Digital Commons Network^™

Whose Innovation? Philanthropic And School-Based Visions Of High School In The Xq Super School Competition, Brett G. Murphy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The XQ Institute, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, launched a design competition in 2015 to find the most innovative high schools in the country. Their goal was to spark a movement that would revolutionize secondary school in the United States, a system they claimed was 100 years behind the times. Called the Super School Project, the winning ten teams each received $10 million. While XQ claims that the best ideas about high school reform come from communities and student voice, they also have funded selective ideas about “innovation,” including computer-based personalized learning. The organization’s efforts have grown in …

Taming Biological Complexity Through The Use Of Symmetries, Luis A. Álvarez-García

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of biological systems is, inherently, the study of very complex systems. This is essentially due to the fact that they are made up of numerous, often very complicated, interactions between an extensive number of components. Often necessitating an abundance of quantitative parameters and details for a precise description. The human brain for ex- ample, consisting of ∼ 80 billion neurons with ∼ 800 to 100 trillion connections between them, each of them depending on a large set of parameters. Even simpler examples such as bacterial organisms, such as E. coli and B. subtilis, which we focus on …

Visualizing The Rise Of American Women's Soccer, Hoi Wah Tang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The rise of American women’s soccer is a compelling narrative of determination, talent, and triumph on the global stage. From the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 to the ongoing dominance of the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), this journey encapsulates not only athletic excellence but also the broader struggles for equality, representation, and respect in sports.

This project aims to bring this story to life by presenting a rich tapestry of data visualizations, timelines, and multimedia elements that showcase key moments, players, and milestones. Through engaging graphics and interactive features, users will explore how the sport evolved, the …

Unifying Comprehension And Competence Through Merge: A New Linking Hypothesis Connecting Electrophysiological Data To Linguistic Intuitions, Kevin Patrck Guzzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation integrates neuroscience and linguistics to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying syntactic processing. To do this, we focus on Early Syntactic Negativities (ESNs) which are rapid negative electrophysiological responses known to be elicited by phrase structure violations due to an unexpected lexical category. We examine ESNs elicited in two previously undocumented elliptical constructions, sluicing and swiping, employing event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral acceptability judgments. Our investigation builds upon Collins and Stabler’s (2016) formalization of minimalist syntax, proposing a novel Merge Hypothesis of ESNs. This hypothesis posits a direct link between ESNs and violations of the Merge operation, a fundamental …

Cueing Motions In A String Quartet, An Exploratory Study Of Motion Trajectories, Maren Rothfritz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A string quartet performance involves an array of different body movements which serve many functions, including sound production, expression, and communication. This dissertation examines the ways string quartet players execute specific communicative body motions called cues, which are anticipatory gestures meant to communicate tempo and timing as well as the musical intentions such as dynamics, articulation, and character to the co-performers. Some scholarly research exists on cueing, but a formalized description of the cueing motions involved has not yet been developed. This dissertation serves as an exploratory study examining the motion trajectories of cueing motions employed by the Argus Quartet, …

Constructing Women Who Do Not Reproduce In Global Neoliberalism: Critical Approach To The Abolition Of Legal Ban On Abortion And The Struggle In South Korea, Yumi Kwon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study historically examines the abolition of the legal ban on abortion and the struggle in South Korea, focusing on the construction of the status of “women who do not reproduce”, and accordingly aims to critically analyze how neoliberal reproductive crisis in South Korea has been reorganized into the new order through the constitutive role of the struggle.

