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- All Subjects: engineering
- All Subjects: Technology
- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Status: Published
Description
The purpose of this thesis research project is to explore blockchain technology and its present and future applications within supply chain management. Emerging blockchain technologies, both public and private, are already showing great promise for a number of applications in and outside supply chain management. Our sole focus is to understand the fundamentals of blockchain, smart contracts, current applications in supply chain, and the future possibilities for blockchain to shape global supply chains. Many have theorized about how private blockchains can be implemented and used; however, there is little research to date that has collected and explored the actual use cases in industry today. The mission of this research paper is to separate theory from the current state of the technology and provide a clearer understanding of where the technology is headed in the near future. We aim to produce a work that will provide a comprehensive description and commentary on current use cases for the education of students and industry professionals alike. With any new technological developments, terminology and technicalities can be paralyzing, and this is particularly true for blockchain technology. For this project, our goal was to create a document that cuts through the complexities and allows a non-technical audience to gain a strong foundational understanding of blockchain's potential and current limitations within supply chains. Provided this, some highly technical concepts and implementation details will not be explored due to the complexity and minimal understanding even amongst industry experts. As future supply chain professionals, we are motivated to further our understanding of blockchain technologies and the potential for this technology to shape the future of supply chain management.
ContributorsBecker, Logan (Co-author) / Falco, Alexander (Co-author) / Murphy, Thomas Brian (Co-author) / Taylor, Todd (Thesis director) / Wiedmer, Robert (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Effective communication and engineering are not a natural pairing. The incongruence is because engineering students are focused on making, designing and analyzing. Since these are the core functions of the field there is not a direct focus on developing communication skills. This honors thesis explores the role and expectations for student engineers within the undergraduate engineering education experience to present and communicate ideas. The researchers interviewed faculty about their perspective on students' abilities with respect to their presentation skills to inform the design of a workshop series of interventions intended to make engineering students better communicators.
ContributorsAlbin, Joshua Alexander (Co-author) / Brancati, Sara (Co-author) / Lande, Micah (Thesis director) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / Industrial, Systems and Operations Engineering Program (Contributor) / Software Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Even in the largest public university in the country, computer related degrees such as Computer Science, Computer Systems Engineering and Software Engineering have low enrollment rates and high dropout rates. This is interesting because the careers that require these degrees are marketed as the highest paying and most powerful. The goal of this project was to find out what the students of Arizona State University (ASU) thought about these majors and why they did or did not pick them. A total of 206 students were surveyed from a variety of sources including upper level classes, lower level classes and Barrett, the Honors College. Survey questions asked why the students picked their current major, if they had a previous major and why did they switch, and if the students had considered one of the three computer related degrees. Almost all questions were open ended, meaning the students did not have multiple choice answers and instead could write as short or as long of a response as needed. Responses were grouped based on a set of initial hypotheses and any emerging trends. These groups were displayed in several different bar graphs broken down by gender, grade level and category of student (stayed in a computer related degree, left one, joined one or picked a non-computer related degree). Trends included students of all grade levels picking their major because they were passionate or interested in the subject. This may suggest that college students are set in their path and will not switch majors easily. Students also reported seeing computer related degrees as too difficult and intimidating. However, given the low (when compared to all of ASU) number of students surveyed, the conclusions and trends given cannot be representative of ASU as a whole. Rather, they are just representative of this sample population. Further work on this study, if time permitted, would be to try to survey more students and question some of the trends established to find more specific answers.
ContributorsMeza, Edward L (Author) / Meuth, Ryan (Thesis director) / Miller, Phillip (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
iWaandr is a travel platform that allows users to find and share unique experiences. It will be a website that users can find on the internet. Every user will be able to post their own experiences on the platform along with a description, important information, and a rating.
The problem we are trying to solve is that it still takes hours to search for and find unique non-touristy experiences around the world. At a time when people can use their smartphones to have a car show up to their doorstep in minutes, it is unacceptable that it still takes hours to find an non-touristy experience on the internet.
