Project With Header Spring 2015

MSc Project Portfolio Spring 2015
For all 2014/2015 MSc cohorts

except
January 2015 Network Security (INS)
Instructions for completing the Project Choice

Form
1. If you have an agreed project and supervisor, then you do

not need to submit a project choice form.
Otherwise:
2. Please choose FIVE projects.
3. Do not choose more than TWO projects from any one
member of staff.
4. Please return your completed form to the labelled
th
coursework box by Monday May 11 , 2015.
5. See the notes overleaf for further explanation.
ii
Notes
1. Many projects are available to all students. However, some projects are
labelled as (e.g.):
Suitable for: INS students only
Suitable for: Oil & Gas students only
Suitable for: Students who started in Jan 2016 only
(because of staff availability).
Therefore, you should only choose a project with a Suitable for
restriction if youre studying on the specified course(s).
2. For each project you choose, please enter the full title, the name of the
proposer (if given) and the page number within the portfolio where the
project appears. Some projects have very similar titles, and providing
these details will ensure that I interpret your requests correctly.
3. Please do not choose more than two projects proposed by any one member
of staff.
If a project doesnt specify a supervisor name, then this restriction does not
apply.
4. Before submitting your choices, you are advised to contact the proposer(s)
of the projects you are interested in where possible, to find out in more
detail what the project will involve. However, you should note that the
project proposer will not necessarily be the eventual supervisor, since we
must ensure that the supervisory load is fairly distributed between staff.
5. Submitting an incomplete form is NOT a good way of ensuring you get the
project you want. Students who submit fewer than five choices will be
treated with lowest priority whenever there is a conflict (i.e., whenever two
or more students want the same project).
iii
MSc Project Choice Form

Name:
Matric. Num.
1st
Title
Proposer
2nd
Page
Title
Proposer
5th
Page
Title
Proposer
4th
Page
Title
Proposer
3rd
Course
Page
Title
Proposer
Page
RobertGordonUniversity,
SchoolofComputingScienceandDigitalMedia
ProjectSpecification
AdblockingsoftwareandSSLcompromises
Dr.HatemAhriz,h.ahriz@rgu.ac.uk
INSStudentsONLY
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
KeyTechniques
ComputerandNetworkSecurity
Background
Adblockingsoftware(e.g.,PrivDog[1])hasrecentlybeeninthenews(e.g.,[2])aftersome
researchersidentifiedthatitcanposeathreattotheSSL(SecureSocketLayer)protocol.
Otherresearchhasalsoshownthatagrowinglistofsoftware,includingantimalwareandparental
controlsoftware,canalsocompromiseSSLsecurity.
Theaimoftheprojectistoinvestigatesomeofthesesoftwareproductsandtheclaimtheycould
compromiseSSLprotocolsecurity.
Objectives
ToinvestigatetheSSLprotocolanditsvulnerabilities(e.g.,maninthemiddleattacks)
ToinvestigateAdblockingandantimalwaresoftwareandtheirinteractionwithSSL
Todesign/implement/test/evaluateanexperimentalsetuptodemonstrateSSLcompromises
bysuchsoftware
References
[1]
http://www.privdog.com/
[2]
https://blog.hboeck.de/archives/865SoftwarePrivdogworsethanSuperfish.html
HatemAhriz
BotnetAnalysisandDetection
INSstudentsONLY
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
KeyTechniques
ComputerandNetworkSecurity,Programming
Background
Botnetsareoneofthemostsophisticatedandpopulartypesofcybercrimetoday.Theyallow
hackerstotakecontrolofmanycomputersatatime,andturnthemintozombiecomputersto
spreadviruses,generatespam,etc.[1]
Theaimoftheprojectistoinvestigatebotnetsanddevelopanapplication/environmentthatcan
simulateabotnetbehavioranddetectitspresence.
Dependingonthestudentsprogrammingskills,thisprojectcouldeitherinvolvedevelopingan
application(inalanguageofthestudentschoice)thatcansimulateabotsbehaviorandinterface
withanIntrusionDetectionSystem(IDS)suchassnort[2]inordertosimulatethedetectionofthe
botsactivity.
Alternatively,theprojectcanfocusmainlyonsettingupthevirtualenvironmentforrunningan
actualbotandevaluatingtheefficiencyandeffectivenessoftheIDSindetectingthebotsactivity.
Objectives
* Toinvestigatethedifferenttypesofbotnets,methodsofinfectionanddetectionmethods
* Todesign/implement(orsetup)/test/evaluateanexperimentalsetuptodemonstratetheuse
oftheapplicationinsimulatingbotactivityanditsdetection.
References
[1]
http://uk.norton.com/botnet
[2]
https://www.snort.org/
HatemAhriz
Title
HoneyPots
Supervisor
Suitablefor
INSstudentsONLY
KeyTechniques
Background
Incomputerterminology,ahoneypotisatrapsettodetect,deflect,or,insomemanner,
counteractattemptsatunauthorizeduseofinformationsystems.[1]
Theaimoftheprojectistoinvestigatetheuseofhoneypotstosecureinformationsystemsand
networks.
Objectives
* Toinvestigatethedifferenttypesofhoneypots,howtheyaredeployed,whytheyareused,
andhoweffectivetheyare
*
To investigate the legal and ethical issues around deploying honeypots (using the UK
context,forexample),andtodesignachecklistfororganisationsconsideringtheuseofhoneypots
* To design/implement/test/evaluate an experimental setup to demonstrate the use of
honeypots
References
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_(computing)
HatemAhriz
EvaluationofIntrusionDetectionSystems(IDS)
INSstudentsONLY
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
KeyTechniques
Background
Intrusiondetectionistheprocessofmonitoringtheeventsoccurringinacomputersystemor
networkandanalyzingthemforsignsofpossibleincidents.[1]
TheaimoftheprojectistodesignaframeworkforevaluatingIDSandconductingsuchan
evaluationonselectedIDPS.
Objectives
* ToinvestigatethevarioustypesofIDS,howtheyareusedinorganisations,andthetypesof
threatstheycandefendagainst
* ToidentifythemetricsthatcanbeusedintheevaluationofIDS
* To investigate the tools that can be used to generate background and attack traffic for IDS
evaluation
* To design/implement/test/evaluate an experimental setup for IDS evaluation for a chosen
typeofattack.
References
[1]
K.Scarfone,P.Mell,GuidetoIntrusionDetectionandPreventionSystems(IDPS),National
InstituteofStandardsandTechnology(NIST),2007.
HatemAhriz
WebApplicationFirewalls(WAF)
INSstudentsONLY
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
KeyTechniques
ComputerandNetworkSecurity,WebTechnologies(HTTP)
Background
AWebapplicationfirewall(WAF)isanappliance,serverplugin,orfilterthatappliesasetofrules
toanHTTPconversation[1].
TheaimoftheprojectistoinvestigateWebApplicationFirewalls(WAF)andevaluatethe
effectivenessofselectedWAFsinpreventingcommonattackssuchasXSS(crosssitescripting)and
SQLinjection.
Objectives
* Toinvestigatecommonwebapplicationattacks
*
Toanalysethefunctionality,benefitsandlimitationsofWAFs
* To design/implement/test/evaluate an experimental setup to demonstrate the security
featuresofWAFs
References
[1]
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Web_Application_Firewall
HatemAhriz
Title
MigrationtoIPv6
Supervisor
???
Suitablefor
INSstudentsONLY
KeyTechniques
ComputerNetworkProtocols,Security
Background
OrganisationsareconsideringwhatneedstobedoneinmigratingfromIPv4toIPv6.Oneareaof
particularinterestissecurity.
AccordingtoanInformationWeekAnalyticsreportonIPv6security:Thereareblackhatsout
therewhoseeIPv6asaonceinalifetimeopportunity.[1]
TheaimoftheprojectistoinvestigatethethreatstoIPv6trafficandproposearoadmapfora
secure,andcosteffective,transitionfromIPv4toIPv6.
Objectives
* ToinvestigatehoworganisationsandvendorsareplanningforIPv6migrationandtosurvey
thekeyissuesthatareatstakeinthismigration
*
Toanalysetheeffectonnetworksecurityofsuchmigration
* To design/implement/test/evaluate an experimental setup to demonstrate how such a
migrationcantakeplace
References
[1]
http://stuff.isageek.net/OnlineDocs/Pending/ipv6security.pdf
Note:ThisprojectwasobtainedbyHatemAhriz,butwillNOTbesupervisedbyhim.
HatemAhriz
MSc Project Proposal

Project Title : A demonstrator for data analysis and visualisation using Tibco
Spotfire.
Supervisor:.Ines Arana, i.arana@rgu.ac.uk, Tel: 01224262716
Key Words: Data visualisation, data analysis.

Background
Companies currently collect substantial amounts of raw data. Data often needs to be cleaned up, summarised
and analysed before it can be visualised and interpreted, and finally used in business decision-making. Tibco
Spotfire is a sophisticated tool for data visualisation and analysis which is widely used in industry.
Aims
This project aims to produce a demonstrator of the various stages of data processing to aid in business
decision making using Tibco Spotfire.
Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.
To investigate existing work and tools used in data analysis and visualisation.
To select a number of datasets for the project in a domain of interest to the student.
To become proficient in the use of the Spotfire data visualisation and analysis tool.
To analyse, design, implement, test and evaluate a demonstrator for data visualisation and analysis
using Spotfire.
Required Skills
1.
2.
Strong programming skills.

Basic understanding of statistics.
Bibliography
E. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed., Graphics Press LLC, 2001
E Tufte Visual Explanations, Graphics Press LLC, 1997
Tools for data analysis and visualisation
1.
TIBCO Spotfire http://spotfire.tibco.com/ [ accessed 29/8/2014]
InsArana
School of Computing
TheRobertGordonUniversity
Title
Ageosciencetutor
Proposer
DrInsAranaRoomN432e,RiversideEast,i.arana@rgu.ac.uk
Suitablefor
Oil&GasstudentsONLY
Key Techniques
WebBasedSystems,tutoringsystems.
Background
GeoscienceisakeytopicintheOilandGasindustry.
Aim
Todevelopaneducationalsitetoenablepeopletolearnaboutaboutgeoscience.
Objectives
-
Tolearnabouttutoringsystems,withparticularfocusongeosciencetutoringsystems
Todesignasuitablewebbasedsystem(includingauserinterface)toteachusersabouta
selectedareaofgeoscience.
Toimplementthesystem
Totestandevaluatethesystem
Todocumentthesystem.
References
1.
2.
3.
ULLMAN,L.,2010EffortlessECommercewithPHPandMySQL.NewRiders.
WorldWideWebConsortium,WebDesignandApplications,http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/,
accessed24/4/2015
MySQL,www.mysql.com,accessed24/4/2014
InsArana
Title
Proposer
Suitable for
An OilSim support tool

Ins Arana Room N432e Riverside East, i.arana@rgu.ac.uk
Oil & Gas students ONLY
Key Techniques
Key techniques may vary depending on what support tool is developed but will include GUI
techniques.
Background
OilSim by NeXT is a software tool aimed at teaching users about all aspects of the Oil
and Gas Industry, from initial exploration through to decommissioning. The tool simulates
the real process taken in the industry and includes the following stages: geology study,
prospecting, exploration and drilling, depletion plan, facilities plan, construction, production
and decommissions.
OilSim is available via a web browser and includes a wide variety of information sources
such as interactive maps, geological surveys, simulated drilling, etc. Thus, the user will
explore vast amounts of information and may require a software tool to keep track of the
data and assist with decision-making.
Aims
To develop a suite of software tools to help the user keep track and make decisions
related to an OilSim simulation.
Objectives
To analyse OilSim
To investigate tools and techniques which can be used in order to produce a set of
tools to keep track of data and make decisions in an OilSim simulation
To design, implement, test and evaluate a set of tools to help with an OilSim simulation
To document the implemented system
Note: the tools developed will be independent from the OilSim software, i.e., the tool will
not be added to OilSim (accessed via a web browser) but simply launched at the same
time on the local machine.
References
[1]
OilSim Software page http://www.nexttraining.net/immersive-learningprograms/OilSim.aspx [accessed 24/04/2015]
InsArana
10
Title
A program to play Mancala games
Proposer
Robin Boswell (r.boswell@rgu.ac.uk)
Keywords
Game-playing, minimax search.

Background
The name Mancala denotes a class of games where beans or other small objects are
moved (sown) around an array of holes [Parlett 1999]. The object of the game is to
capture beans and remove them from the board. Figure 1 shows a Sengalese hand-made
board with a game in progress.
Figure1:ASenegaleseMancalaboard[ALDENetal2012]
Aim
The aim of the project is to create a program that would allow the computer to play games of the
mancala family in an intelligent fashion against a human opponent. The AI technique of minimax
search [Nilsson 1998] is applicable to 2-player games of this type.
Issues
The mancala family includes a wide range of games. This project does not aim to create a
program which can play all of them, but it should allow the user some choice in the form of
the game he or she wishes to play. A more sophisticated approach might include an
interface which allows the user to define a variety of existing or new forms of the game by
choosing appropriate parameter values.
Part of the pleasure of playing the game derives from the physical experience of holding
and sowing the seeds. This would necessarily be lost in a computer application; however
some thought needs to be given to the design and implementation of an attractive graphical
interface, which might include animation or sound.
RobinBoswell
11
References
ALDEN et al 2012. Mancala board. In: BoardGameGeek. Available from
http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1069131/mancala [ Accessed April 19th, 2012]
NILSSON, N. 1998. Artificial Intelligence: A new synthesis. Morgan Kaufmann. San
Francisco, CA.
PARLETT, D., 1999. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press,
Oxford.
RobinBoswell
12
Title
Information retrieval from a music database
Proposer
Keywords
Information retrieval, music
Background
There are various ways in which music can be represented in paper or electronic formats.
Conventional staff notation is human readable, but not convenient for searching or editing
without the use of specialised application software. Alternative notations have therefore
been developed which aim to provide the convenience of a purely text-based representation
while being understandable to someone familiar with conventional notation. The most
well-known is probably sol-fa. Another is the ABC notation [Walshaw 2006]. A number
of tune databases in ABC notation are available on the internet: Walshaw (2006) provides
an index of over 3000 publicly available ABC databases.
It is generally straightforward to search an on-line music collection for a tune whose name
is known. What is much harder is to search for the tune itself; that is, for a given sequence
of notes .There are a number of difficulties associated with music retrieval. The most
fundamental is that most people do not have perfect pitch, so that even if someone can
remember a tune, she probably wont remember the pitch at which she heard it. Hence, to
be of any use, a retrieval tool must be able to match a query in one key with a target tune in
a different key.
A second difficulty is inaccuracy of recall. People trying to recall tunes from memory may
do so inaccurately, making mistakes in both pitch and time, and omitting or adding notes.
Secondly, folk tunes in particular may exist in many slightly different forms, so there is no
one correct version. A retrieval system should therefore incorporate some form of fuzzy
matching. Ideally, this fuzzy matching should take account of the ways in which human
memory and recall tend to mutate tunes.
The existence of on-line databases and the desirability of a mechanism for identifying tunes
motivates this project, whose goal is to build a music retrieval system.
RobinBoswell
13
Objectives
To investigate on-line music databases, and the representation schemes they use.
To investigate techniques for storing and retrieving tunes.
To design and implement a music retrieval tool which will use retrieve tunes from a
database given a query provided by the user.
There are a several features which would make the tool more useful.
The ability to tune the fuzzy matching algorithm, e.g., by specifying how close
retrieved tunes must be to the query.
The ability to order results according to their similarity with the query
The facility for the user to enter a query in different ways, e.g., in one of the various
available forms of textual notation, or via a virtual keyboard,
The detailed specification for the tool will be developed by the student during the
investigation phase of the project, in discussion with the supervisor.
References
BARLOW, H. and MORGENSTGERN, S., 1949. Dictionary of musical themes. London: Ernest
Benn
NELSON, L., 2010. Contemplations from the Marianas Trench/Folk Music of Britain, Ireland &
America.[online]. Available from http://www.contemplator.com/ [Accessed 14th April 2010]
WALSAW, C., 2006. The abc home page. [online]. London: University of Greenwich.
Available from: http://abcnotation.org.uk/ [Accessed 12 December 2012]
RobinBoswell
14
Title
Project assignment tool using network flow optimisation
Proposer
Keywords
Optimisation problems, minimum cost network flow, task allocation

