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 43
Description
This project's goal was to design a Central Processing Unit (CPU) incorporating a fairly large instruction set and a multistage pipeline design with the potential to be used in a multi-core system. The CPU was coded and synthesized with Verilog. This was accomplished by building on the CPU design from fundamentals learned in CSE320 and increasing the instruction set to resemble a proper Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) CPU system. A multistage pipeline was incorporated to the CPU to increase instruction throughput, or instructions per second. A major area of focus was on creating a multi-core design. The design used is master-slave in nature. The master core instructs the sub-cores where they should begin execution, the idea being that the operating system or kernel will be executing on the master core and the "user space" programs will be run on the sub-cores. The rationale behind this is that the system would specialize in running several small functions on all of its many supported cores. The system supports around 45 instructions, which include several types of jumps and branches (for changing the program counter based on conditions), arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, or, and, etc.), and system calls (for controlling the core execution). The system has a very low Clocks per Instruction ratio (CPI), but to achieve this the second stage contains several modules and would most likely be a bottleneck for performance if implemented. The CPU is not perfect and contains a few errors and oversights, but the system as a whole functions as intended.
ContributorsKolden, Brian Andrew (Author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Meuth, Ryan (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The purpose of this project was to construct and write code for a vehicle to take advantage of the benefits of combining stepper motors with mecanum wheels. This process involved building the physical vehicle, designing a custom PCB for the vehicle, writing code for the onboard microprocessor, and implementing motor control algorithms.
ContributorsDavis, Severin Jan (Author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Vannoni, Greg (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This project was centered around designing a processor model (using the C programming language) based on the Coldfire computer architecture that will run on third party software known as Open Virtual Platforms. The end goal is to have a fully functional processor that can run Coldfire instructions and utilize peripheral devices in the same way as the hardware used in the embedded systems lab at ASU. This project would cut down the substantial amount of time students spend commuting to the lab. Having the processor directly at their disposal would also encourage them to spend more time outside of class learning the hardware and familiarizing themselves with development on an embedded micro-controller. The model will be accurate, fast and reliable. These aspects will be achieved through rigorous unit testing and use of the OVP platform which provides instruction accurate simulations at hundreds of MIPS (million instructions per second) for the specified model. The end product was able to accurately simulate a subset of the Coldfire instructions at very high rates.
ContributorsDunning, David Connor (Author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Meuth, Ryan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
The purpose of this project was to program a Raspberry Pi to be able to play music from both local storage on the Pi and from internet radio stations such as Pandora. The Pi also needs to be able to play various types of file formats, such as mp3 and FLAC. Finally, the project is also to be driven by a mobile app running on a smartphone or tablet. To achieve this, a client server design was employed where the Raspberry Pi acts as the server and the mobile app is the client. The server functionality was achieved using a Python script that listens on a socket and calls various executables that handle the different formats of music being played. The client functionality was achieved by programming an Android app in Java that sends encoded commands to the server, which the server decodes and begins playing the music that command dictates. The designs for both the client and server are easily extensible and allow for any future modifications to the project to be easily made.
ContributorsStorto, Michael Olson (Author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Meuth, Ryan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Civilian publics at large internalize death and killing in wartime as a given; after all, what is war if not fighting and dying? There exist popularized notions of “rules of war,” as put by a 2014 BBC ethics piece that accepted the notion “that soldiers must be prepared to put their own lives at risk in order to limit civilian casualties.” Here there is no denial that combatants kill and die in war. Yet in another sense, the public sanitizes the permanent reality of death and killing—it constructs careful euphemisms and erects psychological barriers that allow the perpetuation of violence without emotionally confronting the brutal reality of the battlefield. In spite of such concentrated cultural efforts at reconceptualization of death and killing, however, the soldiers and combatants who actually engage in this behavior irrevocably come face-to-face with the reality of death and killing in wartime. It is the “[i]ntimate acts of killing in war,” such as those “committed by historical subjects imbued with language, emotion, and desire” that necessarily challenge and threaten culturally-constructed sterilized preconceptions of deadly violence; still, as Joanna Bourke argues, “[k]illing in wartime is inseparable from wider social and cultural concerns.”
