Master's Presentations
Thursday, December 12, 2019
8:00-10:00a
Grand River Room (2250 KC)
Fall 2019
Computer Information Systems
School of Computing and Information Systems
Master’s Presentations
Computer Information Systems
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Schedule of CIS Presentations: 8:00 am - Three to Five Minute Lightning Rounds Brian Mbeere – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Zachary Kurmas “Application of GPS Sensors and QR Codes in Yard Management” Lucas Crandle – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Jared Moore “Analysis of Beekeeper Hive Event Annotations”
Nathan Hull – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Engelsma “Improving Data Quality via User Engagement”
John DeGrandchamp – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Byron DeVries “MAGC Inc., Website Redevelopment”
Jason Hansen – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Byron DeVries “Development of an iPhone Application to Increase Usability of the Village of Caledonia Website”
Joshua Spicer-Sweet – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Byron DeVries “Creating an eCommerce Web Application Using Vue.js and Web API”
Anne. Vamsypriya – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Yonglei Tao “Secure Backup Software System”
Sudhir Gaire – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Yonglei Tao “ORL (Otorhinolaryngology) Patient Databank Application”
Geethanjali Sanikommu – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Yonglei Tao “Aves Classifier – An Image Recognition iOS Application”
Sean Driscoll – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Jagadeesh Nandigam “Blackboard Automated Testing Framework”
Sneha Joshi – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Jagadeesh Nandigam “Ridge Voice: A Community Association iOS App”
Michael Palazzolo – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Vijay Bhuse “Open Source Approach to SIEM Using the Elastic Platform”
Ahmad Sheikh-Khalil – MS Project, Advisor: Dr. Vijay Bhuse “Combating Rogue Switches”
Paige Melick – DSA Internship, Advisor: Dr. Jerry Scripps “Data Analyst Intern Experience at Herman Miller”
Recodeo Rekod – MS Thesis Proposal, Advisor: Dr. Jerry Scripps “A Deep Learning Model to Classify Bone Fracture Healing Stage with Ultrasound
Propagation” Poster presentations to immediately follow for the remaining time.
Application of GPS Sensors & QR Codes in Yard Management CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Brian Mbeere Advisor: Dr. Zachary Kurmas
Abstract:
Steelcase Inc. is faced with a challenge where they cannot locate some of their trailers once they are dropped off in their plant’s yard. The problem mainly faces trailers that are not owned by Steelcase since some third-party carriers drop off loads in lots that are not designated for their trailers. The current system assigns and records a lot number to a trailer at the gate which causes confusion if the truck driver does not drop the trailer in the specified lot. The project involved developing two solutions to this challenge which include; a GPS-based yard management system and a QR-based yard management system.
The GPS based yard management system has a Nodejs backend which makes API calls to get locational data from a portal that the GPS sensors transmit data to. The backend then provides this data as a web service to a reacts frontend. The reacts frontend makes use of the google maps JavaScript API to display the data on a map and satellite image. The reacts frontend has a truck details page that enables creation of truck details which can be associated with a GPS sensor that is attached to a trailer for tracking purposes. When the sensor is displayed on the map, it shows the location of the trucks it is attached to.
The QR-code based yard management system can be used by the staff tasked with shifting trailers from one lot to another. For the solution to be effective, Geo tagged QR codes would have to be erected next to lots in the yard and QR codes with truck details stuck on trucks upon entering the plant’s yard. The app would be used by the staff who are assigned the task of moving trailers from one lot to another. They would scan the Geo-tagged QR code and the trucks QR code every time they parked the trailers thus sharing its location.
After a feasibility analysis of the two solutions, the GPS based system has higher hardware costs since each trailer that is being tracked must have a sensor attached to it. Its development cost is lower than the QR code since the company would have to outsource the mobile app development and maintenance which is expensive. Some of the challenges the GPS solution would face include; loss of sensors due to battery drain, damage of sensors could lead to cost increase while replacing them, sensors need to be in line of sight with the sky. The QR code solution would also experience challenges like, it is prone to human error where users can forget to scan the QR code and there is high initial cost of erecting QR codes on every parking space.
