MS Thesis Defense

distratto: Real-time Impaired Driving Detection Using Multiple Textile and Inertial Sensors

Tsu An Chen

1:00-3:00pm Tuesday, 23 December 2014, ITE 341

Statistical data shows that driving-related accidents and human casualties caused by vehicles are on the rise in the US and globally. Most of these accidents are cause by impaired or distracted driving. Existing systems that detect impaired driving use cameras that perform eye and head tracking and do not capture full-body movements that are indicative of dangerous driving. To address this problem, in this thesis we present a system, distratto, that uses capacitive textile sensors embedded into car seats, headrests, and arm rests to capture whole body motion, and inertial and GPS sensors for determining vehicle speed and turns. Using a combination of these sensors and a tiered signal processing algorithm, we infer attributes that are indicative of impaired driving. We have developed a fully functional prototype of distratto that we evaluate in a real vehicle setting. We show that our system can detect impaired driving instances and driver movements with high accuracy.

Committee: Drs. Nilanjan Banerjee (chair), Ryan Robucci, Chintan Patel

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for Summer 2015 admissions to our BIOLOGY Research Experiences for Undergraduates at the American Museum of Natural History.  Details about the program can be found on our website: http://www.amnh.org/our-research/richard-gilder-graduate-school/academics-and-research/fellowship-and-grant-opportunities/undergraduate-fellowships

To apply, please go to our application website: https://myrggs.amnh.org/Applicant/ApplyOnline_Login.aspx.  Please note that the application deadline for BIOLOGY REU admission is January 30, 2015.

 Please contact Maria Rios at mrios@amnh.org if you need any further information.

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014 bill was passed by Congress this month and signed by the President at the end of last week. The bill provides for “an ongoing, voluntary public-private partnership to improve cybersecurity, and to strengthen cybersecurity research and development, workforce development and education, and public awareness and preparedness, and for other purposes.”

The bill formalizes the role of the National Institute for Standards and Technology in continuing to develop the voluntary Cybersecurity Framework. It includes provisions to promote cybersecurity research, private/public sector collaboration on cybersecurity, education and awareness and technical standards, which includes a federal cloud computing strategy. It also directs NSF to continue the Federal Cyber Scholarship-for-Service program under which recipients agree to work in the cybersecurity mission of a federal, state, local, or tribal agency for a period equal to the length of their scholarship.

Name: Mike Alksnis

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Maryland Disability Law Center | Title of Your Position: Nursing Facilities Project Intern

Major(s)/Minor(s): Social Work

Expected Graduation Year: December 2014

Briefly describe your internship, co-op, research, or service-learning opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

At MDLC, I have enjoyed working with clients and their families to reduce cases of unnecessary institutionalization in nursing facilities, and to ensure the safety, health, independence, and full community integration of clients seeking to make transitions into their own homes. It has been a pleasure to work with the Sunshine Folk, a group of advocates and former nursing facility residents, in pursuit of the same goal. I have also closely followed the development and implementation of Maryland’s Community First Choice (CFC) program, which strives to make these transitions possible for all eligible Maryland residents. I have had the privilege of helping to draft correspondence to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene explaining MDLC’s viewpoint on numerous CFC matters, and have participated in a similar project in cooperation with a State Senator. I have also worked closely with self-advocating CFC participants to help maximize the impact of their voice on the development of the program’s regulations. The staff at MDLC have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome and to create a quality educational experience for me throughout my internship. I could not have asked for a better place to learn as an aspiring social worker!

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I was connected to my internship at MDLC by UMBC's undergraduate social work program for my field placement, which began in September 2013. Due to MDLC's satisfaction with my performance on the job throughout the 2013-2014 academic year, I was offered a paid 10-week internship over the following summer. I gladly accepted the offer and continued my work in the nursing facilities project through mid-July.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?

Faculty Connections, UMBC BSW Program

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

The most enjoyable part of my experience at MDLC was the privilege of being allowed to work on projects which interested me. I expressed an interest in advocacy, community organizing, policy, and social justice during my interview in the summer of 2013. MDLC responded by graciously constructing an internship experience that was catered to fostering professional growth in these areas. As a result, I have become more aware of my potential to succeed in specific roles as a future social worker.

What have you gained from your experience that you could not have gained from another opportunity?

