Digital Commons Network^™

How Has Your Climate Changed?, Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa

Capstones

This interactive data visualization shows readers how much the climate has changed in their home state compared to 100 years ago, since the reader was born, the current year and projections into the future. It aims to communicate climate change impacts more personally by linking it to seasons, the reader's birth year and age mile stones and compares a readers' home state to a state that has been more impacted to connect across different states and communities.

Using JavaScript and Svelte, the code calculates and displays seasonal averages for the baseline period for the reader's state and years for the …

Dialogic Communication And Digital Fandom: The Role Of K-Pop In Shaping Global Artist–Fan Relationships, Huanchun Xu

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how K-pop artists use Instagram and Weverse to communicate with fans, and how platform-specific affordances shape the relational dynamics of contemporary fandom. Using a mixed-method content analysis of four artists—Seventeen, Babymonster, Lee Sung-Kyoung, and Kim Myungsoo (L)—this study compares 2022–2024 posting patterns across both platforms. Quantitative findings show that highly curated promotional photos and videos dominate Instagram, whereas Weverse contains far more text-based, casual, and relational posts.

This study further reveals that Weverse fosters dialogic communication, personal disclosure, and multilingual fan interaction, unlike on public-facing platforms. Drawing on dialogic communication theory and computer-mediated communication (CMC) interaction frameworks, …

Creating A Radical Social Change Campaign To Restore Rational Thinking: A Theoretical Framework, John S. Long

Student Theses and Dissertations

Rational thinking is a skill and mindset that is under siege in modern society, becoming increasingly endangered as we devolve into increasingly hyper-partisan communities rife with echo chambers and confirmation biases. The most basic processes of analyzing issues and facts to develop clearly thought-out and defendable positions have been abandoned in favor of a zealous devotion to toe the party line, no matter the evidence or implications. What we are witnessing firsthand is the fast-approaching culmination of the post-truth era.

One might assume that an issue with such far-reaching implications across our entire society would generate a significant amount of …

Data Storytelling For Reputation Management: A Multiple Case Study Of Formula 1, Patagonia & Spotify, Michael O. P. Lowsley-Williams

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates data storytelling as a reputation management strategy by examining how organizations leverage data narratives to enhance brand identity, build stakeholder trust, and reshape public perception. Through analysis and comparison of three qualitative case studies of Patagonia, Formula 1, and Spotify, this research explores how these companies construct and utilize data-driven narratives to address reputational challenges across distinct industry contexts. Drawing on elements of framing, situational crisis and stakeholder theories as well as the concepts of encoding and decoding, this study analyzes narrative structures, framing devices, and audience engagement tactics within reports, campaigns, and multimedia content from 2015-2025. …

Gowanus Faces A Hidden Threat Beneath Its Neighborhood Boom, Emma J. Rosenberg

Capstones

This article investigates urban redevelopment, climate change and environmental contamination in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. The Gowanus Canal itself has been a designated EPA Federal Superfund Site since 2010, this designation does not apply to the land surrounding it where legacy industrial contamination still exists. This includes coal tar from former manufactured gas plants which poses a risk to groundwater and indoor air. Under a 2021 rezoning plan, large-scale residential redevelopment is rapidly moving forward, rising groundwater and increased flooding associated with climate change may exacerbate contaminants. Utilizing agency documents, Community Advisory Group meetings, and conversations with residents, advocates, officials and …

Flooding, Not Just A Rain Problem, Annisha Singh

Capstones

This capstone focuses on the Rockaway Peninsula and how high-tide flooding also known as "sunny-day flooding" is not only affecting Rockaway but neighboring areas, such as Jamaica Bay.

Amidst The Struggles, Nyc Actors Say The Pursuit Of Their Craft Is Always Worth It, Allison Dubrow

Capstones

Despite high ticket prices and safety concerns, Broadway has had a record-breaking season, surpassing pre-pandemic box office revenue largely due to star-driven productions. While the industry is financially thriving, many NYC actors struggle to make a livable wage and rely on non-acting jobs to support themselves. The uncertainty of auditions and booking work makes sustaining an acting career especially difficult in such a competitive city. This project highlights the contrast between Broadway’s success and the resilience it takes for actors to survive and pursue their craft in New York City.