The results of the analysis are as follows: First, by examining Fraser’s theory, I explain that when the “boundary” dividing the realms of production and reproduction is a place of contradiction and struggle, the phenomenon of women not reproducing is centrally located …

Chatgpt Didn’T Write This: Evaluating The Impact Of Llms With A Case Study In Grading Cuny Language Immersion Program Student Essays, Benjamin Inbar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study evaluates the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs), specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, in grading essays from students in the City University of New York’s Language Immersion Program. The program serves English language learners with diverse linguistic and demographic backgrounds, offering intensive language instruction to prepare students for academic success in college. Using a dataset of 30 pre- and post-program essays scored by program instructors and ChatGPT-4o under three paradigms, this research explores the alignment between human and AI-generated scores across five rubric-based competency areas. Findings reveal that ChatGPT-4o aligns moderately with human grading, with the strongest agreement …

Jamaica In The Olympics: The Rise Of Usain Bolt, Micaiah Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Summer Olympics is a global competition that encourages athletes worldwide to participate in various events. For many countries, especially smaller ones, it allows gaining national recognition for themselves and their country. This project offers insight into how an athlete's Olympic participation can impact their country and the event. Specifically, this project serves as intangible evidence that Jamaica has made an undeniable contribution to the sports world and its legacy by way of prominent athletes such as Usain Bolt. To that end, public Olympic data was analyzed and visualized in Tableau. The resulting visualizations are accessible through a website.

Decades Of Division: Analyzing Hate Crimes In The Usa (1991–2022), Sangeeth Sajan Baby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project comprehensively analyses hate crime data in the United States, leveraging advanced data analysis and visualization techniques to unmask patterns and insights. By utilizing datasets of criminal offenses reported by law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, this study explores the dynamics of hate crimes across racial, religious, gender, and sexual orientation groups. The analysis reveals key findings, including the disproportionate targeting of African Americans and LGBTQ+ individuals, the prevalence of hate crimes in specific locations like residences and educational institutions, and the consistent patterns of attack types and locations across different racial groups. Analysis of crime data over …

Beauty Comes With A Price: But How Much Is It Worth It, Fabliha Afia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The global skincare market, valued at 104.24 billion dollars in the year 2022, is very heterogeneous, ranging from prestige brands to more drugstore types. Even when the same key ingredients are present, the latter often sells for much higher due to branding and packaging and the aura of prestige created. This capstone project entitled "Beauty comes with a price: but how much is it worth?" investigates if such higher costs are justified due to superior quality or are driven by non-functional factors. It systematically compared the high-end versus drugstore skincare products in categories like sunscreens, serums, and exfoliants with respect …

3bb: Loss And Remembrance In The Anthropocene, Amanda J. Woolsey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Undisputedly, we are living in a time of tremendous and unprecedented ecological loss. Various forms of life on earth are disappearing at a rate unheard of in human history, with a growing amount of evidence suggesting that we are in a period of mass biodiversity loss and extinction. This extinction event is marked by a series of environmental catastrophes that vary in acceleration, intensity, and impact, such as climate-change driven weather events wiping out an endemic island species, to habitat loss and fragmentation leading to the slow death of a once-common species. One such piece of supporting evidence is Rosenberg …

The Evolution Of The Electrical Market: A Texas Journey, David A. Sastre Perez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The journey of electricity, transitioning from a scientific marvel to an indispensable service, has profoundly shaped our society. In the landscape of the United States, the power market of Texas stands out as a unique case study and offers us a peek into a future where renewables are not only possible but integral in the energy mix. Through a series of interactive data visualizations, this project aims to expose the rapid surge in renewables and their current state. This analysis will reveal some of the selective pressures that will determine the evolution of the electrical market in Texas and the …

Correlations Between Song Popularity And Their Audio Features Using Machine Learning, Rong Chen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is an interactive visual project that explores the relationship between audio features and song popularity on Spotify using machine learning techniques. Through the collection of nearly half a million songs and implementation of seven different machine learning models, including Linear Regression, Random Forest, Decision Trees, and Gradient Boosting, I investigated how audio characteristics correlate with a song's popularity ranking. The project utilized MongoDB for data storage, Spotipy for API integration, and Streamlit with Plotly for visualization. This work provides insights into the practical challenges of large-scale music analysis and the relationship between technical audio characteristics and commercial success, …

Caedmon Records & The Power Of Youth: How Audiobooks Revolutionized Children’S Literature, Faihaa Khan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The first known spoken-word recording was introduced to the world by Thomas Edison through the invention of the phonograph. Originally intended for a visually impaired audience to read without exertion, the first known recording was a recitation of the English nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Edison himself. The inclusion of a children’s nursery rhyme since the genesis of such an invention has become significant in observing the rise and success of the audiobook industry and its direct impact in increasing literacy proficiency in children.

