Methodological Flaws in Cognitive Animat Research

In the field of convergence between research in autonomous machine construction and biological systems understanding it is usually argued that building robots for research on auton- omy by replicating extant animals is a valuable strategy for engineering autonomous intelligent systems. In this paper we will address the very issue of animat construction, the ratio- nale behind this, their current implementations and the value they are producing. It will be shown that current activity, as it is done today, is deeply flawed and useless as research in the science and engineering of autonomy

Mathematics Teachers’ Working with Cooperative Learning

Teaching styles vary greatly amongst educators. One being extensively researched and highly discussed is the method of cooperative learning. Although many studies have shown the benefits of incorporating cooperative learning into classrooms, it has not been a widely used method of teaching in high school mathematics classrooms. This study explores some of the efforts that teachers, who utilize cooperative learning in their classrooms, make to implement cooperative learning lessons successfully. Furthermore, this study also explores the challenges these teachers have encountered when using cooperative learning. Data was collected qualitatively by interviews and surveys from six in-service high school teachers who planned and incorporated cooperative learning lessons in their classes. The data collected from interviews and surveys revealed that although many teachers potentially saw the benefits of the social interaction aspect of cooperative learning, they would not use this method of teaching regularly due to the difficulties of implementing an effective cooperative learning lesson. These difficulties included the amount of time it took to plan a cooperative learning lesson, not being trained on how to implement a cooperative learning lesson, and the students not knowing how to properly work together in a cooperative learning setting. It is beneficial to learn the challenges high school mathematics teachers have encountered in incorporating cooperative learning lessons so that those issues (challenges) can be addressed and be used to improve future cooperative learning lessons to make them as effective as possible. Furthermore, analyzing the various efforts teachers used to create an effective cooperative learning lesson and the challenges they encountered, indicates teachers would benefit from trainings on how to properly structure and implement cooperative learning lessons in their classrooms. With proper training and the willingness of teachers to apply cooperative learning in their classrooms, high school mathematics teachers can utilize effective cooperative learning strategies

The MMO problem

We consider a two polynomials analogue of the polynomial interpolation problem. Namely, we consider the Mixing Modular Operations (MMO) problem of recovering two polynomials $f\in \Z_p[x]$ and $g\in \Z_q[x]$ of known degree, where $p$ and $q$ are two (un)known positive integers, from the values of $f(t)\bmod p + g(t)\bmod q$ at polynomially many points $t \in \Z$. We show that if $p$ and $q$ are known, the MMO problem is equivalent to computing a close vector in a lattice with respect to the infinity norm. We also implemented in the SAGE system a heuristic polynomial-time algorithm. If $p$ and $q$ are kept secret, we do not know how to solve this problem. This problem is motivated by several potential cryptographic applications.Comment: Submitted to Interantaional Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (ISSAC) 201

Coherent absorption and enhanced photoluminescence in thin layers of nanorods

We demonstrate a large light absorptance (80%) in a nanometric layer of quantum dots in rods (QRs) with a thickness of 23 nm. This behavior is explained in terms of the coherent absorption by interference of the light incident at a certain angle onto the very thin QR layer. We exploit this coherent light absorption to enhance the photoluminescent emission from the QRs. Up to a seven- and fivefold enhancement of the photoluminescence is observed for p- and s-polarized incident light, respectively.Comment: Physical Review B 201