Thesis/Project Final Defense Schedule
Join us as the School of STEM master’s degree candidates present their culminating thesis and project work. The schedule is updated throughout the quarter, check back for new defenses.
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Master of Science in Computer Science & Software Engineering
WINTER 2025
Monday, February 24
SHIVAM GANESH PAWAR
Chair: Dr. Brent Lagesse
Candidate: Master of Science in Computer Science & Software Engineering
11:00 A.M.; UW2 (Commons Hall) Room 327
Project: Spy-Shield: Hidden Wi-Fi Camera Detection through Light Manipulation and Traffic Analysis
Wi-Fi cameras are optical devices which can record/stream a video of a scene to a remote device. The term ’Wi-Fi’ indicates that they can be directly accessed over the internet. Advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) has made it easier for them to be small and affordable. These devices are wireless, easy to install, and can stream video in real time, making them popular for security and monitoring purposes. However, these cameras has raised serious concerns about privacy infringement. These discreet devices facilitate clandestine surveillance and are difficult to detect manually. This raises privacy concerns for third-party occupants, such as a guest in a hotel room who may not be aware of the deployed spy cameras. According to current methods of detecting hidden cameras, by analyzing the responsive Wi-Fi traffic flow, the detection accuracy is approximately 97%-99%. However, Wi-Fi cameras can intentionally cause delays in data transmission to avoid real-time correlations between the environment and the Wi-Fi transmission. To address this challenge specifically, Spy-Shield presents a delay-proof method for detecting Wi-Fi cameras. Spy-Shield builds on the research of Dr. Brent Lagesse in the field of “Detecting Streaming Wireless Cameras with Timing Analysis”. Using environmental light manipulation and machine learning algorithms, Spy-Shield looks for a causality between patterns in observable Wi-Fi traffic and a predetermined pattern of light flashing (signature). The proposed detection methodology can successfully discover hidden Wi-Fi cameras with an accuracy rate of 97.5%, even with a stream delay. Notably, this approach can detect without requiring connection to the same Wi-Fi network or prior knowledge of the camera’s location.
Wednesday, February 26
Austin M. Yao
Chair: Dr. Kelvin Sung
Candidate: Master of Science in Computer Science & Software Engineering
5:45 P.M.; Join Austin M. Yao’s Online Defense
Project: Infinite 2D Map Generation with Nested Wave Function Collapse
Procedural Content Generation (PCG) enables scalable, dynamic virtual worlds by automating the creation of game assets such as textures, maps, and environments. Among PCG techniques, 2D map generation, particularly for expansive, continuously generated worlds, stands out as a critical application, balancing functional design and visual coherence to shape gameplay experiences. The Wave Function Collapse (WFC) algorithm is particularly suited for this task, offering strengths in constraint satisfaction and the ability to expand small input samples into diverse, coherent outputs. This project investigated variations of WFC to identify those most suitable for real-time scalability and result coherency. This project implements a hybrid WFC design that combines a lightweight process developed by “Game Dev Garnet” for efficient runtime, a hierarchical structure from “Y. Nie” et al. for the on-demand generation, dynamic weighting as implemented by “ChrisHanna” for map content control, and important visual variables as used by “M. Kleineberg” for map aesthetics.
Additionally, the system integrates an efficient User-Controlled Travel System, enabling dynamic content assembly through weighted tile controls and real-time adjustments. The results from this project provide four key accomplishments: 1) supporting efficient infinite 2D map generation in real-time, 2) enabling designers to influence map design through weight control on tiles, 3) showcasing the impact of tile variation and decoration on map aesthetics, and 4) providing guidelines for tile and fallback tile design to maintain map coherence. Although the project demonstrates WFC’s ability to create seamless and diverse maps, challenges encountered included backtracking inefficiencies and computational overhead. These challenges serve as a reference for future investigations into 2D infinite map generation.
Thursday, February 27
JOHN FISCHER
Chair: Dr. Kelvin Sung
Candidate: Master of Science in Computer Science & Software Engineering
3:30 P.M.; Join John Fischer’s Online Defense
Project: A Reusable Inventory System
Video Games which commonly need an Inventory system use them to satisfy specific requirements for a set of mechanics. These systems can be complex due to the mechanics, their item data management, and the nuances of the game engine that they are developed for. The common game mechanic functionality of adding, removing, and swapping items, along with data management for them, is shared across many different Inventory Systems. Identification of these similarities highlights the potentials for their reuse. The focus of this work was to create a unified and coherent interface to reduce the inherent complexity of Inventory Systems by providing a generic software module that can perform the common game mechanics and manage related item data.
Numerical, Allocated, and Spatial (NAS) categorizations were adopted for Inventory Systems which allowed for common vocabulary, game mechanics, and logical requirements to be established related to the multitude of implementations available. Design guidelines were established to focus the direction of the implementation efforts that were organized through an outlined scope. The initial approach was to create a backend independent of game engine functions, which would be consumed by a frontend to instantiate the display and manage user input.
Verification of the success of the interface throughout the development process was accomplished by explicit demonstrations. The item data management, NAS common functionality and unique restrictions were used to confirm the working backend. The frontend game engine portion was verified by having visual displays that a user could interact with for each of the NAS categorizations as well as a combination of them. The generic software module, to use as the foundation of an Inventory System, was successfully created using the backend and frontend specific API approach. Future work considerations could include incorporating 3D Spatial configurations, providing specific examples on how to add niche mechanics, and generalizations for logic implementation requirements for any game engine frontend.
Monday, March 3
WILLIAM SHEN HAO
Chair: Dr. Min Chen
Candidate: Master of Science in Computer Science & Software Engineering
11:00 A.M.; Join William Shen Hao’s Online Defense
Project: Extending the Algorithm and Enhancing the User Interface of a Rhyme Detection Application for English Rap Lyrics
Rhyme is a key component in hip-hop music. Over the course of the genre, it has evolved from simple patterns such as end rhymes to more complex internal and multisyllabic rhymes. Although it is possible to highlight rhymes in lyrics by hand, this project demonstrates that an automated system for highlighting rhymes is useful for helping people understand the role of rhyme in rap music. Survey results also indicate that automatic rhyme detection aids in lyric composition. Most existing literature focuses on simpler rhyme patterns whereas research on more complex rhyme types tends to focus on lyric generation instead of detection. This project uses one of the few published works that detect more complex rhyme patterns and extends the application’s algorithm to detect a different rhyme type. It also makes improvements to usability, primarily by migrating the application from a Java GUI to a deployed website with a Spring Boot server and a React frontend. A usability survey was conducted with participants of varying amounts of background knowledge on the hip-hop music genre and responses are generally favorable. Further improvements can be made to the usability of the website, including increasing the load that the website is able to handle. Future work also includes highlighting identical patterns with the same color and making another extension to the algorithm.