality of the final image itself comes
down to fine details such as the choice of material and size of the nozzle as well as the physical composition of the
valve. Accordingly, several tests on selected valves, reservoir shape and size should be conducted to produce the
desired water flow patterns. Posters and billboards have long since typified mundane advertising. This product meets
the need of having an innovative advertising module that is capable of captivating a large audience. Additionally,
the water curtain fits various applications since it can be displayed at numerous venues such as exhibition centers,
shopping malls and reception areas.
88
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Cloud Computing: An Effective Infrastructure Solution
for the New Generation IT Industries
Vivek Gangwani1, M I Jawid Nazir 2
Manipal University, vivek.gangwani91@gmail.com , jawid_nazir@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
Cloud computing could narrowly be defined as an updated version of utility computing, fundamentally saying, virtual
servers, available over the internet. Broadly defining, it’s a conventional outsourcing of data centers and computational
power. The concept dates back to the 60’s, when John McCarthy quoted “Computing may someday be organized as a
public utility”. So, rather than purchase servers, software, data center or network equipment, clients instead buy those
resources as a fully outsourced service. Basically, when your applications run in the cloud, you don’t buy anything,
it’s like a monthly subscription, and they only pay for what they actually use. Maximum amount of a company’s IT
infrastructure budget is spent on implementation and maintenance that too often don’t add substantial value to the
company’s benefit. There are two types of cloud computing, namely Community Cloud & Private Cloud. A community
cloud may be established where several organizations have similar requirements and seek to share infrastructure so
as to realize some of the benefits of cloud computing. Private cloud and internal cloud are neologisms that some
vendors have recently used to describe offerings that emulate cloud computing on private networks. There are various
outcomes of Cloud Computing that could affect the way businesses or firms operate. Through the use of multiple
servers, data reliability and disaster recovery increases marginally. So, during any outages or server failure, users can
be switched to the next available server, thus reducing the data failure and time spent on recovery. Cloud computing
provides data centralization, which reduces security risks involving sensitive and vital data. Applications based on
cloud computing are easier to maintain owing to its centralized aspect, which reduces individual maintenance and
updating time. Since servers are centralized and Virtual, device and location independence increases, hence enabling
users to access systems using a web browser, regardless of their location or what device they are using. Cloud
computing comes into focus only when you think about what Information Technology (IT) always needs: A way to
increase capacity or add capabilities on the go, without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or
licensing new software, Hence greatly reducing a company’s investment on IT resources and their management. Open
standards are critical to the growth of cloud computing, and open source software has provided the foundation for
many cloud computing implementations standards. The relative security of cloud computing services is a contentious
issue which may be delaying its adoption. Although cloud computing is often assumed to be a form of "green
computing", there is as of yet no published study to substantiate this assumption. IT teams are turning to cloud
computing technology to minimize the time spent on lower-value activities and allow IT to focus on strategic activities
with greater impact on the business. On a final word, mobility holds the key to future of cloud computing. Cloud apps
don’t eat up your valuable IT resources, so the CFO’s will love it. This lets firms & businesses focus on deploying more
apps, new projects, and innovation. Cloud computing is a simple idea, but it can have a huge impact on business.
89
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
GoTour: A Mobile Tourist Guide for Trip Planning
Hebah Al-Moaiqel, Haifa Al-Ajlan, Khawlah Al-Rayes, Khawlah Al-Salem, Nora Al-Fantoukh
Supervised by
Dr. Aise Zulal Sevkli
asevkli@ksu.edu.sa
King Saud University, College of Computer and Information Sciences,
Department of Information Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Tourists around the world may face some difficulties during their travels. An application that is installed in a smart
cell phone can be helpful for tourists. In this paper, we present a novel tourist guide project (GoTour) that works
on the smart phones with Android Operating System. This project is designed for Istanbul city which is one of the
most popular touristic cities and Google map supports this city as well. In order to find tourist location and to show
tourist on the map GoTour uses GPS and Google Map respectively. All spots in Istanbul with their attributes such as
brief description, work hours, open/close area and coordinates are stored in the GoTour database. By using GoTour,
tourists are able to view the all spots based on the categories (shopping, restaurants, parks, museums, antiquities,
and consulate), make his/her favorite spots list, view weather condition and request a list of available spots regarding
to weather condition and current time. Also tourists can see all the nearest spots on the map including museums,
restaurants and other points of interest according to their current location. In addition to this, consulate information
based on tourist nationality and service information such as police, ambulance…etc. are the others utility functions
of GoTour.
The most significant feature that distinguishes
GoTour from similar applications [1, 2] is ability
to suggest a trip plan in a smart way. Because
tourists usually have limited time during the
trip, they prefer to choose some interest spots.
This application suggests a trip plan taking
into consideration selected spot categories,
weather condition, current location of tourist
and current time. The plan starts from tourist’s
location and ends at the destination spot.
The plan maximizes the number of most
popular spots on the plan without violating
constraints (e.g., total time of the trip is not
more than a specified limit). We achieve this
function by developing an algorithm based
on Variable Neighborhood Search which is a
metaheuristic for solving combinatorial and
global optimization problems. If some spots
are already visited by the tourist, the tourist
Figure 1 Context model of the proposed solution
can edit spots. Considering this information,
system can suggest a new trip plan. Figure 1 depicts the context model of the proposed solution.
The software technologies used to implement the proposed solution include J2ME, SQLlite, and Google Maps API. The
mobile application is developed to run on the Android smart phone.GoTour both gathers the features in the various
applications in a single application and adds outstanding features. Therefore, we believe that it will be one of the most
preferable tourist guide application. We would like to extend this application by including the other touristic cities in
the future.
–––––––––
[1] "Guidepal, For the People "[Online].Available: http://guidepal.com/
[2] "About Trip Journal".[Online].Available http://www.trip-journal.com/
90
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Building an Automatic Music Transcriber for Arabian Music
Ahmad K. Aiy, Al-Muthanna Al-Rawashdeh, and Majid A. Al-Taee
The University of Jordan, ahmad_aiy@hotmail.com, almuthana_88@hotmail.com, altaeem@ju.edu.jo
ABSTRACT
Music transcription stands for the process of converting sound into musical score. Although this service is widely
available, it only offers transcription of Western music. Unlike Western music where the tone-to-tone distance is a half
tone, the distance in Arabian music is a quarter tone and the transcription process is therefore more challenging. In
this work, a complete Arabian music transcriber (called Jordan University Arabian Music Transcriber, JUAMT) that offers
transcription services for both Arabian and Western music is designed and implemented successfully.
The work presented in this paper involves development of a multistage transcription process which includes sound
recording, sampling, noise filtering, pitch detection, building musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) matrix and
score generation. The core of this process is the pitch detection stage which is based on a modified Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT) algorithm. Stages of the proposed transcribing process are demonstrated in Fig. 1 with a particular
reference to a traditional Arabian melody called "SobboAlgahwa". The generated score in the last stage of this process
clearly illustrates the Arabian notes which cannot be detected by other equivalent existing transcribers.
Performance of the developed transcriber is assessed by
comparing the score obtained by JUAMT with the score
obtained by an equivalent commercially available notation
application (Melody Assistant Transcriber, MAT) using the
same melody reference. The superior performance of JUAMT
(a) Audio Signal
in detecting and representing the Arabian notes over MAT
is quite obvious, as illustrated in Fig. 2. In addition, the
developed JUAMT offers the following novel transcribing
features for Arabian music:
• E-learning platform for Arabian music learners. It offers
info on basic aspects of music theory to provide learners
with most needed information to start up their journey.
• Online instrumental or singing performance to assure
maximum portability.
• Reading pre-recorded melodies and generating the
corresponding scores efficiently.
• Auto detection of the musical scale of the generated
score and the ability of transposing the score to any
desired note.
• Auto saving the recorded performance in MIDI format,
(b) Pitch Values
directly after transcribing.
(c) MIDI Representation
(d) Score Generation
Figure 2. Comparison between JUAMT and MAT
(Upper: JUAMT score, Lower: MAT score)
Figure 1. The JUAMT transcribing process.
91
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Data Mining Techniques for Detecting
Different Types of Fraud
Arwa Abu Shmais, Rana Hani
Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia, 207410181@pscw.psu.edu.sa, 207410187@pscw.psu.edu.sa
ABSTRACT
The advent of new technologies and the fast base of technological development have created new possibilities as
well as imposing new challenges. Fraud, which is one of the greatest challenges for businesses and organizations,
has been equipped with technologies to take new and unconventional forms that are stealthier and more difficult
to recognize than the traditional forms of this crime. As a result, the techniques for detecting fraud had to develop
as well to provide more efficient protection. In general, the process of detecting and preventing fraud can be very
challenging due to the characteristics and nature of fraud as being stealthy, very complex and possessing some
temporal characteristics and patterns. Therefore, the most efficient and effective method for fraud detection is to use
data mining and analysis techniques.
This research paper explores some of the most effective data mining techniques for detecting different types of
fraud. Before digging into the depths of data mining techniques, the paper touches on the general classification of
data mining techniques for fraud detection according to the implemented type of machine learning into supervised
and unsupervised methods. Next, some of the most widely known data mining techniques for fraud detection are
summarized from a collection of research papers and presented in tabular format. A selection of those techniques
is explored in the fields of mobile telecommunication fraud, credit card fraud, medical insurance fraud and computer
systems intrusion detection. In addition, a real life case is presented to illustrate the application of one of the
techniques in credit card fraud detection in Saudi Arabia.
In the first field, which is mobile telecommunication, the implications and challenges for fraud detection are
highlighted. Then, fraud is classified into subscription and superimposed. This paper focuses on the latter as being
the most common and difficult to control. Under this topic, the paper explores the signature-based methods for
fraud detection, including the components of a signature and the methods for signature updating and calculating the
signatures. Next, the interesting topic of cellular communication cloning is defined along with some of the post-call
methods used to detect it.
The next field of this paper explores the credit card fraud detection, which is accomplished by monitoring the behaviors
of the customers’ transactions. This could be done either through Peer Group Analysis, which monitors the customer
behavior over a long period of time or through the Break Point Analysis which distinguishes the spending behavior of
the users.
After that, the paper tackles the third field in which data mining is used to detect fraud, which is the medical insurance
field where data mining can employ the power to combine systematic techniques with someone’s firsthand knowledge.
Last but not least, the paper explores briefly the use of data mining in the field of computer systems intrusion
detection by defining intrusion detection and providing an insight on some of the intrusion detection techniques
which are classified into Misuse Detection and Anomaly Detection.
Finally, the paper presents a case that demonstrates how data mining techniques helped Riyadh Bank in credit card
fraud detection. In 1999, Riyadh had come to face a critical situation caused by credit card fraud. Nevertheless, with
the aid of the Break-Point Analysis they were able to put a stop on this dangerous epidemic.
This research presents only a selection of the various data mining fraud detection techniques. As studies have proven,
choosing the right method for a specific implementation depends on trial and error. Doing this research has brought
to our attention the importance of data mining as a powerful detection tool that recognizes what is otherwise
impossible for humans to detect and that has much more implications than merely recognizing common patterns.
92
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Implementation of CBAC to Prevent DoS Attack
and TCP Intercept in Watch Mode to Prevent
TCP SYN Flooding Attack
Iman Shaban Malkoot Bait Taroom1 , Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
aljoree2020@hotmail.com 1, faizal.h@gmail.com 2
ABSTRACT
Internet security is a branch of computer security specifically related to the Internet. Its objective is to establish rules
and measures to use against attacks over the Internet. The Internet represents an insecure channel for exchanging
information leading to a high risk of intrusion or fraud. This project aimed to implement to prevent Dos attack and TCP
SYN flooding attack security issues practically. The Dos attack prevention with CBAC (Context-based access control )
and to prevent TCP SYN flooding attack by configuring TCP intercept in watch mode. In Context-based access control
(CBAC) intelligently filters TCP and UDP packets based on application layer protocol session information and can be
used for intranets, extranets and internets. CBAC can be configured to permit specified TCP and UDP traffic through
a firewall only when the connection is initiated from within the network needing protection. In The TCP intercept
feature helps prevent SYN-flooding attacks by intercepting and validating TCP connection requests. In intercept
mode, the TCP intercept software intercepts TCP synchronization (SYN) packets from clients to servers that match an
extended access list. The software establishes a connection with the client on behalf of the destination server, and
if successful, establishes the connection with the server on behalf of the client and knits the two half-connections
together transparently. Thus, connection attempts from unreachable hosts will never reach the server. The software
continues to intercept and forward packets throughout the duration of the connection.
The exhibit shown below is the directions of configuration in which routers are directed as per the NAT scenario.
CBAC uses timeout and threshold values to manage session state information, helping to determine when to drop
sessions that do not become fully established. By configuring router R1 the inspection rule DOS_MITIGATION and
inspect TCP traffic start calming half-open sessions when their number reaches 1200 and stop on 1000 sessions. And
also configured CBAC to start replacing half-open sessions when their rate exceeds 300 per minute and stop when it
falls below 100. CBAC to block any host for 5 minutes when it has more then 50 half open sessions.
