Its Okay For Us to Be Students, but Not Leaders: African American Women in Executive Leadership within the Community College

As the nation’s racial and ethnic diversity continues to grow, so does the number of students of color within the college system, particularly within the community and technical college systems. While the student body grows more diverse, African American women are not invited into circles of power and executive leadership positions continue to be filled by White leaders. This racial disparity perpetuates an educational system that is neither open nor inclusive. To better understand the persistent underrepresentation of African American women in community college leadership settings, a racially conscious framework was chosen to be applied in the exploration of how higher education institutions impact African American women. A blended Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought (BFT) framework was used to examine how systems of oppression serve to disempower and disadvantage these women. The usage of this blended framework allows for the consideration of multiple roles and identities that other theories may not address. This study centered the experiences of four African American women in executive leadership positions in Pacific Northwest community college settings by fostering counterstories that highlight the fight for equality and justice while providing insight and hope to African American women that seek upward mobility within the community college system. Key themes include the devastating impact of being the only African American woman in leadership, systemic inequities, and the urgent need for mentorship and sponsorship

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement algorithm

Over recent years, Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) algorithms which dynamically match the local resolution of the computational grid to the numerical solution being sought have emerged as powerful tools for solving problems that contain disparate length and time scales. In particular, several workers have demonstrated the effectiveness of employing an adaptive, block-structured hierarchical grid system for simulations of complex shock wave phenomena. Unfortunately, from the parallel algorithm developer's viewpoint, this class of scheme is quite involved; these schemes cannot be distilled down to a small kernel upon which various parallelizing strategies may be tested. However, because of their block-structured nature such schemes are inherently parallel, so all is not lost. In this paper we describe the method by which Quirk's AMR algorithm has been parallelized. This method is built upon just a few simple message passing routines and so it may be implemented across a broad class of MIMD machines. Moreover, the method of parallelization is such that the original serial code is left virtually intact, and so we are left with just a single product to support. The importance of this fact should not be underestimated given the size and complexity of the original algorithm

Scalability study of parallel spatial direct numerical simulation code on IBM SP1 parallel supercomputer

The implementation and the performance of a parallel spatial direct numerical simulation (PSDNS) code are reported for the IBM SP1 supercomputer. The spatially evolving disturbances that are associated with laminar-to-turbulent in three-dimensional boundary-layer flows are computed with the PS-DNS code. By remapping the distributed data structure during the course of the calculation, optimized serial library routines can be utilized that substantially increase the computational performance. Although the remapping incurs a high communication penalty, the parallel efficiency of the code remains above 40% for all performed calculations. By using appropriate compile options and optimized library routines, the serial code achieves 52-56 Mflops on a single node of the SP1 (45% of theoretical peak performance). The actual performance of the PSDNS code on the SP1 is evaluated with a 'real world' simulation that consists of 1.7 million grid points. One time step of this simulation is calculated on eight nodes of the SP1 in the same time as required by a Cray Y/MP for the same simulation. The scalability information provides estimated computational costs that match the actual costs relative to changes in the number of grid points

Study of parallel efficiency in message passing environments

A benchmark test using the Message Passing Interface (MPI, an emerging standard for writing message passing programs) has been developed, to study parallel performance in message passing environments. The test is comprised of a computational task of independent calculations followed by a round-robin data communication step. Performance data as a function of computational granularity and message passing requirements are presented for the IBM SPx at Argonne National Laboratory and for a cluster of quasi-dedicated SUN SPARC Station 20`s. In the later portion of the paper a widely accepted communication cost model combined with Amdahl`s law is used to obtain performance predictions for uneven distributed computational work loads

