Brian Wolfe

During my intermediate programming class CMPSC 122 back in spring 2008 i was asked to create a sudoku solver. It was a second level C++ programming class. We used a linked list to represent the board. This project was was to demonstrate to use managing a linked list and memory management. We were supposed to fill in the empty spaces of the board and it ran on the command line.
There are a bunch of ways to solve a puzzle, but ours had to include a brute force solution to get full credit. I… Show more

During my intermediate programming class CMPSC 122 back in spring 2008 i was asked to create a sudoku solver. It was a second level C++ programming class. We used a linked list to represent the board. This project was was to demonstrate to use managing a linked list and memory management. We were supposed to fill in the empty spaces of the board and it ran on the command line.
There are a bunch of ways to solve a puzzle, but ours had to include a brute force solution to get full credit. I was unhappy with the fact that i never finished that part of the project.
So in may 2012 i decided to go back and rebuild the it from the ground up. It still works on the command line. It implements narrowing down possibilities for each given space which is something I did the first time around. I also successfully implemented a brute force solution.
One of the best aspects of this project is that now I have much more experience in programming and decided to use some better tools available to me. Instead of a linked list I used made a vector of the board and each spot on the board would maintain a list of possibilities.
After narrowing down the possibilities for each spot I would run a subroutine that would fill in the spots that had only one possibility left. Then I would update the possibility lists and fill them in again. This would run until no more single possibilities existed.
Now I would run my brute force algorithm which is a recursive backtracking algorithm. It would find an empty spot and pick the first item in the possibility list and then move through the board until it determines that the board is unsolvable, it would then roll back one spot and then make the next choice in the list. When it runs out of those choices it would roll back again. Eventually it would go through almost every possibility that the board had and reach a solution. I can't fit anymore details here so please feel free to contact me about this project. Show less

For my Computer Engineering Senior Design class CMPEN 482W we were able to pick from various sponsored projects. We chose the Boeing UUV project. Boeing decided that they wanted to have a competition at our schools senior design showcase. They tasked us and one other team with designing an Unmanned Underwater Submarine. They also tasked another team with designing an obstacle course for us to traverse. At the time of this writing it is still a work in progress. I am the team leader and have… Show more

For my Computer Engineering Senior Design class CMPEN 482W we were able to pick from various sponsored projects. We chose the Boeing UUV project. Boeing decided that they wanted to have a competition at our schools senior design showcase. They tasked us and one other team with designing an Unmanned Underwater Submarine. They also tasked another team with designing an obstacle course for us to traverse. At the time of this writing it is still a work in progress. I am the team leader and have done most of the design work on the submarine.
We were required to use a ballast system to submerge the vehicle. as well as use an Arduino microcontroller. The sub also had to be no bigger than 6 inches in diameter.
I won't go into much detail of numbers here, but you are free to contact me about that information. I will discuss the designs features. We decided that PVC would be a suitable hull for the sub. I decided that we could be different and use a water pump to drive the sub forward and backward. We used a WiFi shield to create a TCP connection with an Android tablet and created an app that would control it's movement. We used a gyroscope to ensure that the sub remains level as it travels through the water.
Our ballast system includes two tanks located in the bow and stern. We decided that we would use plastic bags to hold the water and a linear actuator to crush closed or pull open to take on water. This way when the sub is on the surface the bags will be empty and when submerged they will fill with water.
Since it is underwater we have a problem of sealing the inside components from the water. We we will use pvc cement to hold the caps on the ends and Teflon tape to seal a threaded cap on the stern. Also the inlets for the ballast tanks and water pump outlet will use threaded fittings. The water pump will pull water from underneath and will have to be sealed with PVC cement on the outside and RTV sealant on the inside to seal and absorb the shock from the pump. Show less

MyOpenJournal is a website that is still in development although my part has been finished. It was a project given to my team by our teacher Dr. Max Fomitchev in our Software Engineering course. He wanted us to create a place where people can post research and then have it commented upon by all individuals that are interested in the subject. This way research can be reviewed by more people in the subject of interest and it would be faster. The other researchers could then do research in… Show more

MyOpenJournal is a website that is still in development although my part has been finished. It was a project given to my team by our teacher Dr. Max Fomitchev in our Software Engineering course. He wanted us to create a place where people can post research and then have it commented upon by all individuals that are interested in the subject. This way research can be reviewed by more people in the subject of interest and it would be faster. The other researchers could then do research in response to that article. The current method for research review is rather slow and requires it to be published in expensive magazines whereas this will be a free service.
We created profiles for each user and kept track of who reviewed an article and how they rated it. We also kept track of what kind of research they have uploaded to the system. We created a dynamic upload page that would allow the user to classify the subjects that their research falls under. Anyone can view the research on the site. If you want to publish something or leave a comment then you would have to register. This way we can keep track of what someone says and see if they are credible in some way.
The approach to the articles is that you could have your main thesis which everyone would review, but what if you wanted to include the raw data with it. So we implemented a system where you could upload your main thesis and any number of documents that are a part of that research, whether it be graphs, pictures, spreadsheets, etc.
In order to categorize all of these articles we resorted to the taxonomy of science. We developed a dynamic webpage that would allow the researcher to add his/her research to any number of predefined categories which will be maintained by the administrator of the website. We designed it for research that could cross the many disciplines. All a researcher has to do is select all the categories that apply to the research. Show less