Background
Every year, between 100 and 150 honours and MSc students have to undertake an
individual project. Since no two students are allowed to work on the same project, each
student is asked to submit a list of project choices, after which the project co-ordinator will
assign projects to students with the aim of satisfying as many students as possible. This is
a complex task for a human, but the underlying problem is to which a variety of
computational techniques are applicable.
Project assignment is therefore a domain in
which it would be both feasible and useful for a student to develop an automated tool to
assist the project co-ordinator.
Technology
One technology that is particularly suitable for modelling the project assignment problem is
that of network flow optimisation, specifically the minimum cost flow problem. A network
can be constructed to represent the project assignment task, where nodes represent students
and projects, and arcs link students to their chosen projects. Arcs to projects further down a
students list of choices will be assigned increasingly high costs. Additional arcs can be
used to represent staff quotas. An optimal flow through this network will correspond to an
optimal assignment of projects to students.
The chief advantage of representing project assignment as a minimum cost flow problem is
that efficient algorithms exist for solving this problem (Lawrence and Pasternack 2002) and
software is freely available which implements these algorithms (Eikland and Notebaert
2010).
Objectives
Since software for network flow optimisation already exists, the student will not need to
implement any optimisation algorithms. Instead, he or she will create a project assignment
tool that performs the following steps:
RobinBoswell
15
o Input all the data related to projects, staff and students.

o Generate the corresponding network.
o Run the optimisation software.
o Interpret the results.
o Display the corresponding project assignments.
The minimum requirement for such a tool is that it should be able to read a file containing a
list of student choices and generate a set of project assignments.
There are a number of
other features which would make the tool more useful.
A further constraint on project assignment is the need to balance staff supervision

loads. The tool should be able to take staff loads into account in some way, e.g., by
imposing a limit on the number of students each member of staff is asked to
supervise.
There is a trade-off between giving as many students as possible a project occurring

anywhere in their list, and giving students projects near the top of their list. Is it
better to give four students their first choice and a fifth student none of his chosen
projects, so that he has to choose again, or to give all five students their last choice?
The tool should allow the user to adjust assignment costs to reflect different
policies.
The user may wish to assign certain projects by hand, or to prevent certain
assignments. The tool should allow this option if required.
Note that the above points are only suggestions.
A detailed specification would be
developed by the student during the research phase of the project, in discussion with the
supervisor.
Finally, prospective students should note that, although the project assignment problem can
be simply stated, creating a tool to solve it for a realistic number of students and projects is
a non-trivial task. If you choose this project, you will be expected to use the proposed
technology. Past experience shows that students who ignore existing work and devise their
own algorithms from scratch are extremely unlikely to be successful.
RobinBoswell
16
References
LAWRENCE, A.J. and PASTERNACK, B. A., 2002. Applied management science. Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
EIKLAND, K. and NOTEBAERT, P. , 2010. Lpsolve., [online]. Sourceforge. Available from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lpsolve/files/lpsolve/ [Accessed 18 December 2013].
RobinBoswell
17
A User-Based Research Experiment System

Dr Michael Crabb
In user based research it is important to have consistency between experimental sessions. One method that can
be used to aid in this is to rely on software to guide participants and facilitators through a session. Aspects
such as obtaining informed consent from participants, gathering demographic information, and the order in
which experiment tasks are carried out are all important when conducting these types of experiments. Within
experimental sessions, a common technique used to gather information is through questionnaires. These can
be used obtain information to compare between different systems. The data collected in these questionnaires
needs to accurate, correct, and consistent between participants
The purpose of this project is to create a system that will be used in future research experiments. This system
must be able to:
Obtain informed consent from participants (text for this will be provided)
Gather demographic information from participants
Gather information from quantitative questionnaires from participants.
Provide a guide for participants/facilitators as to the tasks that are being accomplished
Export all data into a suitable format (e.g. .csv) once an experiment is completed.
In terms of the front and backend web programming languages that will be used, this can be decided upon by
the student. The end result, however, must be cross-browser compatible, not require any additional plug-ins
(i.e. Java) and should be easy for a non-computer expert to use. Data collected in the system should be easily
exported into a .csv file (or similar).
For further information on this project please contact Dr Michael Crabb (m.j.crabb@rgu.ac.uk)
MichaelCrabb
18
Boggle
Dr Michael Crabb
Boggle is a word game that is played using 16 lettered dice that are arranged in a 4x4 grid. The purpose of the
game is to create words by using the letters in the grid. Only adjoining letters can create words. The figure
below shows some sample words that are acceptable.
Each of the 16 lettered dice have pre-determined letters. The letter that appears, and the order in which they
appear on the board changes in every game. This means that every game is different.
The purpose of this project is to create a web based version of this game. An outline of possible steps is
detailed below:
Basic
1.
2.
3.
4.
Each of the 16 dice has specific letters attached to them

A random letter from each die needs to be selected for each game
The letters need to then be placed in a random pattern using 4x4 grid
A timer should be implemented so that each game lasts a certain amount of time
Advanced
1. Players should be able to enter words and have these verified in real time by the computer
2. The computer should keep track of the players score
3. At the end of the game, the computer will be able to determine all possible words that were available
(using a dictionary) on a given board
(i.e. Java) and should be easy for a non-computer expert to use.
MichaelCrabb
19
Creating A Website from Wikipedia

Dr Michael Crabb
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that contains articles that are created and edited by its members. Articles
vary in length and the increasing length can pose a problem to some users. The purpose of this project is to
create a system that takes a Wikipedia entry and then generates a fully functional website from this.
Wikipedia pages can be exported in an XML format in order to be used for other reasons. An example XML
output from Wikipedia can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Export/Robert_Gordon_University
The XML file will need to be parsed, interpreted, and then a website created from the results. The website
should have separate pages based on the different sections and subsections of a given Wikipedia page. Images
should also be copied across. In order to complete this project, students will need to acquire an understanding
of the MediaWiki language, develop their front and back end web programming skills, and have excellent
project management.
(i.e. Java) and should be easy for a non-computer expert to use.
There are many possibilities to extend this project, and these will depend on the areas of interest shown by the
student. Possibilities include:
Creating browser plugins to generate these meta-websites when they are requested by users browsing
Wikipedia
Examine the linking of multiple website together to create an even larger network of articles
Creating accessibility and usability adaptions to the finished website to make it more suitable for users
with different abilities and needs.
MichaelCrabb
20
Visualisation of European Energy Data

Dr Michael Crabb
Suitable for Oil & Gas students ONLY
Open access data sets are available online containing energy statistics for the European Union. A particularly
good source for this data can be found at ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database Examples of data that is
available here include:
Prices of natural gas and electricity by country

Oil stock levels
Energy imports and exports
Energy Infrastructure
Data is freely available to download in a number of formats (xls, csv) and lends itself to a variety of data
visualisation tasks. The purpose of this project is to create an interactive visualisation of this data. During this
project, students will be expected to:
Examine datasets available and select suitable sources for creating a visualisation
Use suitable APIs that combine different online sources together (Google maps etc.)
Present the final visualisations in a meaningful way that is easy to understand
(i.e. Java) and should be easy for a non computer expert to use.
Note - the brief for this project is intentionally left very wide to give students the chance to examine datasets
before deciding what to create. The purpose, therefore, is find interesting ways to visualise large amounts of
data and to present this in a method that is easily interpretable.
MichaelCrabb
21
Project Proposal
ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING ANDROID MOBILE AND CAMERA
AS FRONTEND QR CODE READER
AIM
TodesignandimplementanassettrackingsystembasedontheuseofanAndroidmobilephoneand
builtinCameraasfrontendQRcodereader.
BACKGROUND
ThisprojectwillinvolvetheuseofanAndroidmobilephoneandbuiltinCamerawhichwillbe
programmedtoactasremoteQRcodereader.QRcodescouldbeusedtolabelSchoolassets
(althoughotherapplicationareascouldbeinvestigatede.g.studentattendancemonitoring).The
AndroidmobilewouldconnectviaWifitoaserverwithaccesstoacentralassetdatabasefor
reading/updatinginformationaboutindividualassets.
TheAndroidmobilewillbeprogrammedinJavausingAndroidStudioastheintegrateddevelopment
environment.
PROJECT GOALS
Thegoalsoftheprojectare:
1. LearntoprogramanAndroidmobileusingAndroidStudio
2. IdentifyasuitablelibraryforQRdecoding
3. DevelopsoftwaretoenabledecodingofQRcodesandremoteupdatingofassethistoryviaWifi.
PREREQUISITES
ThestudentwillrequiretolearnJavaprogrammingforAndroid.
REFERENCES
http://developer.android.com/index.html
formoreinformationonAndroidsoftwaredevelopment.
https://github.com/zxing/zxing
formoreinformationonapossiblechoiceofQRcodereadinglibrary
D.G.Davidson16/4/2015
DavidDavidson
22
Project Proposal
ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING RASPBERRY PI AND CAMERA AS
FRONTEND QR CODE READER
AIM
TodesignandimplementanassettrackingsystembasedontheuseoftheRaspberryPiandCamera
asfrontendQRcodereader.
BACKGROUND
ThisprojectwillinvolvetheuseoftheRaspberryPiandCamerawhichwillbeprogrammedtoactas
remoteQRcodereader.QRcodescouldbeusedtolabelSchoolassets(althoughotherapplication
areascouldbeinvestigatede.g.studentattendancemonitoring).TheRaspberryPiwouldconnectvia
Wifitoaserverwithaccesstoacentralassetdatabaseforreading/updatinginformationabout
individualassets.
TheRaspberryPiwillbeprogrammedinPythonusingaPCforremotedevelopment.
PROJECT GOALS
4. LearntoprogramtheRaspberryPiandinterfacesinPython
5. IdentifyasuitablelibraryforQRdecoding
6. DevelopsoftwaretoenabledecodingofQRcodesandremoteupdatingofassethistoryviaWifi.
PREREQUISITES
ThestudentwillrequiretolearnPython.
REFERENCES
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
formoreinformationontheRaspberryPianditsGeneralPurposeIOinterface.
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/zbar
formoreinformationonapossiblechoiceofbarcodereadinglibrary
DavidDavidson
23
Project Proposal
ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING RASPBERRY PI AND RFID
READER
AIM
TodesignandimplementanassettrackingsystembasedontheuseoftheRaspberryPiandRFID
reader.
BACKGROUND
ThisprojectwillinvolvetheuseoftheRaspberryPiandRFIDreader.RFIDtagscouldbeusedtolabel
Schoolassets(althoughotherapplicationareascouldbeinvestigatede.g.studentattendance
monitoring).TheRaspberryPiwouldconnectviaWifitoaserverwithaccesstoacentralasset
databaseforreading/updatinginformationaboutindividualassets.
PROJECT GOALS
2. IdentifyasuitableRFIDreaderandPythonlibraryforcontrollingtheRFIDreader
3. DevelopsoftwaretoenablereadingofRFIDtagdataandremoteupdatingofassethistoryvia
Wifi.
PREREQUISITES
REFERENCES
http://www.adafruit.com/products/364
formoreinformationonapotentialchoiceofRFID/NFCreader
DavidDavidson
24
Project Proposal
DATA LOGGING SYSTEM USING RASPBERRY PI AND IOT (MQTT)
PROTOCOL WITH WEB INTERFACE
AIM
TodesignandimplementadistributeddataloggingsystembasedontheuseofaRaspberryfordata
acquisition,datatransmissionanddatacollectionusingan"InternetofThings"protocolMQTT.
BACKGROUND
Thisprojectwillinvolvethecreationofadistributedsystemcomprising:
RaspberryPihostingaMQTTserverandwebserver
RaspberryPicollectingdataandactingasMQTTclientsendingdatatotheMQTTserver
TheRaspberryPi'swillbeprogrammedinPythonusingaPCforremotedevelopment.
PROJECT GOALS
2. BecomefamiliarwithIOTprotocolMQTT.
3. Developanadministrativewebinterface.
PREREQUISITES
REFERENCES
http://mqtt.org/
formoreinformationonMQTT
http://flask.pocoo.org/
formoreinformationonapythonwebmicroframework
DavidDavidson
25
Project Proposal
SECURE ENTRY SYSTEM CONTROLLED BY RASPBERRY PI AND NFC
CARD READER
AIM
TodesignandimplementasecuredentrycontrolsystembasedontheuseofaRaspberryPiandNFC
cardreader.
BACKGROUND
ThisprojectwillinvolvetheuseoftheRaspberryPiandNFCCardReaderwhichwillbeprogrammed
eithertograntordenyaccessviaa(physical)doorlockdependingontheidentityoftheownerof
theNFCcard.(Thedoorlockingmechanismwillbesimulated).NFCcardswillbeprogrammedto
identifythecardowner.TheRaspberryPiwouldconnectviaWifitoawebserverwithaccesstoa
centraluserIDdatabaseforreading/updatinginformationaboutindividualcardowners(physical)
accessrights(i.e.togainorbedeniedentry).
PROJECT GOALS
2. LearnhowtoreadandwritedatatoNFCcards
3. Developanadministrativewebinterface.
PREREQUISITES
REFERENCES
www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/MFRC522.pdf
formoreinformationonNFCcardreading/writing
http://flask.pocoo.org/
formoreinformationonapythonwebmicroframework
DavidDavidson
26
BSc Project Proposal

Project Title : Motion Detection and Analysis
School of Computing
Science and Digital
Media
Robert Gordon University
Supervisor: Dr. Eyad Elyan, e.elyan@rgu.ac.uk , Extension 2737
Key Techniques: Machine vision, image processing, machine learning

Background
The project aims to develop a method to detect and track human movements in video files. The
project requires using image-processing techniques such as segmentation, edge detection, etc, In
addition, a machine learning (classifier) approach will be used to classify these movements. The type
of activity to be monitored is to be discussed with the student, and this should be a simple one.
Alternatively, a public data set may be used.
Note
The student may use an existing open source software package (e.g. OpenCV, Python, R, etc) instead of
developing the entire software from scratch.
Requirements
1. Investigating existing literature and software technologies
2. Chose, design and implement algorithms to meet the main objectives of the project
3. Write appropriate technical documentation.
Required Skills
1. Good programming and mathematical skills
2. Ability and willingness to learn and work hard.
EyadElyan
27

Project Title : Body Shape Difference Visualisation
School of Computing
Science and Digital
Media
Key Techniques: Computer Graphics, C++ Programming skills, Basic Mathematical Skills
Background
The main objective of this project is to develop 3D software that enables the users to visualise
difference between two 3D human body models (See Figure 1).
Figure 1. Different perspective views of a 3D human body model

Aims
In particular the software should be designed and implemented to address the following features
1. Read 3D and display 3D files of human body models
2. Allow the viewing of more than one 3D model at a time.
3. The software should provide the user with a mechanism to select a specific model and
transform it (e.g. translate, rotate, etc...)
4. Enable the users to interactively change the orientation of the model (e.g. frontal pose, side,
perspective, etc...), usually this is achieved by mouse click and drag
5. Enable the user to register the displayed models to the same pose and orientation. This is
necessary to simplify the visualizations of the difference (manual approach is acceptable)
6. Provide a way to visualise the difference between the two shapes (e.g. different colours and
shading, setting one model to be transparent, etc...), see Figure 1.
Note
The student may use an existing open source software package (e.g. Paraview, Meshlab, etc...) instead of
Requirements
1. Investigating existing literature and software technologies used in the 3D graphics area.
Required Skills
1. Good programming and mathematical skills (C++ and OpenGL and knowledge of Linear
Algebra are advantages).
EyadElyan
28
Links
Body Shape Visualization
http://cs.brown.edu/~black/
EyadElyan
29

Project Title: Hand-written digits recognition
School of Computing
Science and Digital
Media
Key Techniques: Machine vision, image processing, machine learning

