Butterfly Factorization

The paper introduces the butterfly factorization as a data-sparse approximation for the matrices that satisfy a complementary low-rank property. The factorization can be constructed efficiently if either fast algorithms for applying the matrix and its adjoint are available or the entries of the matrix can be sampled individually. For an $N \times N$ matrix, the resulting factorization is a product of $O(\log N)$ sparse matrices, each with $O(N)$ non-zero entries. Hence, it can be applied rapidly in $O(N\log N)$ operations. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the butterfly factorization and its construction algorithms

Sir Henrys @UCCLibrary: Telling the history of a live music venue through a librarian-led research exhibition

In 2014, University College Cork presented the Sir Henrys@UCC Library research exhibition, which documented the history and socio-cultural significance of a famous Cork live music venue called Sir Henrys. This article explains how the story of Sir Henrys was researched, shaped and told, how it was presented to as wide an audience as possible, and how that audience responded. It also looks at the impact and legacy of the exhibition

Research Mentoring and Scientist Identity: Insights from Undergraduates and their Mentors

Background Mentored research apprenticeships are a common feature of academic outreach programs that aim to promote diversity in science fields. The current study tests for links between three forms of mentoring (instrumental, socioemotional, and negative) and the degree to which undergraduates psychologically identify with science. Participants were 66 undergraduate-mentor dyads who worked together in a research apprenticeship. The undergraduate sample was predominantly composed of women, first-generation college students, and members of ethnic groups that are historically underrepresented in science. Results Findings illustrated that undergraduates who reported receiving more instrumental and socioemotional mentoring were higher in scientist identity. Further, mentors who reported engaging in higher levels of negative mentoring had undergraduates with lower scientist identity. Qualitative data from undergraduates’ mentors provided deeper insight into their motivation to become mentors and how they reason about conflict in their mentoring relationships. Conclusions Discussion highlights theoretical implications and details several methodological recommendations

What prevents universities from ‘building back better’? Fault lines in university structures of care during the COVID-19 pandemic

Universities may have coped with the COVID-19 pandemic, but we argue there are still important lessons to be learnt from that experience of coping. In this paper, we explore whether universities could improve what they do, rather than just returning to pre-lockdown ways of working. We do this by analyzing a series of interviews with staff, recorded during the lockdown in the UK, using Tronto’s political theory of care. This analysis does not suggest that universities simply need to be more caring; it shows, instead, that they were already full of complex and overlapping caring activities. What staff accounts highlighted, however, were the fault lines between responsibilities for academic work and the tasks of caring; the competing priorities staff faced, between work, home and self; and how the burden of caring work was (and still is) unfairly distributed, with consequences for the wellbeing of staff. We conclude by suggesting that better-integrated caring practices are needed, and that developing these will require paying attention to the labour it takes to sustain academic work, and taking responsibility for helping the often-overlooked people who do this