Notice: This is the legacy/internal computer science site. Content on this page may be out of date.
For current information, please visit our main public web site.
For current information, please visit our main public web site.

Student Research Projects
Many students complete independent research projects in computer science under the supervision of a facultuy member. Often these are undertaken over the summer, or they may be completed during the academic year as a special studies or honors thesis. Funding for these projects comes from a variety of sources. If you are a student interested in working on a research project, it is best to speak as soon as possible to the faculty member you wish to work with.
Below is a list of some recent student projects. Since 2008 students have also documented their research project on the departmental Wiki pages. Click on the links (where available) to find more information on each project, or write to the student or advisor.
Name | Year | Topic |
---|---|---|
Tiffany Liu | Fall 2011 | Circuit Design on FPGA using VHDL |
Jennie Sadler | Fall 2011 | Distance Transfor on a GPU |
Emma Dalton | 2010-11 | Writer Identification for Syriac Scribes |
Julia Burns | Summer 2011 | Syriac Handwriting Recognition |
Bismita Sahu | Summer 2011 | Exploring the Kinect |
Andrea Bancila | Summer 2011 | Syriac Document Database Project |
Katie Park, Julia Patterson | Spring 2011 | 3D Animation |
Betsy Cowdery, Lindsey Gregor, Aigerim Karabekova | Spring 2011 | Smith Walks! |
Julia Burch | Spring 2011 | Mobile and Locative Computing |
Steph Annessi, Katie Lipow, Hiwot Kassaye, Morgan Augillard | Spring 2011 | Solid-Coloring Objects Built from 3D Bricks |
Millie Walsh, Janet Guo, Julia Burch | Fall 2010 | General Programming on GPU |
Katie Park, RB Axtell | Fall 2010 | 3D Animation |
Aliyah Bilal-Gore, Katherine Starer | 2010-11 | Socially Aware Computing and Intelligent Garments |
Yang Li | 2010-11 | Fixing Gaps in Protein Data Using Inverse Kinematics |
Angela Tosca | 2010-11 | Limits of Computation under the Turing Machine Model |
Elizabeth Do | 2010-11 | Analytics and Art |
Alex Cheng, Angela Zhu, Kaitlin Sumers, Gillian Riggs, Becca Mackley, RB Axgtell, Makana Hirose | Spring 2010 | The Sundial Project |
Yonit Boursany, Leah Karker, Leona Sparaco | Spring 2010 | Sweeping Shapes |
Nikki Maller | Spring 2010 | Speech Bubbles |
Kelly Dwan | Spring 2009 | 3D Visualization of 2D Brain Scans |
Allie Bellew | 2007-08 | Wikipedia, the untold story |
Clarissa Chan | 2007-08 | Transcribing Medieval Latin Manuscripts |
Tessa Taylor | 2007-08 | Transcribing Medieval Latin Manuscripts |
Sara Smith | 2006-07 | Science of Computer Games |
Hallie Applebaum | 2006-07 | Human Motion Studies |
Krystal Collier | 2006-07 | Evaluating Human Motion |
Lauren Kvalheim | Summer 2006 | Motion capture |
Stephanie Gibbons | Summer 2006 | Genetic Algorithms for Pose Optimization |
Jordan Crouser | Summer 2006 | Genetic Algorithms for Pose Optimization |
Constance Baltera | Summer 2006 | Bayes and HMM nets and Pd |
Sara Smith | Summer 2006 | Pd's Gem and motion observation algorithms |
Frances Bell | 2005-06 | A startup model for a campus textbook action Web-based business |
Nadia Benbernou | 2005-06 | The MaxSpan of Fixed-Angle Polygonal Chains |
Gillian Brunet | 2005-06 | Random Rhomboid Objects |
Natalie Krumdieck | 2005-06 | Random Rhomboid Objects |
Rebecca Tramel | 2005-06 | Random Rhomboid Objects |
Jacob Last (UMass) | Summer 2005 | Reinforcement Learning and Granular Sound |
Gillian Brunet | Summer 2005 | 3D Printing and 3D Modelling |
Samri Gebre | Summer 2005 | Protein Folding and 3D Printing |
Stephanie Jakus | Summer 2005 | D-Forms and the Knight's Visor |
