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.
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undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering. The first of the two team projects was an aerospace capstone: Design of
Autonomous Aircraft Systems. The second being a capstone project based out of Arizona State’s design school:
Innovation Space. The purpose of this dual enrollment was to compare and contrast the two product development projects,
in hopes to recommend a course of action to engineers younger than myself who are presented the option of multiple
capstones. This report will elaborate on three areas of engineering design and how they were realized in these projects.
These 3 topics are product development and its effect on design to manufacture, design feature creep, and technical vs
non-technical design. After considering the pros and cons of both capstone projects and their relation to the three main
topics of this report, it was decided that individuals who are motivated to become the best engineers they can be upon
graduating from an undergraduate program, they should find the time to take both capstone courses. Both Design of
Autonomous Aircraft Systems and Innovation Space present opportunities to create new ways of engineering thinking, all
of which will be necessary for an engineer to succeed in his/her first years in industry.
The effects of temperatures found commonly along the supply chain were explored when interacting with dendritic identifiers of various common materials. Regression analyses showed that there was no statistical significance in relating SIFT correspondence values to the surface temperature of the dendrites. Physical inspection helped evaluate the integrity of specific material and substrate combinations along with possibilities for improvement in key point designation within SIFT and ORB image recognition software.
The goal of themed entertainment is to use activities and environments to tell a story and immerse the guest in a novel experience. By applying these concepts to nonfiction and educational topics, the concept of edutainment is created. In recent years museums have begun utilizing the concept of edutainment and techniques typically found in themed entertainment experiences to capture the attention and focus of guests and create experiences that connect emotionally with them. My goal in this thesis pathway project was to investigate this trend and technique of connecting with an audience and apply it to the STEAMtank project within ASU’s Innovation Space. The goal of STEAMtank is to design and fabricate children’s STEAM museum exhibits in two semesters with focus on accessible design. My team conducted research and interviews exploring current market trends in theme parks and museums, best practice designs and operations, and interests of children to develop the concept for our exhibit, Gust of Dust, which was then fine-tuned, constructed, and installed in the STEAMtank Exhibit Space. Gust of Dust is an exciting exhibit demonstrating the power of a haboob that was developed from preconcept to installation in under a year by two determined and talented interdisciplinary teams. Learning about haboobs connect concepts of environmentalism, earth science, and safety to real concepts in children’s lives.
