Matching Items (32)
Filtering by
- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
Description
For as long as humans have been working, they have been looking for ways to get that work done better, faster, and more efficient. Over the course of human history, mankind has created innumerable spectacular inventions, all with the goal of making the economy and daily life more efficient. Today, innovations and technological advancements are happening at a pace like never seen before, and technology like automation and artificial intelligence are poised to once again fundamentally alter the way people live and work in society. Whether society is prepared or not, robots are coming to replace human labor, and they are coming fast. In many areas artificial intelligence has disrupted entire industries of the economy. As people continue to make advancements in artificial intelligence, more industries will be disturbed, more jobs will be lost, and entirely new industries and professions will be created in their wake. The future of the economy and society will be determined by how humans adapt to the rapid innovations that are taking place every single day. In this paper I will examine the extent to which automation will take the place of human labor in the future, project the potential effect of automation to future unemployment, and what individuals and society will need to do to adapt to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology. I will also look at the history of automation in the economy. For centuries humans have been advancing technology to make their everyday work more productive and efficient, and for centuries this has forced humans to adapt to the modern technology through things like training and education. The thesis will additionally examine the ways in which the U.S. education system will have to adapt to meet the demands of the advancing economy, and how job retraining programs must be modernized to prepare workers for the changing economy.
ContributorsCunningham, Reed P. (Author) / DeSerpa, Allan (Thesis director) / Haglin, Brett (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The foundations of legacy media, especially the news media, are not as strong as they once were. A digital revolution has changed the operation models for and journalistic organizations are trying to find their place in the new market. This project is intended to analyze the effects of new/emerging technologies on the journalism industry. Five different categories of technology will be explored. They are as follows: the semantic web, automation software, data analysis and aggregators, virtual reality and drone journalism. The potential of these technologies will be broken up according to four guidelines, ethical implications, effects on the reportorial process, business impacts and changes to the consumer experience. Upon my examination, it is apparent that no single technology will offer the journalism industry the remedy it has been searching for. Some combination of emerging technologies however, may form the basis for the next generation of news. Findings are presented on a website that features video, visuals, linked content, and original graphics. Website found at http://www.explorenewstech.com/
ContributorsMaxwell, Gavin William (Author) / McGuire, Tim (Thesis director) / Cornelius, David (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a burgeoning technology, industry, and field of study. While interest levels regarding its applications in marketing have not yet translated into widespread adoption, AI holds tremendous potential for vastly altering how marketing is done. As such, AI in marketing is a crucial topic to research. By analyzing its current applications, its potential use cases in the near future, how to implement it and its areas for improvement, we can achieve a high-level understanding of AI's long-term implications in marketing. AI offers an improvement to current marketing tactics, as well as entirely new ways of creating and distributing value to customers. For example, programmatic advertising and social media marketing can allow for a more comprehensive view of customer behavior, predictive analytics, and deeper insights through integration with AI. New marketing tools like biometrics, voice, and conversational user interfaces offer novel ways to add value for brands and consumers alike. These innovations all carry similar characteristics of hyper-personalization, efficient spending, scalable experiences, and deep insights. There are important issues that need to be addressed before AI is extensively implemented, including the potential for it to be used maliciously, its effects on job displacement, and the technology itself. The recent progression of AI in marketing is indicative that it will be adopted by a majority of companies soon. The long-term implications of vast implementation are crucial to consider, as an AI-powered industry entails fundamental changes to the skill-sets required to thrive, the way marketers and brands work, and consumer expectations.
ContributorsCannella, James (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Giles, Charles (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Catastrophe events occur rather infrequently, but upon their occurrence, can lead to colossal losses for insurance companies. Due to their size and volatility, catastrophe losses are often treated separately from other insurance losses. In fact, many property and casualty insurance companies feature a department or team which focuses solely on modeling catastrophes. Setting reserves for catastrophe losses is difficult due to their unpredictable and often long-tailed nature. Determining loss development factors (LDFs) to estimate the ultimate loss amounts for catastrophe events is one method for setting reserves. In an attempt to aid Company XYZ set more accurate reserves, the research conducted focuses on estimating LDFs for catastrophes which have already occurred and have been settled. Furthermore, the research describes the process used to build a linear model in R to estimate LDFs for Company XYZ's closed catastrophe claims from 2001 \u2014 2016. This linear model was used to predict a catastrophe's LDFs based on the age in weeks of the catastrophe during the first year. Back testing was also performed, as was the comparison between the estimated ultimate losses and actual losses. Future research consideration was proposed.
