UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item The Role of 3D Spatiotemporal Telemetry Analysis in Combat Flight Simulation(2024) Mane, Sourabh Vijaykumar; Elmqvist, Niklas Dr; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Analyzing 3D telemetry data collected from competitive video games on the internet can support players in improving performance as well as spectators in viewing data-driven narratives of the gameplay. In this thesis, we conduct an in-depth qualitative study on the use of telemetry analysis by embedding over several weeks in a virtual F-14A Tomcat squadron in the multiplayer combat flight simulator DCS World (DCS) (2008). Based on formative interviews with DCS pilots, we design a web-based game analytics framework for rendering 3D telemetry from the flight simulator in a live 3D player, incorporating many of the data displays and visualizations requested by the participants. We then evaluate the framework with real mission data from several air-to-air engagements involving the virtual squadron. Our findings highlight the key role of 3D telemetry playback in competitive multiplayer gaming.Item STICKERS CONVEYING YOUTH INTERESTS: HOW YOUTH USE STICKERS FOR MEANING MAKING(2023) Pauw, Daniel; Clegg, Tamara; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While mobile technology has supported and enabled both formal and informal learning, there remain difficulties connecting learners’ interests to places-based learning contexts. Place-based and affinity space learning frameworks are useful for understanding and scaffolding learning. Place-based learning looks at ways aspects of the local context/geographical context (e.g., plants, animals, stores, houses, etc.) can shape learning. Affinity spaces, as a learning theory, focuses on the interests and passion that motivate learners and communities. Bridging the interests from affinity spaces with the knowledge from lived environments can help scaffold learners to help them connect their learning to new contexts. Being able to connect learning in new contexts is an important step that currently is not thoroughly described between online interest spaces and place-based learning environments. Technological affordances of mobile technologies (e.g., cameras, apps, GPS, etc.) can provide tools to bridge gaps between learners’ interests and lived environments. For example, the always on connection mobile phones have to the internet allows people to bring their interest communities to new places (e.g., telepresence robots). New technologies thus have great potential for connecting these interest and place-based aspects of children’s lives to learning. My dissertation study explores how to help learners connect their interest-driven learning to everyday place-based learning using technology. An important aspect of this connection centers on how to effectively encourage new lines of communication between learning communities. The specific technology I used to encourage the development of learning communication is digital stickers. Digital stickers, much like their analog counterparts, are used by learners to communicate interests and, importantly, emotion with images. Unlike emoji or badges, stickers have the added affordance of allowing learners to collectively edit or contribute to a single image rather than being a more standard time-based conversation log. Placement, theme, recipient, and other factors provide the technology with the ability to impact and communicate emotional ties and potentially influence more enduring connections between place, interest, and learners. My dissertation specifically looks at (1) how members of the Science Everywhere informal learning community currently connect place and interest and (2) how the affordances and constraints of digital stickers impact usage of these stickers with respect to connecting and communicating learning interests. Analysis of this data examined factors that impact design of digital stickers or potential similar technologies when connecting interests from affinity spaces to place-based learning environments.Item Design Considerations for Remote Expert Guidance Using Extended Reality in Skilled Hobby Settings.(2023) Maddali, Hanuma Teja; Lazar, Amanda; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As compact and lightweight extended reality (XR) devices become increasingly available, research is being reinvigorated in a number of areas. One such area for XR applications involves remote collaboration, where a remote expert can assist, train, or share skills or ideas with a local user to solve a real-world task. For example, researchers have looked into real-time expert assistance and professional training of novices in skilled physical activities such as field servicing and surgical training. Even as our understanding of XR for remote collaboration in professional settings advances, an area that has not been examined is how XR can support such expert-novice collaboration in skilled hobby activities (e.g., gardening, woodworking, and knitting). Metrics such as task accuracy or efficiency are often less important than in professional settings. Instead, other dimensions, such as social connectedness and emotional experience, may become central dimensions that inform system design. In my dissertation, I examine how the XR environment can be designed to support the sharing of skills in hobby activities. I have selected gardening as a hobby activity to examine remote skill-sharing in XR between experts and novices. Like in other hobby activities, learning gardening practices remotely can involve asynchronous, text, or image/video-based communication on Facebook groups. While these may be helpful for individual questions, they do not capture the social, affective, and embodied dimensions of gaining expertise as a novice through situated learning in the garden. These dimensions can also be central to the experience of the activity. In my work, I seek to understand how to design a social XR environment that captures these dimensions in ways that are acceptable and useful to intergenerational expert-novice gardener groups. Through my dissertation work, I answer the following research questions:1. How do practitioners of a particular hobby exhibit sociality and what kinds of social interactions facilitate skill-sharing? What are some key opportunities for computer-supported collaborative work in this space? 