Scholarship & Research
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Item Design pattern decay: a study of design pattern grime and its impact on quality and technical debt(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2021) Griffith, Isaac Daniel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Clemente IzurietaTechnical debt is a financial metaphor describing the trade-off between the short-term benefits gained and long-term consequences of design and implementation shortcuts taken over the evolution of a software product. These shortcuts typically manifest as design disharmonies such as code smells, anti-patterns, or design pattern grime. Design pattern grime, which manifests as the accumulation of unnecessary or unrelated software artifacts within design pattern instance classes is of serious concern. Design patterns represent agreed upon methods to solve common problems and are based upon sound principles of good design; thus, these pattern instances' decay implies an evolution away from good design. Currently, little is known about the causal nature of design pattern grime on technical debt and quality or how these three issues interrelate. What is the nature of the relationships between structural design pattern grime, software maintainability, and technical debt measurement? To better understand design pattern grime, we have extended the structural grime taxonomy. We developed an approach to generate design pattern grime instances and inject them with design pattern grime. Using this approach, we conducted 7 experiments evaluating the effects of 26 forms of grime, at 6 severity levels within 16 design pattern types, on software maintainability and technical debt. The results showed that depending upon grime type, grime severity, and pattern type, grime does significantly affect both maintainability and technical debt. We also conducted a verification study on pairs of pattern instances from open-source software systems to evaluate how well the injection process represents the real effects of grime and to verify the results of the experiments. The results of this study showed that there is a disconnect between the injection process and reality, indicating that refinements are still needed. However, the verification study worked as expected in indicating where issues may exist in the process.Item The analysis of binary file security using a hierarchical quality model(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2022) Johnson, Andrew Lucas; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Clemente IzurietaSoftware security is commanding significant attention from practitioners. In many organizations, security assessment has been integrated into the software development lifecycle, which allows for continuous monitoring of software weaknesses and vulnerabilities throughout the development process. One often overlooked aspect of the software development lifecycle is the end of the lifecycle. Prior to delivering software to customers, many vendors digitally sign and compile source code into a binary. In binary form, analysis may be done to reveal security flaws that were not present in the original code or that were injected at some point between the code being written and the code being compiled. Our research goal is to improve our ability to assess the security quality of a binary from different stakeholders' perspectives. While many analysis tools exist that identify security flaws, there is little work done to enable the use of multiple tools, which is necessary to identify different types of security flaws. To accomplish our goal, we approach the problem from the perspective of quality modeling. We have designed and developed a software quality model for assessing security quality in binaries (PIQUE-Bin) and operationalized the model by using PIQUE, the Platform for Investigative software Quality Understanding and Evaluation. The design of our model is based on the Microsoft STRIDE model and the software development view of the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). The model produces a relative and subjective security score for a binary file. An informal literature review reveals a lack of model-based security metrics targeting binary files, which helped motivate this research. To enhance the validity of this work, a sensitivity analysis assessment based on a benchmark repository of 700 binary files was performed. Model output is validated by measuring tool output sensitivity and calibrated against the presence of injected vulnerabilities. We find that our model is able to measure the security quality of binaries relative to the benchmark repository.Item Digitally automated alignment of a phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2020) Field, Nathaniel James; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joseph A. ShawReal-time sensing of wavefront error in laser instruments is an exceptionally useful tool for fine-tuning of laser systems during fabrication. Measurement and correction for potential wavefront aberrations are especially important for high-energy laser system applications, such as defense and industrial manufacturing. The self-referencing Mach-Zehnder interferometer and the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor are two common methods used to achieve real-time wavefront aberration measurements for laser system output quality; however, the former requires a precise and arduous alignment procedure for each operation and the latter exchanges spatial resolution for phase resolution and is highly sensitive to global tilt. The use of electronically controlled spatial light modulators has been shown as a method of quickly retrieving wavefront reconstructions from phase-shifting point diffraction interferometers. In this paper, the development of an algorithm that automates the selection of the point diffractor position and size was added to the phase-shifting point diffraction method with a purely reflective spatial light modulator. Computer simulations and laboratory tests were conducted as proofs of concept using a few simple optical elements. The results of these simulations and lab measurements show promise for continually automated alignment of a point diffraction interferometer to greatly reduce alignment time and almost entirely remove sensitivity to global tilt. With further development, this method can be applied to increase the efficiency of a wide variety of optical system measurement scenarios.Item The effect of personalized feedback on the ability of students to overcome misconceptions in a project-based science curriculum(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Wolfe, Amanda M.