COSC:REU:Project Descriptions: 2007

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Project Descriptions: 2007

The Computer Science Department's research efforts cover a broad spectrum of areas. Much of our research is cross-disciplinary, and many faculty members are engaged in this effort.

Applicants will be able to select three projects as their top preferences on the application form. Efforts will be made to match students with their preferred topics as closely as possible.

Title:	Biometrics: Your Face is Your Password
Description:	Our group is currently researching systems capable of identifying both cooperative and uncooperative individuals rapidly and reliably, especially under adverse condit-ions, using novel biometrics. In this project, you will join other members of the C-omputational Biomedicine Lab (CBL) who are already working on this project in devel-oping the second generation prototype for enrollment and verification. This is a unique opportunity for an undergraduate to be exposed to state-of-art sensors that capture 3D data over time and state-of-art algorithms. Our 3D-3D face recognition system has achieved the best published results in the Face Recognition Grand Challe-nge v2 dataset.
Specific Requirements:	We are looking for a driven and dynamic individual. Knowledge of object-oriented programming, computer vision and computer graphics techniques is desirable
Faculty Sponsor:	Ioannis A. Kakadiaris
Web Link:	http://www.cbl.uh.edu/UR8D/
Topic ID:	IK1

Title:	Compiler-Driven I/O Management
Description:	Comanche is a software system whose goal it is to reduce the amount of implicit I/O of a given program. This project centers around reengineering Comanche to make it more user-friendly and useful for scientific computing.
Specific Requirements:	N/A
Faculty Sponsor:	Ernst L. Leiss
Web Link:	http://www.cbl.uh.edu/~reu/2007/EL2.html
Topic ID:	EL2

Title:	Computational Biomedicine: Detecting the Heart Attack "time bomb"
Description:	Every year 1.2 million Americans suffer a heart attack; in 2001, over half a million of these attacks were fatal. Developing the technologies necessary for successful s-creening of individuals at risk for heart disease is becoming progressively more cr-itical as the number of fatal attacks increases. Toward this end, our group, in col-laboration with cardiologists worldwide, is developing advanced computational tools for the analysis of medical data from Computer Tomography and Intravascular Ultras-ound. The student will interact with an expert group of collaborators, researchers, and other students in the fields of cardiology and computer vision-all while gaining invaluable experience in academic research, software development, and image analys-is. This is not only an exciting scientific project but also a project with a unique societal impact.
Specific Requirements:	We are looking for a driven and dynamic individual. Knowledge of object-oriented programming, computer vision and computer graphics techniques is desirable.
Faculty Sponsor:	Ioannis A. Kakadiaris
Web Link:	http://www.cbl.uh.edu/CARDIA
Topic ID:	IK2

Title:	Computer Security
Description:	We are looking for enthusiastic, passionate and bright students for all our projects. This project involves the study and analysis of how man-in-the-middle attacks can be prevented in cryptographic protocols. What Student will learn: Computer security in general and cryptographic protocols in particular.
Specific Requirements:	None
Faculty Sponsor:	Rakesh Verma
Web Link:	http://www.cs.uh.edu/~rmverma
Topic ID:	RV4

Title:	Data Mining and Information Extraction
Description:	We are looking for enthusiastic, passionate and bright students for all our projects. This project will investigate how to mine and analyze information from medical documents (research papers, drug studies, etc.) and financial documents (SEC filings). What Student will learn: Student will learn text mining, information extraction techniques and meta-analysis.
Specific Requirements:	None - interest in statistics is desirable
Faculty Sponsor:	Rakesh Verma
Web Link:	http://www.cs.uh.edu/~rmverma
Topic ID:	RV1

Title:	Digital Watermarks
Description:	MPEG-Based Watermark Implementation: Assuming an MPEG organization of the video sequence into I (intracoded), P (predictive-coded), and B (bi-directionally predictive-coded) frames, design and implement efficient methods for inserting watermarks, with particular attention to imperviousness against a variety of attempts to defeat the watermarking process, through filtering, cropping, resizing, and other operations, and quantify the increase in information content that can be accommodated in the new watermark.
Specific Requirements:	N/A
Faculty Sponsor:	Ernst L. Leiss
Web Link:	http://www.cbl.uh.edu/~reu/2007/EL1.html
Topic ID:	EL1