Our value proposition is that users will be able to be anywhere in the world and be able to find an authentic, non-touristy experience that interests them. iWaandr is the most complete experience discovery tool, providing the largest collection of unique and personal experiences around the world.
Our competition is the large incumbent travel and review companies like TripAdvisor and Airbnb. There are also less established competitors that see a similar gap in the market like Mapify and Cool Cousin. We also have niche competitors that are only focused on outdoor activities like AllTrails and Outbound Collective. Google and blogs would also be competitors because people search on Google for unique experiences.
Our innovation is that we are focusing on creating unique content while our competitors are focusing on new ways to display the same content. Our advantage isn’t in a feature we created because a company with more resources could easily copy it. In order to create unique and useful content, we had to figure out a way for users to intuitively and easily post an experience with as much relevant information as possible. This involved a lot of thought into our posting process. We believe our posting process allows users to consistently post unique and informative content.
The technology we are implementing is very similar to the FERN technology stack of Firebase as a database, ExpressJS and NodeJS as backend frameworks, and ReactJS as the front-end programming language. We chose this technology stack because it allows our platform to stay lean, and be efficient with data. This allows the platform to have increased performance and lower costs.
The problem we are trying to solve is that it still takes hours to search for and find unique non-touristy experiences around the world. At a time when people can use their smartphones to have a car show up to their doorstep in minutes, it is unacceptable that it still takes hours to find an non-touristy experience on the internet.
Our value proposition is that users will be able to be anywhere in the world and be able to find an authentic, non-touristy experience that interests them. iWaandr is the most complete experience discovery tool, providing the largest collection of unique and personal experiences around the world.
Our competition is the large incumbent travel and review companies like TripAdvisor and Airbnb. There are also less established competitors that see a similar gap in the market like Mapify and Cool Cousin. We also have niche competitors that are only focused on outdoor activities like AllTrails and Outbound Collective. Google and blogs would also be competitors because people search on Google for unique experiences.
Our innovation is that we are focusing on creating unique content while our competitors are focusing on new ways to display the same content. Our advantage isn’t in a feature we created because a company with more resources could easily copy it. In order to create unique and useful content, we had to figure out a way for users to intuitively and easily post an experience with as much relevant information as possible. This involved a lot of thought into our posting process. We believe our posting process allows users to consistently post unique and informative content.
The technology we are implementing is very similar to the FERN technology stack of Firebase as a database, ExpressJS and NodeJS as backend frameworks, and ReactJS as the front-end programming language. We chose this technology stack because it allows our platform to stay lean, and be efficient with data. This allows the platform to have increased performance and lower costs.
ContributorsChee, Christian Yoshiaki (Co-author) / Bingham, Joseph (Co-author) / Cho, Steve (Thesis director) / Witwer, Bob (Committee member) / Tech Entrepreneurship & Mgmt (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The United States is in a period of political turmoil and polarization. New technologies have matured over the last ten years, which have transformed an individual’s relationship with society and government. The emergence of these technologies has revolutionized access to both information and misinformation. Skills such as bias recognition and critical thinking are more imperative than in any other time to separate truth from false or misleading information. Meanwhile, education has not evolved with these changes. The average individual is more likely to come to uninformed conclusions and less likely to listen to differing perspectives. Moreover, technology is further complicating and compounding other issues in the political process. All of this is manifesting in division among the American people who elect more polarized politicians who increasingly fail to find avenues for compromise.
In an effort to address these trends, we founded a student organization, The Political Literates, to fight political apathy by delivering political news in an easy to understand and unbiased manner. Inspired by our experience with this organization, we combine our insights with research to paint a new perspective on the state of the American political system.
This thesis analyzes various issues identified through our observations and research, with a heavy emphasis on using examples from the 2016 election. Our focus is how new technologies like data analytics, the Internet, smartphones, and social media are changing politics by driving political and social transformation. We identify and analyze five core issues that have been amplified by new technology, hindering the effectiveness of elections and further increasing political polarization:
● Gerrymandering which skews partisan debate by forcing politicians to pander to ideologically skewed districts.