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg FrancisA large part of a science teacher's role is in both helping students understand concepts, as well as helping students address common science misconceptions through a variety of means. Students in a blended-learning environment independently demonstrate mastery of content through online assessments, while teachers assist students in developing specific academic skills through project-based learning. In a blended-learning environment, a science teacher's role becomes morphed. A teacher in this learning paradigm may not be the first point of contact for new material as students learn at their own pace. Special care must be taken to monitor student misconceptions and plan interventions that support conceptual change. One of the main roles of a project-based teacher is giving feedback to students. The purpose of this research was to assess the effectiveness of the feedback and revision process in helping students identify and overcome misconceptions in their modeling skills in a project-based curriculum. The research included the evaluation of student attitudes and perceptions of feedback through pre-project and post-project surveys. Student concept attainment and the ability to overcome misconceptions was assessed through pre- and post-surveys which focused on content as well as the comparison of draft models of a climate change in a bottle experiment and final draft models after students received feedback from teachers. Further data was gathered through student interviews about feedback and the process of addressing their misconceptions. Results of the experiment indicate that feedback is effective in helping students overcome misconceptions regardless of the type of feedback, either brief or detailed.Item Misconception probes in human anatomy and physiology(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Quinton, Murvyn Scott; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg FrancisLearning is a process of acquiring knowledge and understanding. When students enter the classroom, they bring their current knowledge and understanding with them. Teachers build upon this knowledge to move students toward new levels of comprehension. The problem is that in many cases, students bring incorrect information or misconceptions into the classroom. When teachers add more upon these concepts, the students often end up with a blending of the correct and inaccurate information. Misconception probes are a tool that requires students to address these problematic concepts and allow teachers to identify the specific misconceptions that students have so that they can be corrected. This study investigated how the use of misconception probes would affect students in a science classroom. Specifically, the areas investigated were the impacts on learning and achievement and the impact on student confidence. Students were given misconception probes that focused on problem concepts within the selected unit, and then remedial instruction was given to address the misconceptions. Performance on the unit exams did not show a significant change; however, some students showed a marked decrease. Student metacognitive awareness of what they did and did not know increased. This resulted in students providing more accurate assessments of their confidence on the surveys given before the exams. This action research showed that misconception probes can be a valuable tool to help inform the teacher and to help students to recognize where their understanding is lacking.Item Optimization of error correcting codes in FPGA fabric onboard cube satellites(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2019) Tamke, Skylar Anthony; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brock LaMeresThe harmful effects of radiation on electronics in space is a difficult problem for the aerospace industry. Radiation can cause faults in electronics systems like memory corruption or logic flips. One possible solution to combat these effects is to use FPGAs with radiation mitigation techniques. The following Masters of Science thesis details the design and testing of a radiation tolerant computing system at MSU. The computer is implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA), the reconfigurable nature of FPGAs allows for novel fault mitigation techniques on commercial devices. Some common fault mitigation techniques involve triple modular redundancy, memory scrubbing, and error correction codes which when paired with the partial reconfiguration. Our radiation tolerant computer has been in development for over a decade at MSU and is continuously being developed to expand its radiation mitigation techniques. This thesis will discuss the benefits of adding error correcting codes to the ever developing radiation tolerant computing system. Error correcting codes have been around since the late 1940's when Richard Hamming decided that the Bell computers he did his work on could automate their own error correcting capabilities. Since then a variety of error correcting codes have been developed for use in different situations. This thesis will cover several popular error correcting method for RF communication and look at using them in memory in our radiation tolerant computing system.Item Metamorphic relations ranking for reducing testing cost in scientific software(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2017) Malallah, Safia Abdullhameed; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Upulee KanewalaLack of automated test oracles is a major challenge faced when testing scientific software. An oracle is a mechanism determine whether test results are correct according to the expected behavior of the program. Metamorphic Testing (MT) is a testing technique that can be used to test such applications. This approach checks relations among multiple inputs and outputs of the program instead of checking the correctness of individual test outputs. Theses relationships are called Metamorphic Relations (MRs) and their violations indicates faults in System Under Test (SUT). Programs have several MRs with different fault detection effectiveness. Thus order in which they apply determines the efficiency of the testing process. Therefore in this work we propose a strategy to prioritize MRs based on their potential fault finding ability. Our strategy uses mutation testing to create a prioratized order of MRs for a given program. We evaluated our proposed approach using machine learning libraries in Weka as well as open source mathematical programs; these results show that our strategy is effective in developing a prioratized order of MRs that maximizes early fault detection. Our results show that in 126 methods we can detect 50.1%-100% faults using 25% of the MRs compared to a random order only detect 1.13%-100%.Item Inquiring into measurement error in the science laboratory(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2011) Holst, Daryl Allan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.High school students often struggle with accurate data collection in the science laboratory. This study examined the effects of inquiry-based laboratory learning experiences on student ability to recognize the limited precision of measurements, ability to see error, manipulative ability in using laboratory instruments and commitment to accuracy. Results indicate increased student ability to see and correct error as well as improved understanding of error.