They Named Me, They Know Me

This book was printed on Neenah Environment ® PC 100 White in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Dayton in 2019 as part of the Berry Summer Thesis Institute under the mentorship of Professor Misty Thomas-Trout. Typeset in the Ryman Eco and Shannon families. Ryman Eco was designed by Dan Rhatigan with Grey London in 2014 and is considered a sustainable typeface, using 33% less ink in print production. Shannon was designed by Janice Prescott Fishman and Kris Holmes for Compugraphic in 1982

Surface code fidelity at finite temperatures

We study the dependence of the fidelity of the surface code in the presence of a single finite-temperature massless bosonic environment after a quantum error correction cycle. The three standard types of environment are considered: super-Ohmic, Ohmic, and sub-Ohmic. Our results show that, for regimes relevant to current experiments, quantum error correction works well even in the presence of environment-induced, long-range inter-qubit interactions. A threshold always exists at finite temperatures, although its temperature dependence is very sensitive to the type of environment. For the super-Ohmic case, the critical coupling constant separating high- from low-fidelity decreases with increasing temperature. For both Ohmic and super-Ohmic cases, the dependence of the critical coupling on temperature is weak. In all cases, the critical coupling is determined by microscopic parameters of the environment. For the sub-Ohmic case, it also depends strongly on the duration of the QEC cycle.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Final Project: Shannon Stanforth

This poster was the final project in the spring 2020 semester of Graphic Design I (VAD 411), taught by Misty Thomas-Trout, assistant professor of art and design. Following the transition to all-remote learning on March 23, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, students in the class drew from data, health information, news coverage, personal reflections and other sources to create this work.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stu_vad_covid19/1031/thumbnail.jp

Silver Lining: Shannon Stanforth

In this project, students were asked to produce 10-by-16-inch digital posters responding to the challenge and stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. After reading Professor Misty Thomas-Trout’s handwritten letter, the students used the design tools Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to highlight positive messages coming from the present circumstances. “You have one meta-objective with this project: Focus on the positive messages only. If negativity is weaved in or comes across your thoughts, jot this down somewhere. Be aware of that thought, but continue to block it out with positivity.”https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stu_vad_covid19/1049/thumbnail.jp

Getting up to Speed on OER: Advice from a Newbie

Open Educational Resources (OER) programs are growing and institutions are looking for leaders to steer these programs successfully. This article will give advice to folks who are tasked with starting an OER program or joining an established program in its growth stage. It will discuss where to find OER research for those who don’t know much about it, such as LibGuides, pertinent journals, and OER repositories. Then, it will move onto building campus partnerships and finding like-minded people in your institution that can champion the cause and help grow the program as well as provide institutional support. Next, it will look at off-campus partnerships and working with outside stakeholders that share the same goals. Lastly, the article will give advice for keeping current on OER research and resources, and discuss some of the professional development opportunities available

Sustainable Stories: Linking Graphic Design and the Environment to Inform, Educate, and Inspire

The importance of the field of graphic design lies in its ability to communicate with others. It can serve to transcend barriers, to clarify messages, and to deepen universal understanding. Similarly, sustainability encompasses the three spheres of the environment, society and economy—demonstrating its interconnected complexities and multifaceted applications. In pursuing my Honors Thesis, I aimed to develop a project which would reflect the ideals of sustainability while simultaneously serving to educate about the importance of caring for the natural world. Furthermore, my research explores how the disciplines of sustainability and design overlap and interact, searching to discover ways in which they may be linked for the purpose of education and inspiration. The medium of a children’s book introduced me to one creative avenue for combining the fields and realizing this aspiration. Download the book They Named Me, They Know Me from eCommons

Reconstruction\u27s First Election: Various Interpretations of the Lasting Significance of a Grant Victory

This paper was completed during the Spring of 2018 for my ASI 120 course. The assignment was a multi-phased historiography paper centering around the topic of Reconstruction. To begin preparing for the writing of the historiography and to gain a better understanding of the historical context and political unrest surrounding the task of Reconstruction, I read Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction. Foner’s book provided me with the knowledge to begin writing my topic proposal and introduced me to the influential event of the Election of 1868. I was interested in exploring the consequences and effects of the Election of 1868 as I felt (and feel) that they still have relevance today pertaining to issues of continued racism—which necessitates movements such as Black Lives Matter in current culture. With this first phase complete, I next gathered scholarly sources that represented a range of varying interpretations and views related to the Election of 1868 and its societal significance. In combing through sources, consistent groupings of interpretation began to emerge and designated how attitudes surrounding the event of the Election of 1868 were shaped by the passage of time and the changing social environment. This leads to the next phase of the historiography assignment in which I wrote an annotated bibliography which summarized the opinions of these various historians and reflected the distinct groupings of interpretation. The historiography assignment culminated in a final paper in which the completed annotated bibliography served as the backbone of the paper’s structure. We were also tasked with selecting the grouping of interpretation that we felt to be most compelling and presented the strongest argument. Upon completion of this draft of the historiography paper, I then had my paper reviewed by Core Write Place consultants, fellow Core students, and my professor, Dr. William Trollinger. After the editing process, I submitted my final paper which examined the Election of 1868 through a historiographical lens. Editor\u27s note: For this paper, the author received the Barbara Farrelly Award for Best Writing of the Issue ($200 prize)