Week 4 (06/20 - 06/26)

- Finished modifying the sequential "bucket" implementation of the Nth Element algorithm. There are now two versions of the algorithm. The difference
between two versions is the way bucket ranges are decided. First version uses linear search to find the max element in the list of elements to be sorted.
Bucket ranges are decided based on the value of that max element. Second version uses a sampling technique (similar to the one used by Sample Sort) to distribute elements into buckets. I am planning on timing these two implementations this week.

- Gabi and Olga helped me with problems I had compiling parallel code in STAPL. I was able to write the main method for Olga's implementation of Sample
Sort, so I could see how to compile and run (on multiple processes) parallel code using a Makefile, and how to read in input and print out intermediate results. This helped me to write the main method for my implementation of the Parallel Nth Element algorithm.

- 3:30-4:00pm: Attended the Immersive Visualization Center Tour. We floated through the 3D models of molecules and shot down airplanes during the flight simulation. It was amazing!

- Went to the Rec Center and played racquetball with Andrew.

- Worked on the parallel implementation of the Nth Element algorithm (based on the list of steps I devised last week) that uses a sampling technique to
distribute elements into buckets. I am planning to finish the parallel implementation by Monday of next week, so I can start working on the "distributed recursive" parallel implementation that we discussed with Gabi.

- 3:00-6:00pm: Attended the USRG GRE Prep (Strategy Session) Seminar. We received a booklet with example questions, strategy suggestions and quizzes. I found this strategy session very helpful as I learned things about the GRE test I did not know before.

- Went to the Rec Center and played racquetball with Andrew.

- 12:00pm: Attended the Campus REU Brown Bag Lunch. The topic was "Tips for Graduate School."

- Continued working on my parallel algorithm.

- 11:30am: Attended the CS Brown Bag Lunch. The topic was "Presenting Research Results" (presented by Dr. Frank Shipman).

- Continued working on my parallel algorithm.

- Continued working on my parallel algorithm.

- Submitted a request for my Second DMP Stipend (which requires a link to this webpage).

- 3:30-4:00pm: Attended the weekly CS Cookie Break.

- Nancy told us (the four summer research undergraduates working in the Parasol Lab) that we have to give a presentation on our current research progress on Thursday of next week. I am planning to start preparing for the Thursday's presentation early next week. I will need to find out how long the presentation should be, what should be included in the presentation, etc.

- 8pm: Attended the Observatory Tour. We were able to see Venus, Saturn, two stars (one blue, one red) sharing the same center of orbit, and a cluster of approximately 100,000 stars!

- Leter on we went to Whataburger to get some humburgers.

- 10am: drove to the Guadalupe river and enjoyed 4 hours of tubing in the brutal Texas sun (several layers of sunblock helped me survive).

- Checked out some stores in the city.

- Waited an hour and a half to be seated in Gritsmills restaurant. This place is very famous in the area. There were hundreds of people there. And, the food was great and not even expensive.

- My request for the second DMP Stipend was approved!

- Worked on this website: added a newer picture of myself, modified the page about my mentors.

- I have to give a presentation on Wednesday of next week, so I started working on the presentation slides early.

- Went to the Rec Center and played badminton with Stuart.

- Terra took us to the Wal Mart. I have food!

- Watched a movie ("Finding Neverland") with CS guys in the evening.