Our next talk:
Middlebury College
Department of Computer Science Seminar
COMPUTER SCIENCE THESIS SEMINARS
Tuesday, April 28
MBH 538
3:00 PM
Reconstructing 3D Surface Models from 2D Cross-Sectional Images
Alan Lim '09
The problem of recreating the bounding surface of a solid object from a serial collection of parallel planar cross-sections has been one of great interest and intrigue during the past few decades, with applications in such fields as medical imaging and GIS. This talk will introduce a simplified version of this problem in two dimensions, and present an in-depth discussion of triangulation methods used to solve it.
3:30 PM
How Firefighters Sell their Cookies
Hiba Fakhoury '09
Linear programming is a mathematical tool for optimally allocating limited resources to competing activities. On a fire scene, a linear programming model allows us to allocate firefighters to do certain tasks such as fire suppression, while minimizing the time spent doing these tasks in order to ensure safety. As a volunteer firefighter, however, I know that in the department we appreciate good food as much as keeping our town safe. During my presentation, I will demonstrate how linear programming, and particularly the simplex method, is used to solve a simple fundraiser problem where firefighters have to determine how many burgers and cookies to sell to college students so they can buy a new thermal imaging camera.
4:00 PM
The Multi-Core Phenomenon: Sorting in an Increasingly Parallel World
Kofi Appiah
'09
As the "gigahertz war" comes to an end, the computer industry has turned to increasing the number of processors instead of their speeds as a way to increase performance. A quick look at the progress of this movement reveals a tendency for CPU design to mimic modern GPU design and vice versa. This progression from single to multiple processors requires new ideas and methods to utilize systems efficiently. With this in mind, we investigate a problem common to all systems, sorting, and use its example to try to understand the workings of parallel systems. We also examine the costs and benefits of adapting algorithms to take advantage of highly parallel systems like modern GPUs and possibly future CPUs like Sony's Cell and Intel's Larrabee architectures.
Wednesday, April 29
MBH 538
3:00 PM
Machine Translation
Ling Fang '09
The field of machine translation is almost as old as modern computers. What approaches are taken by computers in orders to process and translate human languages? This talk will answer this question by introducing two machine translation models: the traditional transfer-based model and the modern statistical model. The talk will also explore the strengths and weaknesses of these models.
3:30 PM
Analysis and Detection of Fast-Flux Service Networks
Ernest Russell '09
A botnet is a distributed network of computers infected by malware that enables its “owner” to engage in quasi-anonymous malicious activities. Certain botnets implement fast-flux service networks with quickly changing IP addresses that serve to hide the controller’s identity. In this talk I will discuss the tell-tale characteristics of fast-flux service networks and outline a system for effectively detecting and handicapping such networks. I will demonstrate the overwhelming success of such a detection system when combined with a classification algorithm, and show that the fast-flux approach can be mitigated since the IP addresses of individual bots may be accurately mapped and subsequently blacklisted.
~Refreshments Provided~
All are welcome to attend!
This event is sponsored by the Computer Science Department.