● Consolidation of media companies which affects the diversity of how news is shared.
● Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which allowed media to become more partisan.
● The Citizens United Ruling which skews power away from average voters in elections.
● A Failing Education System which does not prepare Americans to be civically engaged and to avoid being swayed by biased or untrue media.
Based on our experiment with the Political Literates and our research, we call for improving how critical thinking and civics is taught in the American education system. Critical thought and civics must be developed pervasively. With this, more people would be able to form more sophisticated views by listening to others to learn rather than win, listening less to irrelevant information, and forming a culture with more engagement in politics. Through this re-enlightenment, many of America’s other problems may evaporate or become more actionable.
In an effort to address these trends, we founded a student organization, The Political Literates, to fight political apathy by delivering political news in an easy to understand and unbiased manner. Inspired by our experience with this organization, we combine our insights with research to paint a new perspective on the state of the American political system.
This thesis analyzes various issues identified through our observations and research, with a heavy emphasis on using examples from the 2016 election. Our focus is how new technologies like data analytics, the Internet, smartphones, and social media are changing politics by driving political and social transformation. We identify and analyze five core issues that have been amplified by new technology, hindering the effectiveness of elections and further increasing political polarization:
● Gerrymandering which skews partisan debate by forcing politicians to pander to ideologically skewed districts.
● Consolidation of media companies which affects the diversity of how news is shared.
● Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which allowed media to become more partisan.
● The Citizens United Ruling which skews power away from average voters in elections.
● A Failing Education System which does not prepare Americans to be civically engaged and to avoid being swayed by biased or untrue media.
Based on our experiment with the Political Literates and our research, we call for improving how critical thinking and civics is taught in the American education system. Critical thought and civics must be developed pervasively. With this, more people would be able to form more sophisticated views by listening to others to learn rather than win, listening less to irrelevant information, and forming a culture with more engagement in politics. Through this re-enlightenment, many of America’s other problems may evaporate or become more actionable.
ContributorsStenseth, Kyle (Co-author) / Tumas, Trevor (Co-author) / Mokwa, Michael (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Engineering is a heavily male-dominated field and females are significantly less likely to choose an engineering-related major or career path. At the age of six years old, females start believing that their male peers are smarter than them, leading them to pursue less ambitious careers. The children's book Lyla B. An Engineering Legacy was created to encourage more young girls to discover their own potential and pursue engineering as a career. To explore the efficacy of the book on its target consumers, a pilot study was performed with first and second grade children. The participants' engineering knowledge; fixed and failure mindset beliefs; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) interest, competency, and career aspirations; and stereotype beliefs were evaluated before and after being read the book to determine if the story has a positive impact on children. Additionally, the satisfaction of the participants towards both the book and main character were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Overall, the results of the study suggest that the book has a positive impact on the interest and competency of STEM fields and the stereotype beliefs that the children had towards engineers. The study also suggests that the book decreases fixed and failure mindsets and that the participants were satisfied with the overall concept of the book and main character, Lyla.
ContributorsPiatak, Catherine (Co-author) / Seelhammer, Marissa Leigh (Co-author) / Torrence, Kelly (Co-author) / Miller, Cindy (Thesis director) / Jordan, Shawn (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
All of the modern technology tools that are being used today, have a purpose to support a variety of human tasks. Ambient Intelligence is the next step to transform modern technology. Ambient Intelligence is an electronic environment that is sensitive and responsive to human interaction/activity. We understand that Ambient Intelligence(AmI) concentrates on connectivity within a person's environment and the purpose of having a new connection is to make life simpler. Today, technology is in the transition of a new lifestyle where technology is discretely living with us. Ambient Intelligence is still in progress, but we can analyze the technology we have today, ties a relationship with Ambient Intelligence. In order to examine this concern, I investigated how much awareness/knowledge users that range from Generation X to Xennials, that had experience from replacing habitual items and technologies they use on a daily basis. A few questions I mainly wanted answered: - What kind of technologies, software, or tech services replace items you use daily? - What kind of benefits did the technology give you, did it change the way you think/act on any kind of activities? - What kind of expectations/concerns do you have for future technologies? To accomplish this, I gathered information from interviewing multiples groups: millennials and other older generations (33+ years old). I retrieved data from students at Arizona State University, Intel Corporation, and a local clinic. From this study, I've discovered from both groups, that both sides agree that modern technology is rapidly growing to a point that computers think as humans. Through multiple interviews and research, I have found that the technology today makes an impact through all aspects of our lives and through artificial intelligence. Furthermore, I will discuss and predict what will society will encounter later on as the new technology discretely arises.