Relief, At A Cost: New Bill Forces Landlords To Offer Ac, But Leaves Tenants With The Bill, Niamh Mcauliffe

Capstones

As summers in New York City are getting hotter and hotter every year due to climate change, lack of home air conditioning is a serious issue. A newly passed City Council bill would require landlords to provide air conditioning upon tenant request. While advocates see the legislation as a necessary step to protect tenants from the dangers of extreme heat, there are still unresolved questions around energy affordability, costs and implementation.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XgVilwyn6ncwVbslr1UcdP6p-3OwGQAseHXMY3EYCeY/edit?usp=sharing

The Trust Equation: Users, Companies, And Safety In The Online Dating World, Hayley Solomon

Student Theses and Dissertations

Digital dating platforms have become essential to modern-day relationship formation, yet concerns about user safety, harassment, deception, and accountability have intensified distrust, particularly among women. This study explores (1) how women’s personal experiences of danger shape their perceptions of dating apps’ trustworthiness, (2) how women explain the nature of trust and distrust in these digital environments, and (3) how communication professionals can design messages that promote safety and strengthen trust on dating platforms. Using a qualitative study design, four focus groups with three participants each were conducted with heterosexual cis-gender women aged 18–50 who had used Hinge, Tinder, or Bumble …

Assessing The Relationship Between Treatment Quality, Matching And Dosage And Juvenile Justice Outcomes Among Youth With Co-Occurring Substance Abuse And Mental Health Disorders, Kevin T. Wolff, Michael T. Baglivio, Joshua A. Lang

Publications and Research

This study examined differences among youth in deep-end juvenile justice residential placement who did, and did not, present with co-occurring disorders. The prevalence of cooccurring mental health and substance use/abuse issues was found to be 19%, far lower than that of prior work. Researchers demonstrated more similarities than differences between youth with and without co-occurring disorders, both in terms of their criminal histories and the prevalence of their criminogenic needs. Additionally, the residential programs across Florida appear to provide treatment at similarly high levels of integrity, as measured by 1) matching treatment services to the highest three dynamic risk assessed …

Violence Between Residents In Nursing Homes Is An Enduring Problem. The Agencies, Nursing Homes, And Residents Are Playing Hot Potato With The Responsibility, Cindy Marchionda, Rafael Escalara Montoto

Capstones

Resident-to-resident aggression in nursing homes is a persistent issue, far more common than the general public realizes. While many of these violent situations can be managed, some tragically escalate to fatal outcomes, leaving families mourning the loss of their loved ones at the hands of a facility that was meant to provide safety and care during their final years. Experts agree that this issue is largely driven by chronic understaffing and insufficient training for employees on how to manage patients with dementia and aggression issues.

San Mateo County’S Digital Jail Mail Sparks Reckoning Over Private Data, Juan A. Lasso

Capstones

This capstone examines privacy and data risks embedded in digital communication systems used in U.S. correctional facilities. As private vendors introduce tablets, kiosks, and mail digitization services, these technologies enable widespread surveillance and data collection of incarcerated people and their loved ones. The project explores how these systems track and analyze digital footprints in ways that challenge established legal and ethical expectations around privacy. It documents the personal impact on loved ones of people currently or formerly incarcerated in San Mateo County. The reporting centers on the California county jail where a civil rights lawsuit is pending over the mail …

Halt Under Threat Why Legislators Must Demand Compliance Before Change A Playbook For Action, Vanda Seward

Capstones

This playbook examines the implementation of New York State’s Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act and presents evidence demonstrating that the law has not been fully or consistently enforced by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDOCCS). Drawing on findings from the New York State Inspector General, the Correctional Association of New York, the Justice Center, court rulings, and community testimony, the analysis documents persistent violations, including excessive and illegal use of solitary confinement, inadequate documentation, failures to protect vulnerable populations, and insufficient accountability for staff misconduct. The playbook critically evaluates the recommendations of …

Defiance Through Noise, Tyler Paz

Capstones

Defiance Through Noise analyzes the eviction of Punk HQ from 39 Eldridge Street within the broader history of punk-led, DIY, and squatted spaces in New York City. Using court records, historical context, and firsthand accounts from organizers, former nonprofit workers, and participants, the project examines Punk HQ as both a community space for marginalized youth and a continuation of Lower East Side squatting traditions from the 1970s and 1980s. The reporting situates its closure within intersecting forces of government disinvestment, housing policy, post-pandemic economic pressures, and the nonprofit industrial complex that have contributed to the decline of autonomous cultural spaces. …

Building Another World, Christopher Edwards

Capstones

"Another World" is a mutual aid hub in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The space was opened in June 2025 and is ran by the Crown Heights Care Collective, a mutual aid network started in 2022. Another World hosts free events surrounding political education and provides basic needs like food and clothing to residents of the area. In just a few months, the group has made inroads in a diverse community altered by gentrification.