Analysis of Beekeeper Hive Event Annotations CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Lucas Crandle
Advisor: Dr. Jared Moore
Abstract:
The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) is a non-profit organization helping beekeepers improve
the health and wellness of their bee colonies. One initiative supported here at GVSU is to provide
hive management guidance through data collection and analysis. Currently, the GVSU team is
developing web applications to support hive weight collection through sensors placed under hives.
The team has developed a classification model to identify extraordinary change in hive weight,
ultimately prompting beekeepers to annotate the reason for the weight change event. Often, these
weight change events correspond to beekeeper actions such as hive maintenance, monitoring, and
honey harvesting. As a complement to the deployed model, in this project, we investigate the
beekeeper weight change annotations currently in the dataset to (1) assess the quality of the data for
use in future machine learning models and (2) to provide recommendations for improving the web
portal presented to beekeepers.
With regards to annotation data quality, we have identified a few trends that we must address
to improve data gathering efforts. Notably, the annotations vary significantly in length and content
from hive to hive. Each beekeeper has their own writing style and descriptions, even for common
maintenance activities such as feeding.
The primary contribution of my work was thus to develop a process to standardize annotation
content to a certain specific range of topics. This allows us to group similar annotations together for
developing advanced models in the future. The process first employs a key-word search derived from
common beekeeper actions, then applying an N-Gram technique to generate a list of common actions
that beekeepers are carrying out on their hives. Through these techniques, I was able to extract a
common list of actions that beekeepers are performing on their hives. This pipeline can now be
integrated into the BIP web portal to facilitate data standardization enabling further machine learning
approaches in the future.
Improving Data Quality via User Engagement CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Nathan Hull
Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Engelsma
Abstract: The Bee Informed Partnership currently collects data from over 1000 hive monitors, which send data
such as weight and temperature from hives all around the country in varying intervals. Other
developers at Grand Valley have designed ML algorithms to identify perturbations in data, or what
we call predictions. The next step is getting users to label that data with information about the event,
a process we call annotation. These events vary from honey harvesting to feedings, and event swarm
events. In the future, this labeled data will allow the development of ML-driven annotation, and one
day, predictive warnings.
As the volume and velocity of data continue to grow, so too does the value in leveraging it. A key
factor of that is user engagement — the user finding value in your product, providing invaluable
metrics along the way. Here, we sought to increase that engagement by designing a new dashboard,
with an emphasis on focus, direction, and ease-of-use.
MAGC Inc., Website Redevelopment CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: John DeGrandchamp
Advisor: Dr. Byron DeVries
Abstract: The Michigan Association of Genetic Counselors’ website was failing to meet the organization’s needs
on multiple levels. Primarily, the prior site did not provide enough flexibility in terms of managing and
adding content on the various pages. Additionally, the site was not entirely mobile friendly. In 2019,
with a large portion of traffic coming through mobile devices, not being mobile friendly hampered
usability. This project is focused on creating a new website for the Michigan Association of Genetic
Counselors through the usage of a modern technology stack. This includes using Angular for the user
interface implementation, Firebase to push typical server functions to the cloud, and Flamelink to
provide a headless CMS to deliver the high levels of flexibility the organization desired. All key
functions of the new site have been completed and planned go-live for conversion of
www.magcinc.org from the old site to the new site is on or before December 31, 2019.
Development of an iPhone Application to Increase Usability of the Village of Caledonia Website
CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Jason Hansen Advisor: Dr. Byron DeVries
Abstract: Accessing the Village of Caledonia website while on-the-go has always been a difficult process. With
small font that is not suited to a mobile device, the website is hard to read and does not provide an
easy way to report issues encountered while traveling in the village. The village has neither the staff
nor the funds to provide a better way to access their information or provide residents a simple way to
contact the appropriate personnel to resolve their issue. However, these problems could be alleviated
by a third party application. An applicable way to provide this was through the development of an
application made specifically to be accessed with a cellphone that could be used while on-the-go. Such
an application should be easy to use, have large buttons that are easy to read and understand, and
contain shortcuts to reduce the amount of effort needed to report an issue. For this project, an
application was designed and built to address these issues and meet the intended requirements.
