Projects

Updates & Senior Project

2010-10-07T02:10:00.000-04:00

I'm currently working on finding time to get my webpage updated. I'm also working on learning PHP and MySQL, because I have a new job as a student programmer. Check my Resume in the menu on the right to learn more. Also notice I added two writing samples, and all the poster I've authored and co-authored if you're interested in hiring me! You can also check out my personal blog! All the links are in the menu to the right.

This year I am a senior. That means a fourth year or last year student (whichever comes first?). As a requirement for my graduation (which happens next May, brr!), I am supposed to spend the entire year (both semesters) doing research on a project, make some discoveries (or write a cool program etc.) and publish them. By publish I don't mean in a real publication necessarily, although that would be great, but for the school. In any case, right now I have two ideas, and I'm inclined to pick the first one as being more feasible and publishable (and more "academic"), although the second one has its merits too (it's cool and a lot of people who have no experience in the field would probably be more excited about it than about the other one).

My first idea is Image Near-Duplicate Detection: on a collection of images, given a new image, determine whether it's a modified copy of other images in the collection. The work to be done on this idea is basically improving on already existing methodologies, or finding a similarity measure that hasn't been used before and proving its superiority to already established means (or using it in conjunction with them). It is an interesting project, has good chances of actually being published (in a dedicated publication) and can be done entirely in Matlab (that is I know exactly what to do it in).

The other idea is 2D Freeform to 3D Model Conversion: a way to create 3D models by drawing in 2D and/or using 2D strokes. The beautiful part about this project is that anyone can understand it-- use a computer algorithm to transform 2D drawings, maybe in connection to some predefined strokes, into 3D models that can be imported into 3D graphics software such as Maya, Blender or 3D Studio Max for further editing. It would be especially cool since at my small liberal arts college, there are a lot of artists that could appreciate such a project. There has been significant work on this idea also, but what is fun about it is that it gives me an opportunity to be really creative -- the way the transformation is done can be anything! The problem is that if it is anything, then it might not be publishable in a serious publication. Also, I have no idea what to write the program in, and the project might require me to buy at least a tablet for it.

In fact, I believe the main difference between the two ideas is that one is more likely a research idea,

whereas the other one is more of an implementation idea. Neither one is necessarily better suited for a senior project since a senior project can be either a research application or an implementation application. I am still in doubt, and I have to decide pretty fast.

I also have to write about what I've been doing last summer, but maybe in a new post. You can look at the Clemson poster to get an idea before that.

WordPress with LAMP (Ubuntu, tested in 9.04 and 9.10)--incomplete

2010-05-12T15:38:00.000-04:00

I have started my internship at Human Rights First (HRF), with the task of revamping their website and moving it to a WordPress platform. The only problem being that I've never worked in WordPress before (d'oh, my blog is on Blogger!), so I had to start learning. And the first step was setting up WordPress on a local Linux machine.

This thing took way too much, because for some reason Ubuntu versions 8.10 and 9.10 doesn't recognize my wireless card, or when it does it just wouldn't allow me to click on "enable wireless"... Really frustrating, especially since I had decided to change my current (WORKING!) installation to 9.10, the most recent one. And it took me a looong time to realize that the working installation was 9.04, not 8.10, because I was beginning to think I destroyed something... Anyway, after using a virtual remote Ubuntu 9.10 server at www.linode.com (HRF bought some space there) and using putty and winscp to install LAMP and eventually WordPress there (which proved to be more complicated than necessary since I only had a command line and most online instructions use GUIs), I managed to become an expert in this (from the command line) and got the chance to prove that to myself last night after I managed to reinstall Ubuntu 9.04. It only took 15 minutes, including the download time!!!

Linux

I will assume you have a working version of Ubuntu. If you want to be able to uninstall ubuntu at any time without destroying your Windows boot, I suggest you use Wubi: http://wubi-installer.org/.

First off, let me show you something neat: http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/. This cool little website lets you choose where your Ubuntu package gets its updates. Choose country and distro. I suggest you select everything up to 3rd Parties Repos, but except for Proposed and Backports in Ubuntu Updates (we don't want to destroy our linux installation!). You can decide what's interesting in 3rd Parties Repos. Click generate. Copy the text.