Background
The project aims to develop a method to classify hand-written digits. The project will involve
developing the underlying algorithms for classifying digits as well as a front end to show when a
correct / incorrect classification.
Note
The student may use an existing open source software package (e.g. OpenCV, Python, R, etc) instead of
Requirements
1. Investigating existing literature and software technologies
Required Skills
1. Good programming and mathematical skills
EyadElyan
30
FourprojectsfromDrMohammedGaber
m.gaber1@rgu.ac.uk
Suitablefor:
StudentswhostartedtheircourseinJanuary2016only.
TheseprojectscannotbeassignedtostudentsfromtheSeptembercohorts,
sincethesupervisorwillnotbeavailableoverthesummer.
AdoptionofDiversityPredictionTheoreminEnsembleLearning
You need to be an excellent programmer in either Java or R to undertake this project. Diversity
PredictionTheorempromotestheimportanceofdiversityinnumericalprediction.Inthisproject,the
student will mathematically formalise the theorem for classification problems using ensemble
learning, particularly Random Forests. The implementation of Random Forest that uses the new
mathematical formalisation will be used to assess the usefulness of diversity when taking into
considerationthepredictiveaccuracyofindividualclassifiers.
ImplementinganRPackageforRandomForestPruningusingClustering
You need to be an excellent programmer in Java to undertake this project. You will also need to
learnthestatisticalcomputinglanguageR,ifyoudontalreadyknowit.
CLUBDRF is a new method for diversifying and pruning Random Forests, using clustering of the
classification behaviour of individual trees in the ensemble. You will be required to develop an R
packagetoconvertanexistingJavaimplementationofCLUBDRFtoR.Thistaskwillbefollowedbya
thorough experimental study of the method over a number of medical datasets. Datasets will be
provided.
ImplementinganRPackageforBoostingDiversitythroughReplicatorDynamics
RDDRFisanewmethodfordiversifyingRandomForestsusingthereplicatorequation.Youwillbe
requiredtodevelopanRpackagetoconvertanexistingJavaimplementationofRDDRFtoR.This
task will be followed by a thorough experimental study of the method over a number of medical
datasets.Datasetswillbeprovided.
MohammedGaber
31
ImplementinganRPackageforDiversifiedRandomForests(DRF)throughFeatureClustering
DRF through random subspacing is a new method for diversifying Random Forests. A number of
subforests are created, each with a different randomised set of features. You will be required to
develop an R package to alter the method to partition the feature space into disjoint clusters of
featuresinsteadofusingrandomsubspacing.Thistaskwillbefollowedbyathoroughexperimental
studyofthemethodoveranumberofmedicaldatasets.Datasetswillbeprovided.
MohammedGaber
32
Dr Ayse Goker
Social media projects
Online social and news media generate rich and timely information about real-world events. It is
also a forum where a considerable amount of discussion and follow-up debates around particular
topics emerge.
This large scale data available, the large number of users, along with the breadth of the user
base, present challenges to online news systems. There are challenges in trending topic detection,
filtering, and presentation of results,
in addition to catering for different content perspectives and personalisation. In addition to dealing
with fast stream content, there are challenges in dealing with heterogeneous and multimedia
content.
We have compared these with US Elections, Super Tuesday (USA Republican Party elections),
and for FA Cup/ Football. We have implemented a version of the system for Scottish Referendum
with different visualisation. For example,
http://socialsense1.comp.rgu.ac.uk/scottish_independence_frontend/index.html
For general information see also http://www.socialsensor.org/
There are opportunities in the following, for example:
- to help evaluate news prototypes for online social networks with real-time content.
- to analyse previously crawled Tweet data sets.
- to investigate aspects of the social media activity around the Scottish Referendum.
- to use and extend open-source components and code in this area.
AyseGoker
33
UXLabs MSc project ideas 2015
These are five externally sponsored projects, co-ordinated by Dr Ayse Goker.

Contact Dr Goker for further details
Interactive Query Expansion

AccordingtotheIDCwhitepaper,TheHighCostofNotFindingInformation,knowledgeworkersspend
2.5hoursperdaysearchingforinformation.Assumingtheyeitherfindwhattheyarelookingfor
eventuallyorstopandendupmakinganonoptimaldecision,thereisahighcosttobothoutcomes.To
addressthisproblem,UXLabsisdevelopingaradicalalternativetotraditionalqueryformulation.Weare
creatinganovel,visualframeworkwhichallowsuserstoexpressinformationneedsinamannerthatis
simpleandintuitive,facilitatingtheexpressionofcomplexqueriesviaasimplebutpowerfulvisual
syntax.However,tobecomeaviableproposition,wemustsolvethecrucialproblemofkeyword
selection:i.e.foragivenquery,howcanweidentifytheoptimalsetofsearchkeywordsandphrases?
Theaimofthisprojectistodevelopanintelligentquerygenerationenginewhichcanexpandaninitial
expressiontoincludeanoptimalsetofrelatedtermsandsynonyms,goingfarbeyondthelimitationsof
traditionalautocompletiontechniques.
Developing a robust model of query reformulation

Queryreformulationisacommonpartofusers'informationretrievalbehaviour,wherebysearch
queriesareadapteduntiltheuserfulfilstheirinformationneedorabandonstheirsearch.Previous
studieshaveshownthatusersdisplaydistinctpatternsofqueryreformulation,andthatthesepatterns
canbeusedtodefinebehaviouralhabitsspecifictoindividualusers.However,previousapproaches
havegenerallybeenrestrictedtousingpatternsbasedonsimplelexicaltransformations,i.e.addingor
removingwords&characters.Inthisproject,weseektoextendthatworktoaddressmoreconceptual
relationshipssuchasthoseduetosemanticsorothertypesofhigherlevelassociation.Thiscould
involvetheuseofknowledgebasedresourcessuchasWordNetand/ormachinereadabledictionaries&
thesauri.Theoutcomewouldbeamorerobustmodelofqueryreformulationbehaviourthatmore
accuratelyreflectsthesearchhabitsandpreferencesofindividualusers.Wehaveanumberof
transactionlogswhichcouldbeexplored.
A language for search and discovery

Therehasbeenmuchworkondescribingandmodellinghumaninformationseekingbehaviour.Inone
particularmodel,informationbehaviourisrepresentedasasetofsearchmodesthatusersemployto
satisfytheirinformationneeds,suchaslocate,verify,monitor,andsoon.Aninterestingpropertyof
thisframeworkisthatmodesdonotoccurrandomly,butinsteadareseentoformdistinctpatternsor
chains.Thegoalofthisprojectistoanalyseacollectionofrealworldinformationneedsandidentifyand
visualizethepatternswithinthem.Insodoingwewouldhopetoexplorehowthemodescanbeusedas
anelementarylanguagefordescribinginformationbehaviour.Wewouldalsohopetoextendthe
frameworkandexploreitsabilitytoaccommodatenewdomainsandscenarios.
AyseGoker
34
Collaborative search
Mostsearchtoolsarepredicatedonthenotionofasingleuser,singlesessioninteraction.
However,thereisincreasingevidencetosuggestthatmanyofthetaskstheysupportcouldbe
betterfacilitatedviacollaborative,socialactivity,involvingmultipleusersworkingtowarda
commongoal.Inthisproject
weseektoexploretheuseofUXLabsvisualsearchframeworkbutextendingittomultiuser
interaction,
usinganexpandedinteractioncanvas(e.g.20inchplustabletdevices).Bystudyingsearchasa
socialphenomenon,wecanaddressresearchquestionssuchas:
Whatkindofsocialinteractionsshouldweaimtosupportwhentherearetwo
simultaneoususersratherthanone?
Whatkindofhumandeviceinteractionscanbestsupportmultiusercollaboration,and
howwillthesedifferfromexistinggesturalvocabularies?
Howdoesthesocial&organisationcontextaffecttheinteraction,andwhatkindsof
contexts
andtasksbenefitmostfromcollaborativesearchtools?
Multi modal search

UXLabsvisualsearchframeworkallowsuserstoexpresscomplexqueriesusingasimplevisual
syntax
thatissimplerandmoretransparentthancomparabletextbasedqueryformulationmethods.
However,certaintypesofsearchtaskareinherentlycomplexandrequiretheinvocationof
functionsthatarenoteasilydiscoverableintheUI.Inthesecases,theuseofanadditionalinput
channelintheformofspeechwouldprovidetheidealcontextualsignaltodisambiguatetheinput,
allowingamuchmorenaturalformofinteraction.Inthisproject,weseektoexplorethe
combinationofgesturalinteractionswithspeechinput,addressingquestionssuchas:
Whatkindsofspokeninteractionworkbestforsearchapplications,andhowshould
thesecomplementtheexistinggesturallanguage?
Howcanweuselinguisticcontexttohelpdisambiguatethetaskcontext,andviceversa?
Howcanwecombinespeechwithothergesturalcommands,sothatthey
workinacomplementary(mutuallysupportive)mannerratherthanas
independentinputs
AyseGoker
35
Title
Supervisor
Suitable for:
Evaluation and Cognitive Modelling

Dr Jean Claude Golovine
Students who started their course in January 2016 only.
This project cannot be assigned to students from the

September cohorts, since the supervisor will not be
available over the summer.
Background
Understanding human cognition with regard to computer interfaces has been a major research
activity ever since the first computerised devices were developed many decades ago.
These cognitive scientists realised that modelling human cognitive and motor functions was
crucial to our understanding on how human interact with machines and their efforts
culminated to the creation of powerful cognitive architectures such as ACT embedding
human cognition.
John Anderson developed ACT and was joined later by Lebierre who developed the human
rationality aspect of the theory to produce ACT-R. Other scientists collaborated to integrate
other modules to complete this architecture. Kerias integrated the motor functions whilst
Salvucci integrated an advanced visual module. This collaboration led to the architecture that
we know as ACT-R/PM.
ACT-R-R/PM is now a mature architecture that is used by scientist all over the world.
Software designers use the power of this cognitive architecture to design and optimise user
interfaces in terms of usability by simulating users using CogTool.
CogTool was developed by John and is a rapid prototyping toolkit that is dedicated to user
interface optimisation through a process known as visual storyboarding and allows for user
interaction demonstration on mock-up interfaces i.e. usually screenshots. The simulated user
interaction is internally used to create ACT-R/PM cognitive models which when ran produce
time predictions for the completion of sets of tasks. These latencies can then be used to
compare with data obtain with real users completing the same series of tasks on the real
interfaces.
CogTool project
JeanClaudeGolovine
36
Aims/Objectives
The aims for this project is to ultimately use a set of user interfaces that both CogTool and real
users can use. The set of tasks to achieve must be the same for both and replicable.
1. To investigate how CogTool can be used to evaluate user interfaces.
2. To implement a user interface in CogTool and describe relevant tasks.
3. To design a heuristic evaluation questionnaire.
4. To collect user evaluation data using CogTool and the questionnaire.
5. To statistically analyse the relationship between CogTool and questionnaire data.
For further information please email the supervisor: j.r.r.golovine@rgu.ac.uk
JeanClaudeGolovine
37

Title: A software tool for drawing and annotating Conceptual models
Proposer: S Hodgson
Suitable for: Everyone
Key Techniques: SSM, conceptual models, programming methods, 2D Graphics
Background: SSM (Soft Systems Method) is one of many methodologies available to the
systems analyst; incorporating various techniques and diagrams to help the analyst
understand and model a system. One of the diagrams developed in SSM is the Conceptual
Model, which uses which aims to depict a system using an ordered arrangement of
subsystems. The model can be decomposed to reveal lower-order subsystems and
activities. the Tool to be developed for this project would enable system developers to create
and edit conceptual models.
Aims:
To investigate SSM and Conceptual Models from a systems developers point of view
To investigate and evaluate appropriate technologies
To develop a software tool which will allow the developer to create, edit and
decompose Conceptual Models and save them to the computer
To Test and evaluate the software tool
Write appropriate technical documentation
SueHodgson
38
Title
Proposer
External Sponsor
Suitable for
A Customer Relations Management System

S Hodgson
MScCST or CSTNM
Key Techniques: VB.NET development, Customer Relations Management (CRM), Database

design, Multi-tier Application technologies, HCI and Interface Design
Background
The Dancliffe is a small independent 5 star luxury hotel located in Aberdeen. They currently
have no means of capturing, storing or accessing information on their customers
electronically, and all customer relations management is done manually. The proposed
project will develop a prototype CRM system that will be used to capture information on
current or prospective customers and their requirements, and provide a set of customer
relations management services based on a graphical user interface to a relational database.
The prototype CRM system will provide structured queries to target selected groupings of
customers, generating lists of customer email addresses and providing appropriate
information visualisations for management information.
Aims
Investigate the use of the customer relations management as a means of marketing

and advertising and promoting commerce.
Investigate the companys requirements, analyse the requirements and design the
structure of the database and a complementary set of customer relations
management services.
Develop a prototype CRM system.
Test and evaluate the system with a sample end-users
Write appropriate technical documentation.
SueHodgson
39

Project Title
ASCII Map Parser
Supervisor
Michael Heron Room N432 m.j.heron1@rgu.ac.uk

This project aims to develop an open source Unity tool that takes an XML/JSON file
and render it into a gridbased 3D representation in the style of oldfashioned
dungeon crawler games such as Dungeon Master, and more modern titles such as
Legend of Grimrock.

The intention is to create a selfcontained Unity maprenderer that can be used as a
dropin tool for ASCII based text games. The rendering engine should be able to
handle doors, movement within constraints, and differing textures for floors and
walls, with no assumption of look or feel beyond that defined in the protocol.

There is a standard protocol expected from the rendering tool, and the intention is
to deploy it in an existing text game. Hence there is a fixed expectation of how
the tool will look and function. The tool will be developed as a Unity asset, and
designed so as to allow maps to be read from files on a harddrive, or through
standard input streams over the internet.

A scene from Dungeon Master (The Mean Machines Archive 2015)

Note: Unity is a crossplatform game engine which can be programmed in a variety
of languages, including JavaScript.

References
THE MEAN MACHINES ARCHIVE, 2015 The making of Dungeon Master. [online].
http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/upload/media/scans/retrogamer_dungeon
master.pdf [Accessed 26 April 2015].

MichaelHeron
40

Project Title
Unity Gestures
Supervisor

This project aims to develop an open source unity tool that can be placed in any
Unity scene. It will serve as a general framework for identifying mouse
gestures and having these trigger ingame actions. Example uses are: triggering
game spells via combinations of gestures, or writing numbers or mathematical
formulae on a screen, where the correct formula is required in order to progress.

The tool will be developed as a selfcontained Unity asset that can be deployed in
any other appropriate application with minimal effort on the part of the
developer. All a developer has to do is to write handlers for each gesture and hook
them up to the gesture asset.

The tool should allow the developer to define a gesture language through either the
defining of bitmap sprites in memory or comparison bitmap images on the hard
drive. This would allow the developer maximum flexibility in deciding what
constitute valid gestures within their games.

Note: Unity is a crossplatform game engine which can be programmed in a variety
of languages, including JavaScript.

MichaelHeron
41
Project Title
Frontend tools for a tweet database
Supervisor

The School of Computing research centre (IDEAS) uses a database to track tweets
related to selected topics, based on hashtags and significant users. They also have a
ShinyApps frontend which is used for generating graphs and word
clouds. (ShinyApps is a platform for developing web applications for data
visualisation).

Awordcloud(TheHuffingtonPostUK2013)

However, the scripts that run this frontend are somewhat inefficient, and the
software often times out when working with larger data sets. This project will
carry out a rewrite of the software frontend, along with some internal reworking of
the tweet collection scripts (written in Java) to optimise the storage and analysis of
the tweets. This will involve working with a legacy system and multigigabyte
datasets, so it will require a careful approach and a methodical technique to ensure
that existing data is not compromised.

The database used is MongoDB, which is a NoSQL database (Not Only SQL).
NoSQL databases are typically used for big data and realtime web applications.
They support SQLlike query languages, but they use a variety of data models (such
as networks) as an alternative to the tables used by relational databases.
Nonetheless, there are sufficient similarities between NoSQL and relational
databases that a student familiar with relational databases should have no problem
in learning MongoDB.

References
THE HUFFINGTON POST UK, 2013, David Cameron's EU Referendum Speech
Condensed Into A Word Cloud. [online].
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/23/davidcameronspeech
wordle_n_2532047.html [Accessed 26 April 2015].

MichaelHeron
42
Project Title
Twitter utilities
Supervisor

The School of Computing research centre (IDEAS) needs a suite of general twitter
utilities to be used within its social media research projects.

This project will develop an application that allows certain queries to be submitted
in batches via the Twitter API. Such queries might include:
Look up twitter usernames from IDs;
Query a user's previous tweets and store the results in a database;
Perform sentiment analysis using the existing Alchemy API.

All of these APIs are rate limited (they are restricted to a fixed maximum number of
Twitter queries per hour), and yet we often need to work with very large numbers
of tweets, users and usernames. We are currently tracking millions of tweets using
a MongoDB1 database installation, and we require good, solid tools for extracting
sets of tweets, cleaning them up, and presenting them in a format suitable for
analysis.

If you choose this project, you will first need to familiarise yourself with the existing
software, and then develop an application that:
Interacts with our existing databases,
Presents elements of extracted tweets in an appropriate form, and
Manages rate limits.