Creating an eCommerce Web Application Using Vue.js and Web API CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Joshua Spicer-Sweet
Advisor: Dr. Byron DeVries
Abstract: In today’s world to own a small business a web presence is crucial to it success yet up to 50 percent
of small and new businesses do not have a website. For business owners a website not only allows
potential customers to review the company and browse product but also expands your customer
base to the nearly 4.5 billion users on the internet. Small business owners come from a wide array of
backgrounds from software engineers to baby boomers and anywhere in-between. Some of these
owner entrepreneurs may not have the required skills or time to create or manage a full eCommerce
application, ultimately hurting their own chances of success. Other software has been created to help
get businesses online and claim to be fast and easy but they still require a level of knowledge, lots of
time configuring, and can be costly. The easiest way to get a new business online is through the use
of a standard template that does require software development knowledge, but can be implemented
in a matter of minutes. This template or web application is not meant to the ultimate eCommerce
site but rather a simple, cost effective, and timely solution to connect a business to the world. This
project creates a backbone web API using Asp.Net Core and a Vue.js web application for the front
end to create a functional eCommerce application that can be up and running in a development
environment in a matter of minutes. While this is not a solution that can be implemented by the
average individual it is one that can be easily and quickly implemented by any one with development
experience.
Secure Backup Software System CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Anne. Vamsypriya
Advisor: Dr. Yonglei Tao
Abstract: Storing files in a secure location has been a hectic task these days, because data is being easily
compromised. Even if we securely authenticate our files on our system, innumerous hacking
techniques have been used to decrypt the locked files. Hence data is being stolen from our personal
space and being compromised by the attackers. To avoid this a secure backup software system has
been proposed. Using this Secure backup software system, users can store files, documents, images,
videos through windows application in a secured manner. In this user can store documents and files
in any format, which is kept in a separate folder made for each user. The stored folder is only accessible
to the authorized users who can access their own account. It is a windows application, where all the
file details are stored in SQL Database. If the user found to be unauthorized by the admin, then admin
can block a user and can unblock it whenever required. The Apache Tomcat is setup as a server to
execute this windows application and the Net Beans IDE is used as the framework to build the
application and connect to the backend server (Apache) where data is maintained and retrieved
accordingly. Operations done in the front end of the application (File Upload, Download and
Deletion) are automatically reflected on the server environment as a result of querying as part of an
app development.
Otorhinolaryngology Patient Databank Application CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Sudhir Gaire Advisor: Dr. Yonglei Tao
Abstract:
The ability to view patient information quickly, securely will benefit medical personal at any
clinic or hospital. Assigning cumbersome manual administrative tasks to Administrative staff is both
time consuming and expensive. The “Otorhinolaryngology Patient Databank Application’’ is a web-
based system that has been developed to manage patient data as well as any administrative tasks, at a
doctor’s clinic. This will enable the doctor and administrative staff to have a quick secure overview of
all the clinics patient’s data using the built-in dashboard view function.
Using several technologies, this application has been developed in PHP and the dynamic front-
end design has been implemented by using HTML, CSS and JavaScript with Bootstrap framework,
while the back-end is implemented by using MariaDB (MySQL) database. The MariaDB (My SQL)
Database has been hosted on my local server using an XAMPP (Apache distribution). The front-end
of the application has been directly associated with the back-end database, thus, whenever any data is
entered in any section of the front-end, this data will be captured and stored in the MariaDB (MySQL)
database.
Aves Classifier – An Image Recognition iOS Application CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Geethanjali Sanikommu
Advisor: Dr. Yonglei Tao
Abstract: Image Recognition is the ability to identify the objects, places and people in images. In order to achieve
this, we use camera along with the machine learning technology. Aves Classifier is an iOS mobile
application which is used to recognize bird families and give a brief overview by using the image of
the bird. The important part of the image recognition is to give us most accurate results as possible.
As we know there are over 9,000 species of the birds and over 200 families to which all these species
come under, I tried to achieve this accuracy by training an image classification model with hundreds
of images of birds to give us the most accurate results of the bird families. The main motto of building
this application is to not only recognize the image but also to give us most accurate result of the image.
Since training the whole image classification model with billions of images require very large dataset,
I wanted to train my Classification Model with one category of images and acquire accuracy within
that category. This Application was developed using Swift language, Alamofire, CoreML, SwiftyJSON
libraries and Custom Image Classification Model. This iOS Application would be very useful for
birdwatchers, ornithologists or anyone who are into learning more about birds.
