Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

With FDM printing becoming ubiquitous within the commercial and private sectors, there are many who would want to print a part without supports for a variety of reasons. Usually, they want to prints a part with difficult to reach places that would make it impossible to remove any support material without damaging the part. I will be going over options to consider when designing parts to ensure a given model will be able to be printed without support material.

The outlying cities of Phoenix's West Metropolitan experienced rapid growth in the past ten years. This trend is only going to continue with an average expected growth of 449-891% between 2000 and 2035 (ADOT, 2012). Phoenix is not new to growth and has consistently seen swaths of people added to its population. This raises the question of what happened to the people who lived in Phoenix's West Valley during this period of rapid change and growth in their communities? What are their stories and what do their stories reveal about the broader public history of change in Phoenix's West Valley? In consideration of these questions, the community oral histories of eight residents from the West Valley were collected to add historical nuance to the limited archival records available in the area. From this collection, the previous notion of "post-war boomtowns” describing Phoenix’s West Valley was revealed to be highly inaccurate and dismissive of the residents' experiences who lived and formed their lives there.

The outlying cities of Phoenix's West Metropolitan experienced rapid growth in the past ten years. This trend is only going to continue with an average expected growth of 449-891% between 2000 and 2035 (ADOT, 2012). Phoenix is not new to growth and has consistently seen swaths of people added to its population. This raises the question of what happened to the people who lived in Phoenix's West Valley during this period of rapid change and growth in their communities? What are their stories and what do their stories reveal about the broader public history of change in Phoenix's West Valley? In consideration of these questions, the community oral histories of eight residents from the West Valley were collected to add historical nuance to the limited archival records available on the area. From this collection, the previous notion of "post-war boomtowns” describing Phoenix’s West Valley was revealed to be highly inaccurate and dismissive of the residents' experiences who lived and formed their lives there.

The current Solid-State Electrolyte (SSE) used in Li-ion batteries are limited by their current production methods (i.e., die-pressing; tape casting), planar geometries and random porosities. This constrains their use for mass production in manufacturing plants. 3D-printing of SSEs, however, is a new, highly-researched method that shows promise in expanding beyond the laboratory to more large-scale industrial production as rapid prototyping takes place. Indeed, laboratory studies to date suggest that SSE technology is safer than current production methods and provides a safe high energy solid-state battery. For SSE technology to become a reality though, it must be scalable and financially feasible. Therefore, this thesis aids to bridge the gap between laboratory studies and commercialization by examining the financial feasibility of adopting this technology for a hypothetical battery manufacturing plant. In doing this, I develop a model of the incremental net cash flows, and subsequently the Net Present Value (NPV), from such an enterprise. If the present value of future cash flows from the enterprise are anticipated to be greater than the investment costs, the NPV is positive and the investment in this new technology would be considered instantaneously value enhancing and thus financially feasible. However, future cash flows are highly uncertain, which brings into question financial feasibility in a risky environment. To address the riskiness of future cash flows, I model three risk factors: the cost of raw materials, the potential growth in battery sales, as well as the potential mark-up (profit margin) of the SSE enterprise. Using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) I model the incremental cash flows considering these risk factors and derive probabilistic assessments of NPV. My analysis suggests that despite the uncertainty caused by the volatility of raw metal prices, assumptions on price mark-up, and uncertain market demand for Li-ion batteries, there is a high probability of an investment in SSE batteries being financially feasible. Future research should consider the value of real options (optionality embedded in tangible investments) as traditional NPV analysis may underestimate the potential value of an investment in the presence of uncertain cash flows, especially if management has the ability to respond to the uncertainty.

In this paper, we discuss the methods and requirements to simulate a soft bodied beam using traditional rigid body kinematics to produce motion inspired by eels. Eels produce a form of undulatory locomotion called anguilliform locomotion that propagates waves throughout the entire body. The system that we are analyzing is a flexible 3D printed beam being actively driven by a servo motor. Using the simulation, we also analyze different parameters for these spines to maximize the linear speed of the system.

After the wind tunnels in the SIM building and Innovation Hub were donated or lost, Dr. Rajadas requested a new wind tunnel be designed, developed, and fabricated using facilities and resources available on ASU Polytech. Over 6 months, a single student was tasked with running the CAD modeling process, undergoing the revision stages, and welding/fabricating the tunnel by the end of Fall 2021.

I conducted an oral history project of five women with journeys in the Christian faith who had experience working with asylum seekers and refugees in the Phoenix metropolitan area. I explore with this project the perceptions of the helping relationship through the stories of these women and how their beliefs about their faith and work inform each other to pursue meaningful connections for the benefit of others.

The intent of this project was to design, build, and test a female-intended vibrator that incorporates elements of haptic feedback, biomimicry, and/or micro robotics. Device development was based on human-centered user design elements and the study of physiological arousal, as sexuality and sexual functioning are a part of a human’s overall assessment of health and well-being. The thesis sought to fill the gap that prevents data collection of a female entire sexual response from initial arousal to final orgasm.