Since nano is the easiest way to edit text in the terminal and you need administrator priviledges that can only be achieved with sudo in order to edit this file (I don't know why but my distro just says I cannot save the file because I'm not admin instead of asking me for the password, and all other versions did the same), I will use nano to edit my setup files. But feel free to use whatever you'd like. Open the terminal and write:

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Press enter. Input your password and press enter. You will have to delete the contents of this file (fastest way to do this in nano is Ctrl+K as it erases each row, but be careful cause I think it cuts, so you'll have to copy the repos again). Paste the generated repos. Close the file (Ctrl+X), you will be prompted to save, say yes (y), you will be asked about the name of the file, press enter without modifying anything.
Now, in terminal, do a:

$ sudo apt-get update

Press enter.
Now, we are ready to install LAMP. I'm basically using this tutorial: http://www.supriyadisw.net/2006/12/lamp-installation-on-ubuntu, with a hint of

Apache
In terminal, write and press enter:

$ sudo apt-get install apache2

PHP
Install PHP:

$ sudo apt-get install php5 libapache

Restart Apache:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

MySQL
Install MySQL Server:

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server

During the installation, if prompted, select a password for user.
Remove connection to localhost restriction:

$ sudo nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Find the line bind-address = 127.0.0.1 and comment it out (remove the ; ) then save the file.

Injustice (2006)

2009-07-29T00:53:00.004-04:00

It's funny, but I even forgot this existed until someone showed it to me... I don't stand behind everything I said then (but mostly... it IS true), but since it'll probably show up as the first result when searching by my name, and also since the sound's pretty messed up in it (heh, I filmed it with my camera that didn't have voice input, and then recorded the sound using sound recorder :D), I guess I'll write the verses here and hope for the best (that is, that you won't take what I said too... personal). It was made for a contest organized by Citizens for Global Solutions.

So, this is the video (it did get into the finals!):

Note: You might need to download and install Windows Media Player plugin / add-on to play inline Windows Media Player files. In my browser (Firefox) this doesn't show controls, although I've enabled them... sorry. The trick would be to maximize the window by double-clicking, and then scroll up to turn volume to max... Controls work in Internet Explorer, so you could use that!

Also: I added this sound file I recorded tonight to this page... You can only listen to it if controls work in your browser...

And the poem:

Injustice

by Adina Stoica

We fight for rights: the right to speak, the right to learn, the right to choose;
Each day we feel betrayed by others--
We ask for social justice for ourselves, we never think of others.
We never care that we're denying them the basic rights we love so much...
We think we're masters of the world: as such
We do not give a damn on what they lose.

'Bipeds in suits, that's what you are, it's all about what you achieve.
Intelligence for you is finding ways to waste our futures fast;
You kill, destroy, and do not care whether the Earth survives your generation;
You steal our rights to have our planet clean, that's what you are: you thief!
You call yourself a human? Well, we are humans too... We're just
Humans today that have no suits: humans tomorrow without chance--
We're praying for salvation...'

'We are your children, we're children of the world, and children of this Earth,
We seek the rights your generation is denying us from birth:
The right to a clean Earth, no litter on the street,
The right to a clean air, no matter where we breathe,
The right to have green forests, the right to have a pet,
Radiation-free homes, and... the right to get fat..'

Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we'd better think of others,
Should think about poor children, believe that they are ours!
Be careful what we're doing, be selfless with the Earth,
More resources we're wasting, their future's getting worse!
More forests we are cutting, less oxygen emitted,
More factories we're building, more cars we're using,
Less air to breathe, and we all need it!
More animals we're killing, less smiles on children's faces,
Experiments with atoms, mean cancer in most cases--
More resources we waste, the more they're losing...

All things we hurt? We drive them to their end,
The things destroyed? We cannot mend...

Okay, so again, I am not trying to offend anyone by this (note be taken, by suits I actually meant adults, well, adults with power, but mainly adults). But it is still out there, would appear in your search as one of the main results, and also, well, I did it. And it means something. For all of us.

This brings me to my idea (to save the world of course). But this isn't the time or the place to write about it. It's basically opposite to the last sentence in the poem, it's about us all trying to save the world together... I wonder if it may be that simple... But it's based on the principle that more minds are better than one. So, we'll see, that is the plan...

And... this post also brings writing poetry to mind... something I haven't done in so long... But maybe I'll do it soon :D I miss that feeling of creating something. Though I was such a kid then...

CCSCNE Programming Competition

2009-07-10T01:38:00.001-04:00

The northeastern region of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, or CCSCNE, holds a conference under the same name every Spring in a college in the northeast of the United States. Last year's conference, CCSCNE 2008, was held April 11 - 12, 2008 at Wagner College, Staten Island, NY, while this year's conference, CCSCNE 2009, was held April 24 - 25, 2009 at SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY.