Diana Larry | Summer 2005 | 3D Printing and 3D Modelling |
Duc Nguyen | Summer 2005 | D-Forms and the Knight's Visor |
Nell O'Rourke | Summer 2005 | Pop-up Cards as a Vehicle to Teach Mathematics |
Ana Spasova | Summer 2005 | Pop-up Cards as a Vehicle to Teach Mathematics |
Faith Weller | Summer 2005 | Pop-up Cards as a Vehicle to Teach Mathematics |
Meghan Irving | 2004-05 | 3D Printing |
Patricia Cahn | 2004-05 | Unfolding Dome Polyhedra |
Gail Parsloe, UMass | 2004-05 | Pop-up card design |
Meldoy Donoso | Summer/Fall 2004 | Reinforcement Learning and Rhythm Improvisation |
Gretchen Miller | Summer 2004 | Genetic Algorithms for Beat Scheduling |
Krystal Locke | Summer 2004 | Recurrent Neural Networks for Melody Prediction |
Tam Le | Summer 2004 | Clustering Algorithms in Python |
Bethany Andres-Beck | Summer 2004 | 3D Appearance models of Human Subjects |
Clarissa Padilla | Summer 2004 | Annotating Human Activity |
Gail Parsloe | Summer 2004 | Web page design; Generating random brick objects. |
Patricia Cahn | Summer 2004 | Unfolding smooth convex objects: cones & prismatoids. |
Nadia Benbernou | Summer 2004 | Unfolding smooth convex objects: cones & prismatoids. |
Molly Miller | Summer 2004 | Models of locked cylindrical links; vertex unfolding toy. |
Meghan Irving | Summer 2004 | Models of locked cylindrical links; vertex unfolding toy. |
Aye Thuzar | Summer 2003 | Interactive Java applet for polyhedron unfolding |
Christina Ferreri | Summer 2003 | Java applets and Illustrator figures |
Sasha Berkoff | Summer 2003 | Mathematica design of objects built from bricks |
Kristin Baldassaro | Summer 2003 | Web page design with php and MySql |
Asten Buckles | Summer 2003 | Javaview for objects built from bricks |
Jinghau Fan | Summer 2003 | Interactive Java applet for polyhedron unfolding |
Jessica McCartney | Summer 2003 | Pantographs to Pop-ups: The Engineering of Folding |
Shawna King | Summer 2003 | Pantographs to Pop-ups: The Engineering of Folding |
Megan Guberski | Summer 2002 | Back Propagation Neural Network Development |
Melissa Utzinger | Summer 2002 | Efficient Architecture of Artificial Neural Networks |
Liz Laverty | Summer 2002 | Hardware Interfaces and Software Tools for Computer Music |
Heather Dyson | Summer 2002 | The Foldings of a Square to Convex Polyhedra |
Emily Zaehring | Summer 2002 | Vertex-Unfolding: Virtual and Physical Implementation |
Becky Alexander | Summer 2002 | The Foldings of a Square to Convex Polyhedra |
Sonya Nikolova | Summer 2002 | Vertex-Unfolding: Virtual and Physical Implementation |
Melody Donoso | Summer 2002 | Constructing Polyhedra from Restricted Faces |
Beenish Chaudry | Summer 2002 | The Discrete Sliding Conjecture |
Monta Lertpachin | Summer 2002 | 3D Graphics Illustrating the Geometry of Polyhedra |
Michiko Charley | Summer 2002 | 3D Graphics Illustrating the Geometry of Polyhedra |
Veronica Morales | Summer 2001 | RTcmix for Linux |
Amanda Toop | Summer 2001 | Display of Vertex-Unfolding Algorithm |
Allison Baird | Summer 2001 | Geodesic Center of Doubly-Covered Triangles |
Dessislava Michaylova | Summer 2001 | Vertex-Unfolding, Etc. |
Eleanor Farrington | Summer 2001 | Mathematica and Convexifying Polygons |
Melody Donoso | Summer 2001 | Polymake Etc. |
Veronica Morales | Summer 2000 | Cauchy's Arm Lemma |
Katya Rykovanova | Summer 2000 | Translation of Aleksandrov from the Russian |
Naomi Fox | Summer 2000 | Computing oriented matroid information from planar point sets |
Victoria Manfredi | Summer 2000 | Duality Visualization Tool: I |
Christine Rice | Summer 2000 | Duality Visualization Tool: II |
Katherine Sinclair | Summer 2000 | Experiments with the Pioneer robot |