To this end, a war that involves not only the physical intimacy of killing but also mortal struggles between cultures and ideologies arguably complicates the extent to and manner by which individual combatants engage in such behavior. No war fulfills these criteria so cleanly as World War II—it was a conflict that cost more people their lives than any war before, and as a global conflict, it brought vastly differing perspectives of death and killing to the battlefield. World War II represented not simply a struggle for national-ideological survival (though that it clearly was), but more importantly a struggle for the retention of the self through identity.
To this end, a war that involves not only the physical intimacy of killing but also mortal struggles between cultures and ideologies arguably complicates the extent to and manner by which individual combatants engage in such behavior. No war fulfills these criteria so cleanly as World War II—it was a conflict that cost more people their lives than any war before, and as a global conflict, it brought vastly differing perspectives of death and killing to the battlefield. World War II represented not simply a struggle for national-ideological survival (though that it clearly was), but more importantly a struggle for the retention of the self through identity.
ContributorsLondono, Marlon William (Author) / Niebuhr, Robert (Thesis director) / Strand, Daniel (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Image stabilization is a highly desired feature for many systems involving cameras. A camera stabilizer effectively prevents or compensates for unwanted camera movement to provide this stabilization. The use of stabilized camera technology on board aerial vehicles is one such application where the stabilization can greatly improve the overall capability of the system. The requirements for such a system include a continuous control algorithm and hardware to determine and adjust the camera orientation. The topic of developing an aerial camera control and electronic stabilization system is thus explored in the contents of this paper.
ContributorsJauregui, Joseph (Co-author) / Brown, Steven (Co-author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Hansen, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The purpose of this project was to create a modular embedded systems platform that would provide a hands-on lab experience for students learning about embedded systems protocols. The system would be designed to be modular, expandable, and productizable. Its modularity would eliminate errors in the design and make the entire system more robust. It would also be expandable, which means additional project boards could be created in the future without requiring a complete redesign of the system. And finally, productizing the entire system would allow it to be sold to other universities who may have a similar program that would benefit from a system such as the OCTOPUS.
ContributorsDavis, Mareike (Author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Vannoni, Greg (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
I argue that the relationship between the United States and Israel has harmed the United States, the Palestinians, and the rest of the Middle East. For the United States section, I support this argument by discussing the corruption of AIPAC, national debt, anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, NSA spying and surveillance and the effects of the Iraq War. For the Palestinian section, I support this argument by discussing how the war crimes committed against the Palestinians are done with weapons supplied to Israel by the United States. Lastly, I go over how the rest of the Middle East is harmed by this by discussing how the Iraq War has affected the Iraqis there and how the Libyan regime change affected the people in Libya.
ContributorsPappusetti, Vamsi Krishna (Author) / Niebuhr, Robert (Thesis director) / Ahmad, Omaya (Committee member) / Rothenberg, Daniel (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The Coffee Hutch project is derived from the field of Computer Science and consists of a website, a database, and a mobile application for Android devices. This three-tiered scheme is designed to support a point-of-sale payment system to be integrated with a standalone product dispensing machine. The website contains landing pages which provide navigation and functional capabilities for users. The site also features a variety of PHP web services which communicate with the database using SQL commands. The application, programmed in the Java language, makes use of these services in a simple, utilitarian design aimed at modification of user data stored in the database. This database, developed with MySQL and managed with the phpMyAdmin application, contains limited information in order to maximize speed of read and write accesses from the website and Android app. Together, these three components comprise an effective payment management system model with mobile capabilities. All of the components of this project were built at no cost. The website hosting service is free and the third-party services required (such as Paypal payment services) are simulated. These simulations allowed me to demonstrate the functionality of the three-tiered product without the necessity for monetary supplication. This thesis features every aspect of the development and testing of The Coffee Hutch software components. Requirements for each function of the software are specified in one section, and they are aligned with various pieces of the code in the source documentation. Test cases which address each requirement are outlined in another section of the thesis.
