Matching Items (249)
Description
With an abundance of sunshine, the state of Arizona has the potential for producing large amounts of solar energy. However, in recent years Arizona has also become the focal point in a political battle to determine the value and future of residential solar energy fees, which has critical implications for distributed generation. As the debate grows, it is clear that solar policies developed in Arizona will influence other state regulators regarding their solar rate structures and Net Energy Metering; however, there is a hindrance in the progress of this discussion due to the varying frameworks of the stakeholders involved. For this project, I set out to understand and analyze why the different stakeholders have such conflicting viewpoints. Some groups interpret energy as a financial and technological object while others view it is an inherently social and political issue. I conducted research in three manners: 1) I attended public meetings, 2) hosted interviews, and 3) analyzed reports and studies on the value of solar. By using the SRP 2015 Rate Case as my central study, I will discuss how these opposing viewpoints do or do not incorporate various forms of justice such as distributive, participatory, and recognition justice. In regards to the SRP Rate Case, I will look at both the utility- consumer relationship and the public meeting processes in which they interact, in addition to the pricing plans. This work reveals that antiquated utility structures and a lack of participation and recognition justice are hindering the creation of policy changes that satisfy both the needs of the utilities and the community at large.
ContributorsGidney, Jacob Robert (Author) / Richter, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Jurik, Nancy (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The purpose of this thesis was to estimate the potential health care cost savings from legalizing a physician assisted suicide (PAS) policy on both a national and individual scale. Given the evolving legal context of PAS paired with the rapidly rising health care costs and aging population in the United States, we hypothesized that implementing a PAS policy on a federal scale would significantly lower healthcare costs. We conducted our analysis using 2 methods: one based on data from the Netherlands and one based on data from Oregon. Overall, we found that while cost savings on a national level are not significant enough to solely justify legalization of PAS, there is a compelling case that legalization of PAS would be a compassionate policy that significantly relieves the financial burden on individuals and their families.
ContributorsJenkins, Kylie (Co-author) / Cunningham, Chloe (Co-author) / Mendez, Jose (Thesis director) / Oberlin, Stephen (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The purpose of this paper is to explore and minimum wage and whether it serves its purpose of fighting poverty. After extensive research on the origin and purpose of minimum wage laws in the US via reading different studies and weighing its positive and negative effects, I have found that minimum wage is not the most effective tool to fight poverty. There exist programs that would be more beneficial in fighting poverty such as earned-income tax credit (EITC) or training programs.
ContributorsHarvey, Vanessa Nicole (Author) / Douglas, Kacey (Thesis director, Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Papago Park Outreach is a non-profit organization dedicated towards reducing negative externalities associated with houselessness. Donors can access papagoparkoutreach.org's storefront and purchase items for distribution to the homeless community in Tempe. The items available for purchase and distribution alleviate the burden assumed by public resources, improve unsheltered quality of life and facilitate research on the 'Donation Gap'.
In its first month, Papago Park Outreach received orders for 35 items, which were fulfilled and distributed to unhoused individuals living in Tempe.
ContributorsZehrung, Ashley (Author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / McCreless, Tam (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
This world promises just one thing: continuous change. As humanity has moved through time much has changed in the worlds of science, mathematics, and physics. These shifts in humanity's comprehension often arrive unexpectedly, driven by education, innovation, and experimentation. Such transformative waves resemble a series of technology shocks that are known to cause significant disruptions within an industry and the economy broadly as firms permanently change the ways they produce and distribute goods and services in response to new technologies or information. The recent flurry of innovation and interest in Artificial Intelligence leads us to believe that many industries may be experiencing such a wave of change today. The healthcare industry currently employs the most workers of any other sector in the United States (outside of the government) and is made up of an unprecedented 77% of female workers making the outcomes of changes in its labor market demands particularly important. In this paper we discuss the current state of Artificial Intelligence adoption within the clinical side of healthcare, what sub sectors and occupations are most exposed, and to what extent the FDA approved AI-enabled clinical healthcare products replace or complement those tasks of existing occupations. We also interviewed a few healthcare professionals with different levels of seniority and exposure to AI-enabled products to develop a holistic understanding of current AI adoption, employee preparation, and potential labor market implications over the short and long term. We find that AI implementation within clinical healthcare settings is young in its life cycle yet fast growing. Current use cases are mostly in the earlier stages of the patient’s care journey assisting workers in various capacities in the processes of patient testing, diagnosis, care planning, and post-treatment monitoring. The tasks associated with patient interaction and care administration do not appear to be threatened by AI automation at this point in time. Additionally, approved Artificial Intelligence products for clinical use are disproportionately concentrated in the subsectors of radiology, neurology, and cardiology. Finally, our interviews revealed a concerning lack of consideration and preparation, among healthcare workers, for the potential automation of their fundamental tasks. Going forward, we believe it wise for healthcare workers to monitor the evolution of clinical AI use cases as well as the FDA approval of AI-enabled products and prepare for potential automation by continuing to learn new skills, take on additional responsibilities, and generally inject themselves into as many stages of the patient’s healthcare journey as possible to differentiate among other workers and avoid the coming wave of mass clinical automation.