ContributorsSwoverland, Robert Bo (Author) / Milovanovic, Jelena (Thesis director) / Zicarelli, John (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Many fear that the growth of automation and artificial intelligence will lead to massive unemployment since human labor would no longer be needed. Although automation does displace workers from their current jobs, it is unclear the total net effect on jobs this period of advancement will have. One possible solution to help displaced workers is a Universal Basic Income. A Universal Basic Income(UBI) is a set payment paid to all members of society regardless of working status. Compared to current unemployment programs, a Universal Basic Income does not restrict participants in how to spend the money and is more inclusive. This paper examines the effects of a UBI on a person's motivation to work through a study on current college students. There is reason to believe that a Universal Basic Income will lead to fewer people working as people may become dependent on a base payment to meet their basic needs and not look for work. In addition, some people may drop out of their current jobs and rely on a UBI as their main form of income. The current literature does not offer a consensus opinion on this relationship and more studies are being completed with the threat of mass unemployment looming. This study shows the effects of a UBI on participants' willingness to work and then applies these results to the current economic model. With these results and new economic model, a decision about future policies surrounding a UBI can be made.
ContributorsAgarwal, Raghav (Author) / Pulido Hernadez, Carlos (Thesis director) / Foster, William (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Technical innovation has always played a part in live theatre, whether in the form of mechanical pieces like lifts and trapdoors to the more recent integration of digital media. The advances of the art form encourage the development of technology, and at the same time, technological development enables the advancement of theatrical expression. As mechanics, lighting, sound, and visual media have made their way into the spotlight, advances in theatrical robotics continue to push for their inclusion in the director's toolbox. However, much of the technology available is gated by high prices and unintuitive interfaces, designed for large troupes and specialized engineers, making it difficult to access for small schools and students new to the medium. As a group of engineering students with a vested interest in the development of the arts, this thesis team designed a system that will enable troupes from any background to participate in the advent of affordable automation. The intended result of this thesis project was to create a robotic platform that interfaces with custom software, receiving commands and transmitting position data, and to design that software so that a user can define intuitive cues for their shows. In addition, a new pathfinding algorithm was developed to support free-roaming automation in a 2D space. The final product consisted of a relatively inexpensive (< $2000) free-roaming platform, made entirely with COTS and standard materials, and a corresponding control system with cue design, wireless path following, and position tracking. This platform was built to support 1000 lbs, and includes integrated emergency stopping. The software allows for custom cue design, speed variation, and dynamic path following. Both the blueprints and the source code for the platform and control system have been released to open-source repositories, to encourage further development in the area of affordable automation. The platform itself was donated to the ASU School of Theater.
ContributorsHollenbeck, Matthew D. (Co-author) / Wiebel, Griffin (Co-author) / Winnemann, Christopher (Thesis director) / Christensen, Stephen (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Amazon Prime Air is the innovative new service that promises automated drone delivery in thirty minutes or less. The platform has not yet been brought to market, but there is a plethora compelling data available that suggests it will be a unique and highly disruptive business segment for Amazon. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the framework laid out by Amazon.com, Inc. for their anticipated Prime Air drone delivery platform, and offer our recommendations for what steps the e-commerce giant should take moving forward. Following a brief recap of the company's founding and a breakdown of its various business segments, we will begin our analysis by examining past strategic decisions that Amazon has made which have directly contributed to their current market position. It is our goal to construct a narrative of what events lead the company to begin developing a fleet of automated delivery vehicles. Following this history lesson, we will review and criticize the existing elements of Amazon's Prime Air platform, and explore any possible alternatives that they could have taken to optimize the development of this exciting new technology. Criticisms will touch upon elements such as cost efficiencies, brand management, and utilization of infrastructure to name but a few. These criticisms will be based upon data sourced from Amazon's available material as well as comments from market analysts and journalists. The culminating element of our analysis will be to offer our professional recommendations as to what we believe the next logical steps that Amazon should take for their Prime Air platform. These recommendations will be informed by our criticisms and our understanding of Amazon as a corporation. This chapter will be largely concerned with guiding Amazon towards a fully optimized drone delivery platform. Our recommendations will be based upon our extensive experience concerning cost and logistical efficiencies, as well as our knowledge of Amazon as a corporation. We will offer succinct suggestions for Amazon's immediate needs as well as long-term solutions to lingering obstacles that they may face.