The conference hosts workshops, poster sessions and an ACM-like Computer Programming Contest. Although most of the workshops are faculty-targeted, I found the poster session to be pretty interesting [I'm considering participating next year], and the programming competition, well, exciting!

A team from Bard College, of which I was part, joined the past two conferences for the programming competition. The team was composed of Wayne Yu Wu, Maksim Tsikhanovich and myself, and we had as advisers professor Robert McGrail last year (2008), and professor Sven Anderson this year (2009). A picture of the team, taken this year, follows below:

The programing contest involves teams of students coding solutions to a list of 5 problems on one computer (that is, only one computer per 3 people, so you have to take turns solving the problems on paper and submitting them). You get your result immediately (whether the solution you submitted works for all the test cases), and you are scored for the sum of the times you solved the problems in. Re-submissions are allowed, without any penalty other than the time you lost submitting it, getting the result, figuring it out and re-submitting. Coding is done in Java, C, or C++. We did it in Java, as Maksim was better than us at the actual coding and his strength was Java... And Java and C are pretty alike, so I could code my part [with some help].

I don't really know what number we ended in 2008, as we left the competition before the banquet, but this year we solved all the problems and ended up number 7 out of 29 (due to the time it took us to figure out bugs in the program)... which is pretty decent anyway...

I can just hope we can do better next year. Oh, yes, and maybe a poster next year too, featuring my research at UH or my research at Bard, or maybe two posters :)

The ECHO adventure

2009-07-04T17:22:00.001-04:00

ECHO happened whole I was still in high school. It was the student company I was president of. A student company is just like a real company, but it's run by students. The name stands for Earning through Curiosity, Honesty and Originality, and the slogan was "Up to the peak". Our company produced HanRuc, an anorak that can be turned into a backpack and the other way around. We got first prize in the Student Company Competition in Romania, and attended the European finals in Interlaken, Switzerland. ECHO was probably my greatest achievement before I got accepted to College.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://0random0thoughts0.blogspot.com/?zx=3130105681a1bbf3"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

You can view our website above or check out this link.

My work for the Intelligent Robots Workshop

2009-06-29T21:36:00.002-04:00

This happened freshman year, but I thought I should start this blog by showing what I've been working on in the past too, so as to make it as chronological (and complete) as possible. So here it goes: the robotics class. The recompiled version of what I submitted at the end of the semester.

Before the RKC Opening:

Mapping team.
- I was on the mapping team and made the lobby and Lab map. We measured the lab and the lobby, used the building plans and drew the map using Mapper3Basic, a program which is used to make maps our robot understands. The program uses lines to denote walls or detectable surfaces and forbidden lines and areas to denote spaces where the robot shouldn't go. We also set a home spot (the green area in the lab).
Poster-making person.
- Adrian and I thought the concept out and made the poster in PowerPoint. Unfortunately the PowerPoint was too small so I had to remake the whole thing the following morning. I named the robot Scavengex and somebody added stone robot- I left it that way-- I thought it sounded interesting. Each of the teams added details about the work they've been doing and we also added a Future Goals section. All in all, I believe it was a very nice poster.

During the RKC Opening:

I was very active during the RKC opening. I was always around Scavengex, made demonstrations with him and was around to force-stop it if it malfunctioned. Which indeed happened, as it attacked somebody's leg . I was quite unhappy we weren't able to show Reem and Kayden the robot's proper appreciation by making it go in the place where it would say "Thank you, Reem and Kayden for giving me a home!" but they enjoyed the robot anyway. And I liked the RKC opening .

After the RKC opening:

Learning some C++.
Aria and Vislib integration.
Speech recognition.

So, now you're probably wondering what the RKC is and what was the "opening" about. RKC stands for the "Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation", and is basically Bard's science building, the place where the computer science faculty have their offices and where all the computer science classes are. It also houses biology and chemistry. The "opening" was organized as the inauguration ceremony of this new building, and my class prepared a demonstration of our project for it. To read more about the RKC, check this link. To see some pictures from the opening ceremony, check this and this links.

Projects

Updates & Senior Project

WordPress with LAMP (Ubuntu, tested in 9.04 and 9.10)--incomplete

Injustice (2006)

CCSCNE Programming Competition

The ECHO adventure

My work for the Intelligent Robots Workshop

Before the RKC Opening:

Mapping team.

Poster-making person.

During the RKC Opening:

After the RKC opening:

Learning some C++.

Aria and Vislib integration.

Speech recognition.