Visualizing large and complex hierarchies poses two core difficulties: preserving a planar, collision-free geometry at scale, and allowing user-specified adjustments of important quality measures that are of interest to the user. As no algorithm has been found to be optimal for every quality measure, it is important to develop algorithms that are efficient for specific quality measures. To solve these problems, we present an algorithm for producing planar, straight-line grid drawings of general trees that enables positioning leaves in the tree closer to the root, as selected by the user, without disturbing the rest of the hierarchical structure. The quality measure of having leaves closer to the root provides an opportunity to visualize the overview of the tree and, at the same time, to allow closer inspection of the relationship between the furthest ancestor (the root of the tree) and the descendants (the leaves of the tree). Our approach works by creating horizontal and vertical channels at successive levels of the tree to avoid node overlaps, using hashing-based lookups for rapid insertion and lookups of thousands of nodes, and applying angle constraints for non-intersecting repositioning. We show that this method, when applied to both synthetic and real-world hierarchical data sets, results in a scalable yet interactive solution for geometric clarity combined with user-defined leaf mobility.

Edge crossings in graph visualization pose an important challenge leading to low readability and interpretability. Yet, classical methods like edge bundling, transparency, and edge coloring allow partial resolution of these problems at the cost of new limitations: they cannot blend colors and still have limitations for distinguishing overlapping edges. On the other hand, Gestalt techniques have been tried as a way to distinguish edges, with relative effectiveness. We implement a texture-based Modulo-Aligned Weaving Technique that alleviates overlapping graph edges with alternating color patterns interwoven with perceptually optimal colors. It builds on weaving principles to improve edge separation in densely connected graphs while preserving spatial coherence and color fidelity in the visualization. Based on the Gestalt theory of texture and readability metrics, our method gradually removes visual complexity and cognitive load so that users can trace relationships in data more comfortably. Our results indicate that the Modulo-Aligned Weaving technique offers a practical and scalable edge-partitioning strategy to improve graph visualizations, laying the foundation for future progress on texture-based techniques to manage edge crossings.

This innovative practice full paper describes an innovative pedagogical framework that integrates community engaged learning and social justice principles into a traditional web development course, fostering a holistic approach to education that goes beyond programming languages and algorithms, and aiming to redefine the educational landscape by encouraging socially responsible and community-driven web development practices. The community engaged learning component of the course is structured around partnerships with local non-profit organizations, community groups, or socially impactful initiatives. Through these partnerships, students engaged in real-world projects, applying their technical expertise to develop impactful solutions that contribute to social justice causes. The web development course framework is presented and sample projects are provided with student and community partner reflections and benefits. We explored the effect of the community engaged learning and social justice initiatives on technical proficiency, critical thinking, teamwork, and ethical reasoning. Results indicate a positive correlation between community engaged learning experiences and increased student motivation, teamwork, and a heightened awareness of the societal implications of their work. Furthermore, the paper discusses the challenges encountered during the implementation process and proposes strategies for overcoming potential barriers. The findings of this research contribute to the ongoing discourse on the evolution of computer science and engineering education, advocating for a holistic approach that not only equips students with technical skills but also instills a sense of social responsibility.

Storyboards are a ubiquitous part of the creation process for various forms of media. Films and video games utilize storyboards during the early stages of their creation. In this stage of production authors have the opportunity to drastically edit their proposed scenes. However, any changes made to a storyboard require an artist to redraw/edit accordingly. As such, even storyboards that are intended to be a rough creation can consume resources that could otherwise be applied towards creating the actual product. Our proposed framework seeks to eliminate the need to manually create a storyboard by automatically generate it from a written description of the scene. Further, a rough animation (story reel) is dually created. We present a prototype system that takes a written script and first creates a keyframe-based storyboard. From these different keyframes an animation is presented in form of a video clip (story reel). A case study is used to show that there is potential in the process of taking a user's dynamic text input and creating an animated scene from the depicted storyboards. Any enhancements either on the Script-to-Storyboard or on the Storyboard-to-Story Reel aspects of the proposed framework would improve outcomes of the entire Script-to-Storyboard-to-Story Reel process.

Investigations into the effects of both negative and positive external stimuli for various types of animals have attracted a variety of scientific studies. These studies have primarily focused on understanding the effects of these stimuli, followed by subsequent recommendations for better animal welfare at the Zoo. However, the method of collecting, recording, and understanding data related to these external stimuli is not standardized. One example of these external stimuli is noise (or sound level), and the research question being studied often is how noise pollution affects animals' welfare. We create a rigorous process of collecting and recording data and use visualizations of noise data and its dispersion over time for better understanding of where and when the Zookeepers can go and analyze animal behavior for a more accurate assessment. We follow with recommendations of times and places for animals to be located in the Zoo environment to better their welfare.

Graduates distinguish themselves by being creative, innovative, and showing leadership, but such instructional topics are usually formally emphasized in business curricula. Computer Science students could minor in entrepreneurship or other business-related fields in order to foster their innovative mindset and obtain a business acumen that complements the technical expertise they obtain in their majors, but such minors usually require at least five additional courses. We discuss the formal incorporation of entrepreneurship in the computer science curriculum as part of a clinic model that includes real-world experiences, at the expense of two 1-credit hands-on clinics that can be embedded into the number of credits required for the computer science degree.