ContributorsDolasinski, Nicholas (Author) / McElenney, Nicholas (Co-author) / Mehta, Ari (Thesis director) / Asheim, Brody (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor)
Created2024-05
DescriptionBuck-It is a budgeting application designed to meet the unique needs of college students. As financial literacy is crucial for developing good long-term financial habits, Buck-It aims to promote budgeting among college students through an appealing user interface, robust customization, and effective categorization.
ContributorsDavitt, Ryan (Author) / Doyle, Michael (Co-author) / Walle, Andrew (Co-author) / Vemuri, Rajeev (Co-author) / Baptista, Asher (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Lee, Peggy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has propelled significant growth in the GPU market. In the evolving data center landscape, Company X faces challenges due to its lag in entering the GPU market, which jeopardizes its competitive advantage against industry players like Nvidia and AMD. To address these issues, our thesis aims to analyze market dynamics between CPUs and GPUs-whether they present distinct markets or compete against each other. We seek to guide Company X in maximizing profitability and sustaining its pivotal role in the semiconductor industry amidst the AI revolution. Specifically, we discuss optimizing their GPU offering, Falcon Shores, towards specific markets and doubling down on the production of CPUs.
ContributorsUlreich-Power, Cameron (Author) / Kujawa, Brennan (Co-author) / Mostaghimi, Dunya (Co-author) / Livesay, Thomas (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Hertzel, Mike (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
InnovationSpace is a Design School program wherein teams of students spend a full year together generating, researching, and prototyping concepts for a sponsor company, which in our case was a local non-profit called Keep Tempe Beautiful. Although InnovationSpace typically entails designing and engineering physical products, Keep Tempe Beautiful took things in a different direction—they wanted our help designing a zero-waste music festival through which they could generate revenue for their park clean-up events.
This thesis documents and describes the eight months of work my team undertook, from our earliest brainstorming sessions to our polished proposals, to produce two final concepts: a reusable cup system and alternative attendee transportation. Over the course of two semesters, Team Terøza dove into the literature on zero-waste event planning, generated dozens of both logistical and entertainment-focused concepts, conducted our own surveys and analysis, and progressively culled the herd until only our two best ideas remained to be presented to our colleagues at the end of the year.
ContributorsDougherty, Sean (Author) / Hedges, Craig (Thesis director) / Trujillo, Rhett (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The primary goal of our nonprofit organization, Plant-ED, is to deepen the average individual’s knowledge regarding sustainability and to inspire our users to engage in a community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for sustainability. To accomplish this vision, we have created a digital platform where users can easily find information on upcoming events, activities, and alternative products that truly embody a mindset of sustainability. Our team will be the main and constant source of content for our website, however our users are also able to interact with the website through blog posts and subscriptions. Additionally, our platform has a section dedicated to explaining the impact of recycling and shows the devastating effects if humans do not take accountability for their choices and develop more sustainable habits. The ultimate goal for our website is for it to be a place where we can promote our partners’ products which are either alternatives to unsustainable products or companies who donate some of their proceeds to help create a greener world. The profit from the commission we receive from our partners and subscription services will be reinvested into expanding our digital platform and partnerships.
ContributorsMeyers, Zoe (Author) / Mahoney, Emma (Co-author) / Smith, Connor (Co-author) / Weiderhoft, Isabella (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Balven, Rachel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor)
Created2024-05