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File Your Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD)

Ready to file.

Review the formatting requirements for filing theses and dissertations and University policy regarding graduate thesis and dissertation public dissemination in UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Filing Requirements & Public Dissemination .

To begin the ETD filing process OR to check the approval status of your ETD:

During the filing process, you may choose your publishing agreement, register your copyright, and order copies of your manuscript.

FILING DEADLINES

See also: Filing Deadlines Chart

Deadline for Registered Students and Students on Filing Fee to Submit their Manuscript via ProQuest & Receive Committee Member Approval

*Complete Degree Requirements includes: completion of the online ETD Filing Application (button above), all committee members have reported approval of your manuscript and the passing of the final oral examination (if applicable) to the Division of Graduate Education; submission of a final PDF via ProQuest including requested changes from the Division of Graduate Education, and receipt of the Division of Graduate Education confirmation email of the formal completion of degree requirements.

See the UCLA term calendar for the  degree – award date , which is the final day of the term, also the deadline to submit manuscripts and to complete graduate degree requirements.

Deadlines for previous academic terms are available in the Registrar’s Office online calendar archive .

PREPARING TO FILE YOUR ETD

• Review UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Filing Requirements & Public Dissemination
• Register and Enroll for the term, or apply for Filing Fee
• Review  Graduation Requirements
• Changing your Name on your Thesis or Dissertation

THESIS & DISSERTATION COMMITTEES

• Thesis Committee Regulations
• Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution
• Change Committee Members

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• ETD Workshops & Drop-In Hours
• ETD Workshop Presentation Slides
• Video: Formatting Tutorial
• UCLA Library Scholarly Communication Services (Copyright Assistance)

ETD & FILING FAQS

1. What happens to the thesis or dissertation a graduate student files?

In the past, the physical manuscript was placed on the shelves of the UCLA library where it could be accessed by visitors and through the international interlibrary loan network. Today, digital access to the document is provided through the University of California Digital Library , our institutional repository. Additionally, the abstracts of theses and dissertations worldwide are indexed by ProQuest , SciFinder and other abstracting services. In the past, interested scholars who wanted to obtain copies of theses and dissertations would either write to the author or purchase paper, microfilm or microfiche copies from ProQuest, but now they can purchase electronic copies instead. Technology changes aside, graduate students retain the copyright on your dissertation, and will receive royalties when copies are purchased. See University of California Copyright for more information.

2. Can graduate students file their thesis or dissertation from outside the US?

Yes. Graduate students do not need to be physically present on campus to submit their thesis or dissertations. Graduate students only need access to the internet.

3. Do graduate students have to be registered when they file?

Graduate students must either register and enroll or, if eligible, use the Filing Fee .

4. Can a graduate student file during the Summer?

Yes. In order for a graduate student to file and receive a Summer degree, students must either register and enroll in a minimum of 4 units in a Summer Session or be on Filing Fee status.

5. Can a graduate student still file on paper?

No. Since March 13, 2012, only electronic filing is available for graduate students.

6. How can graduate students order hard copies of my thesis or dissertation?

Graduate students may order hard copies through ProQuest. Copies take about 5 weeks to ship after the manuscript is published by ProQuest. Graduate students can also order copies through the UC Bindery .

7. I’ve included co-authored works in my thesis or dissertation. How do I cite them?

You must include in your Acknowledgments section any material based on co-authored work that is published, in-press, submitted, or in preparation for publication. For each segment of the work that involved co-authors, you must identify (briefly describe) and acknowledge the specific contributions of each co-author. For details, see page 15 of UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Filing Requirements & Public Dissemination .

8. Will my thesis or dissertation manuscript be sold to third-party retailers?

No. A graduate student’s thesis or dissertation is not shared with Amazon. ProQuest’s reseller program with Amazon has been discontinued, with all existing agreements ending in 2014.

1. What are the filing deadlines for graduate students?

See the Deadlines above. Deadlines of past academic terms are available in the Registrar’s Office online calendar archive .