Seepreviousproject.
MichaelHeron
43
The Robert Gordon University

School of Computing Science & Digital Media
Title:
Proposer:
A Cloud-based Attendance Monitoring System

Dr. Kit-ying Hui
Key Techniques
1. Database design and programming
2. Web programming (e.g. Ajax)
3. Java programming
Background
Most lecturers agree that a students attendance to classes has a positive correlation to
his/her result in a taught module. A continuous monitoring of class attendance allows the
School Office to identify students who have difficulty and refer them to assistance as
early as possible.
The current attendance monitoring process is a manual one, where staff has to visually
scan for abnormality. This is a tedious process which is liable to errors. Data are centrally
kept in a few spreadsheets and information is not readily available to module lecturers or
tutors. An online system available to all staff will make attendance monitoring more
effective. The system could also automatically scan for abnormality in students
attendance record and notifies the class tutors pro-actively
Traditionally these systems require the set up of local servers. With the rise of cloud
computing, both data storage and web application hosting can now be moved into thirdparty cloud service providers. The stored data, however, will need to be protected (e.g. by
encryption) as they are sensitive. Another challenge is to represent the abnormality
detection knowledge as portable reusable knowledge blocks which can be distributed
and used locally in a web browser, instead of running everything on the application
server. This fragmentation also allows the modular maintenance of detection
knowledge, making the system more flexible.
Aim
To develop a cloud-based web application that monitors students attendance to classes.
Objectives
To design and build a database that stores students class attendance data in a
cloud data storage service.
To protect stored data using encryption.
KitHui
44
To design and implement a web interface that allows staff to input and view
student attendance data online.
To design and implement knowledge modules that detect abnormal patterns in
students attendance data.
References
Google App Engine: https://developers.google.com/appengine/

Amazon Web Services: http://aws.amazon.com/
KitHui
45

Title:
Proposer:
Drone Delivery Scheduling

Dr. Kit-ying Hui
Key Techniques
1. Artificial intelligence (e.g. Genetic algorithm, constraint solving)
2. Web programming (e.g. Ajax)
3. Java programming
Background
Recently, the use of Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAV, aka drone) is a hot topic.
With the advances in technologies and the fall in prices, drone has opened up the door to
fast and autonomous courier. Big companies, like Amazon and Google, have been
exploring the use of drones for delivery.
Despite the hype, delivery by drones has many limitations:
A typical drone can only carry a limited weight. E.g. 1kg.

Depending on the battery capacity, a typical drone has a flight time of 10-30
minutes. The flight time is also dependent on the weight.
Drones are affected by the weather. Flying against the wind means using more
power and a shorter flight time.
There are areas where drones should not be flying (e.g. near power lines,
airports).
Some destinations are not suitable for drone delivery (e.g. a flat without a landing
space).
Given a fleet of drones and a set of delivery orders, the problem of scheduling drones for
delivery has challenges at different levels:
At the top level, a company wants to deliver all orders in the shortest time. This is
a typical optimisation problem which can be solved by genetic algorithm or
constraint solving.
To take into consideration the effect of weather on a drones performance, the
wind speed and direction along the flight path need to be included and modeled in
the flight time estimate. Weather information of different locations are readily
available from online resources (e.g. openweather.org)
Instead of simply specifying the starting and ending locations, a drone accepts a
flight path defined by a sequence of way points. An intelligent system can include
geographical factors into the scheduling process.
KitHui
46
Aim
To investigate, design and implement a system for scheduling drone delivery.
Objectives
To model the drone delivery problem, taking into consideration the characteristics
(e.g. load capacity, flight time) of different drones in the fleet.
Solve the drone delivery problem using AI techniques.
Optionally, include weather information in the flight time estimation model.
Optionally, generate flight plans for drones instead of making simple task
allocations.
References
Open Weather API: http://openweathermap.org/api

Wikipedias entry on Constraint Satisfaction Problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constraint_satisfaction_problem
A quick introduction to Genetic Algorithm:
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_96/journal/vol1/hmw/article1.html
The Arducopter website: http://copter.ardupilot.com/
KitHui
47

Title:
Proposer:
LEGO Building as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem

Dr. Kit-ying Hui
Key Techniques
1. Artificial Intelligence (e.g. constraint satisfaction)
2. Java programming
Background
LEGO is a popular plastic construction toy consists of bricks of specific sizes. One
primary attraction of LEGO is its endless possibility in using simple bricks to build
complex 3D objects. A very good example is the Legoland tourist resort in the U.K.
Using LEGO bricks to build a 3D object usually involve slicing the 3D design into
multiple layers with each layer stacking on top of another. In a layer, for two adjacent
bricks to stay together, they have to be joined by a third brick in the layer above or below.
The following diagram explains this requirement in a 1-dimensional layer:
C
A
As LEGO bricks are of different sizes, we have many choices for the joining brick C.
Choosing a brick C affects the choices of other bricks in the layers above and below.
This process of using LEGO bricks to build two stacking layers can be modeled as a
constraint satisfaction problem. If we divide a layer into primitive bricks of size 1, it
becomes the problem of deciding if adjacent size-1 bricks should be merged. Merging
two size-1 bricks mean a size-2 brick. So we have a set of variables whose value can be
true or false (meaning the size-1 bricks are merged or not). The following diagram
explains the idea:
KitHui
48
VAB
{T,F}
V12
V23
V34
V45
{T,F}
{T,F}
{T,F}
{T,F}
If V1-2, V2-3, V3-4 are all true, and if the biggest brick size is 4, then V4-5 must be false.
This means VA-B must be true. This idea can be extended to 2-dimension layers of bricks
and with the brick colour as another requirement. The end result is a vast network of
connected boolean variables which are to be assigned the value of true or false.
Aim
To investigate, design and implement a system to build an arbitrary 3D object with
LEGO bricks.
Objectives
To investigate the feasibility of solving the LEGO building problem of 1dimensional brick layers.
To extent the problem solving method to 2-dimensional brick layers.
To implement a tool to illustrate the problem solving method.
References
Wikipedias entry on Constraint Satisfaction Problem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constraint_satisfaction_problem
List of Java libraries for constraint solving:
http://www.constraintsolving.com/solvers/constraint-libraries
KitHui
49

Title:
Proposer:
Point of Contact:
Database for sound

sound
Dr. Kit-ying Hui
Key Techniques
1. Database design and programming
2. Web programming (depends on client requirement)
3. Java programming (depends on client requirement)
Background
sound is Scotlands annual festival of new music, which takes place in late October
and early November throughout Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. There are between 40 and
60 events with 30 project partners and 20-30 different venues. A certain number of other
events and education projects take place outwith the festival.
sound currently uses the Artifax system for its data needs. Throughout the years Artifax
is found to be too heavy for the task and does not fit well with the requirements of the
organisation. sound is thus planning to migrate to another database management system
and at the same time exploring the possibility of applying the same system to other
festivals and events in Scotland. Apart from the major database designing task, the
followings are potential sub-tasks in the project:
Migrate data from the existing system to the new one.

To design and building a user interface to the new database.
Optionally design and implement an access portal to data stored in the new
system.
Note: This project enquiry is received through the Universitys Talent Exchange project
(http://www.rgu.ac.uk/talentexchange). Student is expected to work with sound to
discover the data need and explore the application domain.
Aim
To investigate, design and implement a data solution for sound.
Objectives
To investigate the data storage requirement of sound.

To explore and select an appropriate database management system.
To design and implement a database for sound.
KitHui
50
To design and implement a user interface for the database.
References
sound website: http://www.sound-scotland.co.uk/
KitHui
51

Title:
Proposer:
Point of Contact:
Website for Assured Occupational Health

Assured Occupational Health
Dr. Kit-ying Hui
Key Techniques
1. Web programming
2. Database design
Background
Assured Occupational Health (AOH) is a new business start up offering all types of
medical checks for all industry sectors, including oil and gas, aviation, and construction.
They also offer sickness absence assessments, pre-employment health checks and other
occupational health medical consultations.
AOH currently has no website and needs to develop one to take bookings and payments.
Note: This project enquiry is received through the Universitys Talent Exchange project
(http://www.rgu.ac.uk/talentexchange). Student is expected to work with AOH to explore
the application domain and requirement details.
Aim
To design and implement a website for Assured Occupational Health.
Objectives
To discuss with AOH on the project requirements.

To design and implement a website to fulfil the requirements.
KitHui
52
ProjectTitle
Supervisor
Suitablefor
EasySensorPlatform
JohnIsaacsj.p.isaacs@rgu.ac.uk
INSstudentsONLY
Background
Crowdsourcingandcitizenscienceischangingthewayscientificdataiscollected.Previouslycostly
sensorssystemneededtobeinplacetorecorddataatspecific,oftenrestrictedlocations.For
examplethewholeairpollutionlevelsforacitymayhavebeencollectedatasinglespotinthecity,
whichwouldnotaccuratelyreflectthewholeenvironment.
Crowdsourcinghasmeantthatalotmoredatacanbecollected;howeveritisoftenfromdifferent
typesofsourcesandisnotalwaysverifiable.Toworkproperlycrowdsourcedinformationmust
trustedintermsofaccuracyandsource.
Embeddedsystemssuchastheraspberrypi,theArduinoortheintelGalileocouldbeusedtocreate
commonsensorplatformthatiseasytosetupbythedatacollector,usesastandardsetofsensors
andcancommunicatethedatabacktoacentralcloudbasedsystem.Themainideahereisthata
usersimplyturnsthesensorplatformon,connectssomesensorsandthedataistransmitted
automatically,creatingalargenetworkofconnectedsensorsandaccesstotheaggregateddataviaa
simplemapbaseduserinterface.
Thisprojectwilllookatthecreationofsuchassensorsystem(5intelGalileo(generation2models)
areavailablefortesting)
Objectives
Investigateembeddedsystemtechnologiestodetermineaviablehardwareplatform.
Researchmethodsofdetectingandautoconnectingtothesensornetwork.
Investigatetheappropriatecommunicationprotocolsandmethodsfortransmittinglogged
dataefficiently.
Researchmethodsofgivinguseraccesstoanddisplayingthecollecteddata.
Design,implementandtestaprototypesensorplatformandassociatedcentraldatastore.
Skills
Knowledgeofembeddedsystems(PI,Beagleboneetc)
Someprogrammingskills
Knowledgeofnetworksandmobilecommunicationtechnologies
FurtherInfo
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/doityourself/galileomakerquarkboard.html
http://postscapes.com/internetofthingscloud
http://www.instructables.com/id/PART1SendArduinodatatotheWebPHPMySQLD3js/
JohnIsaacs
53
ProjectTitle
Supervisor
Suitablefor
Background
MapBasedTemporalVisualisation
JohnIsaacsj.p.isaacs@rgu.ac.uk
Any
Largeamountsofdataarecollectedeverydaycovingaspectsoffinance,politicsandtransport.Much
ofthisdataispresentedeithertemporallyorgeographicallybutnotboth.Forexamplemany
financialgraphswillshowaggregatedstockpricesovertime,butwillnotshowwhereintheworld
thecompaniesare.AcompanyfallingintheUSmaycorrespondtoacompanygaininginAsia,which
maybemissedonasimpletemporalgraph.
TheimagebelowshowsasingletimepointofavisualisationofairtrafficoverEurope,onitsownthe
imagelooksgreatbutdoesnotreallyconveythemovementinthedataset.Whenyouwatchthe
videoyoucanseehowimportantthetemporalaspectis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZSelcIxWM
Theideaofthisprojectistoinvestigatemethodswherelargedatasetscanbeshowninteractivelyon
amapbasedsystemwhichcanincludetemporaleffectsonthedata.
Thereareanumberofpossibledatasetsthatcouldbeusedsuchaselectiondata,busortrain
tracking,oilandgasdataorthestudentsownsuggestions.
Objectives
Identifyanappropriatedatasetforvisualisation
Researchvisualisationplatformssuchasd3.js,webglandgooglemaps.
Investigatetheappropriatevisualisationmethods(egcolour,shape,size)
Design,implementandtestaprototypevisualisationoftheselecteddataset.
Skills
Someprogrammingskills
Knowledgeofinternetbaseddevelopmentsuchasphp,javascript,mysqlandhtmlwouldbe
anadvantage
FurtherInfo
http://gephi.github.io/
http://d3js.org/
JohnIsaacs
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ProjectTitle
ASoftwareToolforPricingFuturesandOptionsinOilandGas
Markets
Supervisor
DavidLonieRoomN432d.p.lonie@rgu.ac.uk
Suitablefor
COGstudents,orotherswithaninterestinOilandGas
Background
IntheOilandGasindustriestheroleofTradingOperationsisveryimportant.Producers,consumers
andgovernmentsareallsubjecttofinancialrisksfromchangesinoilandgasprices:governments
throughtheirrelianceontaxationrevenues;producersareadverselyaffectedbydecreasesinprices;
consumersareadverselyaffectedbyincreasesinprices.Tomanagefinancialriskfromoilprice
movementsthereisahugemarketinoilandgasfuturesandassociatedfinancialoptionsor
derivatives.
ProjectAims
Todesign,implement,testanddocumentasoftwaretoolwhichcanperformpricingandassociated
visualisationrelatedtofuturesandoptionsproductsbasedontheOilorGasmarketprices.
ProjectObjectives
ToinvestigatetheimportantaspectsofOilandGastrading,andtheroleoffuturesand
optionsintheOilandGasmarkets;
Investigatethepricingmodelsusedtoestablishthefairpriceofoilandgasmarketfutures
andoptions,andtheroleofHistoricoilandgasprices,andenergymarketpriceshocksin
thosemodels;
Design,implement,testanddocumentasoftwaresolutionforthatcanmanageandvisualise
historicoilandgaspricedata,andwhichcanbeusedtocalculatepricesforarangeofuser
specifiedoilandgasoptioncontracttypes.
Skillsrequired
goodprogrammingskills(inanyprogramminglanguage)
familiaritywithdatavisualisationtechniques
willingnesstobecomefamiliarwithsomebasisfinancialterminologyandtounderstand
somemathematicalconceptsusedinthepricingmodels
References
Financialderivatives:pricingandriskmanagement,Ed.Kolb,RobertW.,
[Electronicresource,RGULibrary]
Understandingoilprices,Carollo,S.[electronicresource,RGULibrary]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_derivative
DavidLonie
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance)
forabriefoverview
DavidLonie
56
ProjectTitle
AtoolforprovidingvisualisationofWITSMLdata
Supervisor
Suitablefor
COGstudentsonly
Background
OilandGasdrillingoperationsgeneratevastamountsofdataofinteresttodecisionmakerswho
maybeatgeographicallydistantfromeitherthedrillingsiteortheHQwheredataisstoredand
processed.Atoolforallowingdecisionmakersindrillingoperationstoaccesskeydatainareliable,
currentandeasilyinterpretedformfrommobiledeviceswouldallowthemtoremainpartofthe
decisionmakingprocessfromremotelocations.
ProjectAims
Todesign,implement,testanddocumentasoftwaresolutionthatallowsoilandgaspersonalto
accessandvisualisewelldrillingdatafromamobiledevice.Withthepurposeofprovidingdecision
makerscurrentandeasilyinterpretedaccesstokeydataassociatedwiththedrillingprocess.
Thetoolwouldneedtoperformatleastthefollowingmaintasks:
AccessaWITSMLservertoaccessWITSMLdata
Allowtheusertoselectfieldsandcategoriesofdatatheywishtoaccess.
Visualisethedatainaclearandappropriateformat.
ProjectObjectives
Investigatethefactorsofinteresttokeydecisionmakersrelatedtotheoilandgasfield
drillingprocess;
InvestigateappropriatetechnologiesforaccessingWITSMLserverhelddata(e.g.JWitsml
libraryoruseofStandardsDevKit);
Investigateappropriatevisualisationtechniques,suitableforimplementationonamobile
device;
Design,implement,testanddocumentasoftwaresolutionforvisualisingdatafroma
WITSMLdatabaseonasuitableplatform(astandaloneapplication,amobiledeviceorweb
browserwouldallbepossibledependingoninterestsandskillsofthestudent).
Skillsrequired
programmingskillsinasuitablelanguage
interestindatavisualisation
willingnesstoinvestigatetheWITSMLstandard,andassociatedtechnologiessuchasthe
JWitsmlandStandardDevkitlibraries
References
DavidLonie
57
www.energistics.orgforanoverviewofWITSML(andassociatedstandards)
http://www.energistics.org/standardsdevkitfordetailsofthe.NETStandardsDevKit
http://www.jwitsml.orgfordetailsoftheJWitsmllibrary
DavidLonie
58
ProjectTitle
SmartphoneAppforCapturingandAnalysingSoundSamples
Supervisor
DavidLonie RoomN432 d.p.lonie@rgu.ac.uk
Background
Modernsmartphonesareequippedwithawiderangeofphysicalsensorsincludingverysensitive
microphones.Therearemanypotentialapplicationsinwhichasmartphonecouldbeusedby
teachersandstudentsinaclassroom.Anaspectofmoderneducationalpracticeistoencourage
crosscurricularthought,especiallythroughopenendedinvestigationsbystudents.Forthis,
teachersandstudentscouldbenefitfromwelldesigned,andeasilyassessabletoolstoassistinsuch
investigations.Theideaforthisprojectistohaveaneasytouseappthatallowsinterestingsound
samples(suchasspeech,musicalphrasesfromdifferentinstruments,environmentalnoise,etc.)to
becaptured,displayedandanalysedsothatstudentscaninvestigateandcomparethenatureand
propertiesofsoundfromdifferentsources.
ProjectAims
Tocreateasmartphoneapplicationaimedatstudentsandteachersthatcapturesandstores
audiosamplesandwhichcanthenperformanalysisandvisualisationofthesounds
waveformsandfrequencyspectrum.Themainfunctionalitycouldbesupplementedby
explanationandbackgroundtheoryorlinkstoexternalresources.Somemethodof
extractingdataorgraphsfromthesmarthphonetoaPCwouldbeusefulforstudents
wishingtoincluderesultsofinvestigationsinwrittenreportsorpresentations
ProjectObjectives
Investigatethecapabilitiesavailableonasmartphoneofyourchoice;
Researchtheaspectsofsoundappropriateforinclusioninanappdesignedforschoollevel
students;
Design,implement,testanddocumentasmartphoneapplicationforuseinateachingor
project.
Skillsrequired
investigateanddevelopprogrammingskillsinmobilecomputingenvironmentofyourchoice
(AndroidoriPhone)
interestineducationalmatters
Furtherinformation
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/sensors/sensors_overview.html
Smartphonesputtheappintophysicsapparatus,NewScientist,29August2012
DavidLonie
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http://www.intuitor.com/student/Android%20Phone%20Site/AndroidIntroduction.php
DavidLonie
60
ProjectTitle
SoftwareTooltofacilitatetheeconometricanalysisofEnergy
markets
Supervisor
Suitablefor
COGstudents,orotherswithaninterestinOilandGas
Background
Asveryrecenthistoryhasdemonstrated,OilandGaspricesareliabletosignificantfluctuationsin
value,causingproblemsforregionsandnationsreliantonrevenuesandjobsderivedfrom
hydrocarbonproduction.Awidevarietyofeconometrictechniqueshavebeenappliedtothe
problemofmodellingthesupply,demandandpriceofoilandgas.Theideaforthisprojectisto
createasoftwaretoolthatwouldenableastudentorresearcherwithaneconomicsbackgroundto
managedatasetsandinvestigateeconometricmodels.
ProjectAims
Todesign,implement,testanddocumentasoftwaretoolwhichcanbeusedtomanagetimeseries
dataandperformavarietyofeconometricanalysesandmodelfittingprocedurestothatdatafora
userwithanoncomputingbackground.
ProjectObjectives
ToinvestigatetheimportantaspectsofOilandGaseconomicsandsomeoftheeconometric
modelsthathavebeenappliedtothesemarkets;
Design,implement,testanddocumentasoftwaresolutionforthatcanmanageandvisualise
historicoilandgaspricedata,andwhichcanbeusedtoapplyeconometricandstatistical
modelfittingandforecastingusingthatdata.
Itisenvisagedthattheapplicationwillconnecttoadatabasetostoretheeconomicdata,
andmakeuseofappropriatelibrariestoconnectfromafrontendtoanexistingstatistical
packagesuchaRtofacilitatetheeconometricandstatisticalcalculations.
Skillsrequired
goodprogrammingskills(inanyprogramminglanguage)
familiaritywithdatavisualisationtechniques
willingnesstobecomefamiliarwithsomeeconomicsterminologyandstatisticaltechniques
References
BP:EnergyEconomics&StatisticalReview
http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/aboutbp/energyeconomics.html
CrudeOilPriceForecasting:acomprehensivereviewofliterature.
https://caia.org/sites/default/files/3.RESEARCH%20REVIEW.pdf
JRIJava/Rinterfacehttp://www.rforge.net/JRI/
RCallerhttps://code.google.com/p/rcaller/wiki/About
DavidLonie
61
Masters Project Specification 2015
Title
A ComputerBased Learning Tool for Linear