ContributorsMcCaleb, Nicholas (Co-author) / Glynn, Reagan (Co-author) / Choi, Thomas (Thesis director) / Rogers, Dale (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The software element of home and small business networking solutions has failed to keep pace with annual development of newer and faster hardware. The software running on these devices is an afterthought, oftentimes equipped with minimal features, an obtuse user interface, or both. At the same time, this past year has seen the rise of smart home assistants that represent the next step in human-computer interaction with their advanced use of natural language processing. This project seeks to quell the issues with the former by exploring a possible fusion of a powerful, feature-rich software-defined networking stack and the incredible natural language processing tools of smart home assistants. To accomplish these ends, a piece of software was developed to leverage the powerful natural language processing capabilities of one such smart home assistant, the Amazon Echo. On one end, this software interacts with Amazon Web Services to retrieve information about a user's speech patterns and key information contained in their speech. On the other end, the software joins that information with its previous session state to intelligently translate speech into a series of commands for the separate components of a networking stack. The software developed for this project empowers a user to quickly make changes to several facets of their networking gear or acquire information about it with just their language \u2014 no terminals, java applets, or web configuration interfaces needed, thus circumventing clunky UI's or jumping from shell to shell. It is the author's hope that showing how networking equipment can be configured in this innovative way will draw more attention to the current failings of networking equipment and inspire a new series of intuitive user interfaces.
ContributorsHermens, Ryan Joseph (Author) / Meuth, Ryan (Thesis director) / Burger, Kevin (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The insurance industry is a multibillion-dollar industry, yet it lags far behind other industries like banking and big tech in its adaptation of automation. I experienced this first-hand as an intern at State Farm. I completed a project that was a massive data entry job and made it into a process that took clicking three buttons to finish. Although just one example, it was clear that State Farm as well as the insurance industry in general are not utilizing automation and machine learning. The adaptation of automation and machine learning will have internal and external benefits for insurance companies like increased efficiencies in business processes and increased customer satisfaction. However, to realize these external and internal benefits, companies, like State Farm, must implement an adhocratic culture where risk taking is incentivized, and companies must invest resources into their underwriting processes, rather through internal investment or an acquisition, to automate the process.
ContributorsKindopp, Archer Orvin (Author) / Bryne, Jared (Thesis director) / Schiller, Christoph (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The NBA yields billions of dollars each year and serves as a pastime and hobby for millions of Americans. However, many people do not have the time to watch several 2-hour games every week, especially when only a fraction of the game is actually exciting footage. The goal of Sports Summary is to take the ``fluff'' out of these games and create a distilled summary that includes only the most exciting and relevant events. The Sports Summary model records visual and auditory data, camera angles, and game clock readings and correlates it with the game's play-by-play data. On average, a game of more than 2 hours long is shortened to a summary of less than 20 minutes. This summary is then uploaded to the Sports Summary website, where users can filter by the type of event, giving more autonomy and a more comprehensive viewing experience than highlight reels. Additionally, the website allows for users to submit footage they would like to watch for processing and later viewing. Sports Summary creates an enjoyable and accessible way to watch games.
ContributorsZimmerman, Kenna Marleen (Author) / Espanol, Malena (Thesis director) / Dahlberg, Samantha (Committee member) / Pasha, Mirjeta (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05