Title:	Evading Intrusion Detection
Description:	Intrusion detection is the process of identifying and responding to malicious activity targeted at computing and networking resources. The intruders may also use some evasion technique to avoid being detected. This project studies various techniques that may be used to avoid being detected by intrusion detection algorithms.
Specific Requirements:	Data Structures and Algorithms, some knowledge of network, OS, and AI/data mining techniques will be a plus.
Faculty Sponsor:	Stephen Huang
Web Link:	http://www2.cs.uh.edu/shuang/IDRG/index.html http://www.cs.uh.edu/shuang/
Topic ID:	SH2

Title:	Intrusion Detection
Description:	Intrusion detection is the process of identifying and responding to malicious activity targeted at computing and networking resources. Many techniques can be applied to identify or trace the intruders including: algorithmic, statistical, AI, and data mining. This project involves the study of network packets to determine of two connection belongs to the same chain. .
Specific Requirements:	Data Structures and Algorithms, some knowledge of network, OS, and AI/data mining techniques will be a plus.
Faculty Sponsor:	Stephen Huang
Web Link:	http://www2.cs.uh.edu/shuang/IDRG/index.html http://www.cs.uh.edu/shuang/
Topic ID:	SH1

Title:	Information Extraction
Description:	We are looking for enthusiastic, passionate and bright students for all our projects. This project involves the implementation of a specialized pattern language to extract information from documents. What Student will learn: Student will learn information extraction and text mining techniques.
Specific Requirements:	Programming experience in at least one of C/C++/Java
Faculty Sponsor:	Rakesh Verma
Web Link:	http://www.cs.uh.edu/~rmverma
Topic ID:	RV3

Title:	Information Retrieval, Search Engines
Description:	We are looking for enthusiastic, passionate and bright students for all our projects. This project will investigate meta-search engines and ranking. One specific issue will be how to combine different rankings of the same information nuggets. What Student will learn: Student will learn information retrieval techniques including ranking, search engines and meta-search engines.
Specific Requirements:	None - interest in statistics is desirable
Faculty Sponsor:	Rakesh Verma
Web Link:	http://www.cs.uh.edu/~rmverma
Topic ID:	RV2

Title: Lie Detection

Description: The student will work as part of a large team consisting of Ph.D. students and research engineers in the Computational Physiology Lab (CPL) as well as psychologists from SUNY Buffalo. He/she will be analyzing physiological data from behavioral experiments related to lie detection. This is part of a long term collaborative research project between CPL and the Communication Lab at SUNY Buffalo. The student will be using imaging, mathematical and statistical modeling, and software engineering as tools in his/her data analysis effort. This is not only an intriguing scientific project but also a unique opportunity for the undergraduate student to gain experience of modern multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team research.

Specific Requirements: :Knowledge of Visual C++/C# and basic math(calculus and linear algebra).

Faculty Sponsor: Ioannis Pavlidis

Web Link: http://www.cpl.uh.edu/html/

Topic ID: IP2

Title:	NEAT-o-GAME
Description:	The student will be developing a computer game for cell-phones that promotes physical activity. This game will be played either by a single player or by multiple players in a buddy-list system. The game will feed itself from tiny accelerometer sensors that will communicate with the cell-phone through wireless connections. These accelerometers will measure physical activity, as they will be attached as artifacts (e.g., belt clips) to the bodies of the players. The student will interact with other members of the Computational Physiology Lab (CPL) who are already working on this project and have developed prototype sensors and various game versions..
Specific Requirements:	Knowledge of Visual C# and/or iPhone SDK and software engineering principles (object-oriented paradigm)
Faculty Sponsor:	Ioannis Pavlidis
Web Link:	http://www.cpl.uh.edu/html
Topic ID:	IP1