Algebra
Supervisor
Rob Lothian
Background
Linear algebra is the study of matrices and vectors. Matrix and vector methods are widely
used in mathematics, engineering, computer science and many other fields.
It would be useful to have a computer-based tool to support the learning of this discipline. It
would be especially helpful to find creative ways to support the learning of those who are not
specialist mathematicians.
Aim
To design and develop a computer-based learning tool to support the learning of (some
aspects of) linear algebra.
Skills Required
Good programming skills in the language of your choice.

A working knowledge and understanding of linear algebra.
RobLothian
62
Title
Go Program
Supervisor
Rob Lothian
Background
Goisanancientboardgameinvolvingtheplacementofstonesonagridofsquares.Theobjectisto
controlthemajorityoftheterritory,whichmayinvolvethecaptureofopposingstones.TheAI
challengeisofquiteadifferentnaturetothatinvolvedinchessorcheckers.
Aim
Tocreateaprogramtoplaythegame(inanintelligentmanner)againstahumanopponent.The
studentwouldrequiretoresearchand/ordeviseAIapproachestotheproblem.
Skills Required
Familiaritywiththerulesandbasicstrategiesofthegame.
Goodprogrammingskillsinthelanguageofyourchoice.Thisshouldincludeanappreciationofdata
structuresandthewaythatalgorithmscanexploitthesestructures.
Capacityforcriticalengagementwiththeresearchliterature.
RobLothian
63
Title
ScrabblePlaying Program
Supervisor
Rob Lothian
Background
Scrabbleisaboardgameinwhichplayersscorepointsbyplacinglettertilesontheboardto
createwords.Specialsquaresmultiplyscoresandthereisabonusforusingall(seven)tilesinone
turn.
Aim
Tocreateaprogramtoplaythegame(inanintelligentmanner)againstahumanopponent.The
studentwouldrequiretoresearchand/ordeviseAIapproachestotheproblem.
Skills Required
Familiaritywiththerulesandbasicstrategiesofthegame.
Goodprogrammingskillsinthelanguageofyourchoice.Thisshouldincludeanappreciationofdata
structuresandthewaythatalgorithmscanexploitthesestructures.
Capacityforcriticalengagementwiththeresearchliterature.
RobLothian
64
Title
Time Series Project
Supervisor
Rob Lothian
Background
Thetimeseriesisacommonandimportanttypeofdata.Therearealargenumberofanalytic
techniquesthatmaybeappliedtotimeseries,oftenwiththegoalofpredictingfuturevalues.
Aims
1) Tofindsomeinterestingtimeseriesdata.
2) Todevelopatooltostore,displayandanalysethedata.
3) Tocarryoutananalysisofthedatausingthetool.
Theprojectmusthaveastrongsoftwaredevelopmentcomponent,soitisnoenoughtoreaddata
intoanexistingtoolsuchasRStudio.Itis,however,permissibletoincorporatelibraryroutinesinto
yourowncodeortoactuallyprograminastatisticallanguageratherthanagenerallanguage.The
elementofdataanalysismaybesmallifthesoftwaredevelopmentelementissufficiently
substantial.
Thestudentwillberequiredtofinddataandchoosetechniquesofanalysisandvisualisationaspart
oftheinvestigationphase.
Skills Required
Goodprogrammingskillsinthelanguageofyourchoice.
RobLothian
65
Abilitytonarrowdownthisbroadproposalintosomethingmorespecificandwillingnesstotake
ownershipoftheresultingproject.
Somebasicgraspofmathematicsandstatistics.
NoteforOilandGasStudents
YouwillalreadyhaveseensomebasictimeseriesanalysisinCMM020,butyouwillbeexpectedto
investigateandimplementtechniquesbeyondthescopeofthatmodule.Youshouldtrytofindtime
seriesdatathatisrelevanttotheenergysector.
RobLothian
66

School of Computing
MSc Project Specification
Title: Personalised Tourist Itineraries
Proposer:
Stewart Massie, Room N426, s.massie@rgu.ac.uk
Key Techniques
Case-Based Reasoning
Recommender Systems
Software Development/web application development (Java/php)
User interface design
Background
The next generation of information tools will be required to provide users with a
greater ability to formulate solutions rather than simply retrieving relevant
information.
One task in which the requirement to provide solutions is already prevalent is in
the provision of personalised tourist itineraries (PTIs). PTIs can be thought of as
an assembly of recommendations where each recommendation is a tourist
attraction. Mahmood et al. adopt an interactive approach to recommend tourism
destinations that are relevant to users needs. Rather than individual attractions,
this project aims to recommend a set of attractions and assemble them as an
itinerary that balances the relevance to the users interests, the quality or rating
of the attraction, and any other prevailing constraints e.g. time available.
There is a wide range of potential tourist attraction types and locations that
could be used for this project. But it is envisaged that a locally relevant choice
would be most interesting with possible attraction types including but not limited
to visits to castles, whiskey distilleries, or golf courses. Information on tourism
attractions and completed itineraries are available from web sources. One source
is social network sites, such as Twitter and Flickr, which allow posts to be
stamped with time and mapped to points of interest by location data or tags.
Leveraging this information would allow us to assemble itineraries. This project
will investigate approaches that reuse knowledge captured in existing itineraries
to assist in the creation of new recommendations or PTIs.
The proposed methodology is Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) and recommender
systems. In CBR new problems are solved by retrieving similar cases from a
database of previously solved problems and reusing the retrieved solutions. Agile
CBR, where individual components of the solution are solved iteratively and then
assembled into a complete solution, may be particularly applicable to this
problem. Hence, when a new itinerary is being created, features that
characterise the route and the attractions will be compared with those of existing
StewartMassie
67
itineraries in the case library for each component of the itinerary, possibly as a
sequence of interactive recommendations.
Aims and Objectives
The aim of the project is to assemble novel itineraries by organising retrieved
fragments of stored examples into a balanced solution that meets the users
requirements and matches with their interests. The process may be interactive
with the user solving and confirming one part of the PTI before looking at
recommendations for a different part. The system may be developed using
existing CBR frameworks (e.g. JColibri or myCBR) or from scratch. The project
objectives include:
Understanding the Recommendation/CBR processes and in particular the

representation of cases, the similarity between cases and nearestneighbour retrieval;
Capturing knowledge of available attractions from web sources and

developing approaches that match these with user requirements;
Developing representations that capture previous itineraries along with

any other knowledge sources in an effective, integrated model;
Develop software to rank or display recommended tourist attraction
candidates and allow the assembly of effective PTIs;
Designing user-interfaces to allow entry of PTI requirements as an input

and recommended tourist attractions or itinerary as an output;
Evaluating the effectiveness of the system-generated itineraries.
References
Mahmood, T., Ricci, F., Venturini, A., and Hpken, W. (2008) Adaptive
Recommender Systems for Travel Planning. Information and
Communication Technologies in Tourism, Vol 1:1-11
JColibri (http://gaia.fdi.ucm.es/projects/jcolibri/)
myCBR (http://mycbr-project.net)
Lopez de Mantaras et al. (2005). Retrieval, reuse, revision and retention
in case-based reasoning, Knowledge Engineering Review 20(3): 215-240.
Craw, S. (2009). Agile case-based reasoning: A grand challenge towards
opportunistic reasoning from experiences. Proceedings IJCAI-09 Workshop
12, pp33-39.
Witten, I. H. & Frank, E. (2005), Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning
Tools and Techniques, 2nd edn, Morgan Kaufmann.
Deitel, Harvey (2005) Java : how to program
Downey, T. (2007). Web Development with Java, Springer.
StewartMassie
68

School of Computing
Title: Time Series Analysis and Forecasting
Proposer:
Key Techniques
Case-Based Reasoning
Knowledge representation
Software Development/web application development (Java/php)
Background
A time series is a sequence of data points, typically consisting of successive
measurements made over a time interval. Examples include sensor data from
medical or engineering applications, financial market data, and commodity
prices. Here, we are interested in time-series forecasting, which involves the use
of a model, to predict future values of the series, based on previously observed
values. Methods of analysis are divided into two distinct classes: frequencydomain methods and time-domain methods. In this project the focus is on timedomain methods and the task is to develop a standard framework for forecasting
future values in time-series data.
The proposed methodology is Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). In CBR new
problems are solved by retrieving similar cases from a database of previously
solved problems and reusing the retrieved solutions. Hence, when a new time
series is being created, features that characterise the current period will be
compared with those of existing portions of the time series stored in the case
library. Analysing the Time Series is an important task which requires
segmentation, the process of splitting a time-series into a sequence of shorter
parts. Often, the complete time-series is split into fixed window segments to
create a sequence of individual segments, each with its own characteristic
properties. Alternatively, only prototypical segments, representative of specific
events identified in the time series, may be stored as the case base.
Whichever approach is taken to segmentation, comparisons are required
between the current part of the time series (the query) and those stored in the
case base, to identify the most similar previous examples. Dynamic Time
Warping (DTW) is one approach for measuring similarity between two temporal
sequences. DTW is a method that calculates an optimal match between two
given sequences. While, the standard algorithm has high complexity, less
complex approximations, such as Fast DTW, have been developed and are
available as standard algorithms in Java, R and Python among others.
StewartMassie
69
Aims and Objectives

The aim of the project is to develop a framework that supports time series
analysis. The focus of the software could be either: to identify significant events
in, for example, sensor data; or, to predict future values, for example, in
financial market data. A range of standard datasets are available. The software
should accept one or more time series as inputs and apply suitable segmentation
before processing a more typical CBR cycle. The system may be developed using
existing CBR frameworks (e.g. JColibri or myCBR) or from scratch, and may be a
stand-alone application or a web application.
The project objectives may include:
Understanding the CBR processes and in particular the representation of

cases, the similarity between cases and nearest-neighbour retrieval;
Developing approaches to representation that can capture and segment

time series data to form a case-base of segments;
Developing software to calculate similarity between the current query and
the stored time series segments using dynamic time wrapping, and then
ranks and reuses the retrieved segments to generate forecasts;
Designing user-interfaces to allow input of the time series and any

associated parameters for segmentation and similarity, and provide a
solution or prediction as an output;
Evaluating the effectiveness of the system-generated solutions.
References
Madsen, H. (2007). Time series analysis. CRC Press.