Highway traffic simulation on multi-processor computers

A computer model has been developed to simulate highway traffic for various degrees of automation with a high level of fidelity in regard to driver control and vehicle characteristics. The model simulates vehicle maneuvering in a multi-lane highway traffic system and allows for the use of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies such as an Automated Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC). The structure of the computer model facilitates the use of parallel computers for the highway traffic simulation, since domain decomposition techniques can be applied in a straight forward fashion. In this model, the highway system (i.e. a network of road links) is divided into multiple regions; each region is controlled by a separate link manager residing on an individual processor. A graphical user interface augments the computer model kv allowing for real-time interactive simulation control and interaction with each individual vehicle and road side infrastructure element on each link. Average speed and traffic volume data is collected at user-specified loop detector locations. Further, as a measure of safety the so- called Time To Collision (TTC) parameter is being recorded

An artificial neural network controller for intelligent transportation systems applications

An Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC) has been designed using a feedforward artificial neural network, as an example for utilizing artificial neural networks for nonlinear control problems arising in intelligent transportation systems applications. The AICC is based on a simple nonlinear model of the vehicle dynamics. A Neural Network Controller (NNC) code developed at Argonne National Laboratory to control discrete dynamical systems was used for this purpose. In order to test the NNC, an AICC-simulator containing graphical displays was developed for a system of two vehicles driving in a single lane. Two simulation cases are shown, one involving a lead vehicle with constant velocity and the other a lead vehicle with varying acceleration. More realistic vehicle dynamic models will be considered in future work

Development of a parallelization strategy for the VARIANT code

The VARIANT code solves the multigroup steady-state neutron diffusion and transport equation in three-dimensional Cartesian and hexagonal geometries using the variational nodal method. VARIANT consists of four major parts that must be executed sequentially: input handling, calculation of response matrices, solution algorithm (i.e. inner-outer iteration), and output of results. The objective of the parallelization effort was to reduce the overall computing time by distributing the work of the two computationally intensive (sequential) tasks, the coupling coefficient calculation and the iterative solver, equally among a group of processors. This report describes the code`s calculations and gives performance results on one of the benchmark problems used to test the code. The performance analysis in the IBM SPx system shows good efficiency for well-load-balanced programs. Even for relatively small problem sizes, respectable efficiencies are seen for the SPx. An extension to achieve a higher degree of parallelism will be addressed in future work. 7 refs., 1 tab

Response matrix transport calculations on parallel computers

The response matrix method offers an excellent vehicle for adapting three-dimensional neutron transport methods to parallel computers. Our current thrust is in utilizing the three-dimensional Variational nodal code VARIANT as a point of departure for performing three- dimensional parallel computations on the IBM SPx at Argonne National Laboratory. The code employs a planar red-black iteration with a secondary red-black or four-color iteration within each plane. Speed- up and efficiency results have been obtained with a two-stage parallel implementation. First, the response matrix coefficients are calculated in parallel for each unique node type. Second, parallel iterations are performed with one red-black pair of planes assigned to each processor. A hierarchical structure may be employed to obtain finer parallel granularity by assigning multiple processors to the planer red-black or four-color iterations

Simulations of highway traffic with various degrees of automation

A traffic simulator to study highway traffic under various degrees of automation is being developed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The key components of this simulator include a global and a local Expert Drive Mode, a human factor study and a graphical user interface. Further, an Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC) which is based on a neural network controller is described and results for a typical driving scenario are given

Three-dimensional transport with variational nodal methods

The development of the variational nodal method contained in the three-dimensional transport code VARIANT is reviewed. This Argonne National Laboratory code treats two- and three- dimensional multigroup problems with anisotropic scattering in hexagonal and Cartesian geometries. The methodology couples hybrid finite elements in space, which enforce nodal balance, with spherical harmonics expansions in angle. The resulting response matrix equations are solved by red-black or four-color iterations. Several enhancements to VARIANT are discussed: The simplified spherical harmonics option provides near spherical harmonic accuracy for many problems at a fraction of the cost. Adjoint and perturbation calculations are performed without the physical- and mathematical adjoint dichotomy appearing in other nodal methods. Heterogeneous node methods extend the problem classes to which the method may be applied. Computational strategies and trade-offs are discussed and possible future research directions are outlined