2. What counts as submitting my thesis or dissertation by the deadline?

All of the following must occur by 5pm PT on the day of official deadline:

• All committee members have approved electronically
• Committee has certified you have passed the final oral exam (if applicable)
• A graduate student has submitted a final PDF via ProQuest
• A graduate student has completed the online Division of Graduate Education process using the link at the top of  this page
• If the Division of Graduate Education requests any changes, the graduate student will have submitted the specific changes within the designated time period

3. How will the Division of Graduate Education determine my thesis or dissertation filing date and whether I’ve met the deadline?

The last date that all of the items listed above is complete will be your filing date for your thesis or dissertation. For example, if you submit your final dissertation PDF and complete the online process on May 31, three committee members sign on June 1, and the final committee member signs on June 2, your filing date will be June 2 assuming you have met all other degree requirements.

1. What is a certifying member?

Certifying members are responsible for approving your dissertation.  Effective Fall 2016, all doctoral committee members must read, approve, and certify the dissertation. All committee members must enter a decision for the final oral exam, if required.

2. Do my thesis or dissertation committee members need to sign the committee page?

Certifying committee members approve the thesis or dissertation electronically. There is no signature page, but rather a committee page listing your certifying committee members in the manuscript.

3. Can a committee member approve a thesis or dissertation from outside of Los Angeles?

Yes. Professors can approve a thesis or dissertation from anywhere with access to the internet.

4. A graduate student’s UCLA faculty committee member prefers to use a non-UCLA email address. Can an email request be sent to that email address?

No. UCLA faculty will be notified via their official UCLA business email addresses. Graduate students are welcome to send a reminder email to their non-UCLA email address with the link (https://go.grad.ucla.edu) to the approval page.

5. How do committee members who are not from UCLA approve theses or dissertations?

Committee members from outside UCLA will still receive the email notification and go to a similar approval page as UCLA faculty.

6. Can graduate students check the status of when their committee members approve their manuscripts electronically?

Yes, after graduate students complete the online process they can log back into the ETD Filing Application to check the status.

Formatting Guide

1. What special characters can graduate students use in their titles?

Only the ones approved by UCLA. The list can be found on the  Formatting and Filing Information page.

FYI: ProQuest will NOT publish any special characters included in your title although the special characters will display when you submit your thesis or dissertation.

2. Does the Division of Graduate Education have a LaTeX template?

No. Please consult with your graduate department or program.

3. Can the Division of Graduate Education check my thesis or dissertation formatting before submitting it to ProQuest ?

The Division of Graduate Education will only check your thesis or dissertation formatting once you have submitted it to ProQuest, or during designated ETD Drop-In Hours.

Release of Manuscript

1. Why will my thesis or dissertation be available for public access after it has been filed by the university?

The UCLA Graduate Thesis and Public Dissemination Policy affirms the university’s commitment to open access of scholarly work.

It is the University of California’s expectation that the research and scholarly work conducted by graduate students that is incorporated into theses and dissertations will be made available to the public. UCLA requires that research and scholarly work conducted by graduate students and incorporated into theses and dissertations be made publicly available through the University of California’s institutional repository, eScholarship .

All theses and dissertations are available as open access via UC eScholarship unless a delayed release is selected.

2. When will I be able to view my thesis or dissertation on ProQuest?

6-8 weeks after you receive final confirmation from the Division of Graduate Education.

3. When will I be able to view my thesis or dissertation on UC eScholarship?

2-3 months after you receive final confirmation from the Division of Graduate Education.

4. What is the UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Submission Agreement?

The UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Submission Agreement allows graduate students to affirm their understanding of the rights and responsibilities associated with the submission of their manuscripts to the campus institutional repository, eScholarship .

All thesis and dissertation filers will complete the institutional repository agreement as part of the submission process via ProQuest.

In the process of filing a thesis or dissertation via ProQuest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree at UCLA, graduate students agree to grant a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual license to The Regents of the University of California (“University”). Graduate students retain copyright.

