Introduction

University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) is an American public research university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. The 332-acre campus is approximately 1.6-mile east of the Las Vegas Strip. The university includes the Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, which houses the School of Dental Medicine—the only dental school in the state along with UNLV’s William Boyd School of Law—the only law school in the state.

Noted for its strong emphasis on science and technology, business management, and law programs, the university is classified a “research-intensive university” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration is annually ranked among the top hospitality programs in the United States due to the university’s proximity to the Las Vegas Strip. Its famed Thomas & Mack Center will be the site for the last debate between the 2016 presidential nominees and, in the past, hosted the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, concerts, as well as lectures by Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev as part of various UNIV-affiliated lecture series.

Departmental Teaching and Research Facilities

The Department of Computer Science at UNLV operates nine functional research laboratories comprising 100 computers and servers, along with a diverse array of supported equipment, providing a range of computing services and engaging in a range of funded research programs.

UNLV has a newly established Big Data Hub which will be available to the AEOP participants to conduct summer research. The Big Data Hub has 25 workstations for research projects, class exercises, and out-of-class assignments. The infrastructure support includes three servers, two layer-3 Cisco switches, network cabling, and assorted software licenses that allow them to truly be an isolated network on campus. This software includes Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and various other Linux distributions. It also includes Cisco gear to leverage in class lectures, exercises, and support on-campus student activities and research projects. These include three PIX firewalls, three routers, and four switches. Recently, we added two dedicated servers, two DROBOS for storage, two layer-3 Cisco switches, and all applicable VMWare software products for data science and engineering.