Barrett

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.

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A Sustainable Solution for Off-Grid Solar Power in Remote Communities

Description

This honors thesis report aims to propose a sustainable long-term solution for providing off-grid solar energy to rural communities that lack the necessary grid energy infrastructure. With this in mind, we aim to establish the framework and documentation for people to be able to build and maintain their own off-grid…

This honors thesis report aims to propose a sustainable long-term solution for providing off-grid solar energy to rural communities that lack the necessary grid energy infrastructure. With this in mind, we aim to establish the framework and documentation for people to be able to build and maintain their own off-grid solar power systems. Due to recent incentives for clean energy both nationwide and statewide, the team will discuss the current renewable energy market and the future growth potential of residential solar energy systems, which includes off-grid or remote solar. This discussion will include comparing pre-built solar systems currently offered for purchase against the proposed design outlined in this report. Notably, the outlined design has been made with an emphasis on system sustainability, low initial cost, reliability, ease of manufacturing/maintenance, and material selection. Lastly, the team will discuss the project’s approach to documentation with a user manual draft to ensure the system's long-term sustainability and troubleshooting. Although the efforts of this project have increased over time, this project remains active within the ASU EWB chapter, meaning that not all aspects described throughout this report are fully complete as future work will continue to optimize and improve the system. A rural community in northern Arizona, will be used as an example to understand a rural community's needs for designing a solar panel system that provides sufficient energy for a single household. The project was completed in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS) program and Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter. Both these organizations aim to connect ASU students to the professional mentors and resources they need to design and implement low-cost, small-scale, easily replicated, and sustainable engineering projects.
ContributorsPham, Brandon (Author) / Beltran, Salvador (Co-author) / Haq, Emmen (Co-author) / Sosa, Jorge (Co-author) / Schoepf, Jared (Thesis director) / Wong, Marnie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05

Heat Warning Detection System - Utilizing Connective Solutions to Reduce Heat-Related Deaths in Low-Income Communities

Description
Every year, Arizona mobile home residents suffer hundreds of fatalities and severe illnesses due to the effects of extreme heat within their homes exacerbated by high energy costs, a lack of energy-efficient infrastructure, and underlying socio-economic issues. Many of these deaths and severe illnesses can be prevented via active monitoring and…

Every year, Arizona mobile home residents suffer hundreds of fatalities and severe illnesses due to the effects of extreme heat within their homes exacerbated by high energy costs, a lack of energy-efficient infrastructure, and underlying socio-economic issues. Many of these deaths and severe illnesses can be prevented via active monitoring and reporting of temperature and humidity data from these living spaces. The team will design, build, test, and implement a Heat Warning Detection System (HWDS) to mitigate heat-related illnesses and deaths. The HWDS will detect when temperature and humidity levels have reached a dangerous threshold and will issue notifications to the emergency contacts of the resident over SMS and/or email. This will allow for timely preventative measures to be taken to ensure the safety of the resident. The team will investigate the ideal threshold to notify the mobile home residents. HWDS will require minimal user interaction. Apart from the initial physical installation of the device, the user will have to provide a list of emergency contacts that they would like the system to notify in the event that HWDS detects dangerous conditions in their residence. By deploying prototypes of HWDS to volunteer participant homes, we will be able to validate the functionality of the system as well as the usability of the physical device by homeowners. HWDS provides homeowners and their loved ones with the opportunity to take preventative measures before being exposed to conditions that could potentially have more severe implications. In the spirit of promoting accessibility and prevention among the most vulnerable communities in Greater Phoenix, our team partners with the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at ASU (KER) to interface with organizations such as the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home, RV & Park Model Owners (AAMHO) to promote legislation and subsidies aimed towards making solutions such as ours more financially viable for the communities that need it most.
ContributorsDrake, Thomas (Author) / Yeager, William (Co-author) / Ward, Trenton (Co-author) / Schoepf, Jared (Thesis director) / Solís, Patricia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2024-05

drake_spring_2024_0.pdf

ContributorsDrake, Thomas (Author) / Yeager, William (Co-author) / Ward, Trenton (Co-author) / Schoepf, Jared (Thesis director) / Solís, Patricia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2024-05

drake_spring_2024.pdf

ContributorsDrake, Thomas (Author) / Yeager, William (Co-author) / Ward, Trenton (Co-author) / Schoepf, Jared (Thesis director) / Solís, Patricia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2024-05