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<p>The RISS (Relational Inquiry and Storage System) data base management system was first implemented at Forest Hospital in Des Plaines, Illinois. It was originally written in BASIC-PLUS to run under the RSTS/E operating system on a DEC PDP-II minicomputer. The RISS system used the relational data base structure because of its basic simplicity and because of the ease with which new relations may be added to the data base without disturbing existing applications.</p> <p>The aim of this project was to convert the existing RISS software from BASIC-PLUS to CBASIC-2 to run on the Dynabyte microcomputer under the CP/M operating system, for use in the McMaster University Faculty of Business. A simple application program was also developed to demonstrate the converted RISS system.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>This report is concerned with an investigation into a software system designed to allow effect utilization of FORTRAN application programs from a library. The components of this system consist of an interpreter program to manipulate character strings and provide overall control, an evaluator program to carry out operations on numeric data and to provide for the calling of library programs, and an associative memory to store and retrieve facts about the environment or field of study in which the system is being used. Details involving how to use each component and how each component works are discussed. Possible improvements to the system and the relationship of the system to the field of control structures are also considered. The implementation of the system is discussed and this leads to an examination of the algorithms used in the operation of the system. Control is easily maintained so systems constructed from the components may be modified or extended by any user. Thus, these components form a basis for a class of extendable systems.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p> We present a symbolic analysis of a class of while loop programs which can automatically derive a closed-form symbolic expression for the input-output relation embodied in that program.</p> <p> We show that this is especially well-suited to analyzing programs from scientific computation, in particular programs which compute special functions (like Bessel functions) from its Taylor series expansion. Other than making heavy use of algebraic manipulations, as available in any computer algebra system, we also require the use of recurrence relations. It is from these recurrence relations that we derive most of our information.</p> <p> It is important to note that we can often get interesting information about a program (like termination) without requiring closed-form solutions to the recurrences.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<P> Trapped ions are one of the best candidate systems to realize quantum computation. In our laboratory, we are trying to implement quantum computing and information processing: two hyperfine ground-states of magnesium-25 ions will serve as the two-level system to store quantum information. The ions are confined in a linear radio-frequency trap under ultra-high vacuum conditions and will be cooled down to their motional ground-states. By illuminating the ions with frequency-stabilized lasers we will be able to initialize, manipulate, and read out their internal electronic quantum states in a well-controlled way and with high fidelity. In addition, the ions can be made to interact with each other by coupling their internal electronic states to a collective vibrational mode of motion along the trap axis. In this thesis, the focus will be on the process of building a trapped-magnesium-ion quantum information processor. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) conductors have been applied in electric power transmission and distribution for over 80 years. Research about ACSR includes its possible properties in electrical, mechanical, and thermal areas. We postulate that these properties predict certain behaviours in power transmission and distribution lines. Four models have been established by various authors for determining conductor behaviour. They are the electromagnetic, mechanical, radial conduction, and steady-state thermal models. These models were developed independently,. Although they can be used in their fields individually, there are no experimental studies verifying a combined model. Also, using them separately does not yield the required information for determining conductor performance. The unified model connects these models probabilistically by considering power system loads and meteorological factors. Based on the unified model and its modules, it is possible to use mathematical tools to optimize the ACSR design and analyze conductor characteristics when conductor parameters are changed,. Evolutionary Computation is an optimization process simulating natural evolution on the computer. Instances based on evolutionary principles are Evolutionary Algorithms that historically include Genetic Algorithms, Evolution Strategies, and Evolutionary Programming. Genetic Algorithms are used in the optimization of multi-dimensional problems in this work. Evolutionary Algorithms are empirically robust in finding near-optimal solutions to complex problems through parallel searches of solution space. Evolution Computations imitates natural evolution and genetic variation, and lays the mathematical foundation for problems in which many inputs are variable. Especially, Genetic Algorithms are extensively applied in engineering to solve problems without satisfying gradient descent, deterministic hill climbing, or purely random search. This project introduces the Evolutionary Algorithms and applies the Genetic Algorithms to the unified models. The problem solved by applying Genetic Algorithms to optimize the unified model is to select optimum multi-dimensional input parameters for the model. This provides an effective way to find conductor size for optimizing conductor design. The results give the variation of electrical, thermal, and mechanical characteristics according to conductor loss changes and predict the variation ranges of electric and magnetic fields of three-layer conductors within ASTM standards. The procedure to apply Genetic Algorithms to optimize ACSR design is unique to the problem. Objective functions are found according to the characteristics of each model. The results are put into the unified model. Comparing results gives rules to change geometrical parameters of ACSR to reach minimal Joule loss. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

The problem of this research was to determine whether using hand-held calculators was more effective for the acquisition and retention of concepts and skills on decimal algorithms and metric units than the use of pencil and paper computation only. The sample consisted of six intact sixth grade classes (175 students). Two classes hand-held calculators (the experimental group) and one class using pencil and paper only (the control group) were located in each of two schools in separate school districts. The classes were assigned randomly as either experimental or control. Each treatment period was 30-50 minutes daily for the duration of the twenty-five day study. Both groups studied the same content based on designated learning objectives. Test scores of the Criterion Referenced Test in Metrics Measurement by Heber and a decimal test, developed by the researcher, were used as dependent variables. Both tests were used as pretests, posttests, and retention tests. The multivariate analysis of covariance technique was used to test the hypotheses. / Ed. D.

The computation of curvature quantities over discrete geometry is often required when processing geometry composed of meshes. Curvature information is often important for the purpose of shape analysis, feature recognition and geometry segmentation. In this paper we present a method for accurate estimation of curvature on discrete geometry especially those composed of meshes. We utilise a method based on fitting a continuous surface arising from the solution of the Biharmonic equation subject to suitable boundary conditions over a 1-ring neighbourhood of the mesh geometry model. This enables us to accurately determine the curvature distribution of the local area. We show how the curvature can be computed efficiently by means of utilising an analytic solution representation of the chosen Biharmonic equation. In order to demonstrate the method we present a series of examples whereby we show how the curvature can be efficiently computed over complex geometry which are represented discretely by means of mesh models.

Even though computer simulation of environmental factors and manufacturing technologies have experienced a fast development, architectural workflows that can take advantage of the possibilities created by these developments have been left behind and architectural design processes have not evolved at the same rate. This research presents design to fabrication workflows that explore data driven design to improve performance of facades, implementing for this purpose computational tools to handle environmental data complexity and proposes robotic fabrication technologies to facilitate façade components fabrication. During this research three design experiments were conducted that tested variations on the design to fabrication workflow, approaching the flow of information in top-down and bottom-up processes. Independent variables such as material, environmental conditions and structural behavior, are the framework in which workflow instances are generated based on dependent variables such as geometry, orientation and assembly logic. This research demonstrates the feasibility of a robotic based fabrication method informed by a multi-variable computational framework plus a simulation evaluator integrated into a design to fabrication workflow and put forward the discussion of a fully automated scenario. / Master of Science