In this paper, we provide an overview of two Computer Science for High School teacher training workshops, offered at Fairfield University in 2012 and 2013. These professional development programs offered the skills necessary to integrate Google Apps education and interactive, metaphor-based computer games tools into middle and high school curricula, to help students learn computer science and engineering concepts. The first year workshop was primarily focused on the implementation of computer science and gaming concepts within STEM curriculum. The focus of the second year workshop was two-fold, first to continue the implementation of computer science and engineering concepts through STEM education, and second, to create connections and extensions for high school teachers who have already been introduced to STEM curricula and teaching models. Multiple urban and suburban school districts were included in a collaborative program with our university, designed to teach educators how to use computer science as a mean to make connections between different curriculum areas and teach higher order problem-solving skills. Various learning activities during the workshops are presented, and outcomes and teachers' feedback after attending these workshops are discussed.

Nowadays World Wide Web makes use of Human Interactive Proofs and CAPTCHA to distinguish legitimate users from bots. This paper presents an overview of current systems and their weaknesses and proposes a unified theory for a multilingual handwriting CAPTCHA. We further describe our French and Spanish CAPTCHAs, as an extension to the English version, with the potential of being more useful on websites in those languages. Highly interdisciplinary techniques used to generate our CAPTCHAs are also discussed.

Research shows that students who are engaged in their academic work are motivated by the need to succeed, need for self-expression, personal curiosity, and desire to fostering positive peer relationships. Engaging assignments help shape their understanding, allow them to explore their creative side, while interacting and teaming up with their peers. In this paper, we present a comparative study of various approaches and partnerships for teaching hands-on engineering classes, including the pros and cons of technology students partnering with industry, non-profit organizations, or interdisciplinary school collaborations vs. traditional in-class course assignments. The findings are based on a survey conducted among undergraduate and graduate students at Fairfield University. The focus group consisted of a mix of students who have worked with either one or more organizations as part of their academic work. The study also focuses on the issues and challenges while working with various organizations, and the results are presented from the students' perspective.

Graphs, generally used as data structures in computer science applications, have steadily shown a growth in mapping various types of relationships, from maps to computer networks to social networks. As graph layouts and visualizations have been at the forefront of graph drawing research for decades, it consequently led to aesthetic heuristics that not only generated better visualizations and aesthetically appealing graphs but also improved readability and understanding of the graphs. A variety of approaches examines aesthetics of nodes, edges, or graph layout, and related readability metrics. In this paper we focus on the edge crossing problem and propose a solution that incorporates Gestalt principles to improve graph aesthetics and readability. We introduce the concept of breaks in edges at edge crossings. A break is a gap in an edge drawing occurring in the vicinity of an edge crossing. At every edge crossing, one of the incident edges is broken, which will prevent any unintentional Gestalts that occur at edge crossings that reduce the readability of a graph drawing. We present our preliminary results and user studies that show that this technique could play a role in improving graph readability.

Being motivated by the need for usable Web security systems, we present in this paper new image-based CAPTCHA systems that overcome the weaknesses of commercial CAPTCHAs. We describe Tree and Shape CAPTCHAs in addition to handwritten CAPTCHAs that feature visual objects transformed according to specific principles of cognitive psychology. These transformations, in addition to other security measures we describe, ensure that our CAPTCHAs are easily interpretable by humans but not by machines. We seek not only to provide useful CAPTCHAs, but to offer important insights into such fields as Information Visualization, Human-Computer Interaction, etc. Early testing results indicate that users find our CAPTCHAs an attractive alternative to text-based CAPTCHAs and are readily able to solve them based on cognitive abilities. Conversely, machine recognition is low due to the current inability to make use of these cognitive aids, thus making our CAPTCHAs a viable solution for cyber security.

It is widely recommended by both academia and industry that today's technology and software engineering students be well prepared for industry before graduation, especially given global outsourcing and other trends. Various methods have been developed to ensure student readiness, including co-ops and capstone courses. These approaches increasingly use real-world projects for their benefits to industry and often to the community at large. In this paper, we argue that students can be prepared to effectively join industry and keep the US technology workforce competitive through a curriculum that includes a theoretical software engineering course with real-world projects and the collaboration of paired teams across two or more universities. We present a case study of a successful teaching experience that features these aspects, and describe the outcome along with the unique perspective of a participating student.

The recognition of unconstrained handwriting continues to be a difficult task for computers despite active research for several decades. This is because handwritten text offers great challenges such as: character and word segmentation, character recognition, variation between handwriting styles, different character size and orientation, no font constraints, the type of printing surface, as well as the background clarity. In this paper, we explore the gap in the ability in reading handwritten text between humans and computers to propose solutions for security problems in Web services. We present a new HIP algorithm that uses handwriting recognition task to distinguish between humans and computers. We propose methods to deform handwritten text images to make them indecipherable by computers and explore the cognitive factors that assist humans in reading and understanding. Experimental results on both humans and computers are presented and compared.