Engineering Commons^™

The Social Presence Of Jibo, Parisa Farhadi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This research is an attempt to investigate how a social robot is perceived by users at the first encounter. And to find out whether a social robot like Jibo is understood merely as a kind of a technological object or a social entity. Previous studies in Human-Robot Interaction have considered social presence as a mediator in users’ social responses toward robots; however, the focus of this study is the social presence itself and investigates whether Jibo produces a sense of presence during initial encounters. To this end, the current study examines individuals’ perceptions of and responses to Jibo. Participants (N=8) …

Temporal Dynamics Of Human Emotional Response To Aversive Stimuli, Joseph Lawence Kempel

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Emotions are an integral part of human expression and are often communicated nonverbally through behavioral actions. With advancements in electroencephalography (EEG) technology it is now possible to measure the dynamics of emotion generation in an individual on the basis of patterns in their brain activity. This thesis aims to model the temporal dynamics of human emotion generation upon exposure to aversive stimuli and measure the effect of external distractions as a viable emotion regulation strategy.

This research builds on previous work in the literature that has shown that the ability of humans to regulate their emotions intrinsically (based on their …

Small Non-Profit Website And Social Media Efficacy, Juliana Maria Leprich

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the website design and social media platform usage of small non-profit organizations (defined as less than $1M operating budget and less than ten staff). This research will be completed by first reviewing other studies that have been done on marketing in the non-profit sector, then by exploring marketing challenges firsthand through a mini-ethnographic case study as described in the mini-ethnographic case study approach, and finally through the examination of tax and financial data provided by Guidestar. The researcher was involved in website collaboration with The Gracie Center in a volunteer capacity and was employed with the two …

The Short-Term Effects Of Interstate Highways On Small Rural Communities: A Case Study Of I-39, I-49 And I-72, 1990 To 2000, John Paul Metelko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The presence of interstate highways in rural areas improves access to nearby rural

communities and changes those communities’ spheres of influence. Research into

understanding how improved access from interstate highways affects rural communities

is needed. This case study was designed to investigate how rural communities changed

on the basis of population, vacancy, median home value, and median contract rent in the

short term after an interstate highway was completed nearby in the early 1990s.

The communities included in this study are incorporated cities, towns, villages

and census-designated places in non-metropolitan counties with at least one incorporated

city, town, village and …