Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Role Of Data Science Applications In Soil And Water Health, Payton Davis, Debabrata Sahoo, Dara Park, Brook Russell

Forestry and Natural Resources

Data science is an emerging field that can be incorporated into many disciplines, including environmental science. Data science can provide valuable information from data, enhancing the understanding of systems and environments. This publication is intended to give an overview of the different aspects of data science and how data science can be leveraged into and applied to soil and water health.

Exploring 21st-Century Skills In A Summer Camp: A Qualitative Methodological Triangulation Approach, Alexander Bowman, Jing Song

Journal of Youth Development

Despite the recognized importance of 21st-century skills and the substantial body of research on these skills, little is known about how to identify growth in these skills. The lack of reliable methods to measure 21st-century skill growth presents a challenge for the design of relevant learning environments and for evaluating if such learning environments are effective. Using a qualitative methodological triangulation approach, this study explored camp counselors’ learning processes. Using a systematic data integration method, field observations were synthesized with participant reflections about how their skills develop. Data were collected from 13 high-school-aged junior camp counselors at a summer camp …

Mechatronics: Fundamentals, Design, Integration, And Validation, Guoming Zhu

Mechatronics

This textbook is a product of Co-DREAM OER (Collaborative Development of Robotics, Mechatronics, and Advanced Manufacturing Open Educational Resources), an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education to develop open educational resource textbooks on robotics, mechatronics, and advanced manufacturing processes. The texts are written for students enrolled in 2-year associate’s, 4-year bachelor’s, and graduate-level courses. This specific text has been created by a team of scholars, students, support staff, and other professionals from across the country. It is intended for mechatronics courses for 4-year bachelor’s and graduate-level programs.

A Comprehensive Study And Performance Optimization Of Shared Virtual Memory, Bennett Cooper

All Dissertations

High performance computing (HPC) is dominated by heterogeneous systems that mainly derive performance from GPU accelerators. A majority of HPC applications have gravitated towards GPUs, which require explicit programming. Historically, programming explicitly to take advantage of GPUs has proven a significant barrier in fully utilizing GPU acceleration. Unified Memory (UM) is a technology designed to lower the barrier of entry to GPU programming by merging all memory domains of a system. While UM provides easier access to the capabilities of heterogeneous systems, the performance cost of UM greatly detracts from the benefit. Additionally, UM is implemented on a vendor-by-vendor basis …

An Integrated Model For Post-Hurricane Displacement, Shelter Demand And Shelter Allocation, Nirmal Adhikari

All Theses

This thesis develops an integrated tract-level framework for estimating post-hurricane displacement, short-term shelter demand, long-term shelter demand, and shelter allocation under hurricane wind hazards. The framework combines parametric wind-field modeling based on HURDAT2 and EBTRK hurricane data with HAZUS-based fragility and loss functions, uninhabitability relationships, demographic factors, and an insurance-sensitive recovery model. Tract-level insurance adequacy is estimated using American Community Survey data, National Association of Insurance Commissioners premium data, and the National Risk Index, using five scenario-based models; the combined home-value and hazard-risk model is adopted for final analyses. To evaluate post-disaster housing capacity, the study estimates the number of …

Painting A Scene: 3d Painterly Rendering From Curves To Rebelle, William M. Luttrell

All Theses

Stylized 3D rendering has seen much development and success over the past few years. From Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to The Bad Guys, many studios have developed tools to incorporate stylistic elements from graphic novels, comic books, watercolor paintings, and more into their productions. This stylization process incorporates the pacing, visual style, and themes from the source medium into the animated work, allowing a much greater freedom of expression for artists and directors.