Interactions between children’s literature and the history of the audiobook have been many …

China And Russia In Africa: The Case Of Togo, Eli J. Messanh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the impacts of China and Russia’s influence in Africa and focuses on the case of Togo, looking into how the increase in China and Russia’s presence on the continent affects the latter, the similarities and differences of their engagements, and what Africans as well as Togolese think of the proliferation of China and Russia’s influence in their countries. Using a mixed-methods approach with discussions and in-depth literature reviews, the research concludes that China and Russia’s relations vis à vis African countries produce both positive and negative effects, however, the negative effects outweigh the positive. It is therefore …

Multi-Document Graph Visualizer: Bridging Computational Text Analysis And Interactive Visualization For Large-Scale Text Corpora, Atilio Barreda Ii

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis introduces the Multi-Document Graph Visualizer (MDGV), a tool designed to analyze and visualize relationships within large-scale text corpora, addressing a critical gap in computational text analysis. By synthesizing state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) techniques with advanced interactive data visualization, MDGV empowers researchers across disciplines—including the sciences, social sciences, and humanities—to uncover latent connections, relationships, and patterns in vast and complex document collections. Importantly, MDGV requires limited technical expertise from its users, making it accessible to a broader audience of researchers and practitioners. This approach draws on Haraway's concept of situated knowledges, which emphasizes interpretability and engagement in …

Testing Toxicity: Two Approaches To Toxicity Detection, Nelson E. Jarrin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current online environment is increasingly being polluted by polarization, echo chambers, and a lack of constructive dialogue between individuals with differing viewpoints. Social media algorithms, while intended to personalize user experiences and marketing areas, have been heavily criticized for inadvertently amplifying extremist content and contributing to the spread of toxic commentary. The current state of the internet hinders productive conversations, fuels misinformation, entices disinformation and contributes to online and offline societal division. This is fueled by algorithms that can create echo chambers and by the anonymity given by online platforms. While tools like the Perspective API exist to identify …

The Cuny Community Colleges Consortium: Workforce Development Transformation Through Systems Change, Daniel Matishek, Lori Conkling

Open Educational Resources

In 2021, Queensborough Community College (QCC) was awarded a $5 million Strengthening Community Colleges (SCC) Training Grant from the United States Department of Labor to develop and oversee a Consortium of six community colleges – named the CUNY Community Colleges Consortium (CUNYCCC) - within the City University of New York (CUNY), with the goal of transforming the University’s workforce development programs and addressing the needs of unemployed New York City (NYC) residents impacted by Covid-19. CUNYCCC offered participants workforce pathways in the labor sectors of education, technology, and health. Each college enhanced their workforce training programs through a variety of …

Transform A Library Corner Into A Social Learning Space, Junli Diao

Open Educational Resources

This library project proposal outlines the essential steps to convert a library corner into a leisure reading space. The proposal includes opening narrative, justifications, work plan, outcome assessment, and budget estimation.

Schlichting Hist 103 Syllabus, Kara M. Schlichting

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Cogenerative Dialogues: Let’S Talk Computational Thinking, Linda Noble, Malgorzata Powietrzynska, Gabrielle Figueroa

Open Educational Resources

As Associate Adjunct Professors we (Linda and Malgorzata) have been co-teaching with graduate students for over 10 years at Brooklyn College’s School of Education. Recently, as part of CUNY’s Computing Integrated Teacher Education (CITE) initiative, we embarked on integrating computational thinking (CT) into our SEED 7507 course (Sociocultural and Developmental Approaches to Teaching and Learning in Diverse Classrooms). The course aimed at exploring theories of social and emotional learning, interpersonal interaction, culture, race, gender, role of language and literacy with implications for teaching and learning practices, planning and assessment. Incorporating CT involved new terminology, tools, and ways of teaching. Consequently, …

