Mona El-Kadi Rizvi

A Novel Approach to Reduce Traffic Chaos in Emergency and Evacuation Scenarios

This paper proposes a novel chaos reducing information dissemination approach for spatio-temporal traffic information related to first responders and evacuation scenarios using Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs). In our approach, we provide an emergency vehicle path clearing technique. Therefore, traffic confusion and chaos is lowered on evacuation and emergency vehicle routes. Simulation results show that our approach works efficiently without fully relying on any message relaying infrastructure.

A Traffic Chaos Reduction Approach for Emergency Scenarios

This paper proposes an efficient chaos-reducing information dissemination approach for spatiotemporal traffic information related to first responders and planned evacuation scenarios using vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). VANETs have recently been proposed as one of the promising ad-hoc networking techniques that can be used to provide a safe and enjoyable driving experience. In our approach, we provide an emergency vehicle path clearing technique, and real-time resource (e.g. shelter) availability information. Therefore, traffic confusion and chaos is lowered on evacuation and emergency vehicle routes. Simulation results show that our approach works efficiently without fully relying on any message relaying infrastructure.

Work in progress — BINX: A 3D XNA educational game for engineering education

This paper focuses on the design and implementation of an educational game for deployment on the Xbox 360 commercial game console. Video games can be extremely powerful and effective learning tools when deployed with methodical precision. Currently, no learning tools are available for commercial consoles that focus on teaching core concepts in Engineering. This work presents an overall design for an educational adventure game (BINX) to address Number Systems and their arithmetic operations in Digital Logic Design; a core course is Electrical and Computer Engineering programs. The paper also presents, in detail, the design and implementation of the first sublevel of the game.

A new CS0 course for at-risk majors

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that approximately 175,100 software engineering jobs will be created between 2008 and 2018. In order to fill these positions, new computer scientists, who enjoy and are competent in the art of programming and software design, must be trained. Computer science departments must look for novel approaches to attract non-traditional students, i.e. women and minorities, to the major, in order to fill the positions predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, although computer science enrollment has increased in the freshman and sophomore levels over the past few years, computer science departments are still faced with identifying new approaches to teaching programming that will retain students, particularly if some of them have weak mathematics backgrounds and are placed directly in CS1. In this paper, a study to determine the effectiveness of a CS0 course using Scratch for improving the retention, the performance and the attitudes of at-risk majors is discussed. Initial assessments associated with the study indicate that students of the target group who program using Scratch have a high degree of perceived self-efficacy with respect to their programming abilities. Furthermore, results to date indicate that the originally at-risk students in the study went on to successfully complete CS1 with a passing rate of 74% compared to a 39% passing rate in CS1 by the students who had sufficiently high mathematics scores upon entry into the university.

Radar - A Novel Admission Control and Handoff Management Scheme for Multimedia Leo Satellite Networks

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks are deployed as an enhancement to terrestrial wireless networks in order to provide broadband services to users regardless of their location. In addition to ensuring global coverage, LEO satellite systems support communications with hand-held devices and offer low-cost access, making them promising platforms for military communications and for personal communication services (PCS). The main contribution of this work is to propose RADAR - refined admission detecting absence region - a novel call admission control and handoff management scheme for multimedia LEO satellite networks. A key ingredient in our scheme is a companion predictive bandwidth allocation strategy that exploits the topology of the network and contributes to maintaining high bandwidth utilization. The performance of RADAR is compared to that of three recent schemes proposed in the literature. Simulation results show that our scheme offers a very low call dropping probability, providing for reliable handoff of on-going calls, as well as a low call blocking probability for new call requests, while still ensuring high bandwidth utilization.

Common data security network (CDSN)

We present the idea of using a separate network that processes and enforces security in a data network. We briefly discuss various components of such a network, called common data security network (CDSN). We use the example of the IEEE 802.11i to determine one of the link level metrics of the proposed network, the fractional overhead for IEEE 802.1X and temporal key integrity protocol (TKIP).