Inspired by these films as well as the needs of the short film Kate Shelley and the Bridge of Darkness currently in production, This paper presents …

Characterizing Microplastics In Flood Sediments After Hurricane Helene In Asheville, North Carolina, Abigail Sgan

All Theses

Microplastics are contaminants of emerging concern whose ubiquity across natural environments results in their involvement in many kinds of natural processes, including transportation and deposition in natural systems. The purpose of this thesis is to characterize microplastics and determine the mechanisms that affect their distribution, transport, and sequestration within known Hurricane Helene flood deposits in fluvial and Southern Appalachian wetland environments after Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina. Four fluvial and four Southern Appalachian wetland environments were sampled after Hurricane Helene. Samples collected in fluvial environments were taken as grab samples from surficial sandy flood deposits left behind by flooding …

Evaluation Of High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage At A Field Site, Samuel R. Jennings

All Theses

A pilot-scale high-temperature thermal energy storage site has been developed at Clemson University and began operation in April 2025. High-temperature heat transfer fluid is circulated through a hexagonal array of borehole heat exchangers, which are installed up to 35 ft deep in the subsurface. The thermal energy is stored in the ground and is extracted by circulating the heat transfer fluid at a lower temperature. This test was expected to last more than six months and there was no way to evaluate the temperature data being measured. Since only temperature was being monitored, it was difficult to predict when key …

The Aggregation Of Microplastics By Enhancing Extracellular Polymeric Substance Production In Pseudoalteromonas Sp. Ncimb 2021 To Improve Removal Efficiencies In Environmental Matrices, Janelle L. Mercer

All Theses

Microplastics (MP) are ubiquitous in the natural environment and are a growing threat due to their small size and durability. Plastics are released into the environment through improper waste management, wastewater treatment outfalls, industrial spills, agricultural runoff, and landfills. These particles breakdown into secondary MP through degradation pathways. MP, less than 5 mm, require intricate removal techniques from water systems. Filtration techniques, though viable and effective, have implementation constraints due to high cost, maintenance demands, and filter fouling. By integrating coagulation and flocculation processes prior to filtration, MP removal efficiencies can increase, while minimizing operational challenges during filtration. Extracellular polymeric …

Implementation Of A Practical Sharp Interface Saltwater Intrusion Model To Assess Future Sea-Level Impacts, Alexandra G. Defalco

All Theses

Rising sea levels caused by global warming exacerbate saltwater intrusion, the inland movement of seawater into coastal aquifers. These processes increase susceptibility to freshwater contamination, surface flooding, and infrastructure damage. Numerical models are utilized to assess hazards to coastal aquifers on a regional scale.

The U.S. Navy is currently developing a robust, reduced-order groundwater modeling platform, SWI6, that uses the sharp interface approach to approximate the location of the freshwater-saltwater interface to define the extent of saltwater intrusion within an aquifer. Featuring compatibility with MODFLOW 6 unstructured grid formats and the Newton-Raphson formulation for better solution stability, SWI6 improves upon …

Habitat Associations Of Small Mammals And Their Role As Sentinels For Biodiversity In The Southern Blue Ridge, Katelyn Steen

All Theses

Small mammals play important roles in healthy forests, but we still know very little about many of the rare and state-listed species living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. Traditional surveys are expensive and time-consuming, so we tested a newer, camera-based method called AHDriFT. From 2024 to 2026, we set up 60 camera systems across high-elevation forests to track six state-listed species: the Carolina red-backed vole, woodland jumping mouse, eastern woodrat, masked shrew, pygmy shrew, and eastern spotted skunk. We detected all six target species and conducted occupancy modeling for four. We found spotted skunk occupancy increased near …

Optimal Management Of Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Stations Via Lyapunov Optimization And Reinforcement Learning, Mohammad Hossein Abbasi

All Dissertations

The transportation sector is responsible for 28% of global energy-related emissions, with road transport accounting for most of these emissions. While electric vehicles (EVs) are essential for decarbonizing transportation, widespread adoption depends on fast, efficient charging. Fast charging reduces charging time but accelerates battery degradation, whereas slow charging increases range anxiety. In addition, fast charging stations (FCSs) impose significant stress on distribution grids, making their operation a critical challenge. Optimizing FCS operation can conflict with EV fast-charging objectives, yet existing research largely treats these problems independently despite their strong interdependence.