Berndt, D. and Clifford, J. (1994). Using dynamic time warping to find
patterns in time series. AAAI Workshop on Knowledge Discovery in
Databases, pp. 229-248.
Keogh, E. (2002). Exact indexing of dynamic time warping. In 28th
International Conference on Very Large Data Bases. pp. 406-417.
JColibri (http://gaia.fdi.ucm.es/projects/jcolibri/)
myCBR (http://mycbr-project.net)
Lopez de Mantaras et al. (2005). Retrieval, reuse, revision and retention
in case-based reasoning, Knowledge Engineering Review 20(3): 215-240.
Witten, I. H. & Frank, E. (2005), Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning
Tools and Techniques, 2nd edn, Morgan Kaufmann.
StewartMassie
70

School of Computing
MSc. Project Specification
Title: System for Visual Search and Exploration of Document Collections
Proposer:
Stewart Massie, Room C49h, s.massie@rgu.ac.uk
Key Techniques
Case-Based Reasoning or Information Retrieval
Software Development (Java)
Background
We increasingly rely on our ability to search and retrieve documents, both on the internet
and in organisational repositories, in order to access information and solve problems. In
Information Retrieval (IR), document retrieval typically uses a keyword-based query as an
input. This approach works well when the information being looked for can be precisely
defined in a few terms. However, where users are unaware of their exact requirements the
process is less effective. A user may start with a vague search term, then open and read
some of the retrieved documents to identify more specific terms, before refining the query by
adding new keywords in a new search. This refinement process may be repeated for several
iterations.
Similar problems are found in Textual Case-Based Reasoning (TCBR). In TCBR, the
problem and solution are presented text form but may also be represented in a more
structured format for similarity comparison. A query is usually the problem part of a new text
document and then, the quality of the retrieval set will depend on how well the representation
and similarity knowledge capture the context of the current task. As a result, manual input is
often required to refine the retrieval set and to ensure it contains a diverse spread of
possible solutions. This requires the user to open, read and assess the relevance of each
retrieved document.
The key challenge in both IR and TCBR is to provide users with an overview of a document
without it having to be opened and read in detail. One approach is to use Natural Language
Programming (NLP) techniques to summarise documents. However, this is hard and the
approaches are computationally demanding making it difficult for real time systems. A more
promising approach may be to take advantage of the advances in text visualisation
techniques, such as tag clouds, to provide an overview as a visualisation. The overview may
be of individual documents or of clusters of similar documents.
This project will investigate an interactive approach to exploring, searching and retrieving
documents in which visualisations of the retrieved documents are presented to the user.
User interactions will then be used to provide an input for the next stage of the retrieval
process, for example, to refine the search query or to increase diversity in the retrieval set.
StewartMassie
71
Aim
The aim of the project is to design and implement a prototype system in which documents
retrieved for a query are presented as a visualisation and user interactions initiate the next
stage of the retrieval process.
Objectives
The main objectives are:
to understand the IR/TCBR processes involved in retrieval, in particular the

representation of text, the similarity between documents and nearest-neighbour
retrieval;
to investigate available text visualisations techniques;
to assemble a document repository in a suitable domain;
to develop software that given a query will present retrieved documents visually and
then refine the retrieval process in response to user interactions; and
to evaluate the effectiveness of the visual approach to retrieval.
It is envisaged that Java will be used as the development language because open source
libraries are available to support much of the work. For example, Lucene provides an
existing IR framework on which to conduct the basic text retrievals; numerous visualisation
packages or web services are for text; and data on which to develop the system should be
available from previous research activities or from the web.
References
Spence, R. (2001) Information visualization, 2nd Addison-Wesley.
Lucene (http://lucene.apache.org/)
OpenCloud (http://opencloud.mcavallo.org/index.jsp)
Lopez de Mantaras R., et al. (2005). Retrieval, reuse, revision and

retention in case-based reasoning, Knowledge Engineering Review 20(3):
215-240.
StewartMassie
72

School of Computing
Title: Interactive Visual Summary of Textual Reviews
Proposer:
Key Techniques
Textual Case-Based Reasoning (TCBR) or Information Retrieval (IR)
Data Mining
Software Development (Java)
Background
Information retrieval tools often have difficulty dealing with the sheer volume of information.
One task in which information overload is already an issue is in looking at product reviews.
Product reviews are available from many sources: commercial companies ask customers for
feedback on product purchases; specialised product review sites record reviews or provide
recommendations; and the explosion in social network sites has led to a further increase in
the availability in product reviews on specialist community sites.
However, the abundance of product review information creates a problem for users who
want to access them to support informed decision making. As many individual opinions need
to be read, it can be time-consuming for a user to acquire an overview or consensus view of
the important aspects of a product and the associated sentiment towards each aspect of
interest. For example for an hotel a user may be interested in sentiment relating to aspects
such as hotel location and room cleanliness but not food quality. IR/TCBR approaches can
help. Typically, a keyword-based query identifies an aspect of interest to the user and acts
as a filter to retrieve reviews referring to that aspect of the product. However, a large number
of reviews may still be retrieved and users are often initially unaware of which aspects are of
interest to them.
The key challenge is to provide users with an overview of the reviews without having to open
and read them in detail. One approach is to use Natural Language Programming (NLP)
techniques to summarise documents. However, this is hard and the approaches are
computationally demanding making it difficult for real time systems. More recently, aspectbased sentiment analysis has been applied but the accuracy associated with sentiment
analysis is not yet sufficient.
A simpler, but more promising approach may be to take advantage of the advances in text
visualisation techniques, such as tag clouds, to provide an overview as a visualisation. The
overview may be of all the reviews or of documents created from clusters of aspect-based
similar sentences. It is envisaged that the user could start with an general overview of all
reviews and then could drill down into reviews by selecting more specific aspects relevant to
both the product and user.
StewartMassie
73
This project will develop an interactive approach to exploring, searching, summarising and
retrieving reviews in which visualisations of the retrieved documents are presented to the
user. User interactions will then be used to provide an input for the next stage of the retrieval
process, for example, to refine the search by selecting more specific aspects associated with
the product.
Aim
The aim of the project is to design and implement a prototype system in which reviews
retrieved for a query are presented as a visualisation and user interactions initiate the next
stage of the process.
Objectives
The main objectives are:
to understand the IR/TCBR processes involved in retrieval, in particular the

representation of text, the similarity between documents, and existing aspect-based
sentiment analysis approaches;
to investigate available text visualisations techniques (e.g. tag clouds) and the
availability of open source approaches;
to assemble a review repository in a suitable domain e.g travel;
to develop software that given a query will present reviews visually and then refine
the retrieval process in response to user interactions; and
to evaluate the effectiveness of the visual approach to retrieval.
It is envisaged that Java will be used as the development language because open source
libraries are available to support much of the work. For example, Lucene provides an
existing IR framework on which to conduct the basic text retrievals; numerous visualisation
packages or web services are available for text; and data on which to develop the system is
be available from previous research activities or from the web.
References
Spence, R. (2001) Information visualization, 2nd Addison-Wesley.
Lucene (http://lucene.apache.org/)
OpenCloud (http://opencloud.mcavallo.org/index.jsp)
Lopez de Mantaras R., et al. (2005). Retrieval, reuse, revision and

retention in case-based reasoning, Knowledge Engineering Review 20(3):
215-240.
StewartMassie
74
Four projects from Christopher Mcdermott

Email: c.d.mcdermott@rgu.ac.uk
These projects are suitable for INS students ONLY
Project 1: LAN Security using a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)

Project 2: Secure Network Design
Project 3: Remote Site Management and Security
Project 4: Layer 2 Security in Cisco Devices
ChristopherMcDermott
75
Project title
Supervisor
Suitable for
APT Vulnerabilities and Mitigation

Mathew Nicho m.nicho1@rgu.ac.uk
INS students ONLY
Background
One of the most serious and persistent threats that had emerged in recent years combining
technical as well as non-technical skills is the Advanced Persistent Threat known commonly
as APT where the hackers circumvent the organizational defences and instead target the
naivety of the employees in making an unintentional mistake. While this threat has gained
prominence in recent years, research on its cause and mitigation is a scant area of research.
Analysis of high profile cases during the last three years where it (APT) had gained
prominence revealed that unintentional mistakes of employees and the persistence of the
attackers in using social engineering methods have largely contributed to this threat.
Project Objectives
1. Find out the different modes of APT attacks
2. Find out the vulnerabilities both technical as well as non-technical
3. Come up with a set of configuration for mitigation
Skills Required
1. Networking skills
2. Basic programming
Further resources:
1. C. Tankard, "Persistent Threats and How to Monitor and Deter Them," Network Security,
pp. 16-19, 2011.
2. M. Liebowitz. (2011, 7 July, 2011). 2011 Set to Be Worst Year Ever for Security Breaches.
SecurityNews. Available: http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/2011-worst-year-ever-securitybreaches-0857/
4. Symantec. Norton Cybercrime Report 2012 [Online].
static.norton.com/now/en/pu/images/Promotions/2012/cybercrime/
Available:
http://now-
5. Encode. (2012, June). Demystifying Advanced Persistent Threats: Encode Extrusion

Testing Facts and Statistics. Available: www.encodegroup.com/colutions.aspx?page=APT
6. Symantec. (2011, May). Advanced Persistent Threats: A Symantec Perspective. Available:
http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/white_papers/badvanced_persistent_threats_WP_21215957.en-us.pdf
7. Fireeye. (2012, June). FireEye Advanced Threat
http://www2.fireeye.com/advanced-threat-report-1h2012.html
Report
Available:
8. Wright, K. (2014). "UK is the No. 1 Target for Advanced Persistent Threat cyber attacks."
Retrieved 20th October, from http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/uk-is-the-no-1-target-foradvanced-persistent-threat-cyber-attacks/
MathewNicho
76
Project title
Supervisor
Suitable for
Implementation Issues in PCI DSS

INS students ONLY
Background
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) is the very first industrywide standard that aims at achieving a strong protection of sensitive consumer and cardholder
data, and prevents major security issues. The growing dependence on online transactions has
forced merchants dealing with credit cards to comply with PCI DSS or face huge penalties
for non-compliance. With more and more transactions based on credit cards, merchants are
finding it costly and increasingly difficult to implement and interpret the PCI standard. One
of the top reasons cited for merchants to fail PCI audit, and a leading factor in data theft, is
the failure to adequately protect stored cardholder data. Hence while implementation of the
PCI DSS is not a guarantee for perfect protection, effective implementation of the PCI
standards can be ensured through the divergence of the PCI standard into the wider
information security governance to provide a comprehensive overview of information
security based not only on security but also security audit and control.
The PCI DSS tends to specify technologies quite loosely, making requirements at a
higher level, and often only including technologies as a suggestion. The technologies
involved include IPS and IDS, firewalling technologies, two-factor authentication, and more
unusual controls such as file integrity monitoring and centralized log analysis tools. This
complicates compliance programs somewhat, as the standard is not actually presented in such
a fashion that a series of tickboxes can be easily completed.
Project Objectives
1. Find out the major implementation issues in PCI DSS implementation
2. Find out the most relevant and difficult requirement (out of the 12) one to implement
3. Come up with a set of recommendations and suggestions for effective implementation
Skills Required
1. Knowledge of Security standards
2. Basic knowledge of networking
Further resources:
1. Nxumalo, Z. C., Tarwireyi, P., & Adigun, M. O. (2014, October). Towards privacy with
tokenization as a service. In Adaptive Science & Technology (ICAST), 2014 IEEE 6th
International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
2. Palmer, E. (2014). The Importance of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards
for Startup Companies.
3. EL ALLOUSSI, H., FETJAH, L., & CHAICHAA, A. (2014). Securing the Payment Card
Data on Cloud environment: Issues & perspectives. IJCSNS, 14(11), 14.
MathewNicho
77
Project title
Supervisor
Suitable for
Creating a Taxonomy of Security Issues in Cloud

Computing
INS students ONLY
Background
Cloud computing encompass many technologies namely distributed computing, virtualization
technology and other computing technologies. The basic concept of cloud is based on the
premise that instead of having selected information systems resources like software and data
stored locally on a users or organizations computer systems, these resources can be stored
on Internet servers, named as clouds, and accessed as a paid service on the Internet from
anywhere through Internet.
While there are numerous papers on security in cloud computing a complete
taxonomy is lacking in the literature
Project Objectives
1. Find out all the security issues and concerns in the different cloud services and platforms.
2. Come up with a taxonomy
Skills Required
1. Knowledge of IS security
2. Basic knowledge of networking
Further resources:
1. Grover, J., & Sharma, M. (2014, July). Cloud computing and its security issuesA
review. In Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT), 2014
International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
2. Fernandes, D. A., Soares, L. F., Gomes, J. V., Freire, M. M., & Incio, P. R. (2014).
Security issues in cloud environments: a survey. International Journal of Information
Security, 13(2), 113-170.
3. Xiao, Z., & Chen, J. (2015, January). Cloud Computing Security Issues and
Countermeasures. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer
Engineering and Networks (pp. 731-737). Springer International Publishing.
MathewNicho
78
MScOIL&GASITPROJECTS
2015
ProfessorBabsOyenyin
Mail:
b.oyeneyin@rgu.ac.uk
Mobile:07828285245
ProfessorBabsOyenyinhassupplied7Oil&Gasrelatedprojectproposals.
Therearesomegeneralaimswhicharesharedbyalltheseprojects.ProfessorBabshasalsostated
somerequirementsforthewayinwhichtheprojectwillbeconducted.Anystudentchoosingone
oftheseprojectsneedstoaccepttheserequirements.
Theseaimsandrequirementsarelistedonthefollowingtwopages,followedbythelistofprojects.
PleasenotethattheseprojectsareavailableforSeptember2014Oil&GasstudentsONLY.
ProfBabsOyeneyin
79
KEYAIMFOREACHPROJECT
Todevelopappropriatesoftwaresupportsystemforeach
ofthetopicalareas
Systemshouldbeversatileenoughtobeastandalonesystem
forIntegratedPetroleumEngineeringSolution
Candidatetosource,testandvalidaterelevantEngineering
model(s)
Integrateintorelevantuserfriendlysoftwareplatform
Scopetoincludedevelopmentandtesting
Alphaversionshouldbeastandalonesystemforapplicationin
theoil&gasindustry
Lookingforcandidateswithinitiativeanddrive
ProfBabsOyeneyin
80
REQUIREMENTS
(conductofproject)
ProjectProposal
WorkPackage
ProgressMeetingSchedule
IndividualProgressMeetings
Fortnightly
Precededby2PageProgressReport
Objectivefortheperiod,Action,HighlightsofResults
MonthlyFormalPresentations
ProfBabsOyeneyin
81
PROJECTLIST&CANDIDATES
SuitableforSEPTEMBER2014Oil&GasstudentsONLY
S/N
No.
OFSTUDENTS
PROJECTTITLE
RealtimeHydrocarbonProductionDataManagementSystem
Student1:tofocusondevelopmentofPDMthatcanalsobeusedfor
RealTimeReservoirpressure,pressuredeclineandflowingbottom
holepressureprediction
Student2:TofocusonuseofPDMthatcanalsobeusedforfuture
productionforecastpredictionwithcomparisonofDeclineCurveAnalysis
withMaterialBalance
Student3:TofocusonuseofPDMthatcanalsobeusedforrealtime
Scale&Hydrateprediction
2
RealTimeTexturalPropertiesPredictionfromPetrophysicalData
PhaseII
RealtimeSystemforFormationCompressiveStrengthprediction
whiledrilling
4.
VariableDensityManagedPressureDrillingHydraulicsManagement
System
RealTimeSystemforSandProductionRatePrediction fromWellLogs
Ifyouwishtochooseoneoftheseprojects,pleasespecifythepagenumber(81),
projectnumber(15),andtitle.
ProfBabsOyeneyin
82

Title
Supervisor
Decision Theory Package

Iain Pirie
Background
A university lecturer, with limited computing skills, is in need of software to replace some of
the lectures he gives on decision theory. (A typical decision theory problem is that a
manager must decide upon the number of units of a product to manufacture when there is
uncertainty concerning the likely demand for that product.) The lecturer wants the software
to provide: interactive tutorials, and a facility for students to enter problems and apply
different techniques. The role of this lecturer will be assumed by the supervisor.
Aim
To provide a decision theory software package suitable for use by students who are being
taught about decision theory for the first time.
Objectives
To conduct background research on decision theory techniques and relevant

computer based learning.
To design and implement an interface that provides access to interactive material on
several decision theory techniques.
To allow the user to enter information regarding, for example, the possible decision
alternatives, states of nature, and corresponding payoffs for a given problem. For
certain problems, the user will also have to be able to enter relevant probabilities.
To allow the user to enter answers for a given (user-entered) problem and to check
those answers.
To provide worked solutions to user-entered problems.
For problems involving Bayesian analysis of additional information, to provide the
user with output such as: the optimal decision strategy, the expected value of sample
information, and the efficiency of sample information.
To provide, where appropriate, graphical representations of solutions in the form of a
decision tree.
To allow the user to construct a decision tree for a specific problem and to obtain the
solution from that decision tree.
To provide the user with appropriate guidance in using the package.
Skills Required
IainPirie
83
Bibliography
Iain Piries lecture notes on decision theory.
Dennis T. L. & Dennis L. B., 1991. Management Science. West.
IainPirie
84

Title
Supervisor
Inventory Management system

Dr Iain Pirie
Background
Companies that supply parts and equipment to (the oil) industry often have large storage
facilities which comprise warehouses and yards. In order for such a business to run
efficiently, good management of the processes associated with procuring goods from
suppliers, storing those goods and dispatching orders to customers is essential.
Aim
To create a generic Inventory Management System that could be tailored to satisfy the
requirements of any large supply company.
Objectives
To research existing inventory management systems.