2. What are practitioners' perceptions of using XR for skill-sharing? What are the important dimensions of the design space and design scenarios for social XR systems? 3. How do practitioners use different components of the activity space (e.g., tools or sensory stimuli) and their affordances to facilitate social connection? What context is essential to capture when reconstructing these objects virtually for remote interaction in XR (e.g., interactivity and realism)? 4. What are some design considerations for XR to support accessible interactions that reflect the values and goals of an intergenerational group?Item Improving Selection of Analogical Inspirations with Chunking and Recombination(2023) Srinivasan, Arvind; Chan, Joel; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Innovation is vital in various fields, and analogical thinking is a powerful tool for gen- erating creative solutions to complex problems. However, recognizing analogies can be time- consuming, and successful recognition doesn’t guarantee their adoption in innovation. In this thesis, A novel computational support system for analogical innovation is proposed that employs the cognitive mechanisms for chunking and recombination as mediums of interaction. Chunking involves identifying and extracting meaningful chunks or segments from a design problem into interactive tiles called magnets while recombination involves combining these magnets to gener- ate insightful questions that elicit divergent thinking. In this way, the proposed system aims to streamline the process of recognizing and selecting analogical inspirations for innovation while avoiding premature rejection and design fixation.To evaluate the effectiveness of the system, a within-subjects study involving 23 participants was conducted, comparing the proposed interface with a baseline. The study found that using chunking and recombination as interactive mechanisms helped prevent premature rejection of useful analogical leads, resulting in 4 times fewer ignored analogical leads. Participants were also found to make 12 times fewer changes to their decisions, given a minor increment in processing time in the order of 1.5 minutes. Overall, these results suggest that our proposed intervention is an effective tool for facilitating the selection of beneficial analogies, fostering analogical innovation through computational support.Item AUGMENTED REALITY SYSTEMS AND USER INTERACTION TECHNIQUES FOR STEM LEARNING(2020) Kang, Seokbin; Jacobs, David; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Learning practices and crosscutting concepts in science, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM) subjects pose challenges to young learners. Without external support to foster long-term interest and scaffold learning, children might lose interest in STEM subjects. While prior research has investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) may enhance learning of scientific concepts and increase student engagement, only a few considered young children who require developmentally appropriate approaches. The primary goal of my dissertation is to design, develop, and evaluate AR learning systems to engage children (ages 5-11) with STEM experiences. Leveraging advanced computer vision, machine learning, and sensing technologies, my dissertation explores novel user interaction techniques. The proposed techniques can give learners chance to investigate STEM ideas in their own setting, what educators call contextual learning, and lower barriers for STEM learning practices. Using the systems, my research further investigates Human-Artificial Intelligence (AI) interaction—how children understand, use, and react to the intelligent systems. Specifically, there are four major objectives in my research including: (i) gathering design ideas of AR applications to promote children’s STEM learning; (ii) exploring AR user interaction techniques that utilize personally meaningful material for learning; (iii) developing and evaluating AR learning systems and learning applications; and (iv) building design implications for AR systems for education.Item USER PERCEPTIONS OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARD ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATION(2019) Bai, Wei; Mazurek, Michelle L.; Electrical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As people rely more heavily on online communication, privacy becomes an increasingly critical concern. Users of communication services (e.g., email and messaging) risk breaches of confidentiality due to attacks on the service from outsiders or rogue employees, or even government subpoenas and network surveillance. End-to-end encryption, in which anyone cannot read the user's content, is the only way to fully protect their online communications from malicious attackers, rogue company employees, and government surveillance. Although in recent years we have witnessed considerable efforts to push end-to-end encryption into broader adoption, and indeed several popular messaging tools have adopted end-to-end encryption, some obstacles still remain which hinder general users from proactively and confidently adopting end-to-end encrypted communication tools and acknowledge their security benefits. In this dissertation, we investigated the adoption of end-to-end encrypted communication from a variety of user-centered perspectives. In the first part, we conducted a lab study (n=52), evaluating how general users understand the balance between the usability and security for different key management models in end-to-end encryption. We found that participants understood the models well and made coherent assessments about when different tradeoffs might be appropriate. Our participants recognized that the less-convenient exchange model was more secure overall, but found the security of the key-directory based model