The TCP intercept feature implements software to protect TCP servers from TCP SYN-flooding attacks, which are a
type of denial-of-service attack.A SYN-flooding attack occurs when a hacker floods a server with a barrage of requests
for connection. TCP intercept not to proxy the incoming connections. However, router should reset connections that
linger in half-open state for more than 15 seconds. The half open sessions are resetting when their number reaches
between 1200 and 1500.
The procedure we used to experiment using Graphical Network Simulator (GNS3) that allows emulation of complex
networks. It allows running operating systems in a virtual environment on your computer and allows the same type
of emulation using Internetwork Operating Systems (IOS). The result of this experiment observed using various
troubleshooting method. The study of this network experiment helps to thwart the network from attack.
93
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Design of an Audio GCC Banknote-Identification
System for the Blinds
Esra Minwir Al-Shammari, Zainab Habib Al-Fardan, Walaa Abdulrazaaq Khlaifat
University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain
esra.alshammary@gmail.com, zainab.alfardan89@gmail.com, walaakhalaifat@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this project is to design an ubiquitous money-recognition system that loudly reads GCC banknotes
values for the blinds. The system has a push-button that changes the currency depending on each of the GCC countries.
Besides, it has a switch that changes the choice of language from/to English/Arabic. When a banknote is placed in its
relevant position, the system loudly reads the monetary value of the banknote and its currency. However there is an
optional safe mode that generates certain beep sounds if the user prefers to keep it private.
The digital system has three main components: color sensor, microcontroller and speech chip. The color sensor reads
the color of the banknote and sends it to the microcontroller. The microcontroller analyzes the readings of the sensor
and sends commands to the speech chip that generates and loudly reads the monetary value of different banknotes
depending on the sensor's readings. Figure 1 depicts a functional block diagram of the project.
Figure 1: Functional block diagram
Figure 1: Functional block diagram
Many challenges have been faced while experimenting the project, paramount of these are the following:
• Banknote colors of different categories are very close and hard to differentiate.
• The sensor reading capabilities vary according to various light intensities.
• The selected sensor was not very accurate. More accurate sensors cost more, and thus, could make the project
unaffordable to many blinds.
The problem of the blinds in recognizing different banknotes may be solved, in some countries, by introducing Braille
lines to the banknotes. However, this solution is not very reliable since lines fade out as time passes by, and thus,
making it more difficult for the blinds to recognize banknote categories. Moreover, it would take a lot of time for GCC
Central Banks to introduce new banknotes that completely replace old ones. In other countries, different banknotes
are of different sizes wherein each banknote category has a distinct width and length, which makes it unpractical as
the blind must have all categories of money to be able to distinguish various banknotes.
The above-mentioned solutions adopted by GCC governments require a change of the banknote categories to new
ones, whereas this project intends to fill this gap through recognizing banknote colors that don't fade away, like the
Braille lines, and requires only updating the device to read both old and newly introduced banknotes.
The proposed system is relevant due to many reasons:
• Cost-effectiveness in development.
• High adaptability for usage in other countries with new currencies.
• Wider applicability for GCC countries.
• User-friendliness for the blinds.
94
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Evaluation of Network Traffic using Reflexive
Access Lists and CBAC Method
Laila Ahmed Said Al-Rawas 1 , Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
lolarawas@gmail.com 1, faizal.h@gmail.com 2
ABSTRACT
Network security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to networks. The
network security deals protection of information from theft, corruption while allowing the information to remain
accessible and productive to its intended users. This project proposed to experiment two security issues which enable
the indented user accessible, which are evaluating the router-generated traffic and the outgoing traffic inspection
for pinholes vulnerability. The method used for evaluating router generated traffic is reflexive access _list and to
inspect the outgoing traffic inspection for pinholes using CBAC (Context-Based Access Control). For the Inspection of
Router-Generated Traffic feature allows Context-Based Access Control (CBAC) to inspect traffic that is originated by
or destined to the router on which CBAC is configured. CBAC is a Cisco IOS Firewall set feature that provides network
protection by using the following functions: traffic filtering and
traffic inspection. The Reflexive access lists are
similar in many ways to other access lists. Reflexive access lists contain condition statements (entries) that define
criteria for permitting IP packets. These entries are evaluated in order, and when a match occurs, no more entries are
evaluated.
The exhibit shown below is the directions of configuration in which routers are directed as per the NAT scenario. The
traffic filtering with Reflexive Access-Lists Create extended access-list LOCAL_TRAFFIC and match TCP/ICMP traffic
from any source to any destination. The route-map LOCAL_POLICY; match access-list LOCAL_TRAFFIC and set interface
Loopback0. Then it applies route-map LOCAL_POLICY as local policy. This paper describes how CBAC works to provide
network protection on multiple levels using the following functions such as Traffic Filtering, Traffic Inspection, Alerts
and Audit Trails. Additionally, It Creates inspection rule named INSPECT to permit TCP based protocols. CBAC permits
FTP transactions to be performed through the firewall. Finally these inspection rules can be applied ingress on Serial
and FR interfaces. Similarly the exhibit shows here the sample reflexive access list and the policy map in built with the
type of traffic flow across the Loopback interfaces.
CBAC inspects traffic that travels through the firewall to discover and manage state information for TCP and UDP
sessions. This state information is used to create temporary openings in the firewall's access lists to allow return
traffic and additional data connections for permissible sessions. CBAC also provides a limited amount of intrusion
detection to protect against specific SMTP attacks. In this paper experimented using Graphical Network Simulator
3(GNS3) that allows emulation of complex networks. It allows you to run operating systems in a virtual environment
on your computer and allows the same type of emulation using Internetwork Operating Systems (IOS). The result of
this experiment observed using various troubleshooting method. The study of this network experiment facilitate to
prevent the network from attack
95
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Comparative Study on Inspecting Network Traffic using
Access Lists and Reflexive Access Lists
Tafool Ahmed Habkut Kashoub 1 , Faizal Hajamohideen 2
Salalah College of Technology , Salalah , Sultanate of Oman
kashoob2020@gmail.com 1, faizal.h@gmail.com 2
ABSTRACT
Internet security is a division of network security specifically related to the Internet. It offers the rules and measures to
use against attacks over the Internet to protect the transfer of data. This project, I experiment to solve security issues
such as Traffic Filtering with Access Lists and Traffic Filtering with Reflexive Access-Lists. In a Traffic Filtering with Access
Lists method used to enhance network security by filtering network traffic based on many types of criteria. Access list
criteria could be the source address of the traffic, the destination address of the traffic, the upper-layer protocol, or
other information. Note that sophisticated users can sometimes successfully evade or fool basic access lists because
no authentication is required. In a Traffic Filtering with Reflexive Access-Lists are similar in many ways to other access
lists. Reflexive access lists contain condition statements (entries) that define criteria for permitting IP packets. These
entries are evaluated in order, and when a match occurs, no more entries are evaluated. Reflexive access lists are an
important part of securing your network against network hackers, and can be included in a firewall defense. Reflexive
access lists provide a level of security against spoofing and certain denial-of-service attacks. Reflexive access lists are
simple to use, and, compared to basic access lists, provide greater control over which packets enter your network.
This paper analyzes the traffic flow and the
capability of both ACL and the Reflexive Access
Lists. The task is to permit TCP connections to
ports of FTP and HTTP services. Ping uses ICMP
message types “echo” and “echo-reply” and
tracroute (the UNIX variant, which IOS utilizes)
uses by default UDP port range 33434 – 33464
to probe the network. At the end of access-list to
log all denied packets and apply this access-list to
both Serial and FR interfaces on ingress. In line
with reflexive access-list MIRROR permit outbound
ICMP of type echo and reflect it into access-list
The principle of a reflexive access-list is demonstrated in the figure above.A "normal" ACL has no sense of state.
Packets are evaluated individually, so there is no concept of a collection of packets or sessions. In an HTTP connection,
for example, packets flow both ways. The HTTP client initiates the session by sending packets to the HTTP server, and
then the server sends packets to the HTTP client. With simple ACLs, the router must have an ACL to permit each flow.
With a reflexive ACL, we'll see that the "return traffic" ACL can be written on-the-fly and closed after the session has
concluded. The procedure we used to experiment using Graphical Network Simulator (GNS3) that allows emulation of
complex networks. It lets you to run operating systems in a virtual environment on your computer using Internetwork
Operating Systems (IOS).The result of this experiment observed using various troubleshooting method. The study of
this network paves to prevent the network from attack.
96
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Automatic Web Accessibility Evaluation Framework
Elaf Al-hussain, Hilah Al-nafisah, Maryam Al-kanhal, Moneerah Al-onzi and Noura Al-soukaih
Supervised by:
Dr.Hend S. Al-Khalifa
Information Technology Department, College of Computer Science and Information Systems, King Saud University
Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, waef@googlegroups.com
ABSTRACT
Web accessibility means enabling people regardless of their disabilities to access, interact and use the web without
any difficulties. Many guidelines and techniques were created to ensure that the web is equally accessible to all
people. Among these guidelines and techniques are those recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),
the governing body of the web and its standards, which include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0).
WCAG 2.0 has three levels of conformance, divided into: Single-A (minimum level of conformance with minimum level
of accessibility), Double-A (intermediate level of conformance with enhanced level of accessibility) and Triple-A (high
level of conformance with additional accessibility enhancements). Each level of conformance has many testable
techniques that are used to evaluate web site accessibility.
While web developers find it difficult to manually evaluate their web sites using these techniques, they can use
automated tools to make sure that their web sites do not contain accessibility barriers. In fact, there are different
evaluation and repair tools that can be used to test the accessibility of a web site. However, the majority of these
tools follow WCAG 1.0 (the previous version of the accessibility guidelines), which has outdated. On the other hand,
few tools do exist for WCAG 2.0 evaluation. Yet, these tools are:
1. Few (4 to 5 tools at most).
2. Not mature enough, most of them evaluate the basic level of conformance (i.e. level A) with limited number of
techniques.
3. Do not support the evaluation of Arabic web sites, or support them but with poor efficiency.
Based on these shortcomings, we propose the development of an automatic web accessibility framework that
supports the evaluation of Arabic web sites and support more evaluation techniques.
The major aim of this project is to create an automatic Web Accessibility Evaluation Framework that follow WCAG 2.0
and supports the evaluation of Arabic web sites. In particular the detailed objectives of this project are as follows:
1. Develop an Accessibility Evaluation Framework that employs WCAG 2.0.
2. Develop an accessibility framework that handles Arabic web sites.
3. Automate the process of accessibility evaluation.
4. Help web designers and people who are interested in web accessibility, to understand accessibility barriers.
5. Facilitates the evaluation process with little experience in accessibility guideline.
The framework we will create to support evaluating the accessibility of Arabic web sites will support the following:
• Evaluate a page or a set of pages in a web site.
• View the problems and the warnings.
• Produce two reports as a result of evaluation.
Although accessibility tools are widely available on the Internet, those tools are lacking when comes to Arabic website
evaluation. In addition, the Arabic user does not appear to be a priority in the minds of Arabic web developers,
especially those with disabilities.
Thus, the need for an Arabic evaluation tool was found. And from there our idea was born, which will fill the gap and
make the Arabic accessibility easier.
Finally, we hope that this project will help determine if an Arabic web site meets the latest content accessibility
guidelines WCAG 2.0 by means of automating the evaluation process. Therefore, using our proposed framework web
developers as well as designers can automatically test and find problems in their web sites, which will significantly
reduce the time and effort required to evaluate the accessibility of a Web site.
97
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Distributed e-Health System Architecture for Telecare
Patient Management of Chronic Diseases
Suhail N. Abood, Hussein A. Hassani, Nadine A. Jaradat, Dima M. Abu Ali, and Majid A. Al-Taee
The University of Jordan, s.n.a.n.2003@gmail.com, hu.hassani@gmail.com, nadinealia@gmail.com, dima_M.AbuAli@
hotmail.com, altaeem@ju.edu.jo
ABSTRACT
Recent studies have shown that remote data monitoring of patients with chronic diseases leads to better disease
management and reduces cost. The paper presents distributed e-health system architecture for telecare patient
management of chronic diseases using wireless technologies for remote data acquisition and monitoring. The
adopted wireless technologies include ZigBee, Bluetooth, and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for small mobile
devices and cell phones. On the move, the medical measurement devices are linked with the patients' mobile phones
while these devices are linked to the patients' PCs when at home. The patients' PCs and mobile phones, which acquire
the patients' data from the corresponding measuring devices (e.g. weight scale, pulse/blood pressure, glucometer,
pulse oximeter, etc.) via Zigbee or Bluetooth, send the readings to a remote health-service centre. In this application
prototype a single patient's device, the glucometer, is used to demonstrate the short-range wireless communication
interfaces. The developed interface can be used with other medical devices which are equipped with a serial port.
The proposed e-health system is of a distributed multitier architecture which consists of a presentation tier, logic tier
and a data tier as shown in Figure 1. The presentation tier offers user interfaces for both healthcare providers and
patients via browser-based access to PCs and smart cell phones. This layer also manages the acquisition process of
patients' data via short range wireless communication using ZigBee or Bluetooth technologies. The logic-tier consists
of several software modules, namely: communication module for inter-process communications, decision support
module for clinical support services depending upon the patient's health status and the newly acquired information,
QoS and security module to ensure data integrity and system security, notification module to generate necessary
notifications and alarms, reporting module to provide various types of textual and graphical reports on patients'
health management and the activities performed by all system users, and the database interface module to handle
connections between the logic-tier modules and the database server. The data-tier which contains database records
of all system stakeholders produces or stores the various types of system data. It should be mentioned here that
system users have no direct access to this tier and separating it from the logic tier improves security, scalability and
performance of the entire system.