1. What does it mean for graduate students to register the copyright of their thesis or dissertation? 

The copyright of your work is inherent upon creation. Graduate Students do not need to register their copyright to enjoy copyright protection, but registration does provide some benefits. For full detail, read the U.S. Copyright Office circular “ Copyright Basics “. The benefits of registration are outlined on Page 7 of the circular.

2. I found images on the internet that I want to use in my thesis or dissertation. Is this OK?

Graduate Students should assume that anything produced by someone other than themselves is protected by copyright unless they determine otherwise. This includes items found on the internet. Items in copyright will need either permission or a fair use justification.

If you have flexibility in the final selection of your images, search for images that are 1) in the public domain, or 2) made available for reuse via a Creative Commons license . Such images can be incorporated into your dissertation without permission or concern for fair use.

3. I’ve provided attribution and a citation for the source material I used in my thesis or dissertation. That’s all I need, right ?

Proper attribution is absolutely required; that’s a part of academic integrity and good scholarship. But copyright permission, if necessary, is an entirely separate matter and covered by U.S. Code Title 17 .

4. Do I need permission for every image, chart and graph that I use in my thesis or dissertation from other sources?

It depends. Some materials may qualify under fair use, and others are best used with permission. Graduate students should consult the filing procedures for more detail, or for consultation on a specific situation, get assistance from a UCLA librarian at [email protected] .

5. I’ve obtained verbal permission to use copyrighted material in my thesis or dissertation. Is this sufficient?

Written permission is best. It can be as simple as an email granting permission. Graduate students should retain copies of all permissions in their files.

6. How do graduate students determine what they can use without permission under Fair Use?

If graduate students do not know the four-factor balancing test of Fair Use , they need to become familiar with it. For more information on Fair Use, we recommend you explore the UC Copyright website .

7. Can I use an article, which I previously authored and published, as a chapter in my thesis or dissertation without permission?

It depends on the agreement you signed with your publisher. Most agreements require you to transfer your copyright to the publisher. If this is the case, you must request permission from the publisher to “reprint” the article as a chapter in your thesis or dissertation. However, some agreements specify that you retain the right to reprint the article in your dissertation. Read your author agreement to see if you retained such rights; if you are unsure, consult with a UCLA librarian at [email protected] .

8. After my thesis or dissertation is published, can I reuse one of the chapters as the basis of a future journal article?

If portions of your thesis or dissertation have been previously published as journal articles, you are bound by the agreement you signed when that content was published. But in regards to the remaining, unique content of your thesis or dissertation: Yes, you own the copyright of your thesis or dissertation, and are free to adapt and republish it as you see fit.

9. For those items that require permission, do graduate students need that permission before they file?

Though it is highly recommended that graduate students secure permissions as early as possible, they DO NOT need those permissions in order before they file their theses or dissertations. Permissions are only necessary from ProQuest’s perspective, and theses or dissertations will be published on ProQuest only after the filing process is complete. So, there is a window of several weeks for graduate students to finish gathering permissions.

10. What happens if a graduate student cannot produce the necessary permissions if/when a copyright owner objects and ProQuest asks for them ?

If the inclusion of copyrighted material is challenged by the copyright owner of the material and/or ProQuest, then the publication will be removed from ProQuest until the issue is resolved. A full citation and abstract of the graduate student’s thesis or dissertation will remain.

This rare issue (less than 1% of dissertations are challenged in this manner) is most commonly resolved by redacting or removing the copyrighted content from your thesis or dissertation and resubmitting the modified document to ProQuest. This will require the graduate student to pay a processing fee to ProQuest. Keep in mind that the copyright owner must be amenable to this as a resolution.

11. Won’t having my thesis or dissertation freely available online reduce my chances of securing a book deal and/or publishing portions as journal articles?

If you are concerned that such availability would impact your ability to later publish the thesis or dissertation as a monograph, or derive a journal article from a chapter, several studies of publisher practices have shown that this is not the case. In a 2011 Publisher’s Survey , only 6% of monograph publishers and 3% of journal editors would “never” consider a work derived from a publicly available ETD. If you have concerns, you can embargo your dissertation for up to two years.

