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 - 10 of 60
Description
This project explores how modern mobile technology can be used to provide support for domestic violence victims. The goal of the project is to create a proof-of-concept iOS mobile application that maintains a discreet safety front and provides domestic violence victims with resources and safety planning. The design and implementation are disguised as a hair salon app to maintain a low profile on the user’s phone. The HairHelp app features quick exit navigation, a secure database to store a user’s private and personal documents in case of emergency, and a checklist of safety planning measures. The steps taken in this project serve as the foundation for a larger project in the long term.
ContributorsShovkovy, Sophia (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Wilkey, Douglas (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
MeetPoint is a project derived from Computer Science with a focus upon applications to mobile. The application is created to provide users with the ability to meet up with certain individuals to accomplish a specific task, in this case studying. The project idea came from the creator wanting to meet up with a friend in order to converse about an upcoming exam. The creator knew where the person lived, but could not easily come up with a location for the two to meet that would be a reasonable distance from both of them. Hence came the idea for a mobile application to complete those actions for the user. The project focuses upon implementation in a school setting in which the meetings would actually take place. For means of this project, the locations were fixed to on campus at Arizona State University. The committee felt that this would scope the project correctly for its two-semester creation while still demonstrating how to fulfill the task at hand. Android is the operating system of choice for the mobile application due to it being Java, which was the most familiar language to the student. MeetPoint provides users with an easy to navigate and familiar front-end while harnessing the power of a database in the back-end. The application hides the intricacies of the back-end from the user in order to better provide a comfortable user experience. A lot of the project was designed around providing a comfortable user experience by keeping the application familiar to the user in that it maintains similarities with other popular mobile applications.
ContributorsWallace, Tyler L (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Faucon, Christophe (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Breast cancer affects hundreds of thousands of women a year in the United States, and kills tens of thousands. African-American women experience a lower incidence of breast cancer, yet they die at twice the rate of Caucasian women. This disparity demonstrates the ineffectiveness of mammography at decreasing mortality in women at higher risk of late stage diagnosis. In this paper I argue that the continued support of the predominating idea that the benefits of mammograms strictly outweigh their negative effects may be a factor in the continued racial disparity in breast cancer mortality between African-American and Caucasian women. In addition, I will argue that mammograms are less effective for African American women because they are predisposed to later stage diagnosis and the accompanying poorer mortality prognosis due to higher-risk environments caused by varied socio-political status. My claims are supported by studies of incidence rates, survivorship versus mortality rates, screening usage rates, late stage and early stage diagnosis rate, tumor type, and the effects of socioeconomic status on stage of diagnosis. In particular, mortality rates have not decreased parallel with increased mammogram usage, especially in African-American women. Although early stage diagnosis has drastically increased, late stage-diagnosis remains unchanged and higher in African-American women. Tumor types vary by race, and African American women tend to have tumors that are highly prolific and more likely to be metastatic. Socioeconomic factors are more of a marker for breast cancer disparities than race, however race and socio-political structures that embody racism are often intersected.
ContributorsHuper-Holmes, Chloe Lynn (Author) / Lynch, John (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
When planning a road trip today, there are solutions that let the user know what comes along their route, but the user is often presented with too much information, which can overwhelm the user. They are provided suggestions all along the route, not just at those times when they would be needed. RoutePlanner simply takes all that information and only presents that data to the user, that they would need at a particular time. Gas station suggestions would show when the gas tank range is going to be hit soon, and restaurant suggestions would only be shown around lunch time. The iOS app takes in the users origin and destination and provides the user the route as given by GoogleMaps, and then various stop suggestions at their given time. Each route that is obtained, is broken down into a number of steps, which are basically a connection of coordinate points. These coordinate point collections are used to point to a location at a certain distance or duration away from the origin. Given a coordinate, we query the APIs for places of interest and move to the next stop, until the end of the route.
ContributorsDamania, Harsh Abhay (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Faucon, Christophe (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
As technology's influence pushes every industry to change, healthcare professionals must move to a more connected model. The nearly ubiquitous presence of smartphones presents a unique opportunity for physicians to collect and process data from their patients more frequently. The Mayo Clinic, in partnership with the Barrett Honors College, has designed and developed a prototype smartphone application targeting palliative care patients. The application collects symptom data from the patients and presents it to the doctors. This development project serves as a proof-of-concept for the application, and shows how such an application might look and function. Additionally, the project has revealed significant possibilities for the future of the application.