The developed e-health system is capable of receiving patients' data (via
Internet or cell phones) and responding to the queries on patients data
from the corresponding healthcare providers (clinicians and nurses).
In emergency cases, when the received patient's data reflect a critical
case, the software algorithms empowered in the health centre will
forward the case directly to the corresponding healthcare providers as
SMS messages via their mobile phones as well as email messages. The
distributed architecture of the proposed e-health system along with the
adopted wireless technologies is expected to offer better management
of chronic diseases by offering several important services, of these:
• Improving communications between patients and their caretakers.
• Avoiding unnecessary trips to the emergency departments/
hospitals and related costs.
• Helping patients learn about their diseases and manage their
ongoing care.
• Offering an important source of information for researchers to
study disease development and related social aspects.
98
Fig. 1. The proposed e-health system architecture.
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Instrumentation of a Motorized Wheel
Chair Simulator Platform
Marwan Said and Ahmed Abu Ghazala
Marwan.said@qatar.tamu.edu, Ahmed.abu-ghazala@qatar.tamu.edu
Yasser M. Al Hamidi, Reza Tafreshi, Andrew Conkey
yasser.al-hamidi@qatar.tamu.edu, andrew.conkey@qatar.tamu.edy, reza.tafreshi@qatar.tamu.edu
Texas A&M University at Qatar
ABSTRACT
Motorized wheel chairs are becoming more common place among people with special needs in their everyday life
experience. Training sessions are conducted to familiarize them about how to use the chairs safely and become familiar
with the controls. However, this is often not a safe way to train as people with special needs, especially children, can
make accidents during those sessions which lead to injuries and damages. To provide real means for training users of
motorized wheel chairs, a simulator platform was developed with the aim to imitate real life experience that has both
visual and sound effects with a safe operation. The Motorized Wheel Chair Simulator Platform developed was initiated
on behalf of Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs in Doha Qatar. The children will be able to learn how to
use their own motorized wheel chair using simulator. It will help them in safely controlling the chair and familiarizing
themselves with the sounds (beeps, horns and motors) of their chairs. The training is a safe methodology of learning
how to operate a motorized wheel chair. Plus, it allows the therapist to provide instruction to the user without needing
to chase the chair around the hallway.
A platform that the motorized wheel chair sits on top of was designed to be light weight and easy to transport and
store. The platform is configured such that the motion of the drive tires of the motorized wheel chair is used to move
within a virtual environment that is either 2-D or 3-D. A roller system is driven by the drive tires along with a model
260 rotary encoder. A National Instrument input module (NI 9215) was used in a wireless DAQ system (NI WLS-9163) to
interface the encoder with the CPU. The signal
from the encoder is calibrated within the NI
system by comparing the transformed data to
the actual chair motion and the data from DAQ
was interfaced with the virtual environment.
The wheel chair was placed on the platform and
the drive wheels were rest on the rollers so they
can spin the encoders attached to the rollers.
Each encoder generates two signals (A and B)
90 degrees out of phase; these signals were
used to find the position and thus the distance
and velocity of the wheel chair. NI Analog Input
module was plugged inside the wireless data
acquisition device to acquire these signals from
the encoders and transfer them wirelessly to
the host PC.
Figure 1: VI Front Panel
The expected test results are the transformed motion information from the actual wheel motion. Figure 1 represents
the VI front panel which shows the direction of movement. This information can be interfaced from DAQ with virtual
environment where children with special needs will learn how to operate their motorized wheel chairs safely.
99
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
A BlackBerry Application for a Tour Operator
Ayesha Mohammed AlAmri, Khawla Salem Al mamari
College of Information technology
Zayed University, UAE
{U2601224,u2600506}@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Tour Operator is a mobile application developed for the BlackBerry. It will guide people for the best places in Abu
Dhabi. The application contains two categories: Tour Guide and Tour Trip. Tour Guide contains the top five popular
places in Abu Dhabi including Malls, Hotels and tourism places. Tour trip allows the user can choose from three trips
that the application provide it for them and our operator will arrange the trip for them by completing the form. The
form contains the name, number of people and date of the trip. The form has a calendar for each trip, which will make
easier for users to choose the suitable day and time for them. The application supports Arabic and English.
This application will help tourists to learn more about Abu Dhabi culture and tradition because it has a heritage trip
planner allowing tourists to heritage places in Abu Dhabi. The application is designed for people who don’t have time
to search and find the places that they want to visit in Abu Dhabi, they will find the whole information without wasting
their time. The interface of this application is very simple and easy to use. Once the application runs, the first page
that will appear is the language page since the application is in both Arabic and English where the user can choose
the language to use. Then, the user will see a page that has two main categories that are Tour trip and Tour Guide. The
Tour Guide has 3 popular places Malls, Hotels and Tourism places in Abu Dhabi. Each one has the top and best five.
If the user find one hotel he will see the location of this place plus the official site of the hotel were he could fine the
rest information that he needs. On the other hand, the Tour Trip has three different trips and each one including three
places to visit. The screenshots below depicts the interface to the application.
100
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
E-learning and its New Approaches
Dalal Khalid Najem
Royal university for women, Dalal444@ruw.edu.bh
ABSTRACT
Traditional way of education is being challenged by the internet. Websites, forums, wiki, blogs, and social networks are
allowing the learners to teach and the teachers to learn . Nowaday nearly all the people can gain an enormous amount
of information through the web without the need of an instructor or supervisor, As we all know communication skills
are the most important skill needed in the future, along with knowledge and critical thinking, this paper shows that
E-learning institutions and open educational resources do support the building of these skills in some way.
E-learning is the comprehensive electronic way to support education and teaching methods through the web. This
research paper is to show the potential student for a high education degree the various choices and opportunity
provided through the web to learn, especially for those who cannot afford to study abroad. The main objective of
this paper is to demonstrate the E-learning implementation, cost, effectiveness, impact, pros and cons, and the new
approaches that are available.
Figure1: Diagram illustrating the information an e-learner should know
This paper will concentrates on three new approaches; first is the educational video this approach made it easier to
learn and to perceive information specially for kids between (5-16) years old, at the present time many devices that
support interaction with videos are available such as Ipod, Ipad, samsoung galaxy, etc. The study of educational video
is to shows their effectiveness and impact on e-learning. On the other hand, games dedicated to learning are also an
important field that the Arab world should give attention to. In fact, the paper discusses the characteristic needed to
be considered to create & play a game plus what kind of skills do the games build. M-learning is the newest technology
to support the continuity of e-learning a lot of people still doesn’t know what m-learning is, for that a brief research
have been done to illustrate the definition, advantages, and disadvantages of the mobile learning,
This paper also had to point out a number of ethical issues that the e-learning is facing to aware the e-learners and let
them try to solve the issues out; some solutions were provided that could solve & fix the issues. All in all, this paper is
dedicated for helping the e-learners to choose the best & most convenient way to learn through the internet.
101
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
The Design and Development of an Arabic Multimedia
Dictionary Tool for Individuals with Learning Difficulties
Ohood Al-Harbi, Nora Al-Arfaj, Lamya Al-Hathlool, Maha Al-Ghofaily, Dania Al-Madany
Information Technology Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences,
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
oal_harbi@ksu.edu.sa , nal-arfaj1@ksu.edu.sa , lalhathlool@ksu.edu.sa , malghofaily@ksu.edu.sa , dalmadani@ksu.edu.sa
Supervised by
Dr.Areej Al-Wabil
ABSTRACT
In this poster, we describe a novel system for improving web accessibility and supporting individuals with reading
impairments in their use of the web. This project involves developing a web-based multimedia dictionary designed to
support individuals with learning difficulties such as Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability which leads to problems
in the ability to read and spell independent of socio-economic factors and despite having normal or above average
intellectual abilities. According to recent research, dyslexia is one of the most common learning difficulties that affect
approximately 10% of the population and it is a persistent condition, as it stays with individuals their whole life.
Evidence suggests that people who have dyslexia experience problems with reading due to the fact that their brain
cannot translate information properly. It is thus an information processing disability, and technology solutions have
the potential to support individuals in this user population in order to overcome their difficulties.
Dyslexia can either be visual or auditory, visual dyslexia is usually seen in people who were unable to know understand
the meaning of the picture or the meaning of the written word. People who have auditory dyslexia may have trouble
remembering and understanding what they hear. In our system, we utilize multimodal presentations to stimulate an
individual’s cognitive abilities to overcome these two kinds of dyslexia and to learn to read properly. The aim of this
multimedia dictionary project was to design and implement a web-based picture dictionary tool for language assistance
for people with reading disabilities, embedded within web browsers, to assist them in accessing web content and to
make written words more comprehensible to them. The system offers users four different representations for Arabic
word descriptions including audio, image, animations, and video. Clicking on an unfamiliar Arabic word enables users
to obtain interpretation of the word into the chosen multimedia representation according to the system configuration.
This project demonstrates a novel web-based approach and an effective technology tool for supporting learners with
disabilities.
102
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Qatar Context-aware Tourist Mobile Application
Shaima Ibrahim, Yasmin Halwani, Zohreh Fouroozesh, Saleh Alhazbi
Qatar University
shaima@qu.edu.qa,yh090582@qu.edu.qa, 200553016@qu.edu.qa,salhazbi@qu.edu.qa
ABSTRACT
Advancements in mobile computing have raised a new type of mobile applications and services that are aware of
the application’s context and adapt their behaviors based on that context. Context includes any information that
characterized the situation of the user, his place, and the application itself. The objective of Adapting system to its
user’s usage context and personalization is to increase its usability and enhance its functionalities. One of the best
application sector suited for providing information based on current user context is the tourism domain. Tourists
always need a guidance leading them whenever they want based on current locations, time, and their preferences.
This project aims to build context-aware mobile application, to help tourists during their stay in Qatar by providing them
with information and recommendations based on current user context, which includes location, user’s preferences,
time and weather.
The economic growth of Qatar is among the highest rates in the world which creates huge job market that annually
attracts thousands of people to work and settle with their families in Qatar. According to Qatar Statistics Authority
publications, the population of Qatar has jumped from 744 thousands in 2004 to more than 1.6 million by the end
of 2009.Certinally, these new comers at their early period need to know about specific locations, schools, shopping
centers, hospitals, etc. and directions to reach such places. Furthermore, numerous people visit Qatar every year for
tourism , attending international events, looking for business opportunities, or visiting their resident relatives. The
number of visitors also increases each year, it increased by 113% between 2004 and 2006. Around 1.1 million who
visited Qatar in 2008 and this number is increased to reach 1.5 million visitors by 2010. The application provides users
with general information about Qatar which includes: history and governmental information, hotels, restaurants,
entertainments, and main tourist sights. At the beginning, user is requested to specify his preference of restaurants
types, hotels, attraction sites, and type of events. These preferences are used with other contexts like location, time,
and weather to provide the user with best recommendation that fits his preferences. The application uses GPS to
locate user position on the map and to provide him with best route for his destination. Moreover, the system interacts
with the server in order to advice the user about events that might be of his interests. The application provides “Write
on the Wall” services which allows user to post his own comments related to the locations where other tourist can see
these comments when visiting this area.
During tourist walks around, the application provides him with notifications of nearest places of interest based on
rule-based algorithm. These rules control recommendation process in order to display the most appropriate points
of interests at specific situation. The rules specify size of area that system search in, current weather, and user
preferences.
The system is composed of two sides: server side and mobile application. The server holds database of the tourist
events, other tourists’ comments, and latest data about weather. The application on the mobile interacts with the
server to update events data, or to retrieve other tourists comments regarding current location. The mobile application
is implemented using Android platform which is recent technology facilitates developing applications using Java
programming language. The application uses Google maps services to find best route for the tourist, and to display
locations of places of interests.
103
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Locomotion Assistance for the Blind
Fatima Makki, Zurwa Khan, and Ramon Shitta
fatima.makki@qatar.tamu.edu, Zurwa.Khan@qatar.tamu.edu, ramon.shitta@qatar.tamu.edu
Yasser M. Al Hamidi, Reza Tafreshi
yasser.al-hamidi@qatar.tamu.edu, reza.tafreshi@qatar.tamu.edu
Texas A&M University at Qatar
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to develop a visual aid for blind people. When talking about aids for the blind, the
scope becomes broad because there are many scenarios that a person can come in contact daily and the project was
specifically focused on assistance while walking through a space with simple obstacles. The test room was a cuboid
shape with different tables and chairs placed in it. The objective was to create a locomotion assistance device that
would help the visually impaired navigate their way through a space while avoiding obstacles. Since vision cannot be
reconstructed, other senses need to be utilized to substitute for this inefficiency. Hearing is one sense that can be
used to replace vision; for example the blind bat has the ability to utilize sound waves to navigate through the dark.
The bat sends high frequency sound waves and waits for them to rebound of objects informing them of the shapes
around them and the location. Drawing from this natural phenomenon, an ultrasonic sensor that emits and receives
signals was selected.
