Feedback contextualized to curriculum content and misconceptions is a crucial piece in any learning experience. However, looking through student code and giving feedback requires more time and resources than an instructor typically has available, delaying feedback delivery. Intelligent Tutors for teaching Programming (ITPs) are designed to immediately deliver contextualized feedback of high quality to several students. However, they take significant effort and expertise to develop courses and practice problems, making them difficult to adapt to new situations. Because of this, the most frequently used feedback techniques for immediate feedback systems focus on highlighting incorrect output or pointing out errors in student code. These systems allow for quick development of practice problems and are easily adaptable to new contexts, however, the feedback isn't contextualized to curriculum content and misconceptions. This dissertation explores the implications of the Misconception-Driven Student Model (MDSM) as a model for developing alternatives to the aforementioned methods. I explore the implications and impact of MDSM with relation to feedback through the following thesis: Authoring feedback using a cognitive student model supports student learning of programming. In this dissertation I review relevant cognitive theory and feedback systems and two quasi-experimental studies examining the efficacy of MDSM. / Doctor of Philosophy / Feedback contextualized to curriculum content and misconceptions is a crucial piece in any learning experience. However, looking through student code and giving feedback requires more time and resources than an instructor typically has available, delaying feedback delivery. Intelligent Tutors for teaching Programming (ITPs) are designed to immediately deliver contextualized feedback of high quality to several students. However, they take significant effort and expertise to develop courses and practice problems, making them difficult to adapt to new situations. Because of this, the most frequently used feedback techniques for immediate feedback systems focus on highlighting incorrect output or pointing out errors in student code. These systems allow for quick development of practice problems and are easily adaptable to new contexts, however, the feedback isn't contextualized to curriculum content and misconceptions. This dissertation explores the implications of the Misconception-Driven Student Model (MDSM) as a model for developing alternatives to the aforementioned methods. I explore the implications and impact of MDSM with relation to feedback through the following thesis: Authoring feedback using a cognitive student model supports student learning of programming. In this dissertation I review relevant cognitive theory and feedback systems and two quasi-experimental studies examining the efficacy of MDSM.

In response to the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization Act, the US Navy conducted an evaluation of alternative propulsion methods for surface combatants and amphibious warfare ships. The study looked at current and future propulsion technology and propulsion alternatives for these three sizes of warships. In their analysis they developed 23 ship concepts, only 7 of which were variants of medium size surface combatants (MSC,21,000-26,000 MT). The report to Congress was based on a cost analysis and operational effectiveness analysis of these variants. The conclusions drawn were only based on the ship variants they developed and not on a representative sample of the feasible, non-dominated designs in the design space. This thesis revisits the Alternative Propulsion Study results for a MSC, which were constrained by the inability of the Navy's design tools to adequately search the full design space. This thesis will also assess automated methods to improve the APS approach, and examine a range of power generation alternatives using realistic operational profiles and requirements to develop a notional medium surface combatant (CGXBMD). It is essential to base conclusions on the non-dominated design space, and this new approach will use a multi-objective optimization to find non-dominated designs in the specified design space and use new visualization tools to assess the characteristics of these designs. This automated approach and new tools are evaluated in the context of the revisited study. / Master of Science

Airbags have been saving lives in automobile crashes for many years and are now being used in helicopters. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for ocular injuries to helicopter pilots wearing night vision goggles when the airbag is deployed. A nonlinear finite element model of the human eye was constructed. Ocular structures never before included in finite element models of the eye, such as the fatty tissue, extraocular muscles, and bony orbit were included in this model. In addition, this model includes material properties up to rupture making the eye suitable for large deformation applications. The model was imported into Madymo and used to determine the worst-case position of a helicopter pilot wearing night vision goggles. This was evaluated as the greatest Von Mises stress in the eye when the airbag is deployed. The worst-case position was achieved by minimizing the distance between the eyes and goggles, having the occupant look directly into the airbag, and making initial contact with the airbag halfway through its full deployment. By removing the extraocular muscles, the stress sustained by the eye decreased. Simulations with both the goggles remaining fastened and breaking away from the aviator helmet were performed. Finally, placing a protective lens in front of the eyes was found to reduce the stress to the eye but increase the force experienced by the surrounding orbital bones. The finite element model of the eye proved effective at evaluating the experimental boundary conditions, and could be used in the future to evaluate impact loading on eyes that have been surgically corrected and to model the geometry of the orbital bones. / Master of Science

