George Pothering

An undergraduate degree in data science: curriculum and a decade of implementation experience

We describe Data Science, a four-year undergraduate program in predictive analytics, machine learning, and data mining implemented at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA. We present a ten-year status report detailing the programs origins, successes, and challenges. Our experience demonstrates that education and training for big data concepts are possible and practical at the undergraduate level. The development of this program parallels the growing demand for finding utility in data sets and streaming data. The curriculum is a seventy-seven credit-hour program that has been successfully implemented in a liberal arts and sciences institution by the faculties of computer science and mathematics.

Java resources for computer science instruction

The goal of this working group was to collect, evaluate, and foster the development of resources to serve as components of both new and revised traditional courses that emphasize object-oriented software development using Java. These courses could, for example, integrate Internet-based distributed programming, concurrency, database programming, graphics and visualization, human interface design and object-oriented development. They could therefore also be suitable as capstone courses in computer science. The focus of the working group was on tools and techniques, including demonstrations, projects, syllabi, and pedagogical patterns. The working group members are coordinating the development of a Web site (sol.pace.edu/iticse98) devoted to sharing such tools and techniques among educators.

Is CS1 better with the same lecture and lab instructor

This paper presents results from a four-semester classroom experiment to assess whether the introductory programming lecture and closed-laboratory courses would be more effective if they were taught by the same or different instructors. Using a common final exam and lab practical as dependent variables, we determined there is no statistically significant effect on learning outcomes by having the same instructor for lecture and lab. Results of a qualitative survey, however, showed a statistically significant difference in student satisfaction for the same-instructor group over the different-instructor group.

Separation of surface and bulk phase diffusivities: A kinetic theory analysis

Abstract A kinetic model for the effective (e.g. surface plus bulk) diffusivity in a porous bed composed of rectangular channels is presented. The merit of this approach is that no distinction is made between the bulk and adsorbed phase and the effective axial flux can therefore be compared directly with experimental measurements. We utilize the elements of the BGK kinetic equation and express D eff as an explicit function of the surface potential and collision frequency. Details concerning gas-gas collision dynamics and gas-solid interactions are contained in the relaxation time, τ, and the external force, F s , respectively. For definiteness, the analysis is limited to hard sphere gas-gas collisions, although no special significance is implied by this choice. The assumption of a discontinuous gas-solid interaction potential results in a separation of the form D eff = D g + K eq D s , with interactive modification of both D g and D s . Preliminary calculations indicate that only when K eq , is large will surface diffusion become a significant mode of transport.