The locomotion assistance device created is comprised of three ultrasonic sensors placed around the waist. Because
of the sensor type chosen, the range is only two meters, which is significant for the scope of the study. To make the
system more general for a larger range of applications, two types of indicators will be used. The auditory indicator will
sound to let the user know if they are close to an object. The kinetic indicator will move and touch the person giving
them another form of indication. These two indicators were chosen to accommodate and individual that may be in
a situation where they can not hear the auditory cue, or in a situation where they can not feel the kinetic indicator.
According to the World Health Organization, the total number of blind people in the world is about 45 million. This is
between 1-2% of the population of industrialized countries. Many blind people rely on leader dogs to navigate their
way. Unfortunately, these dogs are expensive and their prices range from $15,000 to $30,000. For this new system,
the estimated cost will be about $350. This is mainly because an already existing reprogrammable system is being
used. If a new circuit were created for this specific task, the price would reduce significantly.
In order to understand the time and distance calibration to use for our system, we carried out a study. This study
focused on measuring the response period of the user to the warring signal. This was done by measuring the amount
of time it takes the sonar signal to travel to and from the obstacle and by measuring the time taken for the average
person to respond to the warning sound generated by the system. For this analysis, an assumption was made
that a visually impaired person walks at a steady, constant speed of about 1.5 m/s. after carrying out the study, it
was determined that the ideal distance for the warning signal to sound off, was between 60-90 cm away from an
object. We also determined that the time response of our sonar sensor is 1694.6 microseconds at 60cm and 2581.4
microseconds at 90cm. With this data collected, we determined that a range of 60cm to 90cm is safe for the majority
of people.
The development of locomotion assistance devices at a reasonable cost compared to the currently available
alternatives will give blind people better quality of life. With the technology that is being proposed, motion would
no longer be a hindrance, and blind people will be able to focus their time and energy in other tasks. There are many
applications for this technology in the medical and non medical field. Future applications of this technology could
extend to creating a fully autonomous wheel chair that can avoid obstacles and climb stairs, or to a device that can
help firefighters navigate through thick smoke by mapping their location through ultrasound.
104
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Cloud Computing
Amna Hassan Al-Nuaimi, Maha Saeed Al-Marri, and Aisha Thani Al-Falasi
Zayed University, U2608222@zu.ac.ae, U2521623@ zu.ac.ae, U2607789@ zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
In compliance with Software as a Service (SaaS), Data as a Service (DaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and
Platform as a Service (PaaS) models, cloud computing has recently emerged as a new computing paradigm for
creating a shared and highly scalable (a.k.a elasticity) computing infrastructure from physical and virtual resources
to deliver seamless and on-demand provisioning of software, hardware, and data as services. The cloud is a kind of
parallel and distributed computing designed to dynamically stretch and share computing resources among multiple
consumers. This yields improved utilization rates, as resources (or servers) are not unnecessarily left idle but made
available according to different schemas of use and billing like ``pay per use’’, ``lease it’’, or ``pay for it’’. Several
cloud computing middleware systems (e.g., Eucalyptus) and programming models (e.g., Hadoop) are available for
building cloud-based infrastructures and cloud-enabled applications.
The purpose of our research is to cover a new topic which is cloud computing. It will have an introduction to illustrate
the meaning of cloud computing and the problems and motivations of cloud computing, the Characteristics, benefits,
and what are the benefits of cloud computing for today’s enterprise. In addition to some models of cloud computing,
such as: SaaS( AaaS), IaaS ,PaaS. Also types of cloud computing will be discussed, which are: Private cloud, Public
cloud, Hybrid cloud, and Main cloud computing vendors (tools). . We will also discuss the Cloud computing initiatives
in the Arab world with an example which is Q-Loud (Qatar). Finally with a comparison between cloud computing VS.
Grid Computing vs. Pervasive computing.
105
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Implementation of an Intelligent Landmine Detection
System using Microwave Imaging
Muaz Salah Mohammed, Abdulmajeed Abbas, Tamer Al Deek
American University of Sharjah, b00025765@aus.edu, b00025905@aus.edu, b00024908@aus.edu
Advised by, Dr. Mohamed El-Tarhuni and Dr. Nasser Qaddoumi
ABSTRACT
An anti-personal landmine detection system which utilizes Microwave Imaging has been developed to solve the
problem of the wide spread of anti-personal landmines all over the world. The developed system works on computing
power provided by a microcontroller and a PC where the microcontroller does real-time detection and after a full scan
the PC implements an intelligent detection using Matlab software. The system was designed with several challenges
in mind, including manufacturability, reliability, and environment. The system has to be manufacturable with the
minimum cost while ensuring reliability. This means that the system should be of a low cost, while having the ability to
detect landmines with a high probability and low false alarm rate. In addition, the environment, health and safety were
also considered, the system is based on microwave frequencies which although is environment friendly, but could
be harmful to human being if used with high power. Therefore, our system works in low power rating in the order of
tens of milliwatts. Previous solutions usually lacked one of these, for example, GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) is very
reliable; however, it is expensive and uses high power. The developed system has the potential to be used in other
applications which require imaging behind barriers. For instance, in cases of disasters, the system could be adapted
to find people who are buried below concrete or below ashes.
To implement and test the system, a virtual landmine field has been built in the lab where the automatic scanning
system was deployed. The system consists of two horn antennas which are mechanically connected to a motor and
electrically connected to the controlling and automation system and other equipments. A synthesized sweeper
continuously sends a 9GHz signal which goes through a circulator and is then emitted with a single antenna. The
signal is received with a second antenna as well as the transmitting antenna. The received signals are detected
using PIN diodes and read by a microcontroller. The microcontroller processes the output of the two antennas and
determines in real time if there is a landmine or not and also sends the data to Matlab using a serial connection. The
microcontroller also controls the motor to scan over the landmine field.
The obtained data sets are processed in software by multiplying the output of the two signals point by point and
then taking the second derivative to remove the effect of the sand surface variations. The result of this processing is
that the landmine appears as sharp varying peaks while the metal and other objects appear as much smaller peaks.
This said, a simple threshold can be used to detect the landmine easily in real-time which was implemented in the
microcontroller or the whole dataset can be entered to a classifier. A Feed-Forward Neural Network classifier was
created (using Matlab’s tool box: Neural Network) and a detection rate of 95% with a 10% false alarm was achieved.
106
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
I-TACAS: An Intelligent Traffic Alert and Collision
Avoidance System
Bayan khaleel Al-khasawneh , Fatima Mousa Hassain, Yasmina Ahmed Farah, Mu’ath Rauf Al-Qatnanay
Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan
{bkkhasawenh07, fmhasain07, yafarah07, mralqatanany07}@cit.just.edu.jo
Supervised by: Dr. Mostafa Z. Ali and Dr. Ayad Salieh
ABSTRACT
Recent research on Techniques on Traffic Conflicts, Time-To-Collision is an effective measure for discriminating critical
from normal behavior and for ranking the severity of traffic conflicts. The results of several studies point to the direct
use of Time-To-Collision as a clue for decision-making in traffic when building a helper decision support system for
the car. The present development of driver decision support systems based on the application of recent technologies
makes it necessary to have knowledge on how drivers operate a car and when a system should warn the driver and
how critical it is. One of the most important development phases for a Collision Avoidance System (CAS) is to define
a suitable warning strategy and protocol that warns the driver when the driver is at danger and immediate action
is required, and to provide information of traffic
about important surrounding sites or highways.
Accuracy is an important point where misses
should be avoided, as many false alarms may
cause the system to become an irritation to the
driver.
The present project deals with the use of the
Time-To-Collision measure to define an adequate
criterion for activating a driver support system
such as CAS in order to reduce the number of
rear-end collisions on a motorway and using the
sensory system to define the safety range for
driver. Reduced visibility conditions (e.g. due to
fog) frequently cause multivehicle crashes with
very severe consequences. The system uses
sensors that send and receive signals from cars,
traffic lights, or even obstacles in the road. A good example of how the system works is when a driver is about to
switch lanes on a highway, and there exists a car in his blind spot. The sensors in the car will perceive that car and tell
the driver before he does that, and hence preventing a very potential serious accident.
Tests with our Collision Avoidance Systems intend to show that warning strategies based on a Time-To-Collision
standard are preferable as it is a crucial measure of what is coming close to the car or what the car might run into.
Some studies on driver behavior in fog enable a more precise definition of system’s critical situations and relevant
criterion values for Time-To-Collision.
The system should make the best reaction; trying to avoid any expected collision with any dynamic or fixed obstacles,
to work correctly. Our system will be especially useful in bad weather conditions. The sensors in the car would detect
the poor conditions and hence inform the driver of what is coming ahead and hence how to drive safe.
For instance, fog surely affects visibility, and hence the sensors would detect with an early warning to the driver of any
dangers that lie ahead like another car, allowing the driver to slow down or avoid that obstacle without rushing into
a sudden critical situation. In Conclusion I-TACAS will provide a safer driving way in critical conditions and avoid many
expected accidents in expected conditions.
107
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Virtual Stress Analysis of a Crane using
Integrated Custom-Built Software
Jaganath Gangadaran, Aravindh Rajan, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Akanksha Menon.
jaganath.gangadaran@qatar.tamu.edu , aravindh.rajan@qatar.tamu.edu, srikanth.srinivasan@qatar.tamu.edu, akanksha.
menon@qatar.tamu.edu
Yasser M. Al Hamidi, Reza Tafreshi
yasser.al-hamidi@qatar.tamu.edu, reza.tafreshi@qatar.tamu.edu
Texas A&M University at Qatar
ABSTRACT
The objective of this project was to analyze cranes with LabVIEW-based custom built software, TRUSSIM. The truss
simulation –TRUSSIM- type software determines the overall performance and force analysis, and it can also study
the individual truss members of the crane. By analyzing individual truss members, unnecessary members and zero
force members associated with a crane model can be identified accurately. Previous solutions provide less analysis
on detailed structures; for instance, Cranesim simulates the motion of the crane, the applied load on it and the sway
of the load.
In this paper, static and dynamic loading scenarios were analyzed on the crane structure using the LabVIEW-based
TRUSSIM. The static loads applied on the crane, the internal force in each truss member and the stress concentration
were analyzed. Also the effects of the variation of the jib angle (the angle between the body and the load bearing
arm) on internal forces and identification of zero force members were analyzed. The dynamic loading vibrations
produced at different points, varying tension and jib angle stiffness were studied.
A physical mock-up of the crane was built using PASCO Advanced structure set and fitted with PASCO load cell
sensors. The team analyzed the data obtained by the PASCO Load Sensors using a series of equations and interfaced
software. The sensors were connected to a NI-DAQ interface. DataStudio was used to acquire the values of forces
from the sensors and a model of the crane was designed on SolidWorks. The model and the acquired data were
exported to LabVIEW and integrated. Visual stress analysis was performed using 3D Sensor Mapping Signal Express
VI. Based on the results from LABVIEW analysis, the structure was modified to remove problems associated with the
previous structure. Equations used included rectilinear and rotational equilibrium, methods of joints and sections,
and variation of natural frequency with the stiffness coefficient, global mass and mode shape.
This project is very relevant to the Middle East due to the construction boom in the region. Construction companies
are trying to minimize the cost of construction materials due to global inflation. However, heavy construction
equipment like cranes will be in demand to meet the construction boom. Also, while taking cost efficient factors
into consideration, safety is also an important issue. Most of the time, structures are built to satisfy minimum safety
requirements to reduce cost. This is one of the reasons for failure and accidents in the construction industry. Using
the custom built software TRUSSIM, companies will be able to analyze crane structures by using only a simulated
model. It will also be able to reduce costs, resources and time by deriving an optimum solution prior to construction.
108
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Computer Modeling, Simulation and Implementation of
a Wireless Sensor Network for Pipeline Leak Detection
Ahmed Hassanin Mustahsan Mir Farooq Mukhtar
amh90@ieee.org
College of Engineering
Ajman University of Science & Technology, Ajman, UAE
ABSTRACT
More than 48 billion m3 of water is lost in underground distribution systems worldwide per year. In the Middle East
most of this water is produced through a long and expensive desalination process, therefore water leakage creates
a huge economical problem. In this project a Wireless Sensor Network is used to detect and locate leaks in water
pipeline systems, providing a simple yet efficient solution for the water leakage problem. A large number of nodes can
be deployed along the pipeline system. Once a leak occurs the nearby nodes will report the approximate location of
the leak to the main control room.
The wireless sensor network developed ensures reliable two-way communication between the nodes by implementing
an efficient Layer-Two protocol that employs advanced error detection mechanisms and reduces the possibility of
collisions through the use of CSMA/CA technique. To reduce the power consumption of the nodes a simple routing
protocol was also implemented. A simulation environment was then developed to test the network protocols for
different situations. Finally, LabVIEW was utilized to measure and analyze the power consumption of the nodes.
PCB implementation of a node
Simulation of a full-mesh network
A leak generates a pressure wave which propagates in both directions along the pipeline; these waves tend to attenuate
as the distance to the leak location increases, but since the nodes are distributed along the pipeline system, nearby
pressure sensors can detect the sudden change of pressure. Moreover, if the distance between two nodes is known,
the exact leak location can be calculated by computing the difference between the time the pressure wave hits the
first node and the time the wave hits the second node.
