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.
With as rapid a growth that Esports has had and its current introduction to the public mainstream, there is yet to be sufficient studies and research compiled to fully develop the profile of an Esport consumer. While companies such as Neilson and others have begun scratching the surface of the Esport community, there is much that is relatively unknown. Consumer behavior patterns of traditional sports has been defined for years, however as the billion dollar a year industry that Esports is, Esport consumer behavior is still taking shape. This thesis will attempt to build upon previous studies conducted by former Arizona State University students to continue to define the Esport consumer. Through quantitative research conducted via an online survey consisting of demographic, behavioral, and psychographic questions, the stereotype of an Esport consumer will be dissolved to reveal their true nature. This study will prove to be an iteration among the previous research by -<br/>• Developing a functional segmentation of Esport consumers, which will allow for marketers within the industry to better understand their audience in their attempts to persuade/incentivize<br/>• Understanding and dissecting the scale of influence that content creators (those who play Esports for the purpose of entertaining through various platforms) and competitive Esport athletes have on certain segmentations of consumers<br/>• Discovering the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on certain segmentations in regards to their time spent playing themselves<br/><br/> After compiling results from this questionnaire, marketers that are both endemic and non-endemic brands seeking to partner within the Esports space will have a better understanding of their audience and how to connect with them.
For my thesis/creative project, I created a prototype for a mental health app. Each section of the prototype has a purpose of instilling mindfulness and healthy habits that can promote and lead to sustainable mental health. Throughout the paper I explain my reasoning for starting this project, the science of mindfulness and how it can bring about positive mental and physical changes, and the design theory behind the prototype.
User privacy in the current society is at risk. This project will emphasize the importance of calling attention to data privacy issues in regard to companies selling user data.
Employers perceive students are not qualified to enter the workforce. Students also feel unprepared to enter the workforce, resulting in a perceived skills gap between skills taught in schools and skills demanded by employers. My study examines the actual skills gap between skills taught in five Information Systems programs and skills demanded by employers in nine IT professions. In the scope of my analysis, I provide a discussion of my project methodology, answers for my research questions used to complete the gap analysis, and grounded recommendations to Information Systems programs on how to close the skills gap. Lastly, I also include future considerations that researchers may utilize to study my topic in greater detail. Students and schools can both use my analysis to improve their respective weaknesses and capitalize on their strengths in terms of hard skills required for the workforce.
Home advantage affects the game in almost all team sports across the world. Due to<br/>COVID and all of the precautions being taken to keep games played, more extensive research is able to be conducted about what factors truly go into creating a home advantage. Some common factors of home advantage include the crowd, facility familiarity, and travel. In the English Premier League, there are no fans allowed at any of the games; furthermore, in the NBA, a bubble was created at one neutral venue with no fans in attendance. Even with the NBA being at a neutral site, there was still a “home team” at every game. The sports betting industry struggled due to failing to shift betting lines in accordance with this decreased home advantage. With these leagues removing some of the factors that are frequently associated with home advantage, analysts are able to better see what the results would be of removing these variables. The purpose of this research is to determine if these adjustments made due to COVID had an impact on the home advantage in different leagues around the world, and if they did, to what extent. Individual game data from the past 10 seasons were used for analysis of both the NBA and the Premier League. The results show that there is a significant difference in win percentage between prior seasons and seasons behind closed doors. In addition to win percentage, many other game statistics see a significant shift as well. Overall, the significance of being the home team disappears in games following the COVID-19 break.
Esports is the fastest growing sub sector within the entertainment industry, predicted to garner over 600 million viewers by 2022. However, there is a big category of esports - mobile esports - that are not yet recognized globally. This thesis project analyzes how mobile esports has risen in the Eastern countries of the world, primarily Southeast Asia, and compares it to the possibility of replication in the Western countries of the world, primarily the United States and Brazil. It examines the specific factors that caused mobile gaming and thus mobile esports to flourish in the East Region of the world. The thesis additionally incorporates current attitudes towards esports and mobile esports in the United States and discusses the viewpoints of consumers in those specific areas. This research uses primary data and literature synthesis to ultimately increase knowledge on how mobile esports has risen in popularity in various Asian countries and whether or not mobile esports can thrive in a different environment such as the United States.<br/><br/>This thesis takes data from the “Newzoo Global Esports Market Report” conducted in 2020 by Newzoo. This report does the following:<br/>- dives deep into the global and regional esports economy<br/>- provides a realistic estimate of the market’s future potential regarding revenue streams, audience numbers, key trends, and franchises<br/>- highlights financial and statistical trends for the esports industry in the future<br/><br/>Overall the thesis finds that mobile esports have succeeded in the Asian market due to an established demographic of esports fans and players, mobile first consumers, and wide technology network in Asia. Data analysis finds that currently many American gamers still find mobile gaming to be “boring” and ultimately that cultural attitude, generational shifts, and the ideal game need to align for mobile esports to succeed in the United States.
Creation of a database and Python API to clean, organize, and streamline data collection from an updated Qualtrics survey used to capture applicant information for the Fleischer Scholars Program run by the W. P. Carey UG Admissions Office.