Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 40
Description
Partial differential equation (PDE) models are widely used for modeling processes in the physical sciences, economics, and sociology, but are otherwise new to the realm of social media. They allow researchers to construct a single spatiotemporal mathematical model to predict, in the case of this study, the level of information saturation at particular points in space at specific times. Utilizing data from the popular social network Twitter, this study presents a preliminary work looking into the effects of aggregating spatial data on such a PDE model. In other literature, the source of analytical and statistical bias that results from arbitrary spatial aggregation is known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). We use a previously-studied dataset from the 2011 Egyptian revolution for simulation, and group data points using several distance metrics based on geographical location and geo-cultural similarity. This paper will attempt to show that a PDE model, necessarily dependent upon aggregating data, is subject to significant bias when said data are arbitrarily organized and grouped for simulation. We look primarily into the zoning problem, which amounts to maintaining a fixed number of regions located in different areas across the globe, but make note of the scale problem, an inherent issue in PDE modeling that results from aggregating data points into increasingly larger regions. From looking at specific values from each simulation, this study shows that such a model is not free from the MAUP and that consideration of how data are aggregated needs to be made for future studies. In addition, it also suggests that geo-political and geo-cultural spatial metrics generate better diffusive patterns for tweet propagation than do simple geographical proximity metrics.
ContributorsRaymond, Ross Edward Scott (Author) / Kwon, Kyounghee Hazel (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
It seems that we are incessantly scolded about the importance of the American political process and its virtue of practicality in contemporary society. Whether through the accumulation of the so-called facts about the issues that inform the veneration of the contest between candidates, the stern and noble duty of becoming an activist performing dreary tasks, or the religious fervor surrounding the sacred obligation of voting, we are assured and reassured that our system is sound and that we must only confront problems of implementation rather than structural ones. From here, the narrative goes that if we subscribe to the doctrine of exclusively employing the efficient, strictly rational, and the immediately realistic, we will almost assuredly succeed in persuading others toward producing the resolutions required to solve our shared challenges. Admittedly, these ideas serve a role in addressing the issues we face. However, when unaided by sophisticated and nuanced notions and applications of the fantastic, the beautiful, the ideal, the possible, the playful, the useless, in a word, dreaming, we foreclose the possibility of building a future that can qualitatively improve society and more meaningfully elevate our being-with-one-another in the world. Therefore, this work aims to validate the aforementioned claim by engaging in a critical, political, and hermeneutic exploration of what it means to dream against the backdrop of present-day American politics. It will honestly seek to analyze the prevailing notions of contemporary western thought and action to work on the way toward a new, yet latent, way of understanding. This understanding would fundamentally revolutionize the task of civilization as being grounded upon the appropriate channeling of our desires and dissatisfactions toward actualizing the projections of our imagination. Simply put, this project seeks to repudiate the mandate of work as toil and order as oppression to clear the way for envisioning a more suitable alternative.
ContributorsGoldsmith, Adam Jay (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Pacemakers in the early 1970s were powered by betavoltaic devices which provided long lasting battery life. The betavoltaic devices also emitted gamma radiation due to inadvertent radioisotope contamination, which could not be completely shielded. The betavoltaic devices were quickly replaced by lithium batteries after their invention, and betavoltaics were abandoned. Modern technological advancements made it possible to isolate beta emitting radioisotopes properly and achieve better energy conversion efficiencies which revived the topic of betavoltaics. This research project has studied state-of-the-art pacemakers and modern radioactive power sources in order to determine if modern pacemakers can be safely nuclear powered and if that is a reasonable combination.
ContributorsAwad, Al-Homam Abdualrahman (Author) / Holbert, Keith (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Generally, increasing the electrical size of an antenna will increase the directivity of the antenna. In the case of an array of identical antennas with uniform spacing, the electrical size can be increased by increasing the number of elements. However, directivity can be further increased by performing signal processing on the signals received by elements of an antenna array. This thesis focuses primarily on reproducing and expanding upon a method to increase the directivity of a two-element array using non-linear transmission lines periodically loaded with varactor diodes, which act as harmonic multipliers. Simulation and circuit design is performed using Keysight Advanced Design System, a microwave circuit simulation software package. Furthermore, a hardware implementation is discussed and recommendations are made for construction of the hardware array. Finally, possible expansion of the two-element array to a four or more element array is discussed, and preliminary simulations are examined.
ContributorsHanson, Elliot (Author) / Diaz, Rudolfo (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis aims to explain how a child can deal with loss through a children's book that I have written and illustrated. The goal is to have a child, as young as the age of seven, be able to pick up the book and come away with an initial understanding of how grief affects people. There are references to other works of literature similarly dealing with the above topic. The different stages of grief are examined, as well as the ways in which grief can be handled. Facial expressions and body language are crucial to understanding others' pain and grief, so this thesis delves into how to translate different expressions and actions, and how artwork and illustrations can portray these same ideas. The story from the book is interwoven throughout the thesis, so as to show my reasoning for each section of the text. Finally, there is a full analysis of the text as well as the illustrations that explains why the text is fitting for each section of the story.