ContributorsPascua, Roman Paolo Bustos (Author) / Yang, Yezhou (Thesis director) / Caviedes, Jorge (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Current technology does not allow for the full amount of power produced by solar arrays (PV) on spacecraft to be utilized. The arrays are designed with non-reconfigurable architectures and sent on fifteen to twenty year long missions. They cannot be changed once they are in space, so the arrays are designed for the end of life. Throughout their lifetime, solar arrays can degrade in power producing capabilities anywhere from 20% to 50%. Because there is such a drastic difference in the beginning and end of life power production, and because they cannot be reconfigured, a new design has been found necessary in order to increase power production. Reconfiguration allows the solar arrays to achieve maximum power producing capabilities at both the beginning and end of their lives. With the potential to increase power production by 50%, the reconfiguration design consists of a switching network to be able to utilize any combination of cells. The design for reconfiguration must meet the power requirements of the solar array. This thesis will explore different designs for reconfiguration, as well as possible switches for implementation. It will also review other methods to increase power production, as well as discuss future work in this field.
ContributorsJohnson, Everett Hope (Author) / Kitchen, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Ozev, Sule (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In this paper, we propose an autonomous throwing and catching system to be developed as a preliminary step towards the refinement of a robotic arm capable of improving strength and motor function in the limb. This will be accomplished by first autonomizing simpler movements, such as throwing a ball. In this system, an autonomous thrower will detect a desired target through the use of image processing. The launch angle and direction necessary to hit the target will then be calculated, followed by the launching of the ball. The smart catcher will then detect the ball as it is in the air, calculate its expected landing location based on its initial trajectory, and adjust its position so that the ball lands in the center of the target. The thrower will then proceed to compare the actual landing position with the position where it expected the ball to land, and adjust its calculations accordingly for the next throw. By utilizing this method of feedback, the throwing arm will be able to automatically correct itself. This means that the thrower will ideally be able to hit the target exactly in the center within a few throws, regardless of any additional uncertainty in the system. This project will focus of the controller and image processing components necessary for the autonomous throwing arm to be able to detect the position of the target at which it will be aiming, and for the smart catcher to be able to detect the position of the projectile and estimate its final landing position by tracking its current trajectory.
ContributorsLundberg, Kathie Joy (Co-author) / Thart, Amanda (Co-author) / Rodriguez, Armando (Thesis director) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Company X has developed minicomputing products that can change the way people think about minicomputer. The Product A (PRODUCT A) and Product B are relatively new products on the market that have the ability to change the way some industries use technology and increase end-user convenience. The key issue for Company X is finding targeted use cases to which Company X can market these products and increase sales. This thesis reports how our team has researched, calculated, and financially forecasted use cases for both the PRODUCT A and Product B. The Education and Healthcare industries were identified as those providing significant potential value propositions and an array of potential use cases from which we could choose to evaluate. Key competitors, market dynamics, and information obtained through interviews with a Product Line Analyst were used to size the available, obtainable, and attainable market numbers for Company X. The models built for this research provided insight into the PRODUCT A and Product B's potential growth in the education and healthcare industries. This led to the selection of education and healthcare use cases for the Product B and the PRODUCT A use cases for healthcare. This report concludes with recommendations for success in education and healthcare with the PRODUCT A and Product B.
ContributorsHoward, James (Co-author) / Kazmi, Abbas (Co-author) / Ralston, Nicholas (Co-author) / Salamatin, Mikkaela Alexis (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Hopkins, David (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05