Villanova Department of Computing Sciences

Current Research Projects

Here are short descriptions of many of our past and present ongoing projects. Follow the provided links to learn more about these exciting initiatives.

Proximity Structures Motivated by Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Proximity structures are mathematical models that encapsulate the relevant geometric and communication relationships in a network: spanners, dominating sets, centers, medians, means, etc. More...


Human-Computer Interaction

Means of evaluating effectiveness of university web page as a user interface to information. More...


Biological Systems Modeling

We want to extend the results of sphere packing in crystals to the setting where how many spheres of certain radius that can be contained in the unit sphere are known. More...


Polygon Reconfigurations

Polygons are among the most basic geometric shapes, and many algorithms in areas ranging from computer graphics to circuit design operate on polygons. More...


Polyhedra Folding and Unfolding

An unfolding of a polyhedron is an isometric mapping of its surface to a single, connected planar piece that avoids overlap. More...


Animated Algorithms

Included are five applets illustrating a sorting algorithm, a directed graph algorithm, a linked list, a queue, and a binary tree. More...


Nanocompliers & Computational Nanotechnology

Our research in this area involves the development of a compiler for a hypothetical nanocomputer. More...


Service Oriented Architecture Modeling

Development of an enterprise-scale model of a heterogeneous network consisting of a hierarchy of clustered nodes, groupings of clusters, and super-groups of groups. More...


Modeling Wireless Medical Device Networks

Developed models can be part of an effective Verification and Validation process for the wireless medical device network to ensure patient safety and also to facilitate the necessary clinical outcomes. More...


Science and Theatre Magic Program

The ultimate objective is to nurture the cognitive capacities which are essential to the successful pursuit of careers in science: critical judgment, intellectual curiosity, creativity, determination, and discipline. More...


Applied Research in Computing Enterprise Services (ARCES)

The team has developed models for the HTTP and SIP channels of a Single Multi-channel Service Oriented Architecture (MCSOA), and is investigating constraints on SOA processing arising from field specifications. More...


Vatican Video Archive

Vatican Video Archive project for the Internet Office of the Holy See. More...


Computability Logic

Computability is certainly one of the most interesting and fundamental concepts in mathematics and computer science, and it would be more than natural to ask what logic it induces. Let us face it: this question has not only never been answered, but never even been asked within a reasonably coherent and comprehensive formal framework. This is where Computability Logic comes in. It is a formal theory of computability in the same sense as classical logic is a formal theory of truth. In a broader and more proper sense, computability logic is not just a particular theory but an ambitious and challenging program for redeveloping logic following the scheme "from truth to computability". It was introduced in 2003 and, at present, still remains in its infancy stage, with open problems prevailing over answered questions. It is largely a virgin soil offering plenty of research opportunities, with good chances of interesting findings, for those with interests in logic and its applications in computer science. More...


Cirquent Calculus

Cirquent calculus is a new proof-theoretic and semantic framework, whose main distinguishing feature is being based on circuits, as opposed to the more traditional approaches that deal with tree-like objects such as formulas or sequents. Among its advantages are greater efficiency, flexibility and expressiveness. It is also is naturally and inherently resource conscious. Classical logic, both syntactically and semantically, is just a special, conservative fragment of this more general and, in a sense, more basic logic -- the logic of resources in the form of cirquent calculus. In publications on this subject the reader will find various arguments in favor of switching to the new framework, such as arguments showing the insufficiency of the expressive power of linear logic or other formula-based approaches to developing resource logics, exponential improvements over the traditional approaches in both representational and proof complexities offered by cirquent calculus, and more. More...


Applied Computing Technology Lab

The Applied Computing Technology Laboratory at Villanova University is a virtual laboratory, an idea factory, dedicated to the discovery of new uses of computer technology in all areas of the human experience. More...


Plagiarism Detection and Research Writing Validation

We are developing a software tool to detect copy and paste plagiarism and to validate research writing. The tool makes use of free search engine APIs to enable fast, practical and free checking of documents against content on the Internet to identify instances of intended or unintended plagiarism. More...


Blogging use for Large Lectures

Large lecture sessions make it difficult for individuals to have their voices heard. Additionally, freshman tend to be shy in any group and very unsure of the validity of their opinions. I investigated the use of Blogging as a technique for a non-csc majors' course. More...


Ensemble -- Enriching Communities and Collections to support Education in Computing

This project is part of the NSF National STEM Digital Library (NSDL.org) It is a collaborative project involving many partners. The main participants are Villanova (project lead), Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, and Portland State. Other partners include Drexel, Pitt, Berkeley, the Computer Science Teachers Association, CSAB, and others. More...


Distributed Expertise in Enhancing Computing Education with Connections to the Arts

This is a collaborative project with The College of New Jersey and Virginia Tech. Villanova is the lead institution. Drs. Tom Way and Lillian Cassel are the Villanova participants. More...