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
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 for efficient runtime [15], a hierarchical structure for on-demand generation [14], dynamic weighting for map content control [16], and visual variables for map aesthetics [18]. Additionally, the system integrates an efficient User-Controlled Travel System, enabling dynamic content assembly through weighted tile controls and real-time adjustments. While the project demonstrates WFC’s ability to create seamless and diverse maps, challenges such as backtracking inefficiencies and computational overhead highlight areas for future optimization. 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. These findings serve as a reference example for future investigations into 2D infinite map generation, contributing to the broader understanding of WFC’s practical applications.
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.