ContributorsGaney, David Howard (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Lipinski, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Fiddlevent is an event searching website written in Ruby on Rails. Fiddlevent enables any person to go online and find local events that interest him. Fiddlevent also enables merchants to post their events online. Fiddlevent explores all challenges of website development, such as project management, database design, user interface design, deployment and the software development lifecycle. Fiddlevent aims to utilize best practices for website and software development.
ContributorsThornton, Christopher Gordon (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Committee member) / Hurst, Charles (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Academic resources at Arizona State University are vast and allow a student to maintain success through his/her university attendance. The distribution and management of these systems is arduous and manually done. A software solution for the distribution of academic resource information is a Dashboard system that utilizes information from the university, and is expandable. A solution for the management of academic centers utilizes a scheduling algorithm that allows quick scheduling of resources. Overall these solutions provide easier workflows than the current systems allow.
ContributorsGupta, Anurag (Co-author) / Berk, Nick (Co-author) / Ryan, Jay (Co-author) / Patel, Niraj (Co-author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Vaccine opposition is a growing problem in developed countries where dropping vaccination rates threaten general public health by laying the foundation for resurgence and reemergence of previously eradicated infectious diseases. This thesis argues that the current movement is only the most recent incarnation of opposition that has co-evolved with vaccine practices for the duration of their mutual histories. Part one provides a historical context for the current movement using the example of the development and deployment of the smallpox vaccine as a representative timeline of vaccine acceptance and opposition. Part two describes the current movement in the United States and the United Kingdom, interprets the reasons for the conclusions drawn by vaccine-concerned parents, and provides a framework for public health officials to approach the issues.
ContributorsKost, Stephanie Michelle (Author) / Lynch, John (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / Robert, Jason (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Web Solutions for Scholastic Tracking is a project which aims to develop a website in order to help the scholarship committee of an Arizona State University sorority save time. Details and flaws of the former approaches to scholastic tracking for the sorority \u2014 such as scattered data, low visibility, and the need for manual calculations \u2014 are provided. Based on these flaws and the requirements of the scholarship committee, a new approach was designed and developed in order to track scholastics online in a more efficient manner. A study hours tracking website was developed utilizing Apache, PHP, and MySQL in order to create an efficient approach to tracking scholastics. The developed website allows sorority members to view their required weekly study hours and submit hours for approval online to specific proctors. The scholarship committee members can then approve or reject the submitted hours that they proctor. This approach has improved the visibility of the required and remaining weekly study hours for each sorority member while also decreasing the time it takes for proctors to approve hours. These improvements serve as examples of the various ways that this project has met its initial goal of increasing the efficiency of the sorority's scholarship program. Additional results as well as the requirements, development approach, technologies used, and testing methods are described in detail throughout this document.
ContributorsKral, Ryan David (Author) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Thesis director) / Burger, Kevin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Ten percent of the global population believed that the world would end on December 21, 2012. But people have believed that the world was going to end before. What causes these apocalyptic crazes and what allows them to spread beyond the fringes of society? What role does popular religion play in creating or spreading apocalyptic hysteria? How do these prophets of doom react when the world still exists past its predicted date of expiration? What about the people who believed them? This paper examines historical instances of apocalyptic predictions, how these predictions were formed out of or shaped by popular religion, as well as the reactions \u2014 both internal and external \u2014 of those who either predicted or believed that the end was near. After building this historical context, I turn my focus to the pop culture phenomenon that is the end of the Mayan Calendar. I attempt to understand and explain what aspects of the current social, religious, and psychological climate have contributed to the cultural ubiquity of and fascination with the December 21, 2012 apocalypse, and what the date actually meant to the Classical Maya. Finally, I examine the existential, religious, and cultural factors that make Americans in particular so ready and willing to believe that the end of the earth is imminent.
ContributorsSnarr, Cassandra Rose (Author) / Lynch, John (Thesis director) / Hunter, Joel (Committee member) / Bruhn, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-05