The coarse mesh radiation transport (COMET) code uses response functions to solve the neutron transport equation. Most nuclear codes used today have a very steep learning curve; COMET is no exception. To ease the user's onus of learning how to create correctly formatted COMET input-files, a graphical user interface (GUI) was created. The GUI allows the user to select values for all the relevant variables while simultaneously minimizing the errors a typical new user would make. To this end, the GUI creates all of the input files required to run COMET. The GUI also provides a visualization tool that the user may use to check the problem geometry before running COMET. The GUI is also responsible for post-processing the COMET output for visualization with TecPlot. In addition to the GUI, multi-group cross section libraries were generated as part of the MHTGR-350 (Modular High Temperature Gas Reactor) benchmark problem under development at Georgia Tech. This project aims to couple COMET with a thermal hydraulics code to best model the true physics of the reactor design. In order for this goal to be actualized, six-group cross sections were generated over the operational temperature range of the MHTGR using the current coupling and collision probability code HELIOS.

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This master project focuses on the development of a front-end applicationfor cloud computing. Traditionally, televisions have been excluded from thealways connected world. With the appearance of the smart televisions it isnow possible to connect them to the Internet. However, there still exists agap between televisions and services in the cloud.To solve the problem,we have developed a JavaScript application. This application allows the user to log into their CloudMe account from a SamsungSmartTV with multimedia support. This application is centered on improving the responsiveness performance of a cloud computing application. It alsoenhances the user experience by creating a user-friendly UI for a television.During the course of this thesis, the application and its functionalities havebeen studied, designed, developed, optimized and finally tested. We havealso done a set of measurements to validate the responsiveness of the proposed design.The development of this TV application shows the TV is a potential targetdevice for cloud computing services due to its better resources and capabilities in di↵erent areas such as multimedia reproduction.

A User Interface Management System (UIMS) called the Harness has been developed to support the front-ending of existing software systems. In the Harness, a set of core Abstract Interaction Objects (AIOs) was provided for knowledge-based modules to interact with the user. It is not realistic to expect the Harness to be a closed and fixed system. On the other hand, help capabilities are today considered essential components of well designed software and on-line help systems have come to be a standard feature of most new software systems.

This thesis presents an exercise-based edutainment system intended for children. It is designed to enhance their cognitive development by encouraging movement in a fun way. The main idea behind the system is that children will have fun constructing a physical, tangible user interface. In addition, they will learn how to spell many words that represent objects and entities by stepping on a collection of coloured pads and receiving responses through a set of multimedia outputs related to these entities. For this purpose we have designed and implemented a tangible user interface that facilitates interaction with the system. This tangible user interface is called "SmartPads" and is composed of coloured tiles that can be physically connected to each other to form any shape. The pads are mapped onto a computer screen in real-time. A user interacts with the interface by stepping on the pads. We have incorporated two games that allow children of different ages to benefit from the system's functionalities and encourage them to interact with it. This thesis provides detailed information about the proposed system and its related components, discusses the design and development of the two games, and measures the system's performance when used by the children.

The objective of the thesis is to introduce the reader to the topic of user interfaces and their design, to provide basic information about the concepts and methods used for the development of user interfaces. The author based the theoretical part of the work on a particular interface design approach - user centered design. The practical part applies selected methods that are described in the theoretical part, the optimization and design of a user interface for a specific application is described. The design process precedes an analysis of other competitive products, the identification of target groups of clients and their needs, the optimization of existing key processes, the development of existing functionalities and proposals for the implementation of new functionalities. Against this background, the author creates a web application interface design and associated mobile application designs. The end of the work deals with designing a model for payments as a system service and outlines possible further extensions of the system.

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No / It is becoming increasingly popular to expose government and citywide sensor data as linked data. Linked data appears to offer a great potential for exploratory search in supporting smart city goals of helping users to learn and make sense of complex and heterogeneous data. However, there are no systematic user studies to provide an insight of how browsing through linked data can support exploratory search. This paper presents a user study that draws on methodological and empirical underpinning from relevant exploratory search studies. The authors have developed a linked data browser that provides an interface for user browsing through several datasets linked via domain ontologies. In a systematic study that is qualitative and exploratory in nature, they have been able to get an insight on central issues related to exploratory search and browsing through linked data. The study identifies obstacles and challenges related to exploratory search using linked data and draws heuristics for future improvements. The authors also report main problems experienced by users while conducting exploratory search tasks, based on which requirements for algorithmic support to address the observed issues are elicited. The approach and lessons learnt can facilitate future work in browsing of linked data, and points at further issues that have to be addressed.

The global COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered learning experiences for children, parents, and teachers worldwide. For very young children, the scrambled introduction of complex virtual tools as a proxy for the classroom experience has been particularly challenging. I conducted interviews with kindergarten teachers and parents with young children to better understand their experiences navigating virtual learning during a stressful time. Insights from those discussions informed the iterative design process I used to generate alternative interactive interfaces for online kindergarten instruction. In this thesis, I present findings from the interviews, the multi-stage interface design process, participant responses to the interface design, and promising directions for future work. / Master of Science / The global COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered learning experiences for children, parents, and teachers worldwide. For very young children, the scrambled introduction of complex virtual tools as a proxy for the classroom experience has been particularly challenging. I conducted interviews with kindergarten teachers and parents with young children to better understand their experiences navigating virtual learning during a stressful time. Insights from those discussions informed the iterative design process I used to generate alternative interactive interfaces for online kindergarten instruction. In this thesis, I present findings from the interviews, the multi-stage interface design process, participant responses to the interface design, and promising directions for future work.

There are very few software packages for model-building and visualization in electromagnetic geophysics, particularly when compared to other geophysical disciplines, such as seismology. The purpose of this thesis is to design, develop, and test a geophysical model-building interface that allows users to parameterize the 2D magnetotellurics problem. Through the evaluation of this interface, feedback was collected from a usability specialist and a group of geophysics graduate students to study the steps users take to work through the 2D forward-modeling problem, and to analyze usability errors encountered while working with the interface to gain a better understanding of how to build a more effective interface. Similar work has been conducted on interface design in other fields, such as medicine and consumer websites. Usability Engineering is the application of a systematic set of methods to the design and development of software with the goal of making the software more learnable, easy to use, and accessible. Two different Usability Engineering techniques — Heuristic Evaluation and Thinking Aloud Protocol — were involved in the evaluation of the interface designed in this study (FEM2DGUI). Heuristic Evaluation is a usability inspection method that employs a usability specialist to detect errors based on a known set of guidelines and personal experience. Thinking Aloud Protocol is a usability evaluation method where potential end-users are observed as they verbalize their every step as they work through specific scenarios with an interface. These Usability Engineering methods were combined in a effort to understand how the first prototype of FEM2DGUI could be refined to make it more usable and to understand how end-users work through the forward-modeling problem. The Usability Engineering methods employed in this project uncovered multiple usability errors that were corrected through a refinement of the interface. Discovery of these errors helped with refining the system to become more robust and usable, which is believed to aid users in more efficient model-building. Because geophysical model-building is inherently a difficult task, it is possible that other model-building graphical user interfaces could benefit from the application of Usability Engineering methods, such as those presented in this research.â / Master of Science