Brian Alan Carter graduated on December 13, 2008 with a BS degree in Computer Science from the Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at El Paso. He currently works as a software engineer for Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. In the future, he wants to attend graduate school to pursue an MS degree.

Brian was born on June 8, 1986 and is currently 24.2395255482 years old. He was born in Kailua, Hawaii and grew up in Kaneohe, Hawaii until he moved with his parents to Las Cruces, New Mexico at the age of seven. At the age of twelve, he again moved with his parents overseas to Camp Zama, Japan, which is approximately 40 km (or 25 miles) from Tokyo. He lived in Japan for three years until the age of fifteen when his family relocated to El Paso, Texas. After graduating from college, Brian relocated to Mountain View, California, where he lives today.

During the course of his life, Brian has traveled to ten different countries: the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China (including Hong Kong), the United Kingdom (England, specifically), and South Korea, in this order.

Undergraduate Projects and Research

My research interests are primarily related to embedded systems topics.

• Computer Architecture I curriculum and lab manual.

  In collaboration with others, I designed and wrote a lab manual for the Computer Architecture I course (CS 3432 at UTEP). The lab manual serves as the primary roadmap of the course curriculum. I have authored and coauthored several research papers related to this course. The lab manual is released under the GNU Free Documentation License and is freely available online.

  The Computer Architecture I course aims to teach second- and third-year undergraduate Computer Science students the C programming language and provide an introduction to assembly programming.

  The course is based on the TI MSP430 microcontroller. The course was previously based on the Motorola M68HC11 microcontroller unit.

  I worked with Dr. Eric Freudenthal, the course instructor, to continue to adjust the course curriculum and lab manual as needed. Additionally, I worked as a teaching assistant for this course.

  Previously, we were working on transitioning to the MSP430 instead of the HC11. I've written a document explaining what I've learned about how to use the MSP430 with Linux.

• Foveating camera using a TI OMAP 1611.

  I previously worked on getting Linux to run nicely on a Texas Instruments OMAP 1611 microprocessor, which is typically used in devices like mobile phones. There are essentially three groups working on this project. First is the algorithm group, working to select an optimal object recognition to be used with the system. Second is the hardware group, working to develop a hardware module (likely a Mini PCI board to be used in conjunction with the OMAP). Third, which is probably where I fit the best, is the development and implementation group, working to implement high-level algorithms to run efficiently using the OMAP's ARM MCU and DSP.

  The primary goal of the system is to develop a foveating camera system that can monitor a very large area ("pervasive monitoring") with minimal power usage. The basic idea is to continuously monitor the entire area in very low resolution, to algorithmically recognize faces ("regions of interest," or "ROIs"), and to monitor recognized faces ("active vision") in substantially higher resolution. This allows transmission of high-resolution imagery to be limited to regions of interest, allowing bandwidth (and thus power consumption) to be reduced.

  I worked with Dr. Eric Freudenthal and Dr. Olac Fuentes on this project, along with a group of undergraduate Electrical Engineering students, a mix of undergraduate and graduate Computer Science students, and a handful of other graduate students.

  I've produced a document to be presented describing the approach taken to boot Linux on the OMAP. This information is substantially compiled based on my own experience with the OMAP.

• Anti-entropy protocols applied to epidemic data transmission in disconnected systems.

  I researched disconnected decentralized systems and have taken an interest in the applications of such systems in the field of medicine. Of particular interest is the use of anti-entropy protocols to reduce the transmission of redundant data. Systems which I have investigated primarily aim to track the transmission of contagious diseases using inter-personnel contact information obtained using wireless radio devices and transmitted epidemically to all devices.

  I investigated existing systems and familiarized myself with concepts related to this field (for example, database replication, reconciliation of conflicts, and epidemic communication) so that I can further research these systems.

  This research was done with Dr. Eric Freudenthal and Dr. Virgilio Gonzalez.

• Being a teaching assistant for Computer Science courses.

  I previously worked with Dr. Steve Roach and Dr. Eric Freudenthal as a teaching assistant (TA) for Computer Architecture I. I formerly served as a peer leader for Computer Architecture I (CS 3432) during the Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 semesters. I also peer led Introduction to Computer Science (CS 1401) during the Spring 2007 semester.

