In-Class Hard-Copy Worksheets

This teaching practice is the use of hard-copy in-class worksheets for guided note taking and simple practice exercises primarily targeted for lower division classes. The worksheets are done in hard-copy requiring the student to actually write an answer which helps reinforce the topic or concept. All answers are provided to the students (either as part of the lecture or after a brief discussion). As such, the worksheets help highlight key topics and familiarize the students with how questions on the topic are asked and how they should be answered. Depending on the topic, most worksheets include simple exercises which are completed in class. Such exercises are typically worked at the end of class and students are allowed and encouraged to work together and help each other as needed to ensure they understand the problem and the approach used to obtain the solution. This encourages peer-to-peer interaction especially when a student is unclear regarding how to approach the problem. Based on availability, the Teaching Assistant (TA) is often in class to help students which provides an introduction to the class TA which facilitates follow on questions regarding the more complex assignments. This addresses a common issue in technical classes where a student feels they understand the material yet lack the experience in applying such knowledge to practical problems. In all cases the final correct answer is provided. The worksheets provide key additional study material for tests. As the semester progresses, students are able to gain experience and build confidence applying skills to practical problems prior to test situations. Additionally, the worksheets provide an informal attendance mechanism allowing attendance to be tracked and encouraged in a more meaningful manner.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1102/thumbnail.jp

Nifty Data Structures Projects

For computer science, and many technical fields, it is recognized that projects with real-world applicability play a significant roll in what students get out of the course. Creating applicable projects for upper division such as our data structures classes is very difficult and time consuming. We have utilized the Nifty assignments concept and applied it locally to an upper division data structures course. Our primary goal is to provide a forum for the sharing of data structure project ideas and materials (as applicable).https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1062/thumbnail.jp

First Year Experience – Software Support Tools

Using QR codes and Lab Grader in the classroom.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1033/thumbnail.jp

Auto-Grading for In-Class Flipped Classroom Exercises

For technical courses like computer programming, in-class inverted classroom style, low stakes practice exercises have been shown to help student increase skills and build confidence with the material. One of the key challenges for the use of such in-class exercises is the overhead associated with scoring and returning such materials or worksheets which can be a significant burden particularly for larger classes. When such exercises can be converted to multi-choice, an automated scoring system can be used. Conceptually similar to Scantron, the system uses standard paper and is scanned by standard copy machines.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1190/thumbnail.jp

Virtual Hands-On Lab Exercises

Development and deployment of focused topic specific hand-on exercises for upper division technical courses.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1149/thumbnail.jp

Automated Grading Tools for Compter Programming

This teaching practice addresses automated grading tools for computer programming assignments. Similar tools are in use at UNLV for other disciplines (e.g., TurnItIn). This is the first use of automation specifically for grading computer programs. This tool was initially applied to first and second programming courses (CS 135, 10 sections and CS 202, 8 sections) in Fall 2021.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1162/thumbnail.jp

Large Class Splitting to Reduce Class Size

It is well recognized that smaller classes lead to improved student outcomes. However, instructor resources are limited, particularly for first year introductory classes.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1036/thumbnail.jp

Restrictions and extensions of semibounded operators

We study restriction and extension theory for semibounded Hermitian operators in the Hardy space of analytic functions on the disk D. Starting with the operator zd/dz, we show that, for every choice of a closed subset F in T=bd(D) of measure zero, there is a densely defined Hermitian restriction of zd/dz corresponding to boundary functions vanishing on F. For every such restriction operator, we classify all its selfadjoint extension, and for each we present a complete spectral picture. We prove that different sets F with the same cardinality can lead to quite different boundary-value problems, inequivalent selfadjoint extension operators, and quite different spectral configurations. As a tool in our analysis, we prove that the von Neumann deficiency spaces, for a fixed set F, have a natural presentation as reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, with a Hurwitz zeta-function, restricted to FxF, as reproducing kernel.Comment: 63 pages, 11 figure

The Allen Telescope Array: The First Widefield, Panchromatic, Snapshot Radio Camera for Radio Astronomy and SETI

The first 42 elements of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA-42) are beginning to deliver data at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California. Scientists and engineers are actively exploiting all of the flexibility designed into this innovative instrument for simultaneously conducting surveys of the astrophysical sky and conducting searches for distant technological civilizations. This paper summarizes the design elements of the ATA, the cost savings made possible by the use of COTS components, and the cost/performance trades that eventually enabled this first snapshot radio camera. The fundamental scientific program of this new telescope is varied and exciting; some of the first astronomical results will be discussed.Comment: Special Issue of Proceedings of the IEEE: "Advances in Radio Telescopes", Baars,J. Thompson,R., D'Addario, L., eds, 2009, in pres

The Allen Telescope Array Pi GHz Sky Survey I. Survey Description and Static Catalog Results for the Bootes Field

The Pi GHz Sky Survey (PiGSS) is a key project of the Allen Telescope Array. PiGSS is a 3.1 GHz survey of radio continuum emission in the extragalactic sky with an emphasis on synoptic observations that measure the static and time-variable properties of the sky. During the 2.5-year campaign, PiGSS will twice observe ~250,000 radio sources in the 10,000 deg^2 region of the sky with b > 30 deg to an rms sensitivity of ~1 mJy. Additionally, sub-regions of the sky will be observed multiple times to characterize variability on time scales of days to years. We present here observations of a 10 deg^2 region in the Bootes constellation overlapping the NOAO Deep Wide Field Survey field. The PiGSS image was constructed from 75 daily observations distributed over a 4-month period and has an rms flux density between 200 and 250 microJy. This represents a deeper image by a factor of 4 to 8 than we will achieve over the entire 10,000 deg^2. We provide flux densities, source sizes, and spectral indices for the 425 sources detected in the image. We identify ~100$ new flat spectrum radio sources; we project that when completed PiGSS will identify 10^4 flat spectrum sources. We identify one source that is a possible transient radio source. This survey provides new limits on faint radio transients and variables with characteristic durations of months.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; revision submitted with extraneous figure remove