If it were not for MDLC, I would not have become so attuned to the ways in which people with disabilities continue to be oppressed by social and political forces which diminish their dignity, independence, community integration, right to self-determination, and even their health and safety. Due to this internship experience, I recognize there is a far-reaching need for the advancement of the civil rights and human rights of people with disabilities in Maryland and across the US and beyond.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

I would offer to another student the same advice that was given to me by faculty in UMBC's undergraduate social work program -- if there is a particular type of person that you are disinclined to want to work with, work with them. In other words, get an internship working with a population that you are not interested in working with. There is a very high probability that your perceptions about the group will be challenged and forever changed. There is even a good chance you will discover that you actually enjoy working with that population. Until we have exposed ourselves to the experience, we are relying on preconceptions and biases, which tend to be false. We cannot know how we will function in a particular type of career setting until we give it a try, and there is no better time to conduct such an experiment with yourself than during an internship as a college student, before you have decided on a career path.

Congratulations on graduating! #UMBCgrad

CSEE’s Marie desJardins is currently collaborating with Maryland educators and researchers for the NSF-funded CS10K Teacher Training Project. The project seeks to change how computer science is taught by high school teachers. Researchers work together with high school teachers to craft new curricula for high school computer science programs. This project is unique in that actual high school teachers are creating the new curricula, rather than professional curriculum writers. The CS10K Maryland Project team includes faculty from UMCP, as well as high school teachers from Charles County and Baltimore County.

The CS10K team has facilitated the creation of “a complete curriculum package for a new College Board Advanced Placement (AP) course called CS Principles.” Originally, the goal of the CS10K team was to train 10,000 teachers to teach computer science in 10,000 schools nationwide. The project has been revised to reflect its new goal of training teachers in all U.S. schools.

In academia there is a growing concern that females–as well as minorities and those with disabilities–are being repeatedly discouraged from pursuing programming in high school. Professor desJardins is trying to change this by directing the CS Matters in MD Project. (CS Matters in MD is part of the larger, NSF-supported initiative known as CS 10K.)

“I believe that CS should be included throughout the K-12 curriculum as a set of basic skills and knowledge for today’s world,” desJardins said. “All citizens of the 21st century, especially the next generation of knowledge workers, will benefit greatly from learning about computational thinking and the problem-solving skills that are a core part of computer science.”

In addition, desJardins explains that, “We need to expand the pool of available workers to fill the many computing-related jobs that our economy demands, and in order to be sure that the technology we develop is robust and useful, we need to increase the diversity of the computer scientists who take those jobs.  To meet these goals, we must broaden our notion of what it means to teach computer science (beyond just teaching coding skills), and we must reach a broader audience at an earlier age.  Our ‘CS Matters in Maryland’ project is particularly focused on creating appealing and engaging curriculum materials for the newly announced AP CS Principles course, and on training teachers to deliver this material effectively to a diverse population of learners.”

More information about CS Matters in Maryland and the CS10K Project can be found here.

UMBC’s Imaging Research Center is looking for student programmers to assist in ongoing projects. Current projects range from websites to mobile apps. Such projects include web based panorama viewer, working with Unity to develop mobile apps, developing a web based story sharing social network, developing a image archive/gallery, and more. Projects are assigned as seen fit. Work will begin in January 2015.

Do you enjoy programming challenges? Do you enjoy learning new skills? Are you passionate about writing software that could potentially be used by thousands of users daily? If so, this is a great opportunity for you.

Duties:

• Maintain existing projects from websites to mobile apps
• Develop web based solutions
• Develop mobile based solutions
• Assist in ongoing projects
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements:

• Ability to program in C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Java, Python
• Knowledge of web technologies: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Php, MySQL
• Quick learner
• Able to work well in groups
• Excellent troubleshooting skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Available to work up to 20 hours a week during the semester and up to 40
  hours a week during the summer
• Active UMBC student.

Desires:

• Major in Computer Science or other related field
• Experience with the HTML5 <canvas> tag and/or WebGL is a plus
• Experience developing iOS/Android apps is a plus
• Experience with Unity and/or Unreal is a plus
• Experience with UNIX/Linux is a plus
• Experience with git, svn, or other revision control systems is a plus

Submit resumes by email to Mark Jarzynski, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. Please provide an example of a programming project that you were passionate about.

Mark Jarzynski, Technical Director / Programmer, Imaging Research Center, UMBC, ITE 101G, 410-455-1498