Brittany Rafaela Hoard

Education


My educational degrees are listed below.

Click on the ▼ icon to see more details about each degree.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Northcentral University

Major: Computer Science
Year of Graduation: 2021
Grade Point Average: 4.0/4.0

Completed doctoral dissertation titled "Metamorphic Testing Among Open-Source Software Developers: A Quantitative Correlational Study." My dissertation was nominated for the 2021 Dissertation of the Year award by my Dissertation Chair, Dr. Milton Kabia.

Designed and performed a study to examine the relationships among the acceptance, use, and perceptions of metamorphic testing among OSS developers.

Assessed the effects of moderating variables on the aforementioned relationships.

Employed the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to guide the study design.

Authored a literature review about the topics of scientific software quality assurance, OSS development and quality assurance, software testing challenges, metamorphic testing challenges, metamorphic testing methodologies/frameworks, acceptance of metamorphic testing, metamorphic testing effectiveness, and relevant theoretical frameworks.


Master of Science (M.S.)
The University of New Mexico

Major: Nanoscience and Microsystems
Year of Graduation: 2015

Completed Master's Thesis titled "Modeling Steric Effects in Antibody Aggregation Using Rule-Based Methods" and passed thesis defense with distinction.

Developed a rule-based modeling method to study the effect of molecule geometry and model resolution on steric effects between allergen binding sites.

Used BioNetGen and NFsim software to create biochemical rule-based models.

Employed a C++ code that models antibodies and allergens using a 3-D Monte Carlo rigid-body method inspired by robotic motions that explicitly represents molecular geometry. Collision detection is used in this simulation.

Collaborated with experimental researchers.

Contributed to the project "Symmetry-Breaking Nanostructures for Solar Photovoltaics" and supervised an REU student.


Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

Major: Physics
Minor: Computer Science
Year of Graduation: 2012

Undergraduate research project: Study of Candidate Intrinsic Defects in Amorphous Silicon
I helped write a winning grant proposal for this project and gave two conference talks about it.


High School Diploma
Battlefield High School

Year of Graduation: 2008