Theses and Dissertations

The Founders Lab is a team-focused, exploratory Barrett Thesis project that allows students the opportunity to discover and utilize their “inner entrepreneur”. This project empowers teams of students to come up with a business idea; create a strategic business model; conduct research on a target market; generate a brand style, logo, and other marketing-related materials; meet with business professionals as a way to receive feedback; and finalize a business plan with tangible deliverables. This project in particular focuses on the creation of an app that allows users to connect with others in competitive esports tournaments and participate in tutoring sessions for financial incentives. Throughout our experience participating in the Founders Lab, we were able to construct this business pitch.

For our Founders Lab Thesis Project, we are investigating the viability of a cryptocurrency that will be marketed towards students, prospective students, alumni, and faculty members of Arizona State University (ASU). Our cryptocurrency is known as “Hippocampus”. Essentially, individuals within the target audience will have the opportunity to exchange their fiat money for our university-affiliated cryptocurrency. These individuals will be incentivized to utilize the university-affiliated cryptocurrency as opposed to fiat money, because this cryptocurrency will offer them discounts on college-related expenses, such as tuition, student loans, textbooks, supplies, on-campus housing, on-campus dining, and much more. As the demand for Hippocampus increases, so will its value, which will benefit ASU as a whole. We created a Spring 2022 Semester Survey and surveyed a sample of 250 ASU students regarding the viability of our Founders Lab Thesis Project. 73.2% of participants revealed that they would support a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and 62% of participants revealed that they would personally utilize a university-affiliated cryptocurrency. Additional activities that we completed to enhance our Founders Lab Thesis Project include interviewing an avid cryptocurrency user, learning about the Blockchain Research Lab, meeting with a financial advisor to understand the financial implications of a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, collaborating with a group of university students at Portland State University who implemented their own university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and touring a cryptocurrency-mining company to grasp an understanding of how cryptocurrency is mined.

For our Founders Lab Thesis Project, we are investigating the viability of a cryptocurrency that will be marketed towards students, prospective students, alumni, and faculty members of Arizona State University (ASU). Our cryptocurrency is known as “Hippocampus”. Essentially, individuals within the target audience will have the opportunity to exchange their fiat money for our university-affiliated cryptocurrency. These individuals will be incentivized to utilize the university-affiliated cryptocurrency as opposed to fiat money, because this cryptocurrency will offer them discounts on college-related expenses, such as tuition, student loans, textbooks, supplies, on-campus housing, on-campus dining, and much more. As the demand for Hippocampus increases, so will its value, which will benefit ASU as a whole. We created a Spring 2022 Semester Survey and surveyed a sample of 250 ASU students regarding the viability of our Founders Lab Thesis Project. 73.2% of participants revealed that they would support a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and 62% of participants revealed that they would personally utilize a university-affiliated cryptocurrency. Additional activities that we completed to enhance our Founders Lab Thesis Project include interviewing an avid cryptocurrency user, learning about the Blockchain Research Lab, meeting with a financial advisor to understand the financial implications of a university-affiliated cryptocurrency, collaborating with a group of university students at Portland State University who implemented their own university-affiliated cryptocurrency, and touring a cryptocurrency-mining company to grasp an understanding of how cryptocurrency is mined.

Party on Wall Street is a web-based video game developed by Maroon and Gold Game Studios. As an educational entrepreneurship video game, Party on Wall Street provides a refreshing and exciting new experience for the tycoons in society who want a little more of that entrepreneurial lifestyle. With proper research on customer demographics, Maroon and Gold Game Studio’s brand identity consists of a modern game with multiple use cases. With strong partnerships with multiple creatives and built from scratch game development, Party on Wall Street implements a fun, high intensity business competitive environment for players and students to engage in. This thesis consists of building an interactive experience through the use of AirConsole, a third party platform that hosts the game and allows players to join it by connecting to the same website on their mobile device. The primary user has access to hosting a game which can be casted to a larger screen, typically a television. When hosting a game, a room code is generated which can be typed in on the mobile device to connect to the game. When all players have joined the game, the host can initiate it. Players go through 6 rounds of pitch style investing presentations and have the opportunity to invest in other products with the ultimate goal of earning the most money. In the end, the game was successfully implemented, extensively user tested, and is under review by the AirConsole game team. Over the last year, the team successfully brought an idea through the entire product development process, learned to build a game in Unity, made practice of extensible testing and validation methods, and leveraged customer research and feedback to design a game that is ultimately both enjoyable and educational.

Party on Wall Street is a web-based video game developed by Maroon and Gold Game Studios. As an educational entrepreneurship video game, Party on Wall Street provides a refreshing and exciting new experience for the tycoons in society who want a little more of that entrepreneurial lifestyle. With proper research on customer demographics, Maroon and Gold Game Studio’s brand identity consists of a modern game with multiple use cases. With strong partnerships with multiple creatives and built from scratch game development, Party on Wall Street implements a fun, high intensity business competitive environment for players and students to engage in. This thesis consists of building an interactive experience through the use of AirConsole, a third party platform that hosts the game and allows players to join it by connecting to the same website on their mobile device. The primary user has access to hosting a game which can be casted to a larger screen, typically a television. When hosting a game, a room code is generated which can be typed in on the mobile device to connect to the game. When all players have joined the game, the host can initiate it. Players go through 6 rounds of pitch style investing presentations and have the opportunity to invest in other products with the ultimate goal of earning the most money. In the end, the game was successfully implemented, extensively user tested, and is under review by the AirConsole game team. Over the last year, the team successfully brought an idea through the entire product development process, learned to build a game in Unity, made practice of extensible testing and validation methods, and leveraged customer research and feedback to design a game that is ultimately both enjoyable and educational.

Party on Wall Street is a web-based video game developed by Maroon and Gold Game Studios. As an educational entrepreneurship video game, Party on Wall Street provides a refreshing and exciting new experience for the tycoons in society who want a little more of that entrepreneurial lifestyle. With proper research on customer demographics, Maroon and Gold Game Studio’s brand identity consists of a modern game with multiple use cases. With strong partnerships with multiple creatives and built from scratch game development, Party on Wall Street implements a fun, high intensity business competitive environment for players and students to engage in. This thesis consists of building an interactive experience through the use of AirConsole, a third party platform that hosts the game and allows players to join it by connecting to the same website on their mobile device. The primary user has access to hosting a game which can be casted to a larger screen, typically a television. When hosting a game, a room code is generated which can be typed in on the mobile device to connect to the game. When all players have joined the game, the host can initiate it. Players go through 6 rounds of pitch style investing presentations and have the opportunity to invest in other products with the ultimate goal of earning the most money. In the end, the game was successfully implemented, extensively user tested, and is under review by the AirConsole game team. Over the last year, the team successfully brought an idea through the entire product development process, learned to build a game in Unity, made practice of extensible testing and validation methods, and leveraged customer research and feedback to design a game that is ultimately both enjoyable and educational.