to be "good enough" for many everyday purposes. In the second part, we explored how general users value the usability and security tradeoffs for different approaches of searching over end-to-end encrypted messages. After systematizing these tradeoffs to identify key feature differences, we used these differences as a basis for a choice-based conjoint analysis experiment (n=160). We found that users indicated high relative importance for increasing privacy and minimizing local storage requirements. While privacy was more important overall, after the initial improvement was made, further improvement was considered less valuable. Also, local storage requirement was more important than adding marginal privacy. Since significant research indicated that non-expert users' mental models about end-to-end encryption led them to make mistakes when using these tools, in the third part of this dissertation, we took the first step to tackle this problem by providing high-level, roughly correct information about end-to-end encryption to non-expert users. In a lab study, participants (n=25) were shown one of several variations on a short tutorial. Participants were asked about their understanding of end-to-end encryption before and after the tutorial, as well as which information they found most useful and surprising. Overall, participants effectively learned many benefits and limitations of end-to-end encryption; however, some concerns and misconceptions still remained, and our participants even developed new ones. The results provided insight into how to structure new educational materials for end-to-end encryption.Item Designing and Evaluating Next-Generation Thermographic Systems to Support Residential Energy Audits(2018) Mauriello, Matthew Louis; Froehlich, Jon E; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Buildings account for 41% of primary energy consumption in the United States—more than any other sector—and contribute to an increasing portion of carbon dioxide emissions (33% in 1980 vs. 40% in 2009). To help address this problem, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends conducting energy audits to identify sources of inefficiencies that contribute to rising energy use. One effective technique used during energy audits is thermography. Thermographic-based energy auditing activities involve the use of thermal cameras to identify, diagnose, and document energy efficiency issues in the built environment that are visible as anomalous patterns of electromagnetic radiation. These patterns may indicate locations of air leakages, areas of missing insulation, or moisture issues in the built environment. Sensor improvements and falling costs have increased the popularity of this auditing technique, but its effectiveness is often mediated by the training and experience of the auditor. Moreover, given the increasing availability of commodity thermal cameras and the potential for pervasive thermographic scanning in the built environment, there is a surprising lack of understanding about people’s perceptions of this sensing technology and the challenges encountered by an increasingly diverse population of end-users. Finally, there are few specialized tools and methods to support the auditing activities of end-users. To help address these issues, my work focuses on three areas: (i) formative studies to understand and characterize current building thermography practices, benefits, and challenges, (ii) human-centered explorations into the role of automation and the potential of pervasive thermographic scanning in the built environment, and (iii) evaluations of novel, interactive building thermography systems. This dissertation presents a set of studies that qualitatively characterizes building thermography practitioners, explores prototypes of novel thermographic systems at varying fidelity, and synthesizes findings from several field deployments. This dissertation contributes to the fields of sustainability, computer science, and HCI through: (i) characterizations of the end-users of thermography, (ii) critical feedback on proposed automated thermographic solutions, (iii) the design and evaluation of a novel longitudinal thermography system designed to augment the data collection and analysis activities of end-users, and (iv) design recommendations for future thermographic systems.Item USER INTERFACE CHANGES IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS AFFECT THE PERCEIVED RESPONSES OF INDOOR CYCLISTS(2018) Stone, Rebecca; Golbeck, Jennifer A.; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Virtual reality is becoming mainstream in areas such as entertainment, medicine and training. However, the affect on a user’s perceived states are still to be fully understood. This study aims to add to the existing body of research by examining changes in user interfaces and the affect on perceived responses. Subjects in the study were exposed to two virtual environments, while undertaking a physical exercise task. Their perceived responses were captured through a combination of interviews, observations, and surveys. This differs from previous studies in that it is capturing the perceived differences between the environments themselves. The results highlighted that the content of the environments resulted in a variety of interesting, and unexpected, perceived responses.Item Designing Cyberbullying Prevention and Mitigation Tools(2017) Ashktorab, Zahra; Vitak, Jessica; Golbeck, Jennifer; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While cyberbullying is prevalent among adolescents, attempts by researchers to evaluate mechanisms for its prevention and mitigation have been largely non-existent. In this dissertation, I argue that the complex nature of cyberbullying, made more challenging by the affordances of diverse social media, cannot be solved through strictly algorithmic approaches. Instead, I employ multidisciplinary methods to evaluate data generated by teens on social media and work with teens to develop and test potential cyberbullying mitigation solutions. I further argue that solutions focused on improving users' well-being after being targeted