Delayed Public Dissemination (Embargo)

1. What does delayed public dissemination (embargo) mean?

Delayed public dissemination, commonly known as “embargo”, postpones public distribution of the thesis or dissertation that has been approved and filed with the university.

2. I chose to delay the release of my thesis or dissertation? When will the embargo begin?

The delayed release period in ProQuest will begin on the date that ProQuest receives your submission.

The delayed release period in eScholarship will begin on the date that your submission is approved by the Division of Graduate Education.

3. Can I request to delay the release of my thesis or dissertation for more than two years?

Under rare circumstances and prior to the filing of the thesis or dissertation, the Dean of Graduate Education may approve requests for time-delimited embargoes beyond the two-year limit. Please see UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Filing Requirements & Public Dissemination for more information on the exception request process.

4. I did not delay the public dissemination of my thesis or dissertation at the time of submission. Can I request an embargo in eScholarship post-submission?

Graduate students who wish to delay public dissemination in eScholarship must select this option at the time they submit their theses or dissertations to the Division of Graduate Education via ProQuest. Requests to embargo a thesis or dissertation after the manuscript has been filed in UC eScholarship are permissible only in exceptional circumstances, and require Division of Graduate Education approval.

Please see UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Filing Requirements & Public Dissemination  for more information on the exception request process.

5. I think (or my research adviser thinks) that my thesis or dissertation work contains classified, secret or confidential information that cannot be disclosed to the public. Can I restrict access?

The University of California and UCLA do not have security clearances that permit the conduct of classified research on the UCLA campus (see page 2 of Responsibility for Executing Research Memo ). Further, the UCLA Graduate Council does not endorse the conduct of confidential research by graduate students; in instances where it is approved, the end results must be in an academically acceptable thesis or dissertation that can be deposited at the University without restricting access to it. In some cases, for example when a patent is being filed, it may be reasonable and appropriate to put in place an embargo that delays public release of the thesis or dissertation. Such an embargo should not be permanent, however. See UCLA Thesis and Dissertation Filing Requirements & Public Dissemination  for guidelines and instructions on this option.

6. I have heard that publishers won’t publish articles based on results that have been presented in preliminary form in my dissertation. Is that true?

In general, no. Publishers recognize that work described in theses and dissertations is often preliminary and may require additional research and writing before it can be submitted to the journal. Theses and dissertations also have not undergone peer review. Consequently, the vast majority of scientific and scholarly publications do not view theses and dissertations as constituting prior publication that would render articles based on the work ineligible for consideration.

7. Depending on the academic field, books/monographs are considered the primary form of publication and the basis for getting an academic position. Do graduate students jeopardize their chance of getting future books published if their theses or dissertations are “out there”?

What publishers say is, “A dissertation is not a book.” The process of turning the dissertation into a book involves considerable transformation, which may include additional research, shifts in scope or emphasis, broadening or narrowing, refining of the arguments, and/or changes in style to appeal to the target audience. Because of these significant differences, and the fact that dissertations are not marketed, most publishers do not consider making a dissertation available in a public repository such as eScholarship (the UC Digital Library) as cause for rejecting a book proposal.

UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations

• UCLA Previously Published Works

Towards the Physical Origin of Flexible-to-Rigid Transition in GexSe1-x Glass

• Zhao, Zhangji
• Advisor(s): Taciroglu, Ertugrul ET

Based on their connectivity, network glasses can be classified as flexible, stressed–rigid, or isostatic, if the number of topological constraints is lower, larger, or equal to the number of atomic degrees of freedom, respectively. Thanks to the absence of any stoichiometric requirement, the rigidity of glasses can be continuously tuned (e.g., from flexible to stressed–rigid) by changing their chemical composition. Interestingly, optimally-constrained isostatic glasses have been noted to exhibit unusual properties (e.g., nearly-reversible glass transition, low relaxation, desirable mechanical properties, etc.). Especially, the non-aging intermediate state features an almost vanished endotherm between the first and second heat scan across glass transition, providing a pathway for phase change material optimization in the application of non-volatile rewriteable media. However, the physical origin of the unusual behaviors and properties of isostatic glasses remain unclear.This thesis begins with investigating how the flexible-to-rigid transition in network glasses is encoded in their energy landscape based on molecular dynamics simulations. To this end, we introduce a simplified, yet realistic model of network glasses with varying connectivity. We characterize the topography of these glasses by adopting the activation-relaxation technique (ART), which enables a systematic search of saddle points and transition pathways in the energy landscape surface. We then demonstrate that the flexible-to-rigid transition arises from an interplay between low-energy saddle points (in flexible glasses) and topological frustration (in stressed–rigid glasses). Also, by utilizing the ring structure, we expand the transition correlation with ring size distribution. Meanwhile, we highlight the local heterogeneity with all the energy landscape features by dicing the model into small cubes. Comparing within a single glass helps exclude the effect of different configurations, further consolidating our conclusion on the physical origin of rigidity transition. Finally, to explore the role of chemistry effect in rigidity transition, we compare the behavior of the simple connectivity model with a realistic GexSe1-x model. With the similar shape of enthalpic differences, the realistic model could reveal the effect of glass-forming ability with experimental results where the simple model fails. Overall, we have a clear pathway towards understanding the physical origin of rigidity transition of GexSe1-x glass.

Lightning in a Bottle: Navigating Uncertainty, Authority, and Agency in Pediatric Neurology Encounters

• Advisor(s): Stivers, Tanya J

Pediatric medical visits represent a unique opportunity for studying uncertainty, authority, and agency. In these visits medical authority and parental authority converge on a common goal — the child’s best interests. However, physicians and parents do not always agree on what courses of action are best. Physicians may disagree with parents but nevertheless rely on them to carry out treatment plans. Parents may challenge medical authority but nevertheless rely on physicians for access to the medical goods and services that they need to care for their child. In these points of departure medical authority and parental authority collide; and when the child’s problem is non-routine like a seizure the stakes can be particularly high. This dissertation explores the physician-parent partnership in a particular context: pediatric neurology visits for overnight vEEG testing. I adopt a conversation analytic approach to examine interactions between physicians and parents during these encounters, paying particular attention to the themes of uncertainty, authority, and agency. I find that parents and physicians use (un)certainty to accomplish specific interactional goals. Parents can invoke uncertainty as an account for their conduct when they have somehow challenged medical authority, thus mitigating damage to the physician-family partnership; and physicians can modulate the certainty of diagnoses, treatment efficacy, and other aspects of the child’s condition and care as a means of exerting control over visit outcomes. In the context of news deliveries, I find that the relative rights to ascribe valence to news in pediatric neurology diverge from those observed in everyday life, and this causes problems in the delivery and reception of good news. In these encounters, physicians prioritize conveying the facts of the news over characterizing its valence, but parents tend to treat both components as necessary before they are willing to assess the news. When physicians fail to provide either component, parents orient to news deliveries as incomplete. This not only causes difficulties in parents’ reception of the news but also leads to protracted news deliveries. Taken together, these findings suggest an enduring orientation to medical authority as a legitimate property of the physician-family partnership.

Customized Computing and Machine Learning

• Sohrabizadeh, Atefeh
• Advisor(s): Cong, Jinsheng Jason JC

Nowadays, abundant data across various domains necessitate high-performance computing capabilities. While we used to be able to answer this need by scaling the frequency, the breakdown of Dennard's scaling has rendered this approach obsolete. On the other hand, Domain-specific Accelerators (DSAs) have gained a growing interest since they can offer high performance while being energy efficient. This stems from several factors, such as,1) they support utilizing special data types and operations, 2) they offer massive parallelism, 3) one can customize the memory access, 4) customizing the control/data path helps with amortizing the overhead of fixed instructions, and 5) one has the option of co-designing the algorithm with the hardware.

