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.
A podcast that discusses the phenomenon of cult cinema deemed “so bad, it's good”. It takes a look at what makes these films enduring and entertaining, with the ability to create near-religious followings. Moreover, it discusses the financial aspect of the filmmaking and how these followings affect the market.
The scope of this project is a combination of material science engineering and mechanical engineering. Overall, the main goal of this project is to develop a lightweight concrete that maintains its original strength profile. Initial research has shown that a plastic-concrete composite could create a more lightweight concrete than that made using the typical gravel aggregate for concrete, while still maintaining the physical strength that concrete is known for. This will be accomplished by varying the amount of plastic in the aggregate. If successful, this project would allow concrete to be used in applications it would typically not be suitable for.<br/>After testing the strength of the concrete specimens with varying fills of plastic aggregate it was determined that the control group experienced an average peak stress of 2089 psi, the 16.67% plastic group experienced an average peak stress of 2649 psi, the 33.3% plastic group experienced an average peak stress of 1852 psi, and the 50% plastic group experienced an average stress of 924.5 psi. The average time to reach the peak stress was found to be 12 minutes and 24 seconds in the control group, 15 minutes and 34 seconds in the 16.7% plastic group, 9 minutes and 45 seconds in the 33.3% plastic group, and 10 minutes and 58 seconds in the 50% plastic group. Taking the average of the normalized weights of the cylindrical samples it was determined that the control group weighed 14.773 oz/in, the 16.7% plastic group weighed 15 oz/in, the 33.3% plastic group weighed 14.573 oz/in, and the 50% plastic group weighed 12.959 oz/in. Based on these results it can be concluded that a small addition of plastic aggregate can be beneficial in creating a lighter, stronger concrete. The results show that a 16.7% fill ratio of plastic to rock aggregate can increase the failure time and the peak strength of a composite concrete. Overall, the experiment was successful in analyzing the effects of recycled plastic aggregate in composite concrete. <br/>Some possible future studies related to this subject material are adding aluminum to the concrete, having better molds, looking for the right consistency in each mixture, mixing for each mold individually, and performing other tests on the samples.
The scope of this project is a combination of material science engineering and<br/>mechanical engineering. Overall, the main goal of this project is to develop a lightweight<br/>concrete that maintains its original strength profile. Initial research has shown that a<br/>plastic-concrete composite could create a more lightweight concrete than that made using the<br/>typical gravel aggregate for concrete, while still maintaining the physical strength that concrete is<br/>known for. This will be accomplished by varying the amount of plastic in the aggregate. If<br/>successful, this project would allow concrete to be used in applications it would typically not be<br/>suitable for.<br/>After testing the strength of the concrete specimens with varying fills of plastic aggregate<br/>it was determined that the control group experienced an average peak stress of 2089 psi, the<br/>16.67% plastic group experienced an average peak stress of 2649 psi, the 33.3% plastic group<br/>experienced an average peak stress of 1852 psi, and the 50% plastic group experienced an<br/>average stress of 924.5 psi. The average time to reach the peak stress was found to be 12 minutes<br/>and 24 seconds in the control group, 15 minutes and 34 seconds in the 16.7% plastic group, 9<br/>minutes and 45 seconds in the 33.3% plastic group, and 10 minutes and 58 seconds in the 50%<br/>plastic group. Taking the average of the normalized weights of the cylindrical samples it was<br/>determined that the control group weighed 14.773 oz/in, the 16.7% plastic group weighed 15<br/>oz/in, the 33.3% plastic group weighed 14.573 oz/in, and the 50% plastic group weighed 12.959<br/>oz/in. Based on these results it can be concluded that a small addition of plastic aggregate can be<br/>beneficial in creating a lighter, stronger concrete. The results show that a 16.7% fill ratio of<br/>plastic to rock aggregate can increase the failure time and the peak strength of a composite<br/>concrete. Overall, the experiment was successful in analyzing the effects of recycled plastic<br/>aggregate in composite concrete.<br/>Some possible future studies related to this subject material are adding aluminum to the<br/>concrete, having better molds, looking for the right consistency in each mixture, mixing for each<br/>mold individually, and performing other tests on the samples.
In this project, I get at the finer details of what altruism really is, and when an act really counts as altruistic. I draw upon many articles and books that discuss the topic, but some left many questions unanswered. I conducted several close readings of the manga, One Piece, to answer these questions. Through the thematic relevance of the series, I discovered more reliable forms of emotional motivation, identified and analyzed highly similar altruistic imposters, and presented a more comprehensive image of the topic by analyzing egotism.
People of color, and more especially Black Americans, make up a minuscule portion of annual National Park visitation. This podcast is a look into the prejudiced history surrounding the formation of the national parks, the modern theories surrounding continuing lack of park diversity, and personal accounts of where the movement for outdoor equality is going and where your support should go. This all culminates into a project that aims to understand why this statistic exists as it is and present it through podcast.
People of color, and more especially Black Americans, make up a minuscule portion of annual National Park visitation. This podcast is a look into the prejudiced history surrounding the formation of the national parks, the modern theories surrounding continuing lack of park diversity, and personal accounts of where the movement for outdoor equality is going and where your support should go. This all culminates into a project that aims to understand why this statistic exists as it is and present it through podcast.
Political Notes is a podcast that explores the history of music and musicians over the past several decades and their influence on the political spectrum. Using the case studies of The Chicks and Taylor Swift, Political Notes displays the integration of politics in music and its acceptance by the public, giving musicians the power to change the opinions of their listeners. Political Notes exposes a politician's worst nightmare, as we can expect to see a future where musicians collaborate with politicians to help certain individuals get elected and others to be left behind.
Over the past couple of years, the focus on the prevalence of hate-speech and misinformation on the internet has increased. Lawmakers feel that repealing or reforming Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act is the way to go, considering that the law has been used to protect companies from any liability in the past. In this podcast series, I will be explaining what Section 230 is, how it affects us, and what changes are being proposed. In doing so, I wish to shed a light on how the problems of the internet are not solely in the hands of social media giants and a 26-word long law, but all its users that make up our global community.
This podcast discusses three nonconformists from throughout history and analyzes what made them successful, as well as how we can apply lessons learned from them to our own lives.