A simple model was built to study the pressure transients caused by a leak. The model consists of a 2˝ plastic tube
connected to a pump where the water is flowing at a constant rate. An artificial
leak is constructed by dividing the pipeline into two sections using a T junction.
A faucet is connected to the T junction in order to control the size of the leak.
Each section contains a pressure sensor to measure pressure transients. Initially,
the signals produced by the pressure sensors were very noisy but sophisticated
signal processing VIs of LabVIEW were used to filter the output signal to get more
accurate results. The system was then tested with different leak conditions.
The nodes were capable of detecting sudden leaks with acceptable sizes but failed
with leaks that gradually increased in size, since those leaks did not generate a
sudden change in the pipeline pressure. However, the leak could still be detected
by monitoring the difference in the pressure before and after the leak.
109
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
An Intelligent National Electronic Health Record System
Turki Al-Dubaykhi, Zyad Al-Yoseef, Yazeed Al-Qadi, and Dr. Samir EL-MASRI
King Saud University, Tal-dobekhi@student.ksu.edu.sa, Zalyoseef@student.ksu.edu.sa, Yalkadi@student.ksu.edu.sa,
selmasri@ksu.edu.sa
ABSTRACT
An intelligent EHR is a current and active research area that belongs to Health Informatics. The idea is to build an
intelligent system (could be based on data mining) that helps medical and healthcare professionals to choose the
right treatment and medications based on the patient medical history and the current situation.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a system where patient medical information is stored in one system that can be
accessed through the Internet. In this project we designed a web based system to combine all the required information
in one place where patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals can have different level of access to patients
and clinical data. Patients are the main actors in the system. Every patient has his/her own profile where all his/her
medical history, medical information, outpatient visits, inpatient visits & emergency situations are recorded in this
profile. So whenever a doctor or a patient wishes to have a look at a patient’s record then he/she will just login to
the patient’s account through Internet. Patients are free to visit any medical organizations/hospitals, and all these
organizations share one file of that patient. With this significant centralization, all the doctors are out of pressure
when making such a decision because of the help of centralization of the patients’ information, according to the
medical history of the patient. It does not stop here, but this system includes the outpatients and inpatients to take
care of. Outpatients have the abilities to book a visit to a particular doctor in a specific hospital/medical organization
through the web. Inpatients are, also, involved in this system. They are able to be tracked for accuracy (e.g. to record
every action has taken by a doctor or a nurse). All the visits and emergency situations can be converted into an
inpatient situation where the doctors and nurses will be tracked, also, for forming a medical history that will benefit
all the doctors who will treat that specific patient in the future.
The system keeps all events data in a database which will help researchers to conduct research studies based on
patients data.
The intelligent aspects of the system will manifest in assisting doctors to choose the most optimal treatments and
the suitable medications.
Figure below shows the high level architecture of the system.
110
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
System Development for Proving
the Credibility of Iridology
Abd Allah M. Alfaisal, Taher S. Almutir, and Nafea S. Almutir
Supervisor
Dr. Ali El-Zaart
Am.alfaisal@yahoo.com, tahsal99@gmail.com, nafea.428@hotmail.com
elzaart@ksu.edu.sa and dr_elzaart@yahoo.com
Department of Computer Science
College of Computer and Information Sciences
King Saud University
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
In this paper we have proposed an efficient password security of Key Exchange Protocol based on Elliptic Curve.
Iridology is a diagnostic technique that purports to use the colors and patterns of the iris of the eye to reveal
information about disease and health. According to iridologists, details in the iris reflect changes in the tissues of the
corresponding body organs. Iridologists generally use equipment such as a flashlight and magnifying glass, cameras
or slit-lamp microscopes to examine a patient's irises for tissue changes, as well as features such as specific pigment
patterns and irregular stoma architecture. The markings and patterns are compared to an iris chart that correlates
zones of the iris with parts of the body. Typical charts divide the iris into approximately 80-90 zones. For example,
the zone corresponding to the kidney is in the lower part of the iris, just before 6 o'clock. The problem is that medical
doctors do not recognize the results of iridology because it is not based on scientific evidence. The objective of this
project is to develop iridology software that reads the iris of the eye to reveal information about disease and health
AND create a mechanism to be scientific proof of the credibility of the results of the iris. We compare the medical
record issued from the hospital which is based on the results of laboratory to the patient with the results of iris of
the same patient. In this project, we will use a large sample of medical records from a King Khalid Hospital located in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to prove the credibility of iridology. This is an undergraduate project of three B.Sc. students. The
project went through two phases: The feasibility study and design (Phase I) completed in semester Fall 2010. The
implementation part (phase II), is under development to be completed by Spring 2011. Figure 1 shows some images
about the eye charts.
Figure 1:"eye maps" or charts showing parts and qualities of the eye that reveals information about the body’s condition.
111
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
E-Diagnosis by Body Map
Maha Mohammed Mahmoud, Riham Mahmoud Kotb, Eman FatfyAbd El-Aal,
Engi Osama Youssef, Shimaa MostafaEl-Wardany
Ain Shams University, Cairo
Roma_girl12@hotmail.com
Emy_fathy_2011@yahoo.com
Maha_300066@yahoo.com
farhana_shosho2008@hotmail.com
engi_jesus@yahoo.com
Supervised by
Dr.Nagwa Badr
nagwa_badr@cis.asu.edu.eg
ABSTRACT
E_Diagnosis system provides users ability to analyze their particular symptoms
to give them clinical description of the most likely conditions. E_diagnosis by body
map is a website that assists patients to find the right description of their cases
and suggest treatment advices to patient based on medical history and tests.
System is based on the classification of symptoms according to the different
body parts, that means when the patient use of this web site and it appears
to the Body MAP according to the sex of the patient (male or female), so, will
be the possibility to press on the pain’s part on Body Map, then it shows him all
the symptoms that can be occur related to this part. Based on the choice of the
patient's symptoms and diagnose the illness according to these symptoms (for
example, there are different degrees of fever so, according to percentage of the
rates of fever associated with other various symptoms , system gives different result such as, if the degree of fever
(High and fast-rising) that causes Measles But if the fever average so, that shall be causes Mumps).
According to the selected symptoms, system expected some diseases in different parentages then system request
specific medical tests from patient, therefore, according to the results of the medical tests and patient's medical
history the system provides a brief estimated report of the exact disease and suggest treatment advices for patient
according to his conditions.
In order to develop this system, we must gather Doctor's experience that assist in diagnosis process.
Through the system the patient can reserve a medical appointment with Dr. detect selecting the appropriate time limit
for a medical examination and selected specialty doctor who wanted?
Many of the E_Diagnosis systems tried to solve the many problems faced by patients, for example, difficulty booking
appointments in clinics doctors to congestion and the inability of the patient to ask all the questions and taking
drugs is not suitable for cases of sickness, although it is insufficient to treat the disease that these systems have
helped patients to diagnose illness Through the introduction of the symptoms, which suffer from, and answer a lot
of questions.
E_Diagnosis by body map system can superior to other systems, as in some cases it is expected(suspect) more than one
disease and the system should identifies the more accurate. Our system is asking about more medical tests according
to the percentage of uncertainty in specific disease, and recommended him proper treatment for his condition and
based on the medical report. On the other hand our system is providing reservation service appointment with doctor
when the patient’s condition need body examination from doctor.
Our system is superior to other system, In the case that it is expect (suspect) to more than one disease and so
that it appears the disease is more correct, it is asking medical tests according to the percentage of uncertainty
in specific disease, and recommends to proper treatment for his condition and based on the medical report and
providing reservation service appointment with doctor in case that the patient’s condition need to body examination
from doctor.
112
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Are Students Ready to E-Learn?
A Study of a University in the Gulf Region
Reem Yousef Khalifa, Ayesha Saeed Al Braiki, Abdallah Tubaishat
Zayed University, UAE
u2702018@zu.ac.ae, u2821602@zu.ac.ae, Abdallah.Tubaishat@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Success in e-learning can be achieved by understanding the needs as well as the readiness of all stakeholders in a
particular e-learning environment. This research provides a discussion on the students’ readiness and their perceptions
towards the implementation of e-learning in a university located in the gulf region. The institution under study is in the
beginning stages of implementing an e-learning environment for a number of its courses. Students in the College of
Information Technology were selected to participate in this study. A survey was conducted to identify and analyze key
components of e-learning readiness: technology, Internet usage, general understanding of e-learning and culture at
this institution. Here is a summary of the findings:
As e-learning success depends on ICT infrastructure, respondents were asked about their ownership of a computer at
home. All students indicated that they own a laptop and/or desktop computer at home.
In order to understand the effective use of available technology to facilitate student learning, students were asked
two questions: The first question was about the ability to remotely access online material from home. About 84
percent of the students responded as having no problems accessing online material remotely. The second question
was about the ability to access online material when on campus. About 94 percent of students responded as having
no problems accessing online material on campus.
In order to learn about whether the students’ technical skills have improved using e-learning resources, such as posted
course material, online resources, availability of electronic library resources, and doing online exams, two questions
were asked in this survey section: The first question was whether e-learning has improved the students’ technical
skills, 93 percent of students responded with agree. The second question was whether e-learning has contributed
positively to students learning experience, 79 percent of students responded with agree.
In order to learn about the impact of e-learning on the students confidence in taking charge of their learning and
whether using online material improved the students’ ability to become independent learners, two questions
were asked in this survey: The first question was about the impact of e-learning on the students’ ability to become
independent, 93 percent of the students responded with agree. The second question was “I feel that e-learning has
improved my performance”. About 85 percent of students agree responded with agree.
One component of the survey consisted of a question to learn about the students preferred mode of communication.
Two choices were offered: face to face communication, or virtual. We sorted the answers based on gender. Results
show that 78 percent of male students reported that their preferred mode of communication is face to face, followed by
22 percent preferring virtual communication. Results for the female students show that 63 percent of female students
prefer face to face communication, followed by 37 percent preferring virtual communication with their instructors.
The majority of students (78 percent) think that e-learning features contribute positively to their teaching/learning
experience and some remarked that e-learning features (essentially lecture notes, announcements, exams, grades)
make it easier for them to actually learn. The last two questions in this section were to learn about whether students
think e-learning is a good idea and about their readiness to take another e-learning course. Survey results show that
81 percent of the students responded with agree to the statement “Using e-learning is a good idea”. Furthermore, the
majority of the students (78 percent) feel that they are ready to take any e-learning course.
113
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Sound Source Localization for Automatic Camera Steering
Bassilio Dahlan, Wathiq Mansoor, Milad Abbasi, Parham Honarbakhsh
American University in Dubai
ABSTRACT
In the recent years, the extensive development in the field of computational intelligence has been greatly utilized
in the living and working spaces as well as in many commercial products. Among the useful ideas of computational
intelligence is the idea of localizing an object based on the sound waves emitted from it. Computational intelligence
borrows the idea of sound source localization performed by humans and uses it in various applications including
automatic teleconferencing, video lecturing, and surveillance. Our project is an implementation of a real-time sound
source localization system for automatic camera steering. The targeted application was the video conferencing
application. The goal is to have such a computationally complex system implemented and smoothly operating on a
general purpose PC. The main reason for that is to cut down the cost of the end product if this prototype is going to
be commercialized. Our vision form the beginning was that the system should be a plug and play system where the
user just needs to hook it into his/her laptop and run the software. In
this paper, we have highlighted the key ideas, important points, and
the challenges faced to successfully implement this system.
An array of microphones is used as sound sensor that supply the
system with the sound signals extracted from the environment to
be processed for localization. The processing involves approximating
the position of the sound source and generating the corresponding
commands to steer the camera to that position. The number of
microphones in the array depends on the localizing technique used.
In general, the computational complexity increases as the number of
Figure 1: Microphone Array and Camera
microphones increases. There are various techniques to carry out the
processing. Some techniques are more accurate but not well suited for real-time systems, and others are less accurate
but reasonable for real-time operation. In this prototype, Multilateration method is used for localization using an array
of six microphones arranged in a symmetrical geometry as shown in figure 1.
Multilateration, also called hyperbolic positioning, is a method by which the time difference of arrival (TDOA) of the
sound wave emitted is calculated from three or more independent microphone pairs. Serving as a good option for realtime applications, the TDOA calculation is based on the computation of generalized cross correlation phase transform
(GCC-PHAT). The method of least squares is then used to solve the over-determined system iteratively and approximate
the position of the sound source. During operation, our system continuously monitors the environment to check for
the presence of a sound source. Once a sound source is present, the system loops through the microphone pairs and
stores the data in several temporary buffers on which the TDOA computations will be performed. The resultant path
difference values are fed to the least square estimator to approximate
the position of the source. Finally, after converting the approximated
position to spherical coordinates, a set of commands are issued serially
to control and steer the camera to the approximated location.
In this project, there are important issues that should be taken into
consideration to guarantee a smooth operation. The first issue is the
susceptibility of TDOA technique to reverberation noise, which greatly
contributes to performance degradation. This problem can be greatly
minimized if the room is large compared to the dimensions of the
Figure 2: System Architecture
microphone array or if the walls were anti-reverberant. The second
issue is the coexistence of several active sound sources at the same time, which is outside the scope of this project
and involves complex techniques for multi sound source separation. The third issue is that the sound signal should be
long enough to cover the whole capturing time, which is 625 ms roughly. Future work will be carried on to decrease
the response time below 250 ms by using multiple parallel samplers. In addition, more sophisticate tools, such as the
Particle filter, will be used to greatly reduce susceptibility to measurement errors and reverberations.