An Exploration Of Collaboration Between School Psychologists And School Administrators, Marian C. Fish, Nathalis Wamba, Tom Matuza, Julie Cooperstone

Publications and Research

Prior research has highlighted strong benefits from having a collaborative environment within schools. However, there has been limited research regarding factors that can promote a collaborative relationship between two key professionals within the school environment: school administrators and school psychologists. The first purpose of this study was to examine the nature of collaboration between school psychologists and school administrators. The second purpose was to explore ways to facilitate and improve this interprofessional collaboration within the school to promote safe, equitable, and supportive school climates and positive student outcomes. Using a qualitative methodology, we collected and analyzed data from three focus …

How Eye See, Now I See, Michael Anthony Simon

Theses and Dissertations

Michael Anthony Simon’s paper addresses ideas surrounding the fluid nature of perception, time, and ideas of control, or lack there-of. Creating a symbolic relationship between paintings and sculpture. Simon both embraces and confuses the notion that understanding is never truly stable or secure.

To Swallow The Stars, Catie Dillon

Theses and Dissertations

Through abstract paintings of illuminated voids, Catie Dillon explores ideas of interconnectedness. In "To Swallow the Stars", she traces the layers of her process, examining the function of gesture, color, light, and space as a means to capture the ineffable.

You Are Not A Good Photographer, Byungsuk Yoon

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the medium of photography as a dynamic space for exploring the interplay between reality, memory, and imagination. It positions photography as an imperfect medium that operates on the boundary between predictability and uncertainty, embracing its inherent limitations as a source of creative potential. By addressing the tension between subjective experience and objective reality, this study redefines photography as a tool for continuous questioning and reinterpretation, highlighting its role in navigating the gaps between what is seen and what is imagined.

Victim/Perpetrator, David D. Moy

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout this text, David Moy will discuss the inner working of his investigation on image overload and materialization. Through tactics of blurring, erasure, and layering he achieves obfuscation in his printed media. In doing so, he questions the compounding nature of image/text that negate themselves in the larger context of time in the digital age.

The Farthest I Can Sense Time, Danielle Alhassid

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the experiences of immigration, identity, and language through the lens of diasporic memory and intergenerational storytelling. At its core lies Communion of Empty Mouths (2024), a multi-channel video installation exploring the physical, communal, and ephemeral dimensions of language development and loss. The work juxtaposes live animation, tactile materials like ceramics, and experimental soundscapes to delve into the ancestral and embodied nature of linguistic expression.

Anchored in Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin’s text My Hands and inspired by familial narratives, the thesis critiques hierarchical and gendered dimensions of language, focusing on Yiddish as a diasporic medium of resistance and …

Xxx, Samuel Tucker Claxton

Theses and Dissertations

In XXX Tucker correlates the rise in online hookup apps and the fall of queer nightlife spaces to show how the internet has affected gay cruising spaces. They relate their installation-based work to the ideas of liminal spaces and Jean Baudrillard's

hyperreal. Further, they contextualize their practice within the scope of Robert Grober's work.

“Watch Me!” The Impact Of Training Experience On Dogs Social Referencing Human Emotional Cues, Madison Murray

Theses and Dissertations

Dogs utilized human facial expression and vocal tone to drive decision making during a novel object choice task, displaying a preference for negatively valenced objects. Training experience was not correlated to dog likelihood to social reference.

Using Spatial Network Analysis To Explore Migration Of Extended Families In Historical Research, Rock Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This project proposes a geoinformatics approach for understanding the migration of extended families in historical contexts. It uses full-count longitudinal census data (developed by the Minnesota Population Center) and graph methods to define multi-generational extended family relationships and to model the locational structures of these families as a spatial network. Graph algorithms and mapping methods are used to interrogate these structures as reflections of the patterns of family outmigration and extension over time. The study is based on a set of extended families resident in a 15-county study area in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky in 1870, and their evolution …