In robotic systems, reduction of inertia is a key concern. One way to reduce the system inertia is to replace counterbalance masses with an equilibrator, which is a force element like a spring. Although there has been much research on equilibrated mechanisms, there has not much research on the control of these mechanisms. This thesis explores the PID control of equilibrated systems, and compares the results to the PID control of a common method of equilibration, the mass counterweight. Through modeling, simulating, and testing of the two systems, the equilibrated system response was found to be superior to the mass counterweight in measures of settling time and peak overshoot. / Master of Science

This thesis deals with the numerical modeling of water overflow over the front spillway. The aim of the thesis is to calculate various types of turbulent models and to assess the overflow coefficient on a sharp front spillway. The model was created in free software SketchUp, but the modeling itself was carried out in FLOW-3D software. The content of the work is a description of used software, design and calculation.

This thesis deals with the solution of numerical modeling. Consequently problems associated with the flow of the water over spillway of the specific water structure. In this case numerical modeling means modeling of fluid movement, which is described by mathematical means. Especially nowadays, when a lot of spillways need to be recalculated, whether it meets the capacity demands, or there is no need to tackle reconstruction. With today's software capabilities there is a wide range of commercial and freeware resources. The numerical model, compared to physical model is less accurate which is, on the otherhand, physical model is usually financially and time-consuming. The following work simulates the behavior of water on the edge of the spillway, in the trough and then behind the trough. The result is a comparison of the water depth in the trough calculated by the numerical and the physical model.

The diploma thesis is aimed at creating a bankruptcy model for companies of the construction industry in the Czech Republic by using discriminant analysis. In the theoretical part, the concept of bankruptcy model is defined; this part is focused on the inclusion of bankruptcy models in economics, a look into their history, a description of selected models and a brief characteristic of the construction industry. In the practical part, the reliability of selected bankruptcy models is counted and a new bankruptcy model is built.

In the presented thesis we study three methods of pricing European currency barrier options. With help of these methods we value selected barrier options with underlying asset EUR/CZK. In the first chapter we introduce the basic definitions from the world of financial derivatives and we describe our data. In the second chapter we deal with the classical model based on geometric Brownian motion of underlying asset and we prove a theorem of valuating Up-In-barrier option in this model. In the third chapter we introduce a model with stochastic volatility, the Heston model. We calibrate this model to market data and we use it to value our barrier options. In the last chapter we describe a jump diffusion model. Again we calibrate this jump diffusion model to market data and price our barrier options. The aim of this thesis is to decribe and to compare different methods of valuating barrier options. 1

The main aim of this thesis is to analyse different mortality models regarding the longevity risk. We focus on the well-known stochastic models (Lee-Carter model, Age-period-cohort model by Renshaw and Haberman, Cairns-Blake-Dowd two-factor model) and compare them with relatively new Taiwanese model by Yang, Yue and Huang which is based on principal component analysis. Both the theoretical and also the empirical parts are included. Empirical part evaluates all the models mentioned above on the Czech mortality data from 1970-2000 for individuals aged between 50-100 years. Final mortality predictions are made for next 30 years.

This diploma thesis deals with short-term interest rate models. Many interest models have been developed in the last decades. They focus on accuracy of prediction. The pioneering one was developed by Vasicek in 1977 followed by the work of others. Nowadays these vary in their level of comprehensiveness and technical difficulty. The main aim of the thesis is to introduce not only a basic Vasicek's work but also more sophisticated models such as Brennan-Schwartz or Longstaff-Schwartz.