  My goal in peer leading was to apply cooperative learning techniques to weekly sessions in which I work with students to help them guide themselves toward realization and understanding of key concepts.

  This was similar to acting as a teaching assistant (TA) for the course. However, the key difference is that a peer leader does not answer students' questions directly but seeks to guide students to research the topics themselves.

  I aimed to apply cooperative learning techniques to my work as a TA as well.

Publications and Papers

• B. A. Carter, "A Low-cost Approach to Tracking the Spread of Contagious Agents using Gossip Protocols along with Anti-entropy Protocols," International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) Modeling & Simulation Conference, El Paso, TX, January 2009. (Awaiting Acceptance)
• E. Freudenthal, B. Carter, "A Gentle Introduction to Addressing Modes in a First Course in Computer Organization," 2009 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, Austin, TX, June 2009. (Awaiting Acceptance)
• E. Freudenthal, B. A. Carter, "Why Johnny and Jenny Can't Program in C (But We Could)," 44th Annual Association for Computer Educators in Texas Conference, Austin, TX, October 2008. (Presentation Slides)
• E. A. Freudenthal, B. A. Carter, F. F. Kautz, "Combined Introduction of C and Assembly with a Focus on Reduction of High-level Language Constructs," 38th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference, Saratoga Springs, NY, October 2008. (Full Text)
• E. Freudenthal, B. Carter, F. Kautz, A. Ogrey, R. Preston, A. Walton, "Integration of C into an Introductory Course in Machine Organization," 2008 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, Pittsburgh, PA, June 2008. (Full Text)
• E. A. Freudenthal, V. Gonzalez, B. A. Carter, "An Anti-Entropy Protocol Suitable For Managing Data Deletion in an Epidemic Data Transmission System," 24th Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference (SBEC), El Paso, TX, April 2008. (Extended Abstract)

I have written several papers related to courses I have taken or are currently taken. I would be surprised if any papers have real academic value, but they may serve as interesting introductions or overviews to topics I have studied.

• Game Theory and Decision Making
  • B. Carter, A. Kassin, A. Walton, "Using Decision Making and Game Theory to Minimize Memory Fragmentation," February 25, 2008. (Proposal)
  • B. Carter, P. Flores, A. Kassin, F. Pajaro, "Choquet Integrals and Multicriteria Decision Making," February 4, 2008. (Full Paper)
• Languages in Computing
  • B. A. Carter, L. A. Hubert, A. C. Walton, "Applications of Regular Expressions," October 4, 2007. (Full Paper)
• Cryptography
  • B. Carter, A. Kassin, and T. Magoc, "Video Encryption System," November 20, 2007. (Proposal)
  • B. Carter, A. Kassin, and T. Magoc, "Advanced Encryption Standard," October 30, 2007. (Full Paper)
  • B. Carter, A. Kassin, and T. Magoc, "Asymmetric Cryptosystems," September 27, 2007. (Full Paper)
  • B. Carter, A. Kassin, and T. Magoc, "Symmetric Cryptosystems and Symmetric Key Management," September 18, 2007. (Full Paper)
  • B. Carter and T. Magoc, "Classical Ciphers and Cryptanalysis," September 11, 2007. (Full Paper)

Personal Projects

Various projects and hobbies that I like to play with when I get a chance.

• Spakov. A URL redirection service. The advantage over "that other one" is that you get shorter URLs.
• viamirada.info. A domain name I registered for my street. Don't ask me, I don't remember why. I'll do something with it someday.
• sssd, the Super-Simple SMTP Daemon. I'm sure qmail and postfix really are incredibly powerful mail servers, but my server does exactly what I need it to do without having to read hundreds of pages of documentation. It seems nice and stable and very fast. As an added bonus, I got to learn the SMTP protocol quite thoroughly. sssd is written in C.
• MythTV and Gentoo Linux. Well, I didn't write these two, of course, but I do enjoy trying to get MythTV working perfectly for me in my free time.
• Other stuff. Tons (i.e., hundreds) of small utility-type scripts, programs, and web pages I've thrown together for various reasons over the years. Some of these are good enough to "go public," but it may or may not happen.