Modeling Mineral Redistribution In Biological Tissue Using Apple As An In Vitro Analogue, Daler Djuraev, Ali Algemsh, Halima Alazeb, Zeenia Ahmed

Publications and Research

This project aims to model mineral (ion) redistribution that occurs in human soft tissue after injury or mechanical/thermal stress. Because direct, repeatable in vivo measurements are difficult, we use apples as an in vitro analogue: their mineral content is relatively uniform and the tissue can be cut, dried, and repeatedly imaged under controlled conditions. Using X-ray imaging, we tracked how minerals in apple tissue move toward damaged regions immediately after cutting, and how subsequent drying at room temperature drives a redistribution toward the central core. We also observed that biological degradation (decay) alters mineral density over time, indicating that even …

The Adverse Digital Childhood Experiences (Adces) Framework: A Transformative Paradigm For Decoding Digital Adversity And Safeguarding Human Agency In Child Development And Lifespan Trajectories, Asrat G. Amnie

Publications and Research

Childhood is no longer confined to physical spaces; It increasingly unfolds within digitally saturated environments where algorithmically mediated technologies shape attention, learning, and identity formation from the earliest years. Traditional adversity frameworks, particularly the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) model, do not capture the distinctive, persistent, and often invisible risks of digital life. To address this gap, this study advances the Adverse Digital Childhood Experiences (ADCEs) framework, an empirically informed and theory-driven extension of ACEs that systematizes ten interrelated domains of digital adversity encompassing social, cognitive, and environmental stressors. These include cyberbullying and exploitation, commercial surveillance and privacy harms, technoference and …

Challenges In Engineering Machine Learning (Software) Systems, Raffi T. Khatchadourian Ph.D.

Open Educational Resources

Lecture slides on the software engineering challenges unique to machine learning systems, for an undergraduate software engineering course. After contrasting traditional programming with machine learning, the deck examines why the usual tools for managing complexity—abstraction, reuse, and composition—are harder to apply to ML, given the lack of clear specifications and modularity. It covers concept drift, feedback loops (illustrated with crime-prediction and recommendation examples), and the accumulation of technical debt in ML systems, including the role and pitfalls of notebooks in moving from experimentation to production. Based on "Machine Learning in Production/AI Engineering" by Christian Kaestner and Eunsuk Kang (Carnegie Mellon …

Ai And Racism: 6 Reasons Black People Need Digital Literacy, Brianna A. Baker

Publications and Research

Key Points

• AI often reflects racial bias in its training data, which can distort how Black people are represented.
• Psychological stress increases when digital tools misunderstand or misinterpret Black experiences.
• Digital literacy strengthens emotional wellbeing by helping users recognize and counter biased outputs.

My First Conversation With Chatgpt (February 22, 2023): Origins Of A Generative Dialogue, David Smith

Publications and Research

This working paper presents the first recorded interaction between the author and the generative AI system ChatGPT, written on February 22, 2023 during the initial weeks of a faculty sabbatical in Boston. The document preserves a complete and unedited transcript of an exploratory conversation conducted without predetermined research aims, marking the author’s first encounter with a large-language-model conversational interface. Although the exchange includes creative experimentation—including musical and poetic prompts—the discussion remains informal and wide-ranging, and no theoretical framework is articulated at this stage. Rather, this transcript is published as primary-source material documenting the moment of discovery and experimentation that precedes …

Math Meets Climate: The Energy Balance Model, Maria I. Sanchez Muniz

Open Educational Resources

This assignment introduces students to the mathematics of Earth’s climate through the classical energy balance model. Students analyze how incoming solar radiation, outgoing thermal radiation, and temperature-dependent albedo interact to determine Earth’s equilibrium temperature. Using analytical calculations and computational tools, students identify equilibrium states, assess their stability, and interpret the results through the lens of dynamical systems and bifurcation theory. The activity builds conceptual understanding of climate feedbacks, greenhouse effects, and tipping behavior using a transparent, one-variable model. Designed for applied mathematics and interdisciplinary STEM courses, this assignment emphasizes computation, physical interpretation, and real-world relevance. It is released as a …

Arabic Around Us: Exploring Everyday Life Group Project, Bret Windhauser

Open Educational Resources

Students will work in small groups to create a comprehensive and engaging project that explores a particular aspect of everyday life in an Arabic-speaking country. This could include food, traditions, daily routines, or an introduction to the language itself. By the end of the assignment, students will demonstrate their understanding of Arabic vocabulary, grammar, and culture through a creative project.