Blackboard Automated Testing Framework CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Sean Driscoll
Advisor: Dr. Jagadeesh Nandigam
Abstract:
The task of manually testing the functionality of the Blackboard Learning Management System
(LMS) is a time-consuming process. Testing occurs after each upgrade to Blackboard on the
production, stating, and test servers across multiple browsers and operating systems totaling to many
days spent on testing alone. Most times testing on the non-production servers is just completed before
needing to upgrade the production servers.
This project is an automated testing framework for the Blackboard LMS. A testing framework
was created using the Selenium WebDriver to control the web browsers, TestNG to manage the test
cases, and the Java programming language to write the test cases. The framework itself is the
combination of Selenium, TestNG, and Java for executing test cases against Blackboard. Selenium
was chosen for automating the browser as it is one of the more used technologies for browser
automation. TestNG was chosen for its features that could be utilized in conjunction with Selenium.
Java was chosen as it was the most well-known.
Several base test cases were included in this project for testing the most used functions of
Blackboard. Additional test cases can be created by using the existing page functions and mapped
elements or by adding to the existing set of functions in the framework. By using the automated testing
framework and associated test cases, more time can be focused on testing the newer features of
Blackboard instead of existing features which rarely change.
Ridge Voice: A Community Association iOS App CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Sneha Joshi
Advisor: Dr. Jagadeesh Nandigam
Abstract: We live in a community, where we usually deal with ongoing issues/concerns relating to maintenance,
plumbing, electrical and many others. Community residents would want to know about the updates
on the events/activities or any service that has been provided by the association. It would be a good
idea to post the issues pertaining to community or items to sell in the common forum. People who
are new to the community may want to know about the board members in the association and service
providers for services such as plumbing, electrical, appliances, landscape management, etc.
The purpose of this project is to assemble all of these requirements in an iOS mobile app that
improvises the communication among residents and the association. In this initial development, the
app features six main requirements – profile maintenance of each member who signs up, board
members’ details with their name, contact, and designation, issues or concerns that any member wants
to post, sale items within the community along with the price and contact details, service agents’
contact details, and the announcements that have been broadcasted by the association. In addition to
these, app is implemented to include login/sign up option, password reset option, orientation,
update/edit/delete options wherever necessary, admin users with privileges to add board members,
announcements and service agents’ details, and camera/photo gallery access to place images for profile
and sale items.
Members' participation in using the app in an effective way plays a major role and it helps to
have a better interaction with members in the community. This would result in further enhancements
in requirements to include features like email notification, comment postings, etc.
Open-Source Approach to Enterprise SIEM CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Michael Palazzolo
Advisor: Dr. Vijay Bhuse
Abstract:
Data aggregation and event management are not novel ideas. Centralizing logs from various systems and applications allow organizations to meet strict compliance requirements and perform numerous security-related tasks such as threat detection, forensic investigation, and incident management. Security information and event management (SIEM) tools allow organizations to have a single pane of glass to collect, store, correlate, and analyze their data for security events. It is a necessity in the 21st century where information producing devices are seamlessly everywhere and the concern for data protection, or lack thereof, is becoming an all-important topic for consumers, regulators, and stockholders. However, as data streams increase so does events per second, the traditional cost model used by SIEM vendors, outpacing the price appetite for even the largest businesses. It can be difficult to quantify cyber risk. Operational costs are objectively lowered as much as possible, leaving non-revenue generating tools, such as a SIEM solution, in jeopardy of being underfunded. To quell fiscal concerns while meeting security and compliance requirements, an open-source approach to SIEM can be an attractive option.
Elasticsearch, commonly referenced to as the ELK Stack, is an open-source log management platform designed for search and analysis. It allows for scalable data aggregation without the footprint of a monolithic application or the complicated architecture behind it. The platform’s primary use-case is for searching large volumes of structured and unstructured data quickly and in near real-time. With several lightweight add-ons to help collect, parse, analyze, and visualize data, Elasticsearch can arguably rival industry best SIEM products without the expensive price tag.
As the project title suggestions, the Elasticsearch platform was implemented and configured in an enterprise environment to fulfill the security requirements dictated by the Chief Information Security Officer. The success criteria and project objective were to enable an analyst to monitor and threat hunt within network UTM and authentication logs while auditing existing compensating controls outlined by the compliance team. The final implementation had to be cloud (Amazon Web Services) compatible, scalable, cost-effective, and meet SOX retention considerations. After several iterations, Elasticsearch was successfully stretched in its intended use-case to provide security-centric information and reporting. The platform has been operationalized and actively being used by two departments.