To create a database that can be populated with information about goods, suppliers,
customers, etc.
To construct a tool that allows the user to map the storage facility so that item
locations and available space can be easily identified.
To design and implement an interface to interact with the database and run
additional tools.
To update inventory levels automatically upon receipt and dispatch of goods and to
provide automatic warnings of low inventory levels.
To maintain sales records.
To provide an economic order quantity calculator.
To provide a system that manages purchases and orders efficiently.
To allow the user to generate relevant reports.
Skills required
Database design and programming skills. Specific software tools and platform
IainPirie
85

Title
Supervisor
Suitable for
Inventory Models Software Package

Iain Pirie
Oil & Gas students, but OK for students on other
courses as well
Background
A university lecturer, with limited computing skills, is in need of software to augment the
lectures he gives on inventory models. He wants the software to be educational and to
allow his students to explore different models without the burden of excessive number
crunching. The role of this lecturer will be assumed by the supervisor.
Aim
To provide an inventory models software package suitable for use by students who are
being taught about stock control for the first time.
Objectives
To obtain a sound knowledge of inventory models and a good understanding of

computer based learning (CBL).
To provide the user with appropriate background information, perhaps in the form of
interactive tutorials.
To provide an interface that allows the user to choose between several different
inventory models.
To provide the user with appropriate guidance to help the user identify the
appropriate model for a given scenario.
To allow the user to enter information regarding, for example, the annual demand for
a product, and the holding and ordering costs associated with that product.
To provide the user with output such as: the optimal order quantity, the
corresponding annual cost, and other relevant output.
To provide appropriate (interactive) graphical presentations: to enhance the students
understanding of the models, and to help guide the user towards a practical nearoptimal solution.
Skills Required
Bibliography
Iain Piries lecture notes on inventory models.
IainPirie
86
IainPirie
87

Title
Supervisor
Suitable for
Management Science Suite

Dr Iain Pirie
Oil & Gas students, but OK for students on other
courses as well
Background
Many large companies are faced with problems that can be solved using Management
Science (or Operational Research) techniques. For example: a transportation problem
arises when a particular product is manufactured at several supply locations and must then
be distributed to several demand locations at minimum cost; a shortest route problem arises
when the minimum distance is to be covered while making deliveries to several locations; a
maximal flow problem arises when, say, oil is to be distributed from a source to a final
location via a network of pipes of differing capacities.
Aim
To create a Management Science suite of programs that will solve a range of problems
commonly encountered in industry.
Objectives
To research Management Science techniques including transportation and network

models.
To research any existing Management Science software tools.
To design and build a package with algorithms to solve transportation-type problems
and network problems. (It is possible to implement certain algorithms using linear
programming and/or genetic algorithm techniques.
To design and build a package with algorithms to solve network problems.
To design an interface that will allow the user to input and edit a problem
specification as easily as possible.
To represent a problem solution graphically in the form of a network.
To provide built in user-guidance.
Skills Required
Bibliography
IainPirie
88

Project Title : Human in the loop Evolutionary Algorithms
Supervisor: Dr. Olivier Regnier-Coudert, o.regnier-coudert@rgu.ac.uk ,
Extension 2571
Key Words: Optimisation, Problem Solving, Evolutionary Algorithm, Graphical User Interface, Java
Background
Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) are methods that iteratively generate and evolve solutions to a given problem.
Examples of EAs include Genetic Algorithms, Ant Colony Optimisation, Particle Swarm Optimisation and are
often nature-inspired. EAs have proved successful at solving problems ranging from resource allocation to
routing.
Despite their overall ability to efficiently solve complex real-world problems, EAs may sometimes exhibit
difficulties as a result of premature convergence to non-optimal solutions or the exploitation of sub-optimal
areas of the search space.
Restart procedures or mutation kicks are possible solutions to these issues. In this project, an alternative
approach will be investigated: a human intervention, which will enable manual alterations of solutions or
addition of new solutions during the search. In addition to helping with convergence issues, the human in the
loop method may yield alternative solutions to the problems, by blending evolved and man-made features.
Aims
This project aims to develop a optimisation tool to enable human intervention along the search of an EA. The
student will initially choose a population-based algorithm and a classic optimisation problem for the purpose.
The tool should include:
an implementation of the chosen EA;
a graphical user interface to allow tuning of the algorithm parameters and problem instance selection;
a component to allow the EA to be paused;
The tool may also include:
additional EAs, allowing algorithm comparison;
additional problems.
Requirements
Investigation of existing literature on EAs and their applications;

Investigation of existing literature on human in the loop and human assisted EAs;
Design and implementation of GUI modules;
Design of tests to assess the potential benefits of human interventions in EAs;
Writing technical report.
Required Skills
Strong programming skills in Java;

Basic knowledge of EAs and strong interest in the field;
Interest in research.
Resources
OlivierRegnierCoudert
89
Farooq, H. and Siddique, M.T. (2014). A Comparative Study on User Interfaces of Interactive Genetic
Algorithm. Procedia Computer Science, 32 pp. 45-52, available from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050914005961
Brownlee, J. (2011). Clever Algorithms: Nature-Inspired Programming Recipes. Available from
http://www.cleveralgorithms.com/nature-inspired/index.html
90

Project Title : Job Data Visualisation for Truck Operations
Extension 2571
Key Words: Logistics, Scheduling, Graphical User Interface, Web programming, Databases, Visualisation
Background
In collaboration with industries from Aberdeen, data has been collected on truck operations. Trucks are used on
a daily basis to carry goods from different locations around Aberdeen. Although any type of goods may be
transported, oil and gas related cargos account for the largest part of the haulage and consequently, a large part
of the activities of the activity is centered around the harbour, where platform supply vessels can be loaded and
unloaded.
Following operations of a haulage company, data on trucks and jobs has been gathered. For a particular job, the
data contains its collection and delivery details, its client, or its allocated resource. This data may also be linked
with geolocation data to understand what route was used for the job. Because of the typical large vehicle fleet
size and the large number of jobs, the volume of job data is difficult to process and well though visualisation and
statistics tools need to be developed.
Aims
This project aims to develop a visualisation tool for the truck operation job data. The tool should include:
software components to retrieve data from a MySQL database
software components to filter the data based on different features (eg. time window, specific trucks,
specific customer )
software component to visualise filtered data on a map
software component to output statistics on the selected data
a web-based graphical user interface to allow users to gather all above software components;
a software component able to estimate and generate artificial data from data profiles and statistics
resulting from the above aims (e.g. generate operational data for customer X, on day Y).
Requirements
Understand truck operations and the dataset at hand

Design and implementation of the different software components using model-view-controller patterns.
This stage requires comparing different libraries for MVC software development
Design and implementation of a GUI (web-based). This stage requires comparing different libraries for
mapping data (eg. Google Maps) and outputting statistics
Required Skills
Strong programming skills, in web technologies (javascript, MySQL);

Interest in data visualisation.
Resources
Examples and tutorial for MVC libraries: http://todomvc.com/
91
Andrienko G, Andrienko, N and Wrobel, S. Visual Analytics tools for analysis of movement data.
ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter - Special issue on visual analytics. Vol 9(2). Pp. 38-46, 2007.
Available from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1345455
92

Project Title : Resource Data Visualisation for Truck Operations
Extension 2571
Key Words: Logistics, Scheduling, Graphical User Interface, Web programming, Databases, Visualisation
Background
In collaboration with industries from Aberdeen, data has been collected on truck operations. Trucks are used on
a daily basis to carry goods from different locations around Aberdeen. Although any type of goods may be
transported, oil and gas related cargos account for the largest part of the haulage and consequently, a large part
of the activities of the activity is centered around the harbour, where platform supply vessels can be loaded and
unloaded.
Following operations of a haulage company, data on trucks has been gathered. For a particular vehicle, the data
contains for regular time stamps its coordinates, its trailer, the jobs it is performing and other features such as
speed or orientation. Because of the typical large vehicle fleet size, the volume of resource data is difficult to
process and well though visualisation and statistics tools need to be developed.
Aims
This project aims to develop a visualisation tool for the truck operation resource data. The tool should include:
software components to retrieve data from a MySQL database
software components to filter the data based on different features (eg. time window, specific trucks, )
software component to visualise filtered data on a map
software component to output statistics on the selected data
a web-based graphical user interface to allow users to gather all above software components;
a software component able to trim the data without information loss. This will be valuable with respect
to the current large data volume.
Requirements
Understand truck operations and the dataset at hand

Design and implementation of the different software components using model-view-controller patterns.
This stage requires comparing different libraries for MVC software development
Design and implementation of a GUI (web-based). This stage requires comparing different libraries for
mapping data (eg. Google Maps) and outputting statistics
Required Skills
Strong programming skills, in web technologies (javascript, MySQL);

Interest in data visualisation.
Resources
Examples and tutorial for MVC libraries: http://todomvc.com/
93
Andrienko G, Andrienko, N and Wrobel, S. Visual Analytics tools for analysis of movement data.
ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter - Special issue on visual analytics. Vol 9(2). Pp. 38-46, 2007.
Available from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1345455
94
Explanations in Social Recommender Systems

DrNirmalieWiratunga,Reader,Computing,RGUn.wiratunga@rgu.ac.uk,
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/staff/nw/
Key Techniques and Skills
TextMining
RecommenderSystems
WebDevelopmentSkills
Javaprogramming
Background
Socialrecommendersystemshelpuserslocateattractiveandrelevantitemsbyanalysingsocial
content such as online product reviews. In recent years, recommender systems have come to
provide notonly a list ofrelevant contenttotheusersbut alsoexplanationsof why a specific
item is recommended. Some of the explanationsproposed inthe literature are average user
rating, neighbours ratings and histogram with grouping interface [4]. In this project we will
explorehowdifferentexplanationapproachesmightbeappliedtoimproverecommendation.In
particular, we generate explanations based on sentiment of the product aspects from online
product reviews. We analyse the influence of such explanations in recommendation and
evaluatetheeffectivenessoftheproposedexplanationsinasocialrecommendersystem.
Aim and Objectives

Theoverallaimistoexploretheapplicationofsentimentdrivenexplanationinsocialrecommender
systems.Projectobjectivesinclude:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tocarryoutasurveyonexplanationinrecommendersystems.
Developarecommendersystemusingmethodologyin[3].
Developsentimentdrivenexplanationsintherecommendersystem.
Comparethesentimentdrivenexplanationswithotherexistingexplanationapproachesin
topNrecommendationtask.
References
[1] Tintarev,N.,Masthoff,J.:Asurveyofexplanationsinrecommendersystems.In:Proceedings
ofthe2007IEEE23rdInternationalConferenceonDataEngineeringWorkshop,ICDEW07,
pp.801810.IEEEComputerSociety,Washington,DC(2007)
[2] Herlocker,J.L.,Konstan,J.A.,Riedl,J.T.,2000.Explainingcollaborativefiltering
recommendations.In:Proceedingsofthe2000ACMConferenceonComputerSupported
CooperativeWork(CSCW000),Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,USA,pp.241250.
NirmalieWiratunga
95
[3] YokeYieChen,XavierFerrer,NirmalieWiratunga,andEnricPlaza.Sentimentandpreference
guidedsocialrecommendation.InCaseBasedReasoningResearchandDevelopment,pages
7994.Springer,2014.
[4] Gedikli,F.,Jannach,D.,&Ge,M.(2014).HowshouldIexplain?Acomparisonofdifferent
explanationtypesforrecommendersystems.InternationalJournalofHumanComputer
Studies,72(4),367382.
NirmalieWiratunga
96
DataandTextAnalytics
DrNirmalieWiratunga
ReaderSchoolofComputingandDigital
Median.wiratunga@rgu.ac.uk
SocialMediaMining
Usingstateofthearttextminingalgorithmsyoucandevelopapplicationsthatallowalocal
authoritysuchastheAberdeenCityCounciltotracktheopinionsofpeopleonavarietyof
services.Forexamplebyanalysingtweetsgivenaperiodoftimeascertainwhethertheyenjoyed
thebonfirenight?Whattrafficsafetyproblemsarebeingidentifiedbypeopleandinwhichareas
ofthecity?
Todevelopsuchfunctionalityyouwillneedagoodgraspofprogrammingskillsandappreciation
ofcomputingalgorithms.Fromatechnologypointofviewyouhavetheflexibilitytodevelopthis
asawebormobileapplicationusingphp,javascriptorMongoDB.
DataMining
Analysingtrafficsafetyfromincidentstatistics.AllaccidentsandincidentsintheUKare
currentlybeingrecordedandmadeavailablepubliclythroughtheSATS19database.
Inthisprojectyourtaskistousethisdatabasetopresentavarietyofstatisticsaboutroadsafety
intheUK.Forinstanceyoucanfindoutwhatarethemostcommoncausesforreportedfatalities
bypedestrians,cyclistsorcars?Whichagegroups,modesoftransportappeartobemost
vulnerable?Whichareasreportthegreatestfatalitiesandwhatcanyouinferintermsofsocio
demographicdata?
Todevelopsuchanappyouwillneedtobepassionateaboutdatamining.Itwillalsobehelpful
togoodGUIskillsbecausethiswouldallowyoutopresenttrendsandstatisticsusingrelevant
datavisualisationtools.
RecommenderSystems
Muchoftheonlineretailindustrynowreliesonintelligentalgorithmstoassistonlineshoppers.
ConsiderpopularsitessuchasAmazon,TripAdvisororExpedia.Theseareallarichsourceofdata
fromwhichyoucandeliverusefulapps.Forinstancetherereviewsgeneratedbyusers,
descriptionsofproductsandinformationaboutwhichproductswereactuallypurchasedafter
viewingaspecificproduct.Couldyouforexampledevelopasystemthatcananalyseallreviews(in
agiventimewindows)foragivenproducttoextractallthepositiveandnegativereasonsdetailed
bycustomers?Oryoucouldextracttheviewedandpurchasedproductrelationshipstodrawa
graphtovisualisepeoplespurchasebehaviour.
Todevelopsuchfunctionalityyouneedtoappreciatetheneedfordataandtextminingand
haveverygoodprogrammingskillswithapassionforretrievalalgorithms.
NirmalieWiratunga
97
Improving the efficiency of kNN with PageRank

DrNirmalieWiratunga,Reader,Computing,RGU.
n.wiratunga@rgu.ac.uk,www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/staff/nw/
DataandTextMining
kNNandsimilaritymetrics
ExcellentProgrammingSkills
Background
PageRank is commonly used to identify authoritative nodes in graphs. Its most famous
applicationistherankingofdocumentsforGoogle.Thisalgorithmassignsanimportancescore
toanodeinadirectgraphbytakingintoaccounttheoutwardandinwardlinksofanode.The
Pagerank score of a node is proportional to the Pagerank scores of its incoming links and
inverselyproportionaltothescoresofitsoutgoinglinks.Thegeneralintuitionisthatnodesthat
areimportantwillhaveagreaterinfluenceonnodeslinkedtothem.Thealgorithmsisiterative
andapplicabletoanyformofdirectedgraph.
InthisprojectwewillexplorehowtheabovePagerankalgorithmmightbeappliedtoimprove
theefficiencyofakNNalgorithm.Forinstancewewillusethecompetencemodellingmetricsof
reachabilityandcoverageofacasetodefineitsinandoutlinks,andthenapplythePagerank
algorithmtoscorecases.Thesescorescanbeusedtoidentifythecorecases,therebyreducing
thenumberofpairwisecasecomparisonsatruntime.
Aim and Objectives

TheoverallaimistoexploretheapplicationofPageRankwithkNN
5.
6.
7.
8.
Tocarryoutasurveyoncompetencemodelling,kNNandPageRank.
DevelopthePageRankalgorithm.
Integratetheoutcomeof2withkNN.
ComparetheindexingmechanismswithothertraditionalkNNcasereductiontechniques.
References
Smyth,B.,McKenna,E.:Buildingcompactcompetentcasebases.InKlausDieterAlthoff,
RalphBergmann,andL.KarlBranting,editors,ProceedingsoftheSecondInternational
ConferenceonCaseBasedReasoningSpringer(1999)329342
Wiratunga,N.,Massie,S.,&Lothian,R.(2006).:UnsupervisedTextualFeatureSelection.8th
EuropeanConferenceonCaseBasedReasoning(ECCBR06),Springer,pp340354.
Brin, S. and Page, L. (1998) The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search
Engine. In: Seventh International World-Wide Web Conference (WWW 1998), April 14-18,
1998, Brisbane, Australia.
NirmalieWiratunga
98
Three Projects in Sentiment Analysis

