Frontmatter: Abstract

[wtbarnes]

A few formatting issues to address here w.r.t. the Rice formatting guidelines:

• Abstract is about 200 words too long. The page limit is 350 words.
• The abstract must contain the title of the thesis and the author's name.
• No page of the abstract should contain any numbering

[wtbarnes]

All of this has been addressed except the last point.