Understanding Enso Through Mathematical Models, Maria I. Sanchez Muniz

Open Educational Resources

This assignment introduces students to conceptual models of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and guides them through a structured investigation of their physical and mathematical foundations. Students analyze the recharge–oscillator and delayed–oscillator frameworks, explore how differential equations capture ocean–atmosphere interactions, and evaluate parameter-driven changes in oscillatory behavior. A key component of the work is the guided use of generative AI as a research tool: students employ AI models to locate peer-reviewed literature, interrogate model extensions, and refine their understanding of complex mechanisms, while synthesizing all final explanations in their own words. By blending classical climate modeling with modern AI-supported inquiry, …

Finding Black Joy: Understanding How Black Students Are Seen, Affirmed, And Nourished In Expanded Learning Opportunities., Jamila Mosley

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how Black students experience Black joy within expanded learning opportunity (ELO) programs and how those programs are structured to nurture that joy. It is guided by the central research question: How do Black students describe the ways in which an expanded learning opportunity program fosters their joy through experiences of being seen, affirmed, and nourished? Using an instrumental case study design at two secondary schools, the study draws on semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and observations of students participating in robotics, debate, Sister Circle, cheer, basketball, and creative writing. Data were analyzed through multiple cycles of coding, first …

Ai-Driven Sustainable Textile Waste Utilization In New York State: Part I, Kyshia Anderson, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis

Publications and Research

While technology and awareness are advancing, a significant lack persists in how New York State utilizes innovative reports and enveloping contexts to envision solutions for textile waste, particularly evident in the context of interdisciplinary collaboration among fashion, technology, and construction design, a challenge that remains even with New York State's historical efforts in textile waste utilization (Tonjes, Manzur, Wang, Firmansyah, Rahman, Walker, Lee, Thomas, Johnston, Ly, Medina, Shi, Srivastava, Tucker, Maung, Thyberg, & Hewitt, 2024). Despite a more than nine hundred (900) percent increase in textile waste between 1960 and 2018, from 1,760,000 tons to 17,030,000 tons, current alternatives like …

The Study Of Hybrid Nanostructures For Optoelectronics, Alex Davis, Khaoula Dehhou

Publications and Research

Hybrid nanostructures that combine zero-dimensional (0D) quantum dots (QDs) with two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising building blocks for next-generation optoelectronic devices, such as highly sensitive photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, and tunable light sources. These hybrid systems take advantage of the strong, size-dependent emission of colloidal QDs and the high carrier mobility and tunable band structure of 2D materials. In this research, we investigate hybrid structures composed of colloidal CdSe/ZnS, CuInS/ZnS, and PbS QDs integrated with indium selenide (InSe), a TMD known for its exceptional electron mobility and robust photoluminescence in few-layer form. The goal is to understand how interfacial …

Place: Dwelling Within The Built And Natural Environments, Christine Gratia

Publications and Research

This study argues that “place” is not simply physical, it is actualized by the relationship between human beings and the environments they inhabit. This research will spotlight various philosophical theories that pertain to where humans do human activities, the ever evolving containers of socialization and how the external environment informs self-concept. This research narrows in on Edward Relph’s phenomenology of “place” and Martin Heidegger's concept of dwelling. Both concepts are defined as foundational structures of human existence which create an interdependent relationship between humans and the places we inhabit. From that relationship stems a responsibility of caretaking. Through a conceptual …

Evaluating How New York City’S Recycling And Organic Waste Systems Reduce Resource Waste And Methane Emissions, Zihan Cao

Publications and Research

This study analyzes New York City’s waste management systems, with a focus on food waste diversion, composting, and renewable energy initiatives, to assess their role in methane emission reduction and resource efficiency. The analysis highlights the relative effectiveness of different waste management pathways and suggests that community-scale composting and decentralized anaerobic digestion are associated with substantial methane reductions relative to cost.

Extensions Of Weighted Integral Inequalities For Ga-Convex Functions In Connection With Fejér’S Result, Muhammad Amer Latif

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Pfos And Lung Injury: A Review Of Human And Experimental Evidence, Farzana Hakim

Theses and Dissertations

Human epidemiological research has shown the adverse health consequences of long-term accumulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in human tissue. Specifically, this review will examine the relationship between PFAS exposure, impaired immune system functioning, and an elevated risk of respiratory disease using both human and experimental data. Research on human populations indicates that children exposed to PFAS have lower levels of antibodies to vaccines; those children prenatally exposed to PFAS are more susceptible to upper respiratory infections; and that adult humans have a higher incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Additionally, experimental studies demonstrate that PFOS and PFOA …