ContributorsFauste, Cristina Maria (Author) / Lewis, Stephen (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis argues that our current attitudes toward meat consumption should be questioned for multiple reasons: because eating meat is cruel to the animals being eaten, it is detrimental to the environment, it is not at all necessary for a balanced diet, and lastly because the amount of faux meat options are endless. To begin the thesis describes the types of meat filled food that surrounds all of us, as Americans, in our everyday lives. It then meditates on the history of these other non-meat choices, in order to show how important faux meat has been throughout time for various cultures and religions. The work then continues from the past to the present, and profiles the growing availability and abundance of faux meat products in North American culture. In doing this it presents the current vegetarian meat options available to the average American consumer. In hopes of convince consumers that choosing ethically doesn't have to mean choosing blandly, it presents reviews of the taste, texture, and physical appearance of the more popular faux meat products on the market today. After which it turns to the future and commends technological and scientific endeavors in the search for a new cruelty free meat source through in-vitro meat research. And finally this thesis explains the disastrous environmental impact of our current meat filled diets. It concludes that the strong westerner tradition of eating meat is not necessarily the right way to eat. By purchasing and eating meat the consumer is voting, with their dollar, for animal abuse and environmental destruction. The consequences of eating meat are atrocious enough that if people are given a more ethical, delicious, and cheap meat-alternative they will chose it.
ContributorsGuinn, Victoria E (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey E. (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
A hybrid PV/T module was built, consisting of a thermal liquid heating system and a photovoltaic module system that combine in a hybrid format. This report will discuss the work on the project from Fall 2012 to Spring 2013 and the extended section on the economics for the Honors Thesis. Three stages of experiments were completed. Stage 1 showed our project was functional as we were able to verify our panel produced electricity and increased the temperature of water flowing in the system by 0.65°C. Stage 2 testing included “gluing” the flow system to the back of the panel resulting in an average increase of 4.76°C in the temperature of the water in the system. Stage 3 testing included adding insulating foam to the module which resulted in increasing the average temperature of the water in our flow system by 6.95°C. The economic calculations show the expected energy cost savings for Arizona residents.
ContributorsHaines, Brent Robert (Author) / Roedel, Ronald (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Rauch, Dawson (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
A hybrid PV/T module was built, consisting of a thermal liquid heating system and a photovoltaic module system that combine in a hybrid format. This report will discuss the work on the project from Fall 2012 to Spring 2013. Three stages of experiments were completed. Stage 1 showed our project was functional as we were able to verify our panel produced electricity and increased the temperature of water flowing in the system by 0.65°C. Stage 2 testing included “gluing” the flow system to the back of the panel resulting in an average increase of 4.76°C in the temperature of the water in the system. Stage 3 testing included adding insulating foam to the module which resulted in increasing the average temperature of the water in our flow system by 6.95°C.
ContributorsDenke, Steven Michael (Author) / Roedel, Ron (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Rauch, Dawson (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
In modern remote sensing, arrays of sensors, such as antennas in radio frequency (RF) systems and microphones in acoustic systems, provide a basis for estimating the direction of arrival of a narrow-band signal at the sensor array. A Uniform linear array (ULA) is the most well-studied array geometry in that its performance characteristics and limitations are well known, especially for signals originating in the far field. In some instances, the geometry of an array may be perturbed by an environmental disturbance that actually changes its nominal geometry; such as, towing an array behind a moving vehicle. Additionally, sparse arrays have become of interest again due to recent work in co-prime arrays. These sparse arrays contain fewer elements than a ULA but maintain the array length. The effects of these alterations to a ULA are of interest. Given this motivation, theoretical and experimental (i.e. via computer simulation) processes are used to determine quantitative and qualitative effects of perturbation and sparsification on standard metrics of array performance. These metrics include: main lobe gain, main lobe width and main lobe to side lobe ratio. Furthermore, in order to ascertain results/conclusions, these effects are juxtaposed with the performance of a ULA. Through the perturbation of each element following the first element drawn from a uniform distribution centered around the nominal position, it was found that both the theoretical mean and sample mean are relatively similar to the beam pattern of the full array. Meanwhile, by using a sparsification method of maintaining all the lags, it was found that this particular method was unnecessary. Simply taking out any three elements while maintaining the length of the array will produce similar results. Some configurations of elements give a better performance based on the metrics of interest in comparison to the ULA. These results demonstrate that a sparsified, perturbed or sparsified and perturbed array can be used in place of a Uniform Linear Array depending on the application.
ContributorsSilbernagel, Drake Oliver (Author) / Cochran, Douglas (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Delegation is a very important skill for a manager to have in any organization and is of the utmost importance when it comes to tasks being executed. Often times, delegation can be seen as something that managers dread because they do not want to give up their power and they feel that they can do it better. The notion of delegation can be something that is influenced by a variety of factors. For one, gender can be a driving force in how managers talk to their employees. In this project I will be exploring sections of Genderlect theory in how men and women's communication styles are received differently. Critical theory of communication approaches will also be explored. Also, the way in which delegation is used is what needs the most attention. That is where relational and nonverbal communication also come into play. All in all, the way in which society is constructed, delegation is a skill that needs to be mastered because the job needs to get done.
ContributorsGatica, Jose Guadalupe (Author) / Waldron, Vincent (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05