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Manual flagging of RFI is extremely time-consuming and error-prone. We present a machine learning algorithm which automatically identifies radio frequency interference (RFI) in HI spectra. Our algorithm uses the features of polarization asymmetry (defined as |polA - polB|/[polA + polB] ) along with the skew and standard deviation of each channel over time to evaluate the presence of RFI. The algorithm was tested on hundreds of spectra taken by the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team (UAT) as part of the APPSS survey. It outperforms humans not only in speed, but in visually identifying RFI when it is weak or mimics properties of signals. This work has been supported by NSF grants AST-1211005 and AST-1637339. 

The number of extragalactic sources of HI detected in radio surveys is growing exponentially. It will soon no longer be feasible for human researchers to individually fit spectra. We present algorithms for automatically extracting the typical parameters of interest for the 21 cm HI line—recessional velocity, velocity width, and integrated flux—using neural networks. Features are produced by convolving spectra with templates generated with the Busy Function. We present the results of fitting hundreds of spectra with many different shapes, and at a wide range of signal to noise ratio. Additionally, we compare with prior methods of automated source extraction. This work has been supported by NSF grants AST-1211005 and AST-1637339. 

The NSF-sponsored Undergraduate ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Team (UAT) is a collaborative, multifaceted program of faculty and undergraduate research at a consortium of 23 diverse U.S. institutions, founded to promote undergraduate research and faculty development within the extragalactic ALFALFA HI blind survey project and follow-up programs. The objective of the UAT is to provide opportunities for faculty and students from a wide range of public and private colleges and especially those with small astronomy programs to learn how science is accomplished in a large collaboration while contributing to the scientific goals of a legacy radio astronomy survey. Partnering with Arecibo and Green Bank Observatories, the UAT has worked with 334 undergraduates (40% women) and 32 (48% women) faculty in the past 10 years, offering annual workshops, observing runs, and research projects (academic year and sumer), and presentation of results at national meetings such as the AAS (at AAS233: Burhenne et al., Cane et al., Gault et al., Hetrick et al., Jong et al., Kumagai et al., Luna et al., Olivieri Villalvazo et al., Page et al., Poulin et al., Rea et al., Rehmn et al., Reiter et al., ). In this presentation, we summarize the UAT program and outcomes, highlight several current Team research efforts, including multiwavelength followup observations of ALFALFA sources, the UAT Collaborative Groups Project, and the Arecibo Pisces-Perseus Supercluster Survey (APPSS), and suggest how our model could be applied to other legacy projects. This work has been supported by NSF grants AST-0724918/0902211, AST-075267/0903394, AST-0725380, AST-1211005, AST-1211683, and AST-1637339. 

We present results from a highly successful model of faculty development and undergraduate research and education, the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team (UAT), an NSF-sponsored 23-institution collaboration. We recommend that granting agencies identify funding resources to support similar efforts for other large-scale scientific projects. 

As star-forming dwarf irregulars and faint spirals fall onto a cluster, their gas content is easily and quickly removed by ram-pressure stripping or other cluster forces. Residual signs of star formation cease within 100 Myr, and only after approximately 1 Gyr do their optical features transition to elliptical.Despite this, ALFALFA has uncovered a population of three “red and dead” dwarf ellipticals in the Virgo Cluster which still have detectable reservoirs of HI. These dwarf ellipticals are extremely gas-rich—as gas-rich as the cluster’s star-forming dwarf irregulars (Hallenbeck et al. 2012). Where does this gas come from? We consider two possibilities. First, that the gas is recently acquired, and has not yet had time to form stars. Second, that the gas is primordial, and has been disrupted from being able to form stars during the current epoch.We present deep optical (using CFHT and KPNO) and HI (Arecibo and VLA) observations of this sample to demonstrate that this gas is primordial. These observations show that all three galaxies have exponentially decreasing profiles characteristic of dwarf ellipticals and that their rotation velocities are extremely low. However, like more massive elliptical galaxies with HI, these dwarf galaxies show irregular optical morphology. For one target, VCC 190, we additionally observe an HI tail consistent with a recent interaction with the massive spiral galaxy NGC 4224. 

We present results from an ALFALFA HI study to examine whether the cold gas reservoirs of galaxies are inhibited or enhanced in large-scale filaments, and we discuss implications for follow-up work using the new Arecibo Pisces-Perseus Supercluster survey (APPSS). From the ALFALFA survey, we find that the HI deficiency for galaxies in the range 10^8.5-10^10.5 solar masses decreases with distance from the filament spine, suggesting that galaxies are cut off from cold gas, possibly by heating or by dynamical detachment from the smaller-scale cosmic web. This contrasts with previous results for larger galaxies in the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey. We discuss the prospects for elucidating this apparent dependence on galaxy mass with data from the APPSS, which will extend to smaller masses. We also find that the most gas-rich galaxies at fixed local density and stellar mass are those in small, correlated ``tendril” structures within voids: although galaxies in tendrils are in significantly denser environments, on average, than galaxies in voids, they are not redder or more HI deficient. This work has been supported by NSF grants AST-1211005 and AST-1637339. 

The Undergraduate ALFALFA team is currently focusing on the analysis of the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster to test current supercluster formation models. The primary goal of our research is to reduce L-band HI data from the Arecibo telescope. To reduce the data we use IDL programs written by our collaborators to reduce the data and find potential sources whose mass can be estimated by the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, which relates the luminosity to the rotational velocity profile of spiral galaxies. Thus far we have reduced data and estimated HI masses for several galaxies in the supercluster region.We will give examples of data reduction and preliminary results for both the fall 2015 and 2016 observing seasons. We will also describe the data reduction process and the process of learning the associated software, and the use of virtual observatory tools such as the SDSS databases, Aladin, TOPCAT and others.This research was supported by the NSF grant AST-1211005.