Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
August, 16, 2021: Amit joins DSCL as postdoctoral researcher – welcome aboard!
June 1, 2021: Dr. Tang starts the service of Associate Editor for ASME Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics. This is the fifth journal for which Dr. Tang has served.
April 15, 2021: Christian successfully defended his M.S. thesis “Automated inspection of airfoils enabled by deep learning”.
March 23, 2021: Josh is awarded the prestigious NSF GRFP (Graduate Research Fellowship Program) grant to support his Ph.D. study.
February 26, 2021: Qianyu and Christian conducted successfully the final demonstration of the ARM airfoil inspection project. This project is a collaborative effort with Dr. Xu Chen’s lab at University of Washington and GKN Aerospace, and features the synergistic advancements of robot manipulation, image processing, and deep learning based classification.
January 22, 2021: A PSV-500-HV laser scanning vibrometer is delivered to DSCL. This equipment is purchased through a grant from ONR to facilitate research on intelligent wave guiding with applications to vibration suppression, sound isolation, and ultrasound wave based fault detection and identification.
January 19, 2021: Josh passed the Ph.D. qualifying exam.
January 6, 2021: David joins DSCL – welcome aboard!
December 26, 2020: Kai completed his postdoctoral appointment. Kai will join Michigan Technological University as a faculty member.
November 30, 2020: Yixin successfully defended his M.S. thesis “Piezoelectric wave propagation: fault detection and wave guiding”.
November 5, 2020: A Focused Section on Machine Learning, Estimation and Control for Intelligent Robotics in International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, of which Dr. Tang served as the guest editor, was published.
October 6, 2020: Kai presented a paper in 2020 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSCC). Dr. Tang served as the General Chair of DSCC 2020.
Aug 7, 2020: Christian and Qianyu participated in the ARM sanding project demonstration which marked the completion of the project. It was an exciting project in which machine learning based automatic inspection of sanding performance was developed.
July 8, 2020: Dong and Kai presented papers in 2020 International Symposium on Flexible Automation (ISFA). Dr. Tang served as the Program Chair of ISFA 2020.
July 1, 2020: Dong and Yang passed the Ph.D. qualifing exam. They joined Qianyu and Ting who passed the exam in January to officially become Ph.D. students in DSCL.
May 28, 2020: Eric and Josh join DSCL – welcome aboard!
May 28, 2020: New DSCL webpage comes online. Yang officially becomes DSCL webmaster. He has made a lot of updates already. Email Yang (yang.3.zhang@uconn.edu) if you have questions or comments.