This research was conducted through the form of interview with Belizean citizens in Belize, Central America where I invited three of Belize’s most pivotal and influential figures behind social and civil injustices. Belize is a Caribbean country in Central America that was once a colony of the British known as “British Honduras”, gaining its independence on the 21st of September, 1981, making Belize the third to last youngest Caribbean country.

This has been made into a documentary that started filming back in September of 2017 during Belize’s 36th Independence Day where the country indulges in a month full of celebrations that brings a great feeling of togetherness for everyone. The film company that shot and edited this project is a local Belizean company by the name of KnightandDay Photography, with the consideration of helping to create work in Belize, support local business, and to be fully immersed in Belize and all of its resources.

This documentary is structured into five components: (1) Introduction; (2) Interview with guest number one; (3) Interview with guest number two; (4) Interview with guest number three; (5) Interview with five randomly selected Belizean citizens on the street; (6) Outro.

The main objective of this research was to speak in depth with specific Belizeans that have spent significant time in America, whether working, or going to school in order to have the knowledge to compare the experience of the black Belizean in their home country versus that of what America offers as far as the black experience and to explain the history of other ethnic groups of peoples that inhabits Belize and how the tensions and stereotypes among Belizeans arose over time.

David Schwalm came to ASU in 1986 as Director of Composition and retired in 2009 as Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the Polytechnic Campus. The interview has five main sections:
1, Pre-ASU Years where Dave discusses growing up in Fort Wayne, his education, and professional jobs.
2. Director of Composition addresses Dave’s increasing understanding of the university through his work on general studies and English articulation agreements.
3. ASU West covers Dave’s efforts to grow the student population and with Cathy Church to untangle the West and Tempe campus programs
4. ASU East has extensive coverage of how the campus was started and populated using an alliance with Chandler Gilbert Community College. Doing all this on a shoestring of a budget. Dave discusses why various faculty and programs were moved to the Polytechnic Campus.
5. Reflections allows Dave to reminisce about the “good old days” as well as the good new days.

Paige Mulhollan came to ASU in 1978 as ASU’s first Provost. He left in 1985 to become President of Wright State University in Ohio. Paige discusses the impact of Frank Kush’s firing on President John Schwada and the birthing of ASU West. At several points Paige discusses the need for ASU to take advantage of Phoenix rather than just being located in Phoenix. Aspects of the University budget are discussed. There are a set of ASU reflections and reflections on an academic career.

Robert (Bob) Barnhill came to ASU in 1986 as Chair of the Computer Science Department and left in 1997 as the Vice President for Research. The interview addresses a number of topics including the beginnings of Computer Graphics, moving the Computer Science Department to a more research-oriented effort, achieving Research 1 status, working with the University of Arizona to develop a new statewide Intellectual Property template, dodging the Unabomber and playing soccer. Common themes throughout the interview include Bob’s success at getting groups of people to actually do something other than just meet and the importance of a strategic plan.

Roy Doyle was born and raised in Arizona, the son of a cotton farmer and a teacher. Roy’s father passed away when he was in the 6th grade leaving his mother to raise 3 boys and a daughter. Roy began his working career as a morning and evening paper boy for the Arizona Republic and the Gazette. After high school, he enrolled in what was then Arizona State Teachers College to pursue a degree in Education. His college career was interrupted by the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war, he returned to ASTC, along with his new bride, to complete his degree.

His first position after graduation was at the Madison School in Phoenix. During the summers, he attended the Teachers College at Columbia University where he earned his masters and PhD in Education and Administration. He returned to now named Arizona State University where he began his career in the College of Education. His first position was as Principal of the Payne Training School, an on-campus K-8 school designed as a training school for future teachers. He served as assistant and associate dean for the College of Education prior to his retirement.

Spatial audio can be especially useful for directing human attention. However, delivering spatial audio through speakers, rather than headphones that deliver audio directly to the ears, produces the issue of crosstalk, where sounds from each of the two speakers reach the opposite ear, inhibiting the spatialized effect. A research team at Meteor Studio has developed an algorithm called Xblock that solves this issue using a crosstalk cancellation technique. This thesis project expands upon the existing Xblock IoT system by providing a way to test the accuracy of the directionality of sounds generated with spatial audio. More specifically, the objective is to determine whether the usage of Xblock with smart speakers can provide generalized audio localization, which refers to the ability to detect a general direction of where a sound might be coming from. This project also expands upon the existing Xblock technique to integrate voice commands, where users can verbalize the name of a lost item using the phrase, “Find [item]”, and the IoT system will use spatial audio to guide them to it.