Unfortunately, despite the huge speedups that DSAs can deliver compared to general-purpose processors, their programmability has not caught up. In the past few decades, High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools were introduced to raise the abstraction level and free designers from delving into architecture details at the circuit level. While HLS can significantly reduce the efforts involved in the hardware architecture design, not every HLS code yields optimal performance, requiring designers to articulate the most suitable microarchitecture for the target application. This can affect the design turnaround times as there are more choices to explore at a higher level. Moreover, this limitation has confined the DSA community primarily to hardware designers, impeding widespread adoption. This dissertation endeavors to alleviate this problem by combining customized computing and machine learning. Consequently, this dissertation consists of two core parts: 1) customized computing tailored for machine learning applications, and 2) machine learning employed to automate the optimization process of customized computing. Our focus will be on FPGAs as their cost-effective nature and rapid prototyping capabilities make them especially suitable for our research.

The large amounts of data available in data centers have motivated researchers to develop machine learning algorithms for processing them. Given that a significant portion of data stored in these centers exists in the form of images or graphs, our attention is directed towards two prominent algorithms designed for such tasks: Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Graph Convolutional Network (GCN). In the first part of the dissertation, we develop architecture templates for accelerating these applications. This approach facilitates a reduction in the development cycle, allowing the instantiation of module templates with customizable parameters based on the specific target application.

In the second part of the dissertation, we move our focus to general applications and work on automating their optimization steps including design space exploration and performance/area modeling. Therefore, we structure our problem in a way that can be fed into the learning algorithms. We develop a highly efficient bottleneck optimizer to explore the search space. We also explore different learning algorithms including multi-layer perceptron, graph neural networks, attention networks, jumping knowledge networks, etc., aiming to create a performance predictor that is both highly accurate and robust. Our studies show that we can optimize the microarchitecture of general applications quickly using our automated tools. This can open new doors to those without hardware knowledge to try customized computing which in turn helps to broaden the FPGA community and further improve its technology.

Protein Arginine Methyltransferases: The Breakfast Club of Enzymes

• Lowe, Troy Lucas
• Advisor(s): Clarke, Steven G

Post translational modifications of proteins alter the biological landscape creating functional diversity. One modification, arginine methylation, was first identified in 1968 from calf thymus hydrolysates producing guanidino-methylated arginine derivatives. However, the enzymes that produce these modifications were poorly characterized until 1996 when the genes of the first protein arginine methyltransferases were cloned from yeast and mammalian cells. At this time, a family of nine mammalian genes has been identified that encode protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs). In vitro experiments identified three distinct types. Type I PRMTs catalyze asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) (PRMTs 1-4, 6 and 8), Type II PRMTs catalyze symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) (PRMT5 and 9), and the only type III PRMT that catalyzes monomethylarginine (MMA) (PRMT7). The active sites of each of the major enzymes that form ADMA, SDMA and MMA have distinct structural architectures allowing for their specificity.

In this dissertation I have focused my work on the major type I enzyme, PRMT1, the major type II enzyme, PRMT5, and the type III enzyme, PRMT7. I showed that each of these human enzymes behave differently under physiological stress conditions associated with temperature, pH, and ionic strength thus potentially leading to alterations in the proteomic arginine methylation landscape. In particular, PRMT7 is maximally active at sub-physiological temperatures and at nonphysiological pH and ionic strength, suggesting regulatory roles. I then characterized the unusual substrate specificity of the PRMT7 enzyme with peptide substrates to demonstrate the exquisite dependence upon variations of the Arg-X-Arg motif.With the identification of a PRMT7 motif in the human Fhod1 and Fhod3 actin binding proteins, I characterized methylation reactions that were dependent upon the phosphorylation state of an adjacent serine residue. These results pointed to the cross-talk that can occur between phosphorylation and methylation reactions. Interestingly, I found little or no effect of methylation on ROCK1 protein kinase activity.