Combating Rogue Switches CIS Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Ahmad Sheikh-Khalil
Advisor: Dr. Vijay Bhuse
Abstract: A rogue switch is an instrument used to gain access to a network by malicious terms and is used to gain access to a network’s sensitive information. Essentially, the rogue switch point is an unauthorized user in a network and many businesses, organizations, teams, and the overall new age internet of things that have their own networks fall prey to this kind of access. Many of the major ways to prevent this unauthorized access is by including port security, containing the organization’s wired network either by running regular network scans using several different tools to prevent rogue switch points in the network. While security is mainly about prevention, mistakes do happen, and they can happen to organizations big or small. With that said, detection is not fool-proof and questions should be asked on how to handle and remove rogue switch points if a mistake does happen. The techniques pertaining to rogue switch detection are with the usage of a tool called IP Source Guarding that will create a streamlined detection and removal system for rogue switches in a network, and following that, techniques that work with IP Source Guarding that include MAC Filtering and DHCP Snooping as well as using trunk ports. IP source guarding is responsible for detecting and preventing spoofing attacks or unrecognized IP addresses through a wired local area network. This is used with the DHCP snooping database to validate packets. If the source IP in a packet that was received from an unidentified or untrusted source then that packet cannot be validated, and that route of access is removed. In order to have this form of port security, DHCP snooping must be enabled and configured on the network. DHCP snooping refers to configurations in the realm of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. What DHCP snooping is responsible for is blocking and filtering server messages in the cases of untrusted ports. From there, a database is created that logs each untrusted switch or port and is used as a reference for keeping track of an untrusted point of entry, blocking that switch from the network, and for gaining information about potential unauthorized access using similar detailing to previous threats or switch detections. The main idea behind DHCP snooping is completely under the area of validation. This item of security is run through by a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) basis. It’s inactive and out of service until enabled and it can be done on several different VLANs or just one if need be. This feature is thrown together in the software through a route processor and any messages are intercepted which are then directed into the route processor for processing and validation. On top of this technique, the usage of trunk ports allows for unique identifiers for safe to access switches or devices. If a switch does not have this identifier, it cannot access or connect to the network. What has been done throughout this project is the inclusion of many techniques to solve one problem and that is rogue switches accessing a network.
Data Analyst Intern Experience at Herman Miller DSA Master’s Presentation
Presented By: Paige Melick
Abstract: An overview of my internship experience at Herman Miller, a 100-year-old-plus furniture company
based out of Zeeland, Michigan. Herman Miller is known for their inspiring and innovative designs. I
interned on the project team focused on a subscription base solution on workplace strategy called Live
Platform, an Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-connected sensor system. I worked in Tableau to develop
visualizations for quarterly and monthly reporting, making sure they were to Herman Miller brand
standards.
A Deep Learning Model to Classify Bone Fracture Healing Stage with Ultrasound Propagation
CIS Thesis Proposal
Presented By: Recodeo Rekod Advisor: Dr. Jerry Scripps
Abstract:
Current tools to measure bone fracture healing can be categorized into four groups: imaging
studies, mechanical assessment, serologic markers, and clinical examination. Despite their limitations
include high costs and being invasive, X-rays—an imaging tools, are the dominant tools when it comes
to measuring fracture healing. In the past, bone healing rate had been monitored through the alteration
of the sound velocity across the site of fracture, done in bicortical models and the change in ultrasound
propagation time across a bone has been correlated to its healing stage; however, the ultrasonometric
method required high user expertise while it is not user friendly for clinical studies. Deep Learning
technics have been applied for many application including fracture detection with X-ray imaging and
ECGs.
In this research, we propose to combine Deep Learning and a user-friendly device developed
by Dr. Brent Nowak, called the Automated Fracture Assessment System (AFAS) which uses
Ultrasonic Attenuation Sensors to measure the healing stage of bones. Our proposed method will
consist of four-phase:
• Data collection and labeling using the AFAS system
• Data augmentation and data clean up
• Train Deep Neural Network as a classifier
• Assess the trained network