Online Distributed Sensor Selection

A key problem in sensor networks is to decide which sensors to query when, in order to obtain the most useful information (e.g., for performing accurate prediction), subject to constraints (e.g., on power and bandwidth). In many applications the utility function is not known a priori, must be learned from data, and can even change over time. Furthermore for large sensor networks solving a centralized optimization problem to select sensors is not feasible, and thus we seek a fully distributed solution. In this paper, we present Distributed Online Greedy (DOG), an efficient, distributed algorithm for repeatedly selecting sensors online, only receiving feedback about the utility of the selected sensors. We prove very strong theoretical no-regret guarantees that apply whenever the (unknown) utility function satisfies a natural diminishing returns property called submodularity. Our algorithm has extremely low communication requirements, and scales well to large sensor deployments. We extend DOG to allow observation-dependent sensor selection. We empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm on several real-world sensing tasks

A new connection between the opening angle and the large-scale morphology of extragalactic radio sources

In the case of an initially conical jet, we study the relation between jet collimation by the external pressure and large-scale morphology. We first consider the important length-scales in the problem, and then carry out axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations that include, for certain parameters, all these length-scales. We find three important scales related to the collimation region: (i) where the sideways ram-pressure equals the external pressure, (ii) where the jet density equals the ambient density, and (iii) where the forward ram-pressure falls below the ambient pressure. These scales are set by the external Mach-number and opening angle of the jet. We demonstrate that the relative magnitudes of these scales determine the collimation, Mach-number, density and morphology of the large scale jet. Based on analysis of the shock structure, we reproduce successfully the morphology of Fanaroff-Riley (FR) class I and II radio sources. Within the framework of the model, an FR I radio source must have a large intrinsic opening angle. Entrainment of ambient gas might also be important. We also show that all FR I sources with radio lobes or similar features must have had an earlier FR II phase.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRAS, same as previous versio

An Exploration of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills Relevant to Entrepreneurial Behavior Within a Video Game Environment

This qualitative, empirical study explored the cognitive and non-cognitive skills relevant to entrepreneurship exhibited by students as they played a simulation type video game known as Capitalism Lab. Entrepreneurship education programs and video games for learning have been and continue to be implemented all over the world as nations compete in a global economy. The use of entrepreneurship education programs and video games for learning influences the entrepreneurial knowledge, intent, and skills of the students who partake in them. While the application of cognitive and non-cognitive skills has been found to have a positive relationship with both student development and their long-term economic outcomes seems to be supported, the connection of cognitive/non-cognitive skills to specific entrepreneurship skills was unclear. The primary methods for data collection used in this study were 1) participant observation completed through reviewing screen capture recordings of Capitalism Lab gameplay and 2) semi-structured interviews. This study examined the in-game behaviors of six students as they individually played Capitalism Lab. The main goal was to seek insight into the cognitive and non-cognitive skills leveraged by the student while they played the game and how these skills may be related to areas of entrepreneurial skill. Connections were found between the cognitive and non-cognitive skills and entrepreneurial minds. The information gathered in this study may serve as a basis for further research into the investigation, development, and refinement of how the cognitive and non-cognitive skills related to entrepreneurship are exercised as students play video games

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationFrom the outset of the effort to produce the first edition of Remembering Dismembrance: A Critical Compendium, the prime motivation has been the continued support of the novel's life in conversation, among academics and artists, fans and aficionados. The Compendium is a collection of work that stands in dialogic relation to the novel Dismembrance and its readers; it serves as an expansion of the text's heteroglossic potential, a furthering of polyphony and imagination. Successful as the first edition may be in this regard, over time the Compendium has come to look a bit buttoned down for our taste, too focused on writing about the novel. With this second edition, our attention has been paid instead to works that embody the notion of writing through the novel, whatever that may mean. Where the contents of the first edition often employ a familiar literary discourse in order to speak about the novel and its possible meaning(s), the second edition eschews such questions of "aboutness," offering fewer answers, opting to evoke the character of the novel instead of its characters, to explore the power of the novel's language rather than its plot, to be the dream the novel is having now. In this second edition, ostensibly innocuous aspects of the novel give rise to new worlds and unfamiliar adventures that resonate with echoes of the concerns of the source text, their sound gleefully warped in the wide open spaces of each new author's imagination. If the pieces included in this second edition move us further from the novel, so be it. Such is the price paid by those who would add to the novel's network of reading but resist the terminal assignment of meaning. If the Compendium's first edition was a carnivalesque imagining in the face of a funhouse mirror, let this second be a stained glass through which to see the novel, blurred but brighter for the freedom its inexactness offers

Dynamic Resource Allocation in Conservation Planning

Consider the problem of protecting endangered species by selecting patches of land to be used for conservation purposes. Typically, the availability of patches changes over time, and recommendations must be made dynamically. This is a challenging prototypical example of a sequential optimization problem under uncertainty in computational sustainability. Existing techniques do not scale to problems of realistic size. In this paper, we develop an efficient algorithm for adaptively making recommendations for dynamic conservation planning, and prove that it obtains near-optimal performance. We further evaluate our approach on a detailed reserve design case study of conservation planning for three rare species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States