ContributorsHutchison, Caleb Ryan (Author) / Burger, Kevin (Thesis director) / Zhao, Ming (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Within the hotel industry, customers come first. Their satisfaction drives revenue and drives the industry forward. With the updates in technology, new Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) databases are being implemented to aggregate customer reviews into a single platform that is analyzed and creates policies to help increase overall satisfaction. Hotels are ranked within all customer review sites such as Trip Advisor and Yelp and the higher the scores and the rank, the more these review sites promote these establishments, and the more customers book at this hotel. Therefore, customer reviews directly affect the revenue of a hotel. A hotel with low scores and low customer satisfaction will not entice guests to book. This new era of technology and customer driven revenue is the motivator behind Hilton’s creation of the SALT database. This Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking database helps improve loyalty within the Hilton brands.
This paper examines the overall use of CRM systems and then examines the property level satisfaction metrics that can be found on SALT. The two metrics that the individual property could have the most effect on with the lowest budget were determined to be Digital Key and Digital Check-In, which make up the Digital Platform. This Digital Platform is accessed through the Hilton Honors app, which is a loyalty program created by Hilton. There are four tiers of Honors Members within the loyalty program: Blue, Silver, Gold, and Diamond. Blue members make up most of the membership base in general, however, at the local property examined, 60% of all guests are Gold and Diamond. Therefore, the research done within this paper focuses on improving overall Digital Platform satisfaction of Gold and Diamond members who are key business travelers that bring in revenue to the specific property examine.
The research collected for this project was done through observations of guests from the perspective of a Front Desk Agent, interviews with guests, analysis of SALT scores and guest reviews, and firsthand experiences of using Digital Key at local competitors of the local property. Through these analyses, the main problems that were compiled were internet connectivity, confusing property layout, Digital Key allotment and activation, technological issues with the Digital Key and hardware at the property, Digital Check-In and room selection, and negative reception of Hilton Honors Members. The solutions that were suggested focus on excellent customer service, increased training of Front Desk Agents regarding Digital Platform and Hilton Honors recognition, adding wi-fi routers throughout the hotel, adding Hilton Honors stickers to entrances, adding digital reader maps, and having the Director of Front Office Operations ensure that they are updating the Digital Platform frequently with rooms for members to choose.
This paper examines the overall use of CRM systems and then examines the property level satisfaction metrics that can be found on SALT. The two metrics that the individual property could have the most effect on with the lowest budget were determined to be Digital Key and Digital Check-In, which make up the Digital Platform. This Digital Platform is accessed through the Hilton Honors app, which is a loyalty program created by Hilton. There are four tiers of Honors Members within the loyalty program: Blue, Silver, Gold, and Diamond. Blue members make up most of the membership base in general, however, at the local property examined, 60% of all guests are Gold and Diamond. Therefore, the research done within this paper focuses on improving overall Digital Platform satisfaction of Gold and Diamond members who are key business travelers that bring in revenue to the specific property examine.
The research collected for this project was done through observations of guests from the perspective of a Front Desk Agent, interviews with guests, analysis of SALT scores and guest reviews, and firsthand experiences of using Digital Key at local competitors of the local property. Through these analyses, the main problems that were compiled were internet connectivity, confusing property layout, Digital Key allotment and activation, technological issues with the Digital Key and hardware at the property, Digital Check-In and room selection, and negative reception of Hilton Honors Members. The solutions that were suggested focus on excellent customer service, increased training of Front Desk Agents regarding Digital Platform and Hilton Honors recognition, adding wi-fi routers throughout the hotel, adding Hilton Honors stickers to entrances, adding digital reader maps, and having the Director of Front Office Operations ensure that they are updating the Digital Platform frequently with rooms for members to choose.
ContributorsRezac, Cassandra Rose (Author) / Niebuhr, Robert (Thesis director) / McWilliams, Claire (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05