online offer designers a valuable tool in fighting back against the harm caused by cyberbullying. Based on the interdisciplinary studies conducted in this dissertation, I offer design recommendations for cyberbullying prevention and mitigation tools. I address the mitigation of adolescent cyberbullying through a multi-methodological approach: 1) data-centric exploratory study of discourse occurring alongside cyberbullying 2) an experimental design of reactions to positive messages in response to cyberbullying 3) human-centered participatory design to design cyberbullying mitigation prototypes and 4) a longitudinal study evaluating the effectiveness of cyberbullying mitigation tools. I offer design recommendations for building and administering cyberbullying mitigation tools. This dissertation begins with a data-centric study to understand \textit{why} users are motivated to post and interact through ASKfm, a social media platform that affords cyberbullying and how anonymity and the site's other affordances affect these interactions. I discuss the unique affordances specific to semi-anonymous Q\&A social media platforms and how such affordances enable users to engage in self-disclosure and gaining social support on sensitive topics. I then present two studies to first determine if users will be receptive to anonymous positive messages responding to bullying messages, then to administer positive messages or \textit{Cyberbully Reversal Pings} to ASKfm users who have received bullying messages. I then use a human-centered approach methodology to co-design cyberbullying prototypes with teens. I use the design recommendations derived from the participatory design study to test the impact of a cyberbullying mitigation system. I address technological mechanisms to mitigate sadness and decline in well-being caused by negative online experiences and cyberbullying. I administer cyberbullying mitigation through technology-mediated memory; in other words, I use positive posts and images participants have previously shared on social media to remind them of existing social support in users’ social networks. The studies in this dissertation comprise of a mixed methods approach to understand social media platforms on which cyberbullying occurs, work collaboratively with users to design mitigation platforms and ultimately evaluate a cyberbullying mitigation platform with real users. These aforementioned studies result in design recommendations for building cyberbullying mitigation tools and design recommendations for designing a study to evaluate a cyberbullying mitigation tool.Item E XPLORING DIFFERENCES IN MULTIVARIATE DATASETS USING HIERARCHIES AN INTERACTIVE INFORMATION VISUALIZATION APPROACH(2013) Guerra Gómez, John Alexis; Shneiderman, Ben; Plaisant, Catherine; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Hierarchies are a useful way of representing data. The parent-child relationships they define facilitate the analysis of a dataset by breaking it down into its component parts. Representing data as hierarchies can also be used to track changes to a dataset over time or between versions. For example, analysts can use hierarchies to uncover changes in the US Federal Budget in the last twenty years, by grouping accounts by Agencies and Bureaus. Similarly, a company manager can analyze changes to their product sales due to the holiday season by breaking them up by markets and product categories. Exploring differences in such trees could help them understand changes in the data. However, comparing hierarchies is a difficult task, even when comparing two trees with a small number of nodes. To address this, information visualization techniques were used to support data comparison tasks using hierarchies. After evaluating my techniques with domain experts on real world problems, I identified and addressed two main research topics: Abstract This dissertation first tackled the problem of comparing two versions of a tree by using two types of change, while most of the significant work on this topic has focused only on changes in node values or changes in topology. TreeVersity (http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/treeversity) is a comparison tool that allows users to explore changes between two versions of a tree by tracking node value differences, and newly created or removed nodes. Domain experts using TreeVersity were excited to discover differences in the trees, but expressed a desire to explore the evolution of a dataset over time. To that end, they suggested applying TreeVersity comparison capabilities to datasets that were non inherently hierarchical. Abstract Following users' feedback, the problem of exploring changes over time in datasets that can be categorized as trees was addressed next. TreeVersity2 (http://treeversity.cattlab.umd.edu is a web-based data comparison tool that allows users to explore a tree that changes over time and of datasets that are not inherently hierarchical, by categorizing them by their attributes. TreeVersity2 also helps users navigate the sometimes large amounts of differences between versions of a tree using an interactive textual reporting tool. Abstract My research has resulted in three main contributions: First, the introduction of the Bullet, a visualization glyph to represent four characteristics of change (as described in Section 1.2) in tree nodes, and the implementation of the Bullet in TreeVersity. Second, the creation of the StemView, a tree visualization technique that represents five characteristics of change in all the nodes of a tree (not just the leaves), and the implementation of the StemView in TreeVersity2. Furthermore, my research resulted in the development of the reporting tool, another feature of TreeVersity2, which helps users navigate outstanding changes in the tree with textual representations and coordinated interactions. Third, the development of 13 case studies with domain experts on real world comparison problems. The case studies have validated the utility and flexibility of my approaches. Finally, my research opens possibilities for future research on comparing hierarchical structures.