PRMT enzymes have been identified to be oncogenic and closely associated with cancer progression. Surprisingly, it was found that methionine-dependent malignant cancer cells had no detectable alteration of protein arginine methylation than methionine-independent less malignant cells, suggesting that the methionine effect maybe be regulated through alternative pathways.

On the Dynamical Evolution of Alfvenic Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere

• Sioulas, Nikolaos
• Advisor(s): Velli, Marco

A Relevance-based Decision-making Model of Human Sparse, Overloaded, and Indirect Communication

• Jiang, Kaiwen
• Advisor(s): Gao, Tao

Human real-time communication creates a limitation on the flow of information, which requires the transfer of carefully chosen and concise data in various situations. Although pointing is sparse, overloaded, and indirect, it allows humans to effectively decode shared information, (ex)change their minds, and plan accordingly. I introduce a model that explains how humans choose information for communication and understand communication by utilizing the linguistics concept of ``relevance'' derived from decision-making theory and theory of mind.

The modeling approach taken in this dissertation is inspired by many seemingly separated domains. First, I apply theory of mind from cognitive science and partially observable Markov decision process to formally model the components of human mind and how they make decisions, building a scaffold for modeling human communication. Second, I derive how humans coordinate and share their mind by applying the concepts of paternalistic helping in developmental psychology and philosophical discussion about empathy. Third, I derived the definition of utility-based relevance as how much a signaler's belief can make a positive difference to its receiver's well-being, utilizing the cooperative assumption of human communication in linguistics and comparative psychology. I conducted simulation and human behavioral experiments to show that relevance-based communication model can model the overloaded and indirect human communication and can predict humans' choices of signals in communication. Artificial intelligence agents that communicate with relevance-based models are more well-received by humans. Finally, I use Markov decision process and partially observable Markov decision process to propose a way of finding the best timing for sparse human communication.

Fine-Tune Whisper and Transformer Large Language Model for Meeting Summarization

• Advisor(s): Wu, Yingnian Y.W.

With globalization escalating, multinational companies frequently hold meetings involving both domestic and international employees. However, time zone differences often result in international employees missing some meetings. This thesis explores an innovative solution to address this issue and ensure that colleagues who miss meetings can quickly catch up on the content. The core of this solution involves fine-tuning the Whisper model to convert audio recordings of meetings to text, followed by advanced summary transformers based on fine-tuning Llama3 and specific prompts to summarize the converted text. The resulting summaries provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the meeting's content, which can then be distributed to employees who could not attend due to time zone constraints. This approach not only enhances the efficiency of work communication among colleagues but also optimizes the global management and operational efficiency of the company.

Time Series Analysis and Forecasting of Monthly Coffeemaker Search Interest

• Wang, William S
• Advisor(s): Schoenberg, Frederic R. Paik

This study investigated coffeemaker search interest in the United States using the monthlytime series data from Google Trends. The forecasting model developed can be utilized as a part of the coffeemaker market research since accurately forecasting user interest would enable whoever is intrigued to anticipate future developments and make informed decisions. To analyze the underlying pattern, the data was decomposed with STL into seasonal, trend, and residual components. We observed a consistent annual seasonality with a surge in interest every November and December. This pattern was attributed to the increase in user interest during the end-of-the-year holiday season sales. Anomaly detection using the STL residuals found two anomalies. The anomaly witnessed in December 2020 is best understood as the result of the demand surge during the holiday season compounded by the adoption of online shopping imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown. For the model selection process, ACF and PACF plots were used to make the initial judgments on the parameters of the time series model. The first round of model selection tested potential AR and MA orders. The second round of model selection tested potential seasonal AR and MA orders. SARIMA(0, 1, 2)×(1, 0, 1)12 is the final model, chosen based on AIC and BIC scores. This model was able to capture the annual seasonal pattern and meet the stationary assumption with first-order differencing. The model has a MAPE of 4.3% and a RMSE of 3.841 with the rolling forecast origin prediction on the out-sample set. The residuals were confirmed to be white noise, which indicates the SARIMA model is a good fit for predicting the monthly coffeemaker search interest in the United States.

The Roles of Motivation and Attention in Lifelong Learning

• Silaj, Katie Marie
• Advisor(s): Castel, Alan Dan

Rewards can enhance memory for important information; however, intrinsic motivation is also an important component of long-term learning. My dissertation explores extrinsic motivation to learn such as point values awarded on memory tasks and grades assigned in classroom settings, while considering intrinsic factors that influence learning like curiosity and interest in the material being studied. I also examined how individual differences in attention, age, and study strategies impact how learners navigate what information they should prioritize when engaging with learning materials. Value-directed Remembering (VDR; Castel et al., 2002) demonstrates the potent effects of rewards on memory for important information. Point values of varying magnitudes paired with information can motivate strategic allocation of cognitive resources that can mitigate age-related deficits in memory recall. Extrinsic rewards often accompany real-world situations to motivate better performance: grades in the classroom, bonuses in the work force, points in video games, etc. However, desired behavior and information associated with rewards are not always easy to identify in real-world contexts. Schematic support or context can make rewards more meaningful, and this may be especially true for older adults who experience age-related declines in cognitive functioning (Castel, 2005). Additionally, extrinsic incentives may not always be enough to motivate all people. Some learners may need intrinsic sources of motivation to reach a goal such as curiosity, interest, or social connection. Thus, I explored whether learners could predict the value of information using rewards and schematic support to guide them, how being able to prioritize and identify important information relates to success in classroom learning, and how prior knowledge and curiosity influence what people remember. Overall, I find evidence that both younger and older adults can benefit from extrinsic rewards paired with explicit schematic knowledge to predict important information (Chapter 2), that selectivity in study strategies can be related to success in real classroom contexts (Chapter 3), and other factors like prior knowledge, curiosity, and collaboration can benefit learning (Chapter 4). Taken together, these findings suggest that learners may decide what is important to learn and remember through various extrinsic and intrinsic factors.

Cooperative Channel Sensing, Relaying and Computing in UAV and Vehicular Networks

• Krijestorac, Enes
• Advisor(s): Cabric, Danijela

Mobile devices generate an enormous amount of data traffic to satisfy their computing and communications needs. To meet these demands, mobile network operators frequently need to expand their capacity, which entails significant capital costs and increased energy consumption. Motivated by this, we seek to develop cooperative systems that will bring higher communications speeds and larger computing power to mobile devices without relying on mobile network infrastructure.

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has garnered interest for its potential use as a communications enabler. Swarms of UAVs can be deployed as temporary relays to meet short term but high intensity communication demands from mobile users. UAV swarms can coordinate their placement to improve the capacity on the fronthaul link between users and UAVs. Algorithms for optimal placement often rely on the knowledge of channel gain across space. Hence, we developed deep learning methods for channel gain prediction across space based on measurements collected by the UAVs and 3D maps of the environment. In line with this, we also developed methods to design UAV flying paths for optimal measurement collection such that the accuracy of channel gain prediction is maximized under constraints on the distance traveled by the UAVs. Additionally, we develop a reinforcement-learning based approach that controls a UAV to directly improve the fronthaul link without relying on channel gain knowledge across space.

With the proliferation of intelligent vehicles, there is an increasing number of computationally demanding computer applications appearing in vehicular environments. Providing the computational resources to meet the demands of such applications is a critical problem. In this work, we consider a cooperative computing paradigm between intelligent vehicles of similar computing power to enable emerging vehicular applications. Vehicles cooperate with each other over vehicle-to-vehicle networks to form vehicular micro clouds that can complete computationally intensive tasks without relying on cloud or edge computing. We developed optimized resource assignment and scheduling algorithms that efficiently use vehicular computing resources for computation in emerging vehicular applications. Our proposed approaches adapt to link quality changes between vehicles and prevent congestion in vehicular networks, even in the presence of incumbent interference.

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