114
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Are Online Learning Resources
on Demand like Social Networking Sites?
Zahra Abdulla Alhamami, Fatema Mohamed Al mansoori, Ayesha Sultan, and Maisoon Ali AlKatheeri
Zayed University, u2601490@zu.aca.ae, u2701592@zu.ac.ae, u272487
@zu.ac.ae, u2701605@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research paper is to know whether the online learning is acceptable here in the United Arab
Emirates, more specifically at Zayed University. The online learning is widely accepted and it would good if the social
networking sites are being used for other purposes rather than just a way of entertainment. For example, in the
U.S, the usage of social networking is increasing rapidly for different reasons that vary according to the users. Most
of them are using them to keep in touch with friends. They are also using them for educational reasons. Studies
have shown that more than half of U.S students have been
using them for their schoolwork. The idea of using social
networking is not spread here in the UAE as it is outside the
UAE. Therefore, there is a high importance to study the state
of art of using this technology in the UAE and compare it to
other countries that used this technology for other purposes.
The methods that were used in this study are to create a survey,
calculate the number who answered the survey and analyze the
answers using MS Excel. The survey contains 14 questions about
using the social networking sites and the preferences of online
courses. The data that was collected is to help the researchers
have a clearer answer to their research question which is “What
are the educational experiences of ZU students with the social
Figure 1: The type of the preferred class
networking compared to their use for the online learning
resources?”. The survey is created using the SelectSurvey tool
and it has been distributed among 95 students of the College
of Education in Zayed University. Although 95 students have
been asked to contribute, only 40% respond. Figure 1 shows the
percentages of the type of preferred class. The students who are
very interested to enroll in “online courses” have a percentage of
8%. While, 24% are interested in the traditional classes where
students have physical classes. Also, 8% of students believe
that having a face-to-face contact is not very important. Whereas
76% consider such opportunity is very important for them in the
learning process as shown in Figure 2. On the other hand, in the
Figure 2: The importance of face-to-face interaction
US, and according to Shannon, Judy and Jeffery, it is estimated
that “one out of every six students enrolled in at least one course
online” and that counted around 3.2 million students who enrolled
in Fall 2005. In the UAE, the culture, the tradition and the lifestyle
can affect the usage of social networking sites. As an Arabian
country, the UAE’s families grew to maintain their reputation
and to protect their children, especially the girls. This shows that
the UAE’s families are still holding their cultural traditions. The
visibility of ZU students’ profiles on the Internet was examined as
well. And that is shown in the results of the survey where the most
choosing answer was “Only Friends” with a percentage of 89%,
Figure 3: The online profiles visibility
whereas only 11% who chose “Everyone” (Figure 3).
115
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Generating Test Cases from UML State Diagrams
Anwar Al-osaimi, Abeer Al-mutairi, Dr. Mohammad Alanazi
alanazi@imamu.edu.sa
Department of Computer Science
College of Computer and Information Sciences
Al-Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Specification-based testing uses information derived from a specification to assist testing as well as to develop
program. Testing activities consist of designing test cases that are a sequence of inputs, executing the program with
test cases, and examining the results produced by this execution. Testing can be created earlier in the development
process so the developer will often find inconsistency and ambiguity in the specification and so the specification can
be improved before the program is written.
UML has been accepted as an industry standard for object oriented analysis and design notation. It comprises a
number of diagrams used to describe different aspects of a system
including static, dynamic, and use-case views. Among them, our project
will focuses on test cases generation from the state diagrams in UML.
UML state diagrams are widely-used for specifying the dynamic behavior
of classes and are substantially based on state charts which have been
successfully applied to reactive systems.
One of the main problems in testing object-oriented programs is test
case selection. In most cases, it is impossible to stimulate the program
with all data of the input domain.
Test case generation is the most important part of the testing efforts. In
this project, we aim to generating test cases from UML state diagrams.
We have used the StarUML to design the model.
Our approach of test case generation is draw tree for states and transition.
We use depth-first search technique to find all main paths starting form
Initial state and finish in the final state. Also we identify all valid possible
paths from any state in the diagram.
We have implemented an automatic generating test cases tool that uses
an XML format of the designed UML model. The tool takes this XML as
an input. We have decided to use the XML format in this project because
most UML design tools support the transformation between UML models
and XML schema. The parser accesses the information in the provided
XML and collects the important information (i.e. states and transitions).
After that, the tool will print all possible test cases that are generated.
Figure 1 gives an overview of our project.
116
Figure 1: A flowchart of the generating
test cases tool
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Mobile-Based Interpreter of Arterial Blood Gas Test
Results Utilizing Computational Intelligence
for Decision Support
Ahmad M. Al-Taee, Suhail N. Abood, Hussein A. Hassani, Mohammad A Al-Ani, Ayman A. Zayed, and Majid A. Al-Taee
The University of Jordan, ahmadaltaee@hotmail.com, s.n.a.n.2003@gmail.com, hu.hassani@gmail.com,
mohammadaz2038@yahoo.com, baraaayman@gmail.com, altaeem@ju.edu.jo
ABSTRACT
An Arterial Blood Gases (ABG) test is performed to evaluate oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange, respiratory function,
and acid-base balance in the human body. Nowadays, ABG analysis plays an indispensible role in the assessment and
management of patients with a significant range of medical and surgical problems. Thus, accurate and rapid ABG
interpretation is undoubtedly a fundamental skill especially in emergency rooms and intensive care units. However,
manual calculation and interpretation can be tiresome and prone to a human error or inconsistency in the provided
lab test results.
In this paper the design and implementation of an end-to-end ABG interpreter will be presented. The proposed
interpreter which automates the interpretation process is capable of providing a quality control (QC) test to assure
that the ABG test results under interpretation are consistent and the test equipment are performing to standards. This
is achieved by empowering the developed application with the knowledge and experience of specialized physicians
using a series of computational intelligence decision support modules that are capable of delivering the appropriate
conclusion. The software technologies used to implement the proposed application which can be deployed on
handheld devices (e.g. cell phones, iPhones, and other PDAs), stand-alone PCs and Web servers include Java platform,
Micro Edition (Java J2ME) and Apache Web Server. A simplified flowchart for the adopted QC and interpretation process
is shown in Figure 1.
The proposed system is expected to help healthcare providers in obtaining rapid and accurate interpretation results.
This includes the likely diagnosis obtained from analysis the ABG’s results and therapy protocols required for different
disorders. The measurement in arterial blood of pH, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2), partial pressure of
oxygen (pO2), and the calculation of bicarbonate (HCO3-), total carbon dioxide (TCO2), and oxygen saturation (O2%)
are used in a series of decision support modules and formulas to narrow the differential diagnosis until a definite
diagnosis is reached. Once the acid-base disorder is identified, the system suggests possible causes, appropriate
medications, and management recommendations. This is achieved by using the empowered rule-based intelligence
software modules as well as the adaptive rules learned from physicians' diagnoses. Performance of the developed ABG
interpreter prototype is assessed practically by performing a wide spectrum of interpretation tests using real patients'
data. Example screen shots for the supplied ABG test values and the corresponding interpretation results are shown
in Figure 2. The obtained diagnosis, disorder causes and suggested medications in this test and in many other similar
tests are found in correlation with those assessed manually by physicians.
(a) Example entry of ABG test values
Fig..1. The ABG interpretation process.
(b) The interpretation results
Fig. 2. Example screen shots of ABG interpretation test.
117
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
A Security Video Game
Amel Ahmed , Fatima Abdalla, Sharifa Mohamed, Mario Guimaraes (advisor)
Zayed University, u2421163@zu.ac.ae, u2522250@zu.ac.ae, u2605158@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Practical fields in Information Technology like security need practice to learn rather than rely exclusively on written
materials. When applying security video games, users can learn security in an exciting way with sounds, music and
picture. As a result, they could be more interested and excited in learning security. In order for a person to apply security
to his personal life, he should practice security rather than memorize its concepts and objectives. For example, the
user should not only memorize the types of viruses and worms, but he should distinguish the emails, websites, and
messages that contain viruses in order to avoid damage to his computer. To be more precise, if the user had played
a video game like Anti-Phishing, he would clearly understand the phishing emails and websites in an enjoyable and
exciting way, so he will apply it to his personal life and avoid being a victim to viruses and worms in the proper manner.
We looked at several different softwares to teach videogames. This included Grand Prix Multiplication (http://
www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/grand_prix/grand_prix.html), Clueless crossword puzzles (http://www.
sheppardsoftware.com/braingames/crossword2b/crossword2b.htm), Anti-Phizing Phil (http://www.wombatsecurity.
com/antiphishing_phil/index.html) and and Hacker 2 (http://www.arcadecabin.com/play/hacker_2.html). Each of
these softwares provided us with ideas that could be used for our videogames. The first three provided a nice interface
and an enjoyable game. Hacker 2 did not have a good interface, but had a very good help.
In order to implement our first protoype, we studied gamemaker and flash. Gamemaker was easier and with the
help of our supervisor, we implemented a prototype. It allows users to drag the corresponding name of hardware
and software components to a network diagram picture. The components consisted of Firewall, router, switch, e-mail
server, web-server, database server. The other prototype consisted in creating a Forensics Flowchart. Our next step is
to refine these prototypes and expand to create more scenarios. For each diagram or procedure, the user has to match
the text with the corresponding equipment or action. A Prototypes on Network Diagram has been implemented. The
Figure below displays the network diagram at the beginning of the game. The user drags the text in yellow to the
corresponding image on the diagram, receiving points every time it is done properly.
118
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Timetable Editor Assistant
Nada Al-Faify
Al - Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic, nada_word@hotmail.com
Mona Al-Shahrani
Al - Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic, m.n_n.o@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
The previous timetable system in our college make it by Microsoft Excel ,which is waste time and effort because
when decide schedule by this way you should insert and edit the data resources ( teachers, courses , rooms..)
manually , also you find the conflict occur between this resources which is difficult operation .
As a result, our college required an efficient way to schedule their timetable , the timetable editor and assistant is
a web application can make the college timetable easy through keeping all basic data ( courses, teachers ,rooms ,
plans ) in a database by insert it once time then add, delete , edit it for each semester.
Also it dedicate the conflict between the data resource automate, in addition it give to user some suggestion to
assistant him to solve problem. The timetable editor and assistant is a web application which mean can accessed from
anywhere and in anytime.
The timetable problem consists of two parts timetable editor and assistant. The timetable editor and the assistant
creates our college tables, that considers as timeslots consisting of course, teachers, sections, levels, and classrooms.
These contents are arranged in timeslots with a suitable way. The second part is the assistant which provide
suggestions that may solve the problems appear from scheduling.
There are various timetabling approaches to solve the timetable problem. In this project we will use the Constraint.
Satisfaction Problem (CSP) to model the timetable editor. The idea of CSP is the consistent assignment of all variables
to values in a way which all constraints are satisfied. The result of our project is a web based application capable of
editing our college timetable.
The result of our project is the web application with friendly Arabic web pages that will be flexible for editing and
maintaining the schedules and interacting with a database which keep track the college's resources details that would
be managing by central administrators.
119
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
Sequential PassPattern Authentication System
Mohammed Saleh AlGhamdi
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, aasm485@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
User authentication is very important component for the security of a computer system. We use it everyday and
everywhere when secure access is required. We need to use methods to keep our private data and information secure
and non-reachable for any unauthorized person. There are many types of user authentications. First of all, textual
passwords is the most common type used. Secondly, biometrics which detect the identity of the user trying to access
the computer. Finally, Graphical passwords which are secrets that user inputs to a computer with the aid of the
computer graphical input such as mouse, images and touch screen. I have developed a new system in this feild. I tried
to come up with an idea where the user can easily remember his password, very usable, easy to use with preventing
from of brute-force attacks and shouldersurfing attacks as much as we can. My idea
is when a user open the program, firstly,
it ask for a user name and a passpattern.
The passpattern will be choosing a group
of faces in specific sequence among of
thirty faces in a given picture . Then the
program converts the clicked sequence
pattern into textual pattern to identify it.
If the user entered the wrong password he
will be denied from access. The user can
change his own password if he would like.
The admin user is the only one who has
an access to some privileges or properties
such as, he is the only one who can create
new users. Also, he can delete an existing
one. Graphical passwords or "ClickedBased passwords" are much secure and
memorable than textual password. Many textual passwords are either memorable but not secure which will be easy
to guess or secure but difficult to remember. For brute-force attacks, my "Sequential Pass Pattern Authentication
System" is more secure than textual password. For example, in my system let K = variable and N = 30. K stands
for numbers of the sequence clicked passwords whereas N represents the numbers of picture can be clicked. So, if
the user inters only 3 faces, there are 30*30*30 = 27000 possible or guessable passwords since we have to choose
three clicked faces in sequence patterns. Whereas in terms of shoulder-surfing attacks. As a result of this research,
Graphical passwords are more secure than textual ones since textual password can be seen by which key did you use
and the attackers can be sure by herring the voice of the key if has been press or not. While in graphical passwords
it's basically mouse motion so the attackers would know clearly that if the user has been pressing on this picture
or just pass the mouse over it. This scheme has more advantages than the usual password systems. It is easier to
remember since human process graphical images easily. In addition , this new system is not vulnerable to dictionary
attacks. Talking about brute force attacks, it is much harder for an attacker to break the passpattern by generating
all possible combinations. Becouse the attackers tends to use software to generate all possible passwords but when
the password is simply clicks instade of easy to generate letters the challenge will be huge to try brute force attack
and it will be time consuming for the attacker. All of the above advantages of the graphical passwords over the textual
passwords may lead the last one more attractive..
