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 - 5 of 5
Filtering by
- Creators: Department of Physics
Description
Using weather data from the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), we analyze the transport of inertial particles in Hurricane Katrina in order to identify coherent patterns of motion. For our analysis, we choose a Lagrangian approach instead of an Eulerian approach because the Lagrangian approach is objective and frame-independent, and gives results which are better defined. In particular, we locate Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCS), which are smooth sets of fluid particles which are locally most hyperbolic (either attracting or repelling). We implement a variational method for locating LCS and compare the results to previous computation of LCS using Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponents (FTLE) to identify regions of high stretching in the fluid flow.
ContributorsDeibel, Angelica Rae (Author) / Tang, Wenbo (Thesis director) / Moustaoui, Mohamed (Committee member) / Kostelich, Eric (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Journalism, by its very nature, is limited, often adhering to a repetitive format and narration style. Consequently, the depth of journalistic stories will always hit a barrier. Fiction, on the other hand, provides an elegant solution by exploring the world through a myriad point of views including complete omniscience. This thesis explores the link between journalism and fiction by taking real-world scenarios and exploring them without journalism's limitations. It includes three novellas totaling 25,000 words drawn from true-to-life research papers, news stories and manifestos to paint a realistic picture of a technological reality in the near future, a style of writing one might call futurecasting. The thesis also contains an analysis of the techniques used in contemporary fiction and an analysis of their implementation within the novellas. The goal of the novellas is to let researchers to explore the impact of their work before its mass dissemination in order to shape societal, national and international policy responsibly. Similarly, novellas like this and others similar allow society to discover the beauty of science through fiction. These are some of fiction's greatest roles in science and society.
ContributorsPacini, Jason Daniel (Author) / Zachary, Gregg (Thesis director) / Russell, Dennis (Committee member) / Giarrusso, Theresa Walsh (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
In this project, we introduce a type of microscopy which produces correlated topography and fluorescence lifetime images with nanometer resolution. This technique combines atomic force microscopy (AFM) and time resolved confocal fluorescence microscopy to conduct biological and materials research. This method is used to investigate nanophotonic effects on single fluorophores, including quantum dots and fluorescent molecules. For single fluorescent molecules, we investigate the effects of quenching of fluorescence with the probe of an atomic force microscope which is combined and synchronized with a confocal fluorescence lifetime microscope. For quantum dots, we investigate the correlation between the topographic and fluorescence data. With this method of combining an atomic force microscope with a confocal microscope, it is anticipated that there will be applications in nanomaterial characterization and life sciences; such as the determination of the structure of small molecular systems on surfaces, molecular interactions, as well as the structure and properties of fluorescent nanomaterials.
ContributorsWard, Alex Mark (Author) / Ros, Robert (Thesis director) / Shumway, John (Committee member) / Schulz, Olaf (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Dry and steam NanoBonding™ are conceived and researched to bond Si-based surfaces, via nucleation and growth of a two-dimensional SiOxHy or hydrated SiOxHy interphase connecting surfaces at the nanoscale across macroscopic domains. The motivation is to create strong, long lasting, hermetically bonded sensors with their electronics for the development of an artificial pancreas and to bond solar cells to glass panels for robust photovoltaic technology. The first step in NanoBonding™ is to synthesize smooth surfaces with 20 nm wide atomic terraces via a precursor phase, ß-cSiO2 on Si(100) and oxygen-deficient SiOx on the silica using the Herbots-Atluri process and Entrepix’s spin etching. Smooth precursor phases act as geometric and chemical template to nucleate and grow macroscopic contacting domains where cross bridging occurs via arrays of molecular strands in the hydrated SiOxHy interphase. Steam pressurization is found to catalyze NanoBonding™ consistently, eliminating the need for direct mechanical compression that limits the size and shape of wafers to be bonded in turn, reducing the cost of processing. Total surface energy measurements via 3 Liquids Contact Angle Analysis (3L CAA) enables accurate quantitative analysis of the total surface energy and each of its components. 3L CAA at each step in the process shows that surface energy drops to 42.4 ± 0.6 mJ/m2 from 57.5 ± 1.4 mJ/m2 after the Herbots-Atluri clean of an “As Received” wafer. 3L CAA after steam pressurization Nanobonding™ shows almost complete elimination from 13.8 mJ/m2 ± 1.0 to 0.002 ±- 0.0002 mJ/m2 in the contribution of acceptors to the total free surface energy, and an increase from 0.2 ± .03 to 23.8± 1.6 mJ/m2 in the contribution of donors. This is consistent with an increase in hydroxylation of the ß-cSiO2 surface as a consistent precursor phase for cross-bridging. This research optimizes the use of glycerin, water, and α-bromo-naphtalene in the use of 3L CAA to effectively quantify the components of total free surface energy which helps to better understand the most consistent method for NanoBonding™.
ContributorsBennett-Kennett, Ross Buchanan (Author) / Culbertson, Robert (Thesis director) / Herbots, Nicole (Committee member) / Foy, Joseph (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Computer simulations are gaining recognition as educational tools, but in general there is still a line dividing a simulation from a game. Yet as many recent and successful video games heavily involve simulations (SimCity comes to mind), there is not only the growing question of whether games can be used for educational purposes, but also of how a game might qualify as educational. Endemic: The Agent is a project that tries to bridge the gap between educational simulations and educational games. This paper outlines the creation of the project and the characteristics that make it an educational tool, a simulation, and a game.
ContributorsFish, Derek Austin (Author) / Karr, Timothy (Thesis director) / Marcus, Andrew (Committee member) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2013-05