MATH 314: Linear Algebra-A Peer Review of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio

My intention with this portfolio is to present my approach to teaching Math 314. This is a linear algebra course for senior-year undergraduate students in different STEM programs. The course serves as a transition from computational courses, such as calculus, to more theoretical ones, and exposes students, possibly for the first time, to abstract mathematical objects (such as general vector spaces) and simple proofs. Several lecture-based strategies are discussed and evaluated in connection with student learning outcomes. I also present samples of course materials and student work

The bondage number of random graphs

A dominating set of a graph is a subset $D$ of its vertices such that every vertex not in $D$ is adjacent to at least one member of $D$. The domination number of a graph $G$ is the number of vertices in a smallest dominating set of $G$. The bondage number of a nonempty graph $G$ is the size of a smallest set of edges whose removal from $G$ results in a graph with domination number greater than the domination number of $G$. In this note, we study the bondage number of binomial random graph $G(n,p)$. We obtain a lower bound that matches the order of the trivial upper bound. As a side product, we give a one-point concentration result for the domination number of $G(n,p)$ under certain restrictions

A probabilistic version of the game of Zombies and Survivors on graphs

We consider a new probabilistic graph searching game played on graphs, inspired by the familiar game of Cops and Robbers. In Zombies and Survivors, a set of zombies attempts to eat a lone survivor loose on a given graph. The zombies randomly choose their initial location, and during the course of the game, move directly toward the survivor. At each round, they move to the neighbouring vertex that minimizes the distance to the survivor; if there is more than one such vertex, then they choose one uniformly at random. The survivor attempts to escape from the zombies by moving to a neighbouring vertex or staying on his current vertex. The zombies win if eventually one of them eats the survivor by landing on their vertex; otherwise, the survivor wins. The zombie number of a graph is the minimum number of zombies needed to play such that the probability that they win is strictly greater than 1/2. We present asymptotic results for the zombie numbers of several graph families, such as cycles, hypercubes, incidence graphs of projective planes, and Cartesian and toroidal grids

Rainbow Hamilton Cycles in Random Geometric Graphs

Let $X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_n$ be chosen independently and uniformly at random from the unit $d$-dimensional cube $[0,1]^d$. Let $r$ be given and let $\cal X=\{X_1,X_2,\ldots,X_n\}$. The random geometric graph $G=G_{\cal X,r}$ has vertex set $\cal X$ and an edge $X_iX_j$ whenever $\|X_i-X_j\|\leq r$. We show that if each edge of $G$ is colored independently from one of $n+o(n)$ colors and $r$ has the smallest value such that $G$ has minimum degree at least two, then $G$ contains a rainbow Hamilton cycle a.a.s

The domination number of on-line social networks and random geometric graphs

We consider the domination number for on-line social networks, both in a stochastic network model, and for real-world, networked data. Asymptotic sublinear bounds are rigorously derived for the domination number of graphs generated by the memoryless geometric protean random graph model. We establish sublinear bounds for the domination number of graphs in the Facebook 100 data set, and these bounds are well-correlated with those predicted by the stochastic model. In addition, we derive the asymptotic value of the domination number in classical random geometric graphs