120
Undergraduate
Research
Conference
HardWAREhouse
Alia Al-Bluwi,Noura Alsoumaikhy,Manar Alsayari
Layan Alwakeel,Maha AlQernass,Maram Althaqeb, Lama Alhussainy, Hanan Almulhim
Saudi Arabia, King Saud University
ABSTRACT
Our Client - The Deanship of e-Transaction and Communication in King Saud University - uses an application (Manage
Engine Service Desk Plus) that helps them store every request that comes from every employee if they had a technical
issue with one of the hardware. The requests are applied via email or phone when there is a problem with their
computers, printers, scanners, network points or any hardware used. The technician is sent for to solve the problem.
The client asked our team to come up with an application that could easily store and maintain all information of all
hardware in the university.
The Deanship's existing system only receives the requests and stores them without knowing the detailed information
of the defected hardware, or if it has been defected before. With no history known of the hardware failures, it is hard
to determine its purposes. Also, they would not be informed that a specific hardware is old and needs to be replaced.
The Deanship of e-Transaction and Communication need to store each notification and link it with its hardware. They
need to store information about all the hardware in the university and keep track with its history.
To store all hardware information in the university, we will design a web-based software for our client - The Deanship
of e-Transaction and Communication - that will help them link each notification or request with its hardware in a userfriendly method, and keeps failure history for each hardware stored in an organized database.
King Saud University does not own a system that stores a detailed information for each hardware (computers, printers,
scanners, projectors, network points), which includes hardware's location, users that function it, manufacturer
information... etc. With this not available for technicians, the time for them to solve the issue might take longer. Also,
for the employee who wants to report about his computer for example, he would have to either phone or email the
responsible for entering the request into their database. This is announced to be an inefficient way to report hardware
failures.
The solution is to create an application that can hold every hardware's failure types and times. We will implement this
by creating a database that will store all that information for every computer and such. By doing that, it will enable
the user to access and review any hardware he chooses to monitor. The system shall be available on any platform. It
doesn't need to be installed in every platform as it is a browser application, so moving (or accessing) the software is
easily done through any platform available.
Finally, Deanship of e-Transaction and Communication in King Saud University uses an application (Manage Engine
Service Desk Plus) that helps them store every request that comes from every employee if they had a technical issue
with one of the hardware. They have asked our team to come up with an application that could easily store and
maintain all information of all hardware in the university. The team has successfully created a web-based program that
covered all the client's requests.
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Learning Disability System
Nourah AlQahtani ,Wejdan AlThumairy ,Rawan AlAbdan ,Reema AlRuwais ,Arwa AlAbdulkareem
,Fatema AlJuaeedy ,Hind AlHabib
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Supervised by
l.Meshael AlSaleh
ABSTRACT
Learning Disability (LD) is a disorder. A person is diagnosed with learning disability when he/she has problems or
difficulties in learning, than their normal peers. It could also be known as a learning disorder, or a learning difficulty,
these terms however are classifications that include several disorders, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia,
these disorders target oral language, reading (such as comprehension), written language (such as spelling), and/or
computation . The factor(s) that cause it is/are still unknown. It has been found that a person’s, with a LD, brain ability
to receive and process information is not the same for people who do not have LD. where they cannot learn at the
same speed as their peers. However, LD does not mean the person is not intellectually smart or otherwise. Due to the
fact, that it does not affect the intellectual level.
We aim in this project to deliver software that addresses this issue and help improve the learning ability within people
with LD, by using a simple illustration, an easy language, and comprehensible context, all to help them focus and
understand.
The Problem:
["Children or young people who have a general learning disability are aware of what goes on around them. However,
their ability to understand and communicate may be limited, and they can find it hard to express themselves. Speech
problems can make it even harder to make other people understand their feelings and needs. They can become
frustrated and upset by their own limitations. When they compare themselves to other children, they can feel sad or
angry and think badly of themselves. "
The solution:
Our software aims to teach “hamzat” ,which are special kind of Arabic language letters to learning disability students
on primary school. It helps the teachers of those students by letting students practice by themselves as well as it
helps the students to learn with having fun due to the multimedia, friendly interfaces and attractive subjects in the
software.
“hamzat” either come at the beginning of the word, in the middle, or at the end of the word". The “hamza” that
comes at the beginning of the word is either “hamzat wasel” or “hamzat qate’e” depends on the way it is pronounced.
Therefore, the software uses conversations and natural voices that teach the student differences between them. The
“hamza” that comes at the middle of the word is called “motawasetah”. And the “hamza” that comes at the end of the
word is called “motatarrefah”.
The software, basically, teaches more details and with different interactive ways such as stories, conversations,
tutorials, and practices. Taking into consideration the audience on the software. Which are the students, and teachers
of them.
This software will use the layer of students who have difficulty learning and using also oversees the education of
ramble class.
T.kamela was attached our system with her own book which is to educate the LD students. The parents can use our
system to help them to teach their children who have LD. We meeting with teacher who used our system in her class
she said:"it is very excellent and help me more to educate students easier, Also students like it and attractive with it".
122
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Conference
MAROFEX-1: A Smart Mobile Robot
Mohammad-Souheib Kamal Chenaoua, Aamer Ahmad Abul-Hassan
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals – Dammam Community College, Saudi Arabia
Supervised by
Mr. Hani Al-Mohair
ABSTRACT
The goal of this project is to design a versatile small sized robot intended for
surveillance and monitoring applications. MAROFEX version-1 is a robot meant to
be operated remotely from a control station which sends orders wirelessly to the
robot or autonomously.
The robot uses modern technology devices and components: An Arduino
microcontroller based board, two independent DC motors controlled through an
H-bridge board for the motion of the robot, and Xbee wireless communication
devices to provide short to medium range (~30 meters indoor / ~100 meters outdoor)
interaction with the robot. Xbee uses ZigBee wireless communication standard that
implements the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. An ultrasonic range sensor is used to detect obstacles and allows the robot
to avoid them. The robot is intended to incorporate a small robot-arm that will expand its functions and capabilities.
MAROFEX-1 will implement tasks such as detecting moving targets and sensing capabilities for detecting fire and
gas leakage in hazardous areas. An electronic compass is used to stabilize the MAROFEX-1’s trajectory; the Arduino
reads the bearing from the compass, and adjusts the robot direction. The robot is also equipped with a wireless video
camera that transmits live video or scene pictures to the control station.
Figure 2 - System schematic
The vehicle is made up of different layers. The base layer includes the microcontroller
board, the power module, the H-bridge and the sensing devices. The sensing devices
include sensors used for both navigation and environment sensing, to measure
temperature, humidity and gas levels, a communication module for remote control
and communication and a top layer that houses the robot arm.
The project went through a number of phases. The first phase was dedicated to
studying different designs and searching for available hardware and software
components. Acquisition of the required items for the project and materializing
design was the main part of this phase. The compass added, and the algorithm to
let the robot maintain a straight trajectory was implemented. The communication devices added, and communication
established between the robot and the control station. Sensors were connected later and tested. The remaining
components; camera and robot arm are to be added later. The whole design once finished, was tested and worked as
expected. Though, some modules need further development.
The proposed project will serve to the initiation of students in universities and colleges to the field of robotics. It can
also be used for the development of remotely controlled vehicles for many other applications such as surveillance,
pipe line inspection, air-condition ducts inspection, and environment monitoring.
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Conference
Student-Faculty Meeting Scheduler
Abdul Jabbar Siddiqui, Hamza Ijaz Abbasi
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, ajsiddiqui@theiet.org, hamza90ksa@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
A university generally has hundreds of students enrolled in courses offered by various departments and instructors. The
instructors set office hours during which students can approach them for doubts or help regarding their academics,
research or any other issue. A student may be taking different courses each with a different instructor and even in
different departments. As a result, remembering the details of his instructor such as the office hours, office location,
contact details, etc. often becomes cumbersome. Moreover, if an instructor’s office hours are not convenient, or the
instructor isn’t available at the convenient time for the student, etc. then it is an even more tedious job to find out
about office hours or schedules of some other faculty teaching the course. In addition to this, currently, different
instructors have their office hours and other details posted on their personal homepages, or their office doors alone.
All these add to the complications for the students with regards to contacting/meeting the instructors.
In this project, we propose to create a centralized database of the office hours and weekly schedules of all teaching
faculty which will enable students to view the office hours and schedules of teaching faculty based on the desired
department, or course, or day/time of availability, etc. and even request appointments outside the office hours.
Also the students will be able to see and modify their contact details. On the other hand, the faculty will be able to
set his schedule and set office hours whenever convenient to him. He can also approve/disapprove the requested
appointments by the students based on their time schedule, priority, etc. In addition, a faculty can also view and
update his information stored in the database in order to allow the students to easily contact him.
With such a centralized database based computerized system of managing student-faculty schedules, appointments,
meetings, etc. both the faculty and the students will be benefitted by easing many transactions that need to take
place between them on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, we shall present another very important solution that comes
about on extending this application to cater to the department chairmen, meeting schedulers/organizers, etc.
Fig.1. Conceptual Design of
Fig.2. (a) Student’s Menu; (b) Faculty’s Menu;
(c) Sample output of a faculty’s schedule with
options to request appointment
the Student/Faculty Database
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Road Safety and Saif Awareness Campaign Website
Amna Al Dhaheri, Jameela Abdulla, Reeham Juma, and Shaikha Salem
Dubai Women’s College, h00020067@hct.ac.ae, H00082985@hct.ac.ae, H00084937@hct.ac.ae, H00054630@hct.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
Problems:
It is well known that congestion and car accidents are increasing rapidly in the UAE nowadays. The stats stated that
there were 830 fatalities due to roughly 6800- 7000 roads accidents in 2007[1]. There are also lots of people do not
know about the accidents’ cases and they are not aware of being safe from these accidents. This crisis encourages us
to expand traffic awareness in the UAE because there are few sites which are concerned about this issue.
Solution and Result:
The solution for this problem is to create a web site that is focused on people's safety on the roads in the UAE. The
web site includes multimedia features and its avatar to attract the eye of the users and draw attention to the message
delivered throughout the web site. The avatar is called Saif and it is a local name which has similar pronunciation
for the word safe. In hence, we called it Saif so UAE community will accept this intuitive because they will feel it is
belonging to them. Furthermore, the avatar wears UAE custom so it comes as an icon that people can use in different
places such as schools and on cars as stickers to remind them about road safety and how to stay safe in streets.
Project Objectives:
- Spot the light on the roads’ facts, statistics and problems in the UAE in order to reduce the percentage of
accidents and their effects on the society.
- Spread roads’ safety awareness among the targeted audience.
- Showing the targeted audience some previous tragedies to inform them with the consequences of their
irresponsible behavior on the road.
- Giving the targeted audience some advices and tips on road safety, and Encourage young people not to drive
without driving licenses.
- Commit people to the laws of traffic, and to wear seat belts.
- Identify the causes of accidents
Targeted audience
This web site is created to be used by UAE citizens, men and women, from the age of 14 years old till the age of 60, who
have driving license or eligible to have one in the future. The web site users are from the age 14 years old, in order to
increase the level of awareness among the national teenagers for the sake of their safety and the safety of the others
as well in the future. This website is also for high school and universities’ students to benefit them, and for teachers
to make awareness among their students. Our audience can be also the policemen and officers who can suggest this
website for people who need it.
Website Link: http://saifawareness.webs.com/
Website Diagram:
Reference: [1] “Traffic in Dubai and Driving in Dubai.” dubaifaqs. 2.10.2010 http://www.dubaifaqs.com/driving-in-dubai.php
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Economic Supercomputing using PlayStation3
Zubin1, Nithin Unni1, M I Jawid Nazir2
Manipal University, banshee.v@gmail.com, nithinunni@live.com, jawid_nazir@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
Supercomputing has dominated the field of scientific research and high level computational and calculation intensive
tasks since its introduction in the early 1960’s. In the present scenario constant technological advancements have
made
home and office computers more powerful than some previous generations of supercomputers.
For almost half a century, gaming consoles have been used exclusively for gaming, however the last decade has
seen how game consoles can be utilized for various commercial and research processing tasks. Various research
studies has shown that game consoles are the best choice in processing tasks because of their high performance
hardware (CPU’s, GPU’s), ready availability, cheap setup and maintenance costs. Hence game consoles are perfect for
researchers on a budget. Some examples:
• The usage of Sony PlayStation3 for various high precision floating point computations such as Folding@Home
which has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the worlds most powerful distributed computing
network as well as its predecessor SETI@Home.
