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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In an effort to address these trends, we founded a student organization, The Political Literates, to fight political apathy by delivering political news in an easy to understand and unbiased manner. Inspired by our experience with this organization, we combine our insights with research to paint a new perspective on the state of the American political system.
This thesis analyzes various issues identified through our observations and research, with a heavy emphasis on using examples from the 2016 election. Our focus is how new technologies like data analytics, the Internet, smartphones, and social media are changing politics by driving political and social transformation. We identify and analyze five core issues that have been amplified by new technology, hindering the effectiveness of elections and further increasing political polarization:
● Gerrymandering which skews partisan debate by forcing politicians to pander to ideologically skewed districts.
● Consolidation of media companies which affects the diversity of how news is shared.
● Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which allowed media to become more partisan.
● The Citizens United Ruling which skews power away from average voters in elections.
● A Failing Education System which does not prepare Americans to be civically engaged and to avoid being swayed by biased or untrue media.
Based on our experiment with the Political Literates and our research, we call for improving how critical thinking and civics is taught in the American education system. Critical thought and civics must be developed pervasively. With this, more people would be able to form more sophisticated views by listening to others to learn rather than win, listening less to irrelevant information, and forming a culture with more engagement in politics. Through this re-enlightenment, many of America’s other problems may evaporate or become more actionable.
The purpose of this research is three-fold: to understand how people consume sports broadcasts, what levels of basketball they watch most frequently, and what elements of a sports broadcast they prefer or wish to implement. Aside from understanding consumption behaviors, this research further explores specifically how the G League can increase viewership, whether it’s experimenting with rule changes, implementing new broadcast elements, or creating off-court content that develops interest and affinity for players in the league. What the data and statistical tests concluded was that people who were classified as ‘G League Fans’ are generally fans of all levels of basketball, but that people who were classified as ‘College Basketball Fans’ or ‘NBA Fans’ were not necessarily fans of the G League. Based on this finding, the thesis provides recommendations for how the G League can increase viewership amongst basketball fans, as this will be its most receptive and impressionable group. For those unfamiliar with what the G League is, the thesis also provides a brief history and who the players are that make up the league.
The creative element of this thesis brings the research to life, with audio and video interviews that describe the challenges and accomplishments of the 11 interviewees currently working in the industry. This thesis reviews recent and older literature to find common trends, explore the issues previously addressed, and uses the interviews to provide a current picture of the situation in television newsrooms.
Keywords: Diversity, Television News, Black Women, Journalists, Leadership, Producers, Broadcasters
While it may be complex, the prevention and treatment of contaminated water is possible. Founded in 2010, 33 Buckets is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based out of Tempe, Arizona who partners with vulnerable communities and local partners to provide sustainable access to clean drinking water and WASH (Water and Sanitation for Health) training. Prior to 2018, 33 Buckets had completed drinking water projects in Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, and Peru. In the summer of 2018, the 33 Buckets team returned to the Cusco region of Peru in an effort to assess more communities in need of clean drinking water infrastructure. In Cusco, 33 Buckets works closely with the Peruvian university, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL). The primary purpose of this partnership is to identify communities in the Cusco region with contaminated water sources and a strong interest in improvement of current systems. Throughout this assessment trip, two communities were initially identified as potential partners, Occopata and Mayrasco. The results of bacteria tests showed a presence of Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli. When consumed, especially repeatedly, select strains of E. coli will cause severe diarrheal illness. Interviews with community members confirmed that common symptoms of water related disease are prevalent, especially in children. In Occopata and Mayrasco, there is an absence of support for water services from the municipality. Consequently, there is a volunteer-based water advisory board known as Junto Administración de Agua Sanitemeniento (JAAS). JAAS, in most nearby communities, currently utilizes a drip chlorination system in an attempt to disinfect bacterial pathogens from their water source. However, chlorine disinfection requires a precise dosing in order to be effective. In excessive amounts, chlorine will taste and smell of chemicals, likely producing negative feedback from community members. As a result, chlorine levels often are below the necessary level for disinfection. Chlorine tests performed by the 33 Buckets team confirmed that chlorine levels were insufficient to disinfect E. coli.
During the assessment trip, the 33 Buckets team provided a temporary solution to make chlorine disinfection more effective. Following the 2018 assessment trip, 33 Buckets formed a team of student engineers with the primary goal of furthering the technological development of a chlorine disinfection system to be implemented in communities with bacterial infected water sources. This student team was formed through the EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) program at Arizona State University. The purpose of the program is providing a platform for undergraduate engineers to design solutions that create positive impact the greater community. From August of 2018 through April of 2019, the team developed the design for a continuous chlorine disinfection system that automatically tests for residual chlorine levels at multiple points throughout a community. The system is powered entirely from a low-cost solar panel, requiring a minimal amount of sunlight for full functionality. Moving forward, the goal of project development is to create an autonomous feedback loop that will adjust the amount of chlorine exposure to incoming water flows based on the results of the automatic residual chlorine test. The team also hopes to implement automatic data collection for remote monitoring of water quality in addition to onsite test results. The vision of the proposed solution is a network of chlorine disinfection systems around the Cusco region that ultimately will provide access to clean drinking water, indefinitely. This model of user-friendly purification, automatic testing, and data collection can be adjusted and applied to any region around the world experiencing health issues from consumption of contaminated water. A low-cost, scalable, and reliable water disinfection system has the potential to make significant increases in the quality of life for millions of people.