Elif Tosun | Summer 2000 | Maxwell's Theorem on planar self-stressed graphs |
Rosy Fynn | Summer 2000 | Programming Lego Robots in RSX, NQC and RoboLab: a comparative study |
Shana Negin | Summer 2000 | Granular and Algorithmic Synthesis of Sound |
Geetika Tewari | Summer 2000 | A Policy-aware shortest path algorithm for the Internet |
Beenish Chaudry | Summer 2000 | On Inferring the Autonomous System Relationships in the Internet |
Biliana Kaneva | Summer 1999 | Shortest paths on convex polytopes |
Sorina Chircu | Summer 1999 | Locked Protein-Like Chains |
Irena Pashchenko | Summer 1999 | Two-hand Dissections of Orthogonal Polygons |
Geetika Tewari | Summer 1999 | A Java software tool for oriented matroids |
Elif Tosun | Summer 1999 | Visualization of Oriented Matroids |
Biliana Kaneva | Summer 1998 | Reconstructing polytopes via Cauchy rigidity: I |
Octavia Petrovici | Summer 1998 | Reconstructing polytopes via Cauchy rigidity: II |
Irena Pashchenko | Summer 1998 | On stabbing and visibility graphs |
Alexandra Fedorova | Summer 1998 | Exploring Alternative Ways of Internet Routing: IP Multicast |
Biliana Kaneva | Summer 1997 | Algorithm animation in Java |
Biliana Kaneva | Summer 1997 | Generating a brain scan of the Pentium processor |
Elizabeth Abram & Chen Xiao |
Summer 1996 | Application of Grayson's Theorem to polygon morphing |
Rene Landrum | Summer 1996 | System setup and geometry software installation on gargoyle |
Chen Xiao | Summer 1996 | Some polyhedra are irreducible |
Dianna Xu | Summer 1996 | Shortest paths on the surface of a polytope |
Heather Alef | Summer 1995 | X-Windows visibility graph exploring tool |
Jorjeta Jetcheva | Summer 1995 | Comput. geometry and C prog'ing for different environments |
Chen Xiao | Summer 1995 | Reducing simple polygons in X-windows |
Dianna Xu | Summer 1995 | Shortest paths on the surface of a polytope |
Tamala Dirlam | Summer 1994 | When can a polygon be moved through a doorway? |
Eszter Hargittai | Summer 1994 | Analysis of a database of female computer scientists |
Amy Josefczyk | Summer 1994 | Unfolding polyhedra without overlap |
Junheng Luo | Summer 1994 | Chaotic patterns in paging behavior in memory |
Jessica Miller & Amy Josefczyk |
Summer 1994 | Box visibility graphs |
Dianna Xu | Summer 1994 | Polygon illumination with 90 deg floodlights |
Rachel Beck | Summer 1993 | Graphic representations of chaotic memory access patterns with Mathematica |
Alberta Hadaway | Summer 1993 | A measure of similarity between shapes |
Amy Hoff | Summer 1993 | Cryptograms in the Chinese Room: taking on Searle, syntax, and semantics |
Nandini Natarajan | Summer 1993 | Matching chaotic memory access patterns to computer performance |
Susan Niemitz | Summer 1993 | Chalmers on consciousness |
Jennifer Shattuck | Summer 1993 | A critique of Putnam's Theorem |
Sharon Solms | Summer 1993 | Tracking geodesics on surfaces |
Wendy Welsh | Summer 1993 | Reconstruction from slices |
Carole Gitlin | Summer 1992 | Reconstruction of polyhedra from parallel slices |
Sramana Mitra | Summer 1992 | A user-transparent debugging tool for transputer-based multiprocessor systems |
Jennifer Rippel | Summer 1992 | Hamiltonian cycles in segment visibility graphs |
Sharon Solms | Summer 1992 | Database searching of technical information via email and the Internet |
Sharmilli Ghosh | Summer 1991 | Three-dimensional graphics in Mathematica |
Jennifer Green | Summer 1991 | Computing shortest paths on a polytope |
Jennifer Rippel | Summer 1991 | The structure of visibility graphs |
Sharon Solms | Summer 1991 | Integrating text and graphics |
Vinita Subramanian | Summer 1991 | Reconstruction from parallel slices |
Mandira Virmani | Summer 1991 | Generating random polygons |