Current fast-charging methods focus on individual cells or small battery …

Theory-Informed Generative Agents For Human Behavioral Modeling In Disasters, Liming Lu

All Dissertations

This dissertation develops a theory-informed generative-agent framework for modeling human behavioral decisions in disasters. Existing flood and disaster preparedness models often emphasize physical hazards, infrastructure exposure, or statistical correlations, but they struggle to capture the heterogeneous and evolving choices households make. This limitation is especially important for climate-related hazards, where future damage depends not only on changes in rainfall, inundation, and urban development, but also on decentralized protective actions such as house elevation, flood insurance, evacuation, and early preparedness. The dissertation integrates two empirical studies: a flood-risk study in Charleston, South Carolina, and a household disaster-preparedness study across hurricane contexts. …

Leveraging Deep Learning Recurrence And Attention Mechanisms For Flood Forecasting And Assessment, Elnaz Heidari

All Dissertations

Predicting how much water will flow in rivers and streams is important for managing floods, water supply, and the environment. Traditionally, government agencies have used complex models, such as the National Water Model (NWM), which simulate how much water moves through landscapes using physical laws and real-world data. However, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have enabled new ways to make these predictions. This research explored whether AI-based models could predict river discharge more accurately. These AI models learn patterns from past data instead of relying only on physical rules. To find out how well they work, the AI models …

An Investigation Of The Use Of Self-Regulated Strategy Development With A Mnemonic On The Fraction Computation Performance Of Students At-Risk For Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Melissa D. Hullett

All Dissertations

Interventions that help students organize their thinking can reduce cognitive load and support academic, behavioral, and social success. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is an evidence-based instructional framework that combines strategy instruction with self-regulation to promote student independence and improve student confidence. A mnemonic has been shown to help scaffold support across all content areas to the level of mastery required by Stage 4 of the SRSD framework ("Memorize It"). In mathematics, where executive functioning demands are high, interventions to scaffold content must provide the metacognitive support needed for a diverse student population. This study used a multiple-baseline design to examine …

Investigating The Impacts Of Information Framing And Representation On Multi-Stakeholder Decision-Making For Tradespace Exploration, Meredith G. Sutton

All Dissertations

Tradespace exploration (TSE) is a decision-making process used in engineering design to search through a tradespace, containing all potential solutions to a design problem and their performance evaluations, in order to select optimal or near-optimal solutions. Solution optimality is driven by a desire to maximize the overall utility of a solution, which often cannot be done without making tradeoffs or compromises. The TSE process requires vast amounts of information which can be difficult to generate and understand, often leading to challenges including information overload, delays in decision-making, and suboptimal decisions, even for the most experienced designers. To address the challenges …

Imaging Oxygen Near Implanted Medical Devices Through Tissue With X-Ray And Ultrasound Modulated Luminescence Chemical Imaging, Vigjna Abbaraju

All Dissertations

Oxygen plays a crucial role in stem cell maintenance, tissue regeneration, disease progression, and treatment efficacy. For example, understanding oxygen dynamics within implanted medical devices, such as bone scaffolds, is essential for successful tissue regeneration and can serve as an early indicator of infection. The existing oxygen sensing and imaging techniques are often limited by narrow imaging depth, low spatial resolution in vivo resulting in poor understanding of oxygen dynamics in tissue microenvironments. This dissertation describes the development of implantable sensors using X-ray scintillators and thermochromic leuco dye paired with phosphorescent oxygen dye (PtTFPP) to image oxygen using X-ray luminescent …

Nanostructured Insulated Electrodes For Directed Nanoparticle Assembly: Development And Characterization, Thomas F. Burgess

All Dissertations

Nanoparticles exhibit unique properties dependent on their size, shape, and arrangement that are critical for sensