1997 Final Projects

Here are some of the final projects from Fall of 1997, the first time the course was taught.

Index of Abstracts

(Sorted by Last Name)

(*) Indicates Seniors during the 1997-98 academic year.


"Paper Marbeling" by Brian Caputo (*)

"Paper marbling is a beautiful and tremendously interesting art form dating back hundreds of years. Brilliant splashes of vibrant color swirl into microfine lines as thin as hair, all played out on a sheet of paper... It is an art not commonly practiced today.The newest books on the topic are available from the Princeton University Library were housed in the Rare Books room, and were first printed back in the early 1900's. And even those books considered the process old-fashioned.

The process, in theory, is quite simple. It starts with some sort of base, basically water with some chemicals or natural substance added to it. In most cases, the base has a color or tint on its own. Then, through a variety of methods, inks, dyes, or paints are floated on the surface of the base. Because of the antagonistic behavior of the colors and the base, each blob, per se, maintains its own integrity and does not blend into the others. Then, the dropped colors are disturbed by some stylus or rake, or perhaps even blowing. Finally, paper is laid on to the surface. The colors and flamboyant patterns transfer perfectly to the paper. Since almost all of the color transfers, each and every sheet of marbled paper must be produced individually and is therefore completely unique." (Experts from Introduction of original paper.)

In this project, the author simulated paper marbling on the computer and developed his own algorithms using libraries functions for working with .ppm graphic files.

References:

[1] Easton, Phoebe Jane. Marbling: a History and Bibliography. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles CA, 1983.

[2] Taylor, W. Thomas. The Whole Art of Bookbinding. Austin, Texas. 1987.

[3] Wolfe, Richard J. Marbled Paper: its History, Techniques, and Patterns. University of Pennsylvania Press,Philadelphia, PA, c 1990.

[4] Chambers, Anne. The Practical Guide to Marbling Paper. Thames and Hudson Inc, New York, NY. 1986.

[5] Stone, Solveig. Decorative Marbling. Chancellor Press, London, England, 1996.

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"Computational Protein Folding in the Hydrophobic Polar Model" by Peter Coles (*)

"A long standing problem in molecular biology is protein folding prediction. A protein consists of a sequence of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. This string of amino acids, driven by electro-static forces, folds itself into complicated shapes in three dimensional space...

To study protein folding, in 1985, K. Dill devised the hydrophobic-polar or HP model. The 20 amino acids can roughly be classified as either hydrophobic, designated H, or polar, designated P. A sequence of amino acids can be thought of as lying on points on a three dimensional lattice. Hydropic and polar molecules don't "mix" well...

In this project, I examine proteins on a small scale (9-25 amino-acids) and make the assumption that they fold on a two dimensional lattice in a compact shape. My goal is to find highly designable structures, that is, structures that are stable for a large number of protein sequences." (Excerpts from Original Paper by Peter Coles)

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"Queuing Behavior: A Simulation" by Annette Fung (*)

"Delays and queuing problems are commonly encountered not only in daily-life situations such as the supermarket, bank, or the postal office, but are also unavoidable in more technical areas including manufacturing, telecommunications and computer networking...

In this project, I will create a simulation program in an attempt to verify some simple analytical results of queuing theory, as well as to explore the different innovated queuing methods that exist. I choose to focus on the simulation of systems that are of social concerns, and will particularly address the question of queue pooling, that is, combination of multiple queues into a single line. Contrarily to common calculations and obvious intuitions, a number of scholars have pointed out that combining queues, (especially that of people) might at times be counter productive. The reasons include customer reaction, jockeying between separate lines, and the extra information through observations that the theory itself might have failed to consider. Larson further pointed out in [2] the aspects of social justice and psychology to be considered for human queues.

Due to the complexity of the problem and the unpredictability of human behaviors, there is presently no one optimal solution, and queueing theory still remains an active area of research." (Excerpt from the Introduction of the original Paper)

References

[1] N.M. van Dijk (1997): "Why Queuing Never Vanishes". European Journal of Operational Research 99 (1997) pp.463-476.

[2] R.C.Larson (1987): "Perspectives on Queues: Social Justice and The Psychology of Queuing". Operations Research, Vol. 35, No. 6, 1987, pp.895-905.

[3] Press, Teukolsky, Vettering, and Flannery (1992): Numerical Recipes in C, 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Pess, Cambridge, U.K.

[4] M. Ross (1972): Introduction to Probability Models. Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, CA.

[5] M.H. Rothkoph and P.Rech (1987): "Perspectives on Queues: Combining Queues is not always Beneficial". Operations Research, Vol 35, No.6, 1987, pp. 906-909.

[6 ] W.Whitt (1986): "Deciding Which Queue to Join: Some Counterexamples". Operations Research, Vol 34, No.1, 1986, pp. 55-62.

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"Lattice Models for Valuing Interest Rate Derivatives: An Extension of the Black-Derman-Toy Model to Two factors" by Thomas Mather

"Interest rate derivatives are instruments whose payoffs depend on the level of the interest rates up to the time of the payoff. Examples of these include caps, European bond options, and European swap options. The Black-Derman-Toy (1990) model is widely used to value these instruments. However, the only Black-Derman-Toy model that has been considered in the literature is a one factor model, which is limited in its ability to capture complex term structure dynamics. In this paper, the model is extended to two factors." (from the Introduction of original paper)

References:

[1] Black, F., E. Derman, and W. Toy (1990) "A One Factor Model of Interest Rates and Its Application to Treasury Bond Options." Financial analysts Journal, 46 (1990), 33-39.

[2] Heath, D., R. JJarrow, and A. Morton. "Bond Pricing and the Term Structure of Interest Rates: A New Methodology for Contingent ClaimValuation." Econometrica, 60 (1992), 77-105.

Other recommended reading:

Bookstaber, Richard. "Option Pricing and Investment Strategies" Chicago, Illinois: Probus Publishing Company, 1991.

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"Lunar Gravity-Assisted Trajectory into a Transfer Orbit from Earth to Mars" by Hide Oki

"A computer simulation was used to find and optimize trajectories that gain kinetic energy from the moon's orbit around the earth in order to enter a transfer orbit to Mars. Two general trajectories are identified as promissing: a single large impulse trjaectory which launches a vehicle for a lunar fly-by with sufficient initial that a second impulse is not necessary after the fly-by, and a two impulse trajectory which swings by the moon, and returns to swing by the earth, when the engine is fired for the second time. A modest decrease in v of 200m/s to 400m/s is predicted for these trajectories." (Exerpt from the Abstract of original paper)

References:

[1] Berman, Authur I. The Physical Principles of Astronautics. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. , 1961

[2] Kleppner & Kolenkow. An Introduction to Mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1973.

[3] Press, William H. Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

[4] Prussing, John E. & Conway, Bruce A. Orbital Mechanics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

[5] Zubrin, Robert. The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why we must. New York: Free Press, 1996.

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"Simulating Orbits around the Lagrangian Equlibrium Points" by Jesse Southwick (*)

"A simple computer simulation has been written that calculates the locations of the five Lagrangian points of equilibrium of the restricted three-body problem. A brief introducition to the theory of these points and relevant equations will be presented, followed by a descrption of the simulation itself. This simulation allows visualization of the complex motion of this classic celestial mechanics problem." (Exerpt from the Abstract of the original paper)

References:

[1] Southwick, J: (1996) "The Dynamics of Lagrangian Equilibrium Points" Princeton Dept. of Physics Junior Paper, unpublished.

[2] Danby, J. (1988) Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics, Willman-Bell, Inc., Richmod.

[3] SimLib.c code, author unknown, from CS126 course, fall 1995, Princeton University.

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Updated on 6/12/98 by Hide Oki.