• The United States Air Force uses a cluster of almost 1800 PlayStation3’s to allow scientists to better identify
objects flying in space, where blurring occurs with high-quality images caused by high speed movement at long
distances.
• Nintendo Wii’s being used by surgeons and for rehabilitation of recovering surgery patients and to aid in therapy
for patients suffering from Parkinson’s because of its cheap motion sensor technology.
In 2006 Sony released the Playstation3 which is currently the most powerful console on the market with IBM’s new 8
core Cell Processor, Nvidia RSX Graphic Processor and the ability to dual boot with Linux operating system.
Supercomputers are currently very expensive and very hard to get ones hands on. The cost of supercomputers can
easily go into millions of dollars. A single high-precision simulation can sometimes cost more than 5,000 hours on
supercomputers. For the same cost, you can build your own supercomputer using PS3s. It works just as well, has no
long wait times and can be used over and over again, indefinitely.
Our research focuses on finding a cheap alternative to using supercomputers, which are not available easily or at a low
cost. A cluster of two PlayStation3 consoles will be part of our implementation to demonstrate a simple benchmark as
well as how it can be used for some low level processing tasks. The cluster will be constructed using two PlayStation3’s
implementing Message Passing Interface (MPI). The benchmark run will be LINPACK Benchmark which is a standard
supercomputer benchmarking tool. The benchmark will be used to create a table including benchmarks on various
clustered as well as standalone systems to have an estimated cost to processing power ratio allowing us to be able
have a general idea of the economic benefits of using a PlayStation3 cluster as compared to various other systems.
Future studies could include various methods of integrating the implemented cluster into actual processing intensive
applications such as data mining or complex mathematical computations.
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Conference
Design and Development of the CheerUp
BlackBerry Application
Abeer AbdulWahed, Ameena Hassen, and Mariam Sari
College of Information Technology
Zayed University, UAE
{U2600718,@U2701249,U2604199}@zu.ac.ae
ABSTRACT
CheerUp is a BlackBerry application providing pop up messages designed to inform, educate and motivate the users.
The application will contain different categories. These categories are: wisdoms, quotes, athkar, facts, motivations and
random quotes. Each of these categories will contain 365 messages and each day one message will be appeared. It
will contain alarm to set the time and colors option to change the pop up message background color. The application
will be available in both Arabic and English language. This application will be like a small Portfolio with different cards,
which will send positive messages, reminder of important religion issues, and give some information to the user.
This application will have a significant rule in changing the negative and an evil people idea about the life, which have
a negative impact and destroys the subconscious mind, and replace them with positive and powerful impression.
However, there are five main objectives for this application: to give the user positive impression of the life; educate
user about important quotes and information; offer a way of changing people’s mood; focuses on social relations
between people; and make people subconscious mind have a positive massages over the day.
The interface of this application is very simple and easy to use. Once the application starts, the user needs to choose
the language (Arabic or English). The application will then provide a list of categories with setting option. The categories
will have check box, which the user will have to check to choose it. However, the setting option will be like the remote
control since the user will be able to change all the pop up massages setting such as, changing the message color,
attach a photo, set an alert, etc. The following screenshots demonstrate the application’s interface.
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Zayed University Students Behavior on Facebook
Eman Obaid, Heyam Abdul Lateef
College of IT, Zayed University
u2606025@zu.ac.ae, u2521131@zu.ac.ae
Advisor: Dr.Gregory Skulmoski
Skulmoski@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
The study and survey was conducted to evaluate the effects of Technology on modern communication among the
student body, taking into account the Culture affects that influences either positively or negatively on how students
used the Facebook.
Additionally our team of analysts made some quantitative conclusions to determine the benefits of the Facebook in
view of added value of the Facebook, likewise the team has revealed some Disadvantages of the Facebook in view
of moral and ethical misuse of Facebook. The census was carefully segregate and analyzed to quantify how students
behave on Facebook ; We have take the findings and plotted them in a manner that reflect the best situation to reflect
the general populations respond to our survey. We have created Pie charts to determine the outcome of the most
critical questions, which helped us to form a quantitative fact about the subject in question.
The census was directly and in directly conducted on the Zayed University campus and analyzed to quantify how
students behave on Facebook, so we group them in themes that reflects the general idea and turns it into readily
visible results. The four themes are: How the new technology changed the communication between the student, The
culture effect the way that the student use the Facebook, The Benefits of using the Facebook, and The disadvantages
of using the Facebook.
After we analyzed the themes, we found that they are direct relations between the themes. First relation is between
the culture and the technology. Our culture influences how student use the technology that they have on their hand.
Culture never compromises or restricts modern technology, but for the female it’s not accepted in our culture to
be opened with strangers and not covered. So it’s just draw a limited and rules for the female in how she should
behave in public places and among audiences of different kinds. However, there are a lot of benefits from the new
technology that used by the student. This benefits are also effect the culture in many ways. On the other hand, the
new technology can also affect the culture negatively. Some student use the Facebook in way that not accepted in
UAE’s culture which reflect negatively on culture’s image.
To cover the topic more we have to compare the result that we got from the survey that we have conducted the survey
with local student , and researched some statistical data that was available for comparison from the global similar
survey’s that done under the same topic.
When we compare the themes in UAE and USA, we find a lot of similarity in terms of the Advantages of technological
applications and the business advantages of having ready access to advertising and promoting products worldwide and
differences in terms of the perceptions of Facebook user in terms Cultural considerations, and having no restrictions
to privacy and social networking among heterosexuals. It was also noted that there are several types of users of
Facebook applications even in the Global places, not all users tend to miss use the Technology for the purposes that
are not legitimate. After all it is all related to individual life style of the user and how they perceive Values and ethics.
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Conference
Role and Importance of Information Technology in
E-Banking to Satisfy Customer Needs
Amandeep Khullar, Aftab Haider Rizvi and Vishwesh L. Akre
Manipal University Dubai
prityk90@hotmail.com , aftab@manipaldubai.com , vishwesh@manipaldubai.com
ABSTRACT
As we know that banking has been an integral part of the people living in the society. Banking provides the essential
financial needs of its customers. Banks are continuously trying hard to provide the best services to customers at the
convenience of their doorstep. In the current scenario it is becoming increasingly difficult for banks to retain existing
customers. Past experiences show that banks cannot compete just on price but to provide exceptionally good services
to their customers. Customers are demanding highly unconventional services and expecting high class services in quick
time. As their demands keep continuously increasing, it has become essential for banks to take the help of technology
to meet the customer requirements and expectations in near future. In the past it has been seen that some banks are
still following obsolete technology but quite a few banks have initiated to implement technology in their processes but
have failed to inform their customers. Those days have long gone when people used to come to bank for any small to
big banking work and spend hours at the bank to get required services. Time has changed, technology is rising to new
heights day by day and customers are thinking much higher and expecting more and more. It has become mandatory
for the banking systems to adapt highest levels of e-banking with all possible solutions of customers’ requirements.
To keep pace with growing competition, banking sector have to adapt to the technology age to move further and
make sure that the customers’ requirements are met with satisfaction. In UAE, banks are providing three levels of
channels to do the business, i.e., Branch Banking, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and Internet Banking. Branch
banking has been considered the oldest concept of doing business. ATM technology is not much old and it has left
its remarkable impact on the customers. Many services have been offered through the ATM technology. But recently,
Internet Banking has become the integral part of banking business and considered to be the best medium between
customer and banking merchant. It has also given a new dimension to customer relationship management (CRM).
This is currently considered to be the revolution in the banking sector. After conducting thorough Literature Review,
the authors have identified the key variables pertaining to the customer’s requirements for E-Banking. These variables
were used to design a Questionnaire survey instrument and data were collected from UAE residents who are using
E-banking services offered by banks. The data collected were statistically analyzed to see the role and importance of
information technology in E-banking to satisfy customers’ needs. This study has brought forward interesting results as
far as E-Banking in the UAE is concerned. The purpose of this paper is to share the results & findings and could be used
by banking professionals to evaluate their E-Banking initiatives vis-à-vis the customer requirements.
Keywords
E - Banking
Electronic Banking
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Automated Teller Machine (ATM)
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Conference
Physiotherapy Assistance Using the Xbox Kinect
Ruba Alsa’di, Suzan Al-Momani, Mohammad Fraiwan, Natheer Khasawneh, Mohammad Aljarrah
Jordan University of Science and Technology, rdalsadi07@cit.just.edu.jo, suzan.momani@gmail.com, mafraiwan@just.edu.
jo, natheer@just.edu.jo, jarrahm@just.edu.jo
ABSTRACT
The Xbox Kinect sensor kit hit the U.S. market on November of 2010 as a hands-free, Controller-free gaming console
sensor extension, which provides full-body playing capabilities. The Kinect sensor lays down a strong foundation
for the development of applications that goes much farther than computer gaming. It provides full-body 3D motion
capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities, along with open source libraries that allow access to
the data gathered and processed by the Kinect and its sophisticated software. In this project, we are developing a
software system that will help patients conduct physical activities pertaining to their Physiotherapeutic exercises in
an accurate, harmless, and efficient manner. Also, the system will report to the doctor and/or the responsible nurse
the kind of activities done by the patient to aid in their analysis of the therapy progress.
Physiotherapy treatment depends heavily on training individuals to conduct certain exercises to strengthen their
muscles, bone frame, joints and ligaments, and sometimes training the brain to issue commands to move these
extremities (i.e., cases of head injuries or severe trauma). These exercises need to be done accurately or they will
results in adverse effects. Not all people can afford a personal trainer, and not all clinics are capable for receiving
patients to conduct simple exercises (in the medical sense).
In this project, we are using the Kinect sensor as a monitoring tool. Patients, who typically perform therapeutic
exercises unsupervised, will do their exercise routines in front of the Kinect sensor. In place of interpreting the patient
moves as gaming gestures, our software system will study the patient’s skeleton and compare it to the optimal body
posture for that specific exercise and give immediate feedback to the patient on his/her performance. A complete
system will be built to accept a rich set of exercises along with a user friendly interface, and a feedback system to be
used by the doctor. The system is comprised of the following components.
• Skeleton identification: In any exercise, the positioning of the joints relative to each other dictates whether the
exercise is done correctly or not. So the first step is to identify the patient joints and skeleton.
• Image capture and analysis: The skeleton image is compared to the correct posture for doing the specific
exercise. This is a dynamic activity that can be done of video segments as well as still images.
• Graphical User Interface: An interface is necessary to specify the exercise to be performed along with other
options (e.g., log, stream to doctor office, exercise reps, etc.)
• A networking interface that allows the doctor to remotely supervise his patients.
• A database interface: to add, remove, and modify, existing set of exercises.
Figure 1 shows a partial screen shot of our system, where the Squat exercise is being conducted by our test subject.
While conducting Squats, experts greatly emphasize that the knees must not be bent in a way that extends them out
beyond the toes level. Otherwise, great and immediate harm will be inflected upon the knees. By using live tracking
of the skeleton, we are able to detect the correct and harmful positions of the knees and immediately inform the test
subject of her mistake. Other issues pertaining to this exercise are also checked, but are not shown for lack of space.
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Conference
Master Of Science (M.S.) In Information Technology
With Specialization In Cyber Security
Introduction
The College of Information Technology at Zayed University offers a Master of Science (M.S.)
in Information Technology program that includes advanced work in information technology
with a specialization in cyber security. The program’s focus is on the development of concepts,
knowledge and skills to enable successful participants to become experts in the area of
information security, internet crime prevention, and digital crime investigation. The goal of this
program is to develop highly qualified technical experts to meet the demands of the national,
regional and international workplace for information and network security.
Cyber Security is the protection of data and systems
in networks that are connected to the Internet.
Learning Outcomes
• Perform a needs analysis of an enterprise to determine the appropriate levels of security needed for systems
and data;
• Identify the management and technical controls that can be used to architect an enterprise security
structure to protect the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of critical data;
• Understand the IT essentials necessary to deal with computers, storage devices and computerized data in
the context of a crime scene.
Year One
•
•
•
•
•
•
Year Two
•
•
•
•
•
•
Research Methods
Information Security
Linux Security
Information Security Policy, Ethics & Law
Network and Internet Security
Cyber Forensics
Information Security Management
Advanced Topics in Cyber Forensics
Small Scale Digital Device Forensics
Penetration Testing and Advanced Hacking Techniques
Database and Enterprise Application Security
Independent Research or Cyber Security Project or Elective
Delivery Mode
• Twelve 6 week courses grouped into 4 semesters over an intensive 24-month time frame (3 courses per semester
with a 1-2 week break in-between)
• Instruction is conducted in-classroom over 2 weekday evenings – no weekends!!
• Strong emphasis on practical (laboratory) work
• Strong emphasis on face-to-face interaction with highly qualified instructors to facilitate the learning process
Contact Information
ZU Graduate Studies Office
P.O. Box 4783 Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
Tel: 971-2-599-3816 Fax: 971-2-446-7443
Web: www.zu.ac.ae/gradstudies
E-mail: gradadmin@zu.ac.ae
Dr. Qusay Mahmoud, Program Director
(M.S. IT – Cyber Security)
Qusay.Mahmoud@zu.ac.ae
Mob: 050 240 2251
Tel: 971-2- 599 3583
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