Hans-Peter Bischof

EFFICIENT MERGER OF BINARY SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN NON- AXISYMMETRIC GALAXIES

Binary supermassive black holes form naturally in galaxy mergers, but their long-term evolution is uncertain. In spherical galaxies, N-body simulations show that binary evolution stalls at separations much too large for significant emission of gravitational waves (the “final pars ec problem”). Here, we follow the long-term evolution of a massive binary in more realistic, triaxial and rota ting galaxy models. We find that the binary does not stall. The binary hardening rates that we observe are suffici ent to allow complete coalescence of binary SBHs in 10 Gyr or less, even in the absence of collisional loss-con e refilling or gas-dynamical torques, thus providing a potential solution to the final parsec problem. Subject headings:

Automated method for detection and quantification of building damage and debris using post-disaster lidar data

There is a growing need for rapid and accurate damage and debris assessment following natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other crisis situations. This research enhances existing algorithms for LiDAR point classification (ground/non-ground), feature classification (buildings, vegetation, roads, etc.), and seeks to develop new algorithms for building damage and debris detection and quantification-work evaluated using LiDAR data of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, collected by RIT just days after the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Normalized height, height variation, intensity, and multiple return information are among the parameters being used to develop rules for building extraction and vegetation removal. Various approaches are being explored to perform damage assessment, with a focus on the slope and texture of roof planes. Initial results show a general over-segmentation in a 457x449 m region-of-interest (ROI)-the building detection algorithm autonomously identified 206 buildings, while only 98 buildings actually exist in the ROI. Further, four buildings went completely undetected. The accuracy of the damage detection algorithm was assessed only in regions where the building detection algorithm results overlapped actual building locations. The overall damage detection accuracy was 73.40%, but with a low Kappa accuracy of k = 0.275. The algorithms will be implemented in a common programming language where the processing will be optimized for large data sets. The goal is for the operational tool to be implemented in the field, using available equipment in a close to real-time environment.

Advances in Simulations of Generic Black-Hole Binaries

We review some of the recent dramatic developments in the fully nonlinear simulation of generic, highly-precessing, black-hole binaries, and introduce a new approach for generating hybrid post-Newtonian / Numerical waveforms for these challenging systems.

Relevant real-world undergraduate research problems: lessons from the nsf-reu trenches

Projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program aim to (a) enhance participation of students who otherwise might not have research opportunities, and (b) increase the number of students interested in graduate programs, thus expanding the pool of a well-trained scientific workforce. To provide meaningful experiences for these students, REU projects make use of a set of interesting, appropriate research problems that can be tackled in 8 to 10 weeks in summer. The panelists have all served as PIs or Co-PIs on NSF REU projects in computing. They will present their REU research problems, highlight challenges they encountered, and present their results. They will also discuss what they have done, or what can be done, to incorporate such research problems within the regular computing curriculum, for example, in capstone courses or senior projects. A significant amount of time will be set aside for audience participation and discussion.

A new framework for building secure collaborative systems in true ad hoc network

Many-to-Many Invocation (M2MI) is a new paradigm for building secure collaborative systems that run in true ad hoc networks of fixed and mobile computing devices. M2MI is useful for building a broad range of systems, including service discovery frameworks; groupware for mobile ad hoc collaboration; systems involving networked devices (printers, cameras, sensors); and collaborative middleware systems. M2MI provides an object oriented method call abstraction based on broadcasting. An M2MI invocation means “every object out there that implements this interface, call this method.” M2MI is layered on top of a new messaging protocol, the Many-to-Many Protocol (M2MP), which broadcasts messages to all nearby devices using the wireless network’s inherent broadcast nature instead of routing messages from device to device. In an M2MI-based system, central servers are not required; network administration is not required; complicated, resource-consuming ad hoc routing protocols are not required; and system development and deployment are simplified.

On providing successful Research Experiences for Undergraduates

This paper presents strategies for providing successful Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). The authors have advised several undergraduates on research for the past few years, and have jointly supervised around twenty-five students, over two summers, on a project funded by an NSF-funded REU program in areas relating to the visualization of astrophysical data using high performance file systems. Several of these student projects have led to research publications. The paper briefly motivates the need for research in modern computing and engineering education. It then presents specific details about the development of summer REU programs including how to: secure funding and institutional support; plan a summer program including the design of scalable research projects; develop strategies to advertise and recruit students, especially from underrepresented groups; create a dynamic research and social environment through one-on-one mentoring; develop appropriate assessment and evaluation processes; and track student participants after they graduate from the program.

Top issues in providing successful undergraduate research experiences

Undergraduate research is becoming increasingly common in colleges and universities, and, to support this, there is a need to have best practices and forums for promoting exchange of ideas. In particular, a working group at a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites PIs meeting identified four important issues in undergraduate research: 1) how to design a good research project, 2) how to prepare students for research, 3) how to measure outcomes of undergraduate research and 4) incentives for undergraduates to publish as result of their participation in research. The panelists have all served as PIs or Co-PIs on NSF REU projects in computing and have mentored many undergraduates in a large variety of research projects both in REU settings as well as during the regular academic year. They will each address one of the issues identified above, and share their expertise in addressing the issue, providing solid guidance to anyone interested in promoting undergraduate research. A significant amount of time will be set aside for audience participation and discussion.

A movie is worth more than a million data points

This paper describes a distributed visualization system called Spiegel, which displays and analyzes the results of N-body simulations. The result of a N-body simulation is an enormous amount of data consisting of information about how the bodies interact with each other over time. The analysis of this data is difficult because it is not always clear ahead of time what is important. The visualization system allows a user to explore the simulation by moving through time and space in a 3-dimensional environment. Because of its flexible architecture, the visualization system can be easily extended to add new features.