DrNirmalieWiratunga,Reader,
Computing,RGU.
n.wiratunga@rgu.ac.uk,
www.comp.rgu.ac.uk/staff/nw/
Text/DataMining
Systemdevelopment,interfaceandintegration
ExcellentProgrammingSkills(e.g.Java)
Sentimentanalysisisarecentareaoftextminingdrivenbytheneedtounearthpatternsfrom
bothpositiveandnegativeuseropinionsonthesocialWeb[6].UnliketraditionalInformation
Retrievalandtextclassification,thefocusisnotontopic,butratheronthepolarity(positiveor
negative)andthestrengthofsentimentexpressed[7].
Vocabularyaloneisnotusuallyenoughtoreliablyassesssentimentandextractphrases.
Additionalinformation,suchaspartofspeech(POS)tags,grammaticalanalysistoidentify
negationtermsandlexicalvalenceshifterscanfurtherimproveperformanceonthistask.
Researchhasshownthatcertaintagsequencepatterns(e.g.centredontheadjectivetag)are
goodextractorsofsentimentrichphrases[8].Furthermore,therelevantpatternsforany
particulardomaincanbelearnedautomatically.Withsocialcontent,nonlexicaltermssuchas
emoticonsandhashtagscanalsobeexploited.Interestedstudentscanexploreprojectsinthe
followingdirections:
SentimentClassification:Developasentimentclassifierforanidentifiedthemeon
socialmedia(twitter,redditetc.)[1,2,5]
Project1.
Project2.
SentimentAspectExtraction:Developanalgorithmtoextractkeyaspectsfrom
userreviewsandgeneratesentimentovereachoftheseaspects.Asuitabledomain
mightbereviewsontripadvisor.[3,5]
Project3.
TwitterEmotionAnalysiswithDistanceSupervision:Explorehowemoticons
canbeutilisedtodevelopanemotionclassificationalgorithmforsocial
mediacontent.[4,5]
NirmalieWiratunga
99
References
1. Mukras,R.,Wiratunga,N.,&Lothian,R.SelectingBitagsforsentimentanalysisoftext.in
Procof27th
InternationalConfonInnovativeTechniquesandApplicationsofArtificialIntelligence,2007,
Springer.
2. F.Sebastiani.MachineLearninginAutomatedTextCategorization,ACMComputingSurveys,
34(1),2002.
3. MinqingHuandBingLiu."MiningandSummarizingCustomerReviews".Proceedingsof
the10thACMInternationalConferenceonKnowledgeDiscoveryandDataMining
(SIGKDD2004),Seattle,USA,August
2004.
4. AlecGo,RichaBhayani,LeiHuang.2009.TwitterSentimentClassificationusingDistant
Supervision.
TechnicalReport,Stanford
5. ChristopherD.Manning,PrabhakarRaghavanandHinrichSchtze,Introductionto
InformationRetrieval,CambridgeUniversityPress.2008.
http://nlp.stanford.edu/IRbook/informationretrievalbook.html
NirmalieWiratunga
100
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
ABookingSystemforArduinoComponents
DrMarkZarb
CST/CSTNM/Oil&GasstudentsONLY
Background
Arduinocomponents(suchasArduinoProMiniboards,LEDs,resistors,magnetometersandPIR
sensors)areusedinanumberofcontextsintheRGUundergraduateprogram:forexample,theyare
usedaspartoftheteachingfortheCM1016module,canberequestedforuseinHonoursprojects,
andcouldbetakenawaytoformanumberofworkshops(bothinternallyandexternally).
Currently,thereisnowaytotrackcomponentsortheirwhereabouts.
Aim
Thisprojectwouldbelookingatanumberofpotentialcheckoutsolutions(ideallysomekindof
website/database)whichwouldlistallthecomponentsandallowuserstocheckcomponentsout,
andreturnthem.Additionally,thesystemwouldbeabletosendoutperiodicremindersaskingusers
toreturntheircomponentsshouldtheybeurgentlyrequired,oraftertheyhavebeencheckedout
foracertainperiodoftime.
Skills Required
Anawarenessofprojectmanagement
Gatheringsystemrequirements
Aworkingknowledgeofimplementingwebanddatabasesystems
MarkZarb
101
Title
Supervisor
Suitability
AnApptoMonitorStockPrices
DrMarkZarb
Oil&Gasstudentsonly
Background
Currently,pricesforoilandgasareinastateofflux,andithasbeenrecentlyreportedthattheoil
pricehasdroppedtoitslowestpointforsixyears.
Aim
Thisprojectwouldinvolvethecreationofanapp(tabletorphone)whichwouldallowforeasy
monitoringofstockpricesforuserrequestedoil/gascompanies,aswellasotherinformation(e.g.
thecurrentpriceofcrudeoilandgas),ordisplaytheretrievedstockpricesasavisualisation/chart.
Itisexpectedthatthisprojectwouldinvolveanelementofexternalresearchwhichwouldallowthe
studenttodetermineareasthatwouldbenefitfrombeingmonitored,andanappropriate
implementationforthechosensystem.
(Thisprojectcouldalsoinvolveaseparateelementatthestart,dealingwithorganisingasetoffocus
groupswithpotentialusersofthisapp,toderivesystemrequirementsoruserstories.)
Skills Required
Anawarenessofprojectmanagement
Atechnicalabilityindevelopingappbasedsolutions(e.g.tablet/phone;OStbdbystudent)
Anunderstandingoftheoilandgasindustry
References
Anumberofdatasetsareavailableathttps://www.gov.uk/oilandgasukfielddata
MarkZarb
102
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
AFrameworktoImplementProgrammingConceptsinProcessing
DrMarkZarb
Anyone
Background
TheProcessinglanguageisoftenseenasabasictoolbuiltforvisualdesigncommunities,anditis
builtontheJavalanguage.Thisallowsinstructorstodemonstratemorecomplexcodewrittenwith
thissimpletool:withlittleeffort,conceptssuchasarrays,objectsandinheritancecanbe
demonstratedinProcessing.
Anumberofworkshopshavebeendeveloped,whichallowstudentstowritetheirowncode(e.g.
designingandcodingindividualfish,andanimatingthem).Onceallstudentscompletethistask,they
areaskedtoemailtheinstructorwiththeircode.Atthisstage,theinstructorthenwritesadditional
codetobringallthesecodesnippetstogether(e.g.allfishdesignedduringaworkshopareanimated
inanaquarium)however,thisrequirestheinstructortospendaconsiderableamountoftime
refactoringtheindividualcodehowever,thisisnotalwaysfeasible.
Aim
Thisprojectcantakeoneoftwoforms,dependingonstudentpreference.
1)Todesignandimplementaframeworktosupportthisprocessinasimplerway;
2)Todesignandimplementaseriesofworkshopswhichvisuallyengagelearnerswhilst
introducingcertainprogrammingconcepts.
Thisprojectmayrequiretheuseofacertaindegreeofusertestinginitsfinalstages.
Skills Required
Knowledgeofbasicandadvancedprogrammingtechniques(e.g.inheritanceandabstract
classes)
Knowledge/willingnesstolearntheProcessinglanguage
Anunderstandingofusertesting
Researchtechniques
MarkZarb
103
Title
Supervisor
Suitablefor
ASystemallowingPracticeofIntermediateLevelProgrammingConcepts
DrMarkZarb
Anyone
Background
Followinganinitialintroductiontoprogramming,studentsareoftenquicklyexposedtoanumberof
intermediatetechniqueswhichtheyfindtobemorecomplextounderstand(e.g.classstructure,
inheritance,abstractclasses,etc).
Aim
Thisprojectaimstofirstlyunderstandwhichconceptsstudentsstrugglewith,throughinterviews
andfocusgroups.Theknowledgederivedfromthisprocessshouldthenbetargetedinanadequate
solution.
Itiscurrentlyanticipatedthattheproposedsolutionwouldbeatutorialbasedsystem,however,
thisisaveryflexiblerequirement:theseconceptscouldbeintroducedinamoreabstractorpassive
way,forexample,throughdevelopmentofanapp,oragame.
Skills Required
Projectmanagement
Knowledgeofmorecomplexprogrammingtechniques(e.g.inheritanceandabstractclasses)
Anunderstandingofhowtogatheruserrequirements
Researchtechniques
MarkZarb
104
Title
Proposer
Supervisor
KnowledgeHubWebportal
IndependentDataServicesHoldingsPteLtdSingapore
ContactInsAranaforfurtherdetailsi.arana@rgu.ac.uk
Background
IndependentDataServices(IDS)deliverswebbaseddataandknowledgemanagementsolutionsto
theupstreamOilandGasIndustry.IDSspecialiseinReportingandAnalytics,whichisdrivenbyits
DataNetframework.DataNetiswebbasedandcanbeaccessedviaanyflashenabledwebbrowser.
AsanextensionofIDSservices,IDSwishtoaidtheirusersinlearninghowtonavigate,useandlearn
fromtheirtailoredIDSsolution.Thishasledtodiscussionsaroundthecreationofaknowledgehub
consistingoftrainingmaterials,glossariesandguides.Thiscontentmanagementsystem(CMS)should
interfacewiththeIDSsoftwareticketingsystemJira.
Aims
Toplan,designandimplementaknowledgeportalintegratedintheIDScustomerfacing
websitewhichisbasedonJoomla(othertechnologiesmayberecommendedwithsufficient
reasoningandrequirement).IDSatthispointhaslicensesforJoomla,ZenDesk,SugarCRM
andJIRA.Allthesetoolsshouldbeevaluatedandthemostfitforpurposeselectedasthe
managementtool
Objectives
Toplan,design,implement,testandevaluateaknowledgehubenvironment
Toinvestigate,designandimplementaninterfacewithJiraandZenDesk
Tocreateafeaturefutureroadmap
Tofullydocumenttheimplementedsystem
KeyTechniques
Keytechniquesmayvaryfromprojectmanagement,servicedelivery,softwaredevelopment,
softwareinterfacingand/orintegration,humancomputerinteractionconsiderationsand
advancedgraphicaluserinterfaceskills.
Notes
IDSwillprovideaccesstothecontentmanagementsystemthatistobeused.
IDSofficesandstaffcanbeusedtobrainstormideas,andworkontheprojectwithin
officehours.
IDSstandardsoftwareapplicationsshouldbeusedandwillbeprovided.
Note:ThisprojectwasobtainedbyInsArana,butasupervisorhasnotyetbeenassigned.
InsArana
105
Title
Proposer
Supervisor
DataManagementInvestigationonDataCompleteness
Background
IDScurrentlystoreitscustomersdataonhostedwebservers(viaanexternalcloud)andcan
accessallofthisinformationinordertoperformstatisticalanalysisandlearningfromitsvast
amountofdata.IDSrequireaninvestigationintohowcompletetheircustomersdatasets
are.
Aims
Investigate,analyseanddocumentfields,whicharecommonlycapturedintheIDSDataNet
suite.Findtrendsindatacaptureandinvestigatethedatasettofindtrendsthatarenot
alreadyknowntoIDSortheIndustry.Afullwriteupoftheinvestigationshouldbeprovided
toIDScontainingabreakdownoftechniquesused,results,andpossiblecompleteness
improvementmethods.
Objectives
ToanalysetheIDSDataNetsystemtofinddatacompletenessissues
ToinvestigateandcomparedatacompletenessacrossanumberofIDScustomers
Tofullydocumenttheinvestigation
Todocumentpossibledatacompletenessandproductusabilityimprovements
ADDITIONAL:Todesign,implement,testandevaluateasoftwareapplicationthatcan
berunonanyIDSproducttodeterminethecompletenessofdatawithinitsown
realm.
KeyTechniques
Keytechniquesmayvaryfromstatisticalanalysis,databasequerying,softwaredevelopment,
datamanagementreview,datamodellingandprojectmanagement.
Notes
IDSwillprovideaccesstotheDataNetapplicationastoinvestigatethesuite
officehours.
InsArana
106
Title
Proposer
Supervisor
EcommercesolutionIDSMarketplace
Background
CurrentlyIDSTechnicalstaffmanuallycreatetailoredsolution(web)sitesforeachclient.
IDSrequireaninvestigationintothecreationofanecommercemarketplaceenvironment
whereclientscanselfserviceandautoimplementaworkingsolution.
Aims
Investigateanddevelopanecommerceenvironmentwhereuserscanselectcapabilities,apricing
planandautoimplementaworkingsolutionconsistingofIDSsDataNetreportingandanalytic
capabilities.
Objectives
Toinvestigatecurrentandemergingecommercetechnologies
Selectmostappropriatetechnology(ies)
Design,developandtestaprototypeecommercesystemthatcanautobuildaworking
DataNet2solutionfromuserselectioncapabilities.
Fullydocumenttheinvestigationanddevelopment
KeyTechniques
Techniquesinclude,butnotlimitedas:
Technologyreview
Softwareprototypedesign,developmentandtesting
ProjectManagement
Notes
officehours.
InsArana
107
Title
Proposer
Supervisor
DrillNetDataValidationAnInvestigation
Background
ThereiscurrentlylimitedvalidationinplacewithintheIDSDataNetsolutions,therefore
relyingontheusertobeaccuratewhenenteringdata.IDSrequireaninvestigationinto
possiblevalidationmethodsthatwouldimprovethedataaccuracy,andfinaldataintegrity.
Aims
InvestigateanddocumentvalidationmethodsintheIDSDataNetenvironmenttoimprovefinaldata
quality&integrity
Objectives
ReviewandanalysisofIDSDataNetenvironmenttoidentifyopportunitiesforapplying
datavalidation
Makerecommendationsbasedoninvestigationforintroductionofdatavalidation
methodsintoIDSDataNetsolutions.
Fullydocumenttheinvestigation
KeyTechniques
Techniquesinclude,butnotlimitedas:
Datavalidationmethods/techniques
Softwaredesign,developmentandtesting
ProjectManagement
Notes
officehours.
IDSstandardsoftwareapplicationsshouldbeusedandwillbeprovidedasnecessary.
InsArana

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MSc Project Portfolio Spring 2015

For all 2014/2015 MSc cohorts

Instructions for completing the Project Choice

1. If you have an agreed project and supervisor, then you do

MSc Project Choice Form

MSc Project Proposal

Key Words: Data visualisation, data analysis.

Strong programming skills.

TIBCO Spotfire http://spotfire.tibco.com/ [ accessed 29/8/2014]

An OilSim support tool

OilSim Software page http://www.nexttraining.net/immersive-learningprograms/OilSim.aspx [accessed 24/04/2015]

A program to play Mancala games

Robin Boswell (r.boswell@rgu.ac.uk)

Game-playing, minimax search.

Information retrieval from a music database

Robin Boswell (r.boswell@rgu.ac.uk)

To investigate techniques for storing and retrieving tunes.

Project assignment tool using network flow optimisation

Robin Boswell (r.boswell@rgu.ac.uk)

Optimisation problems, minimum cost network flow, task allocation

Project assignment is therefore a domain in

o Input all the data related to projects, staff and students.

There are a number of

other features which would make the tool more useful.

A further constraint on project assignment is the need to balance staff supervision

There is a trade-off between giving as many students as possible a project occurring

Note that the above points are only suggestions.

A detailed specification would be

A User-Based Research Experiment System

Each of the 16 dice has specific letters attached to them

Creating A Website from Wikipedia

Visualisation of European Energy Data

Prices of natural gas and electricity by country

BSc Project Proposal

Supervisor: Dr. Eyad Elyan, e.elyan@rgu.ac.uk , Extension 2737

Key Techniques: Machine vision, image processing, machine learning

BSc Project Proposal

Supervisor: Dr. Eyad Elyan, e.elyan@rgu.ac.uk , Extension 2737

Figure 1. Different perspective views of a 3D human body model

BSc Project Proposal

Supervisor: Dr. Eyad Elyan, e.elyan@rgu.ac.uk , Extension 2737

Key Techniques: Machine vision, image processing, machine learning

UXLabs MSc project ideas 2015

These are five externally sponsored projects, co-ordinated by Dr Ayse Goker.

Interactive Query Expansion

Developing a robust model of query reformulation

A language for search and discovery

Multi modal search

Evaluation and Cognitive Modelling

This project cannot be assigned to students from the

1. To investigate how CogTool can be used to evaluate user interfaces.

2. To implement a user interface in CogTool and describe relevant tasks.

3. To design a heuristic evaluation questionnaire.

4. To collect user evaluation data using CogTool and the questionnaire.

5. To statistically analyse the relationship between CogTool and questionnaire data.

For further information please email the supervisor: j.r.r.golovine@rgu.ac.uk

MSc Project Proposal

A Customer Relations Management System

Key Techniques: VB.NET development, Customer Relations Management (CRM), Database

Investigate the use of the customer relations management as a means of marketing

Develop a prototype CRM system.

Test and evaluate the system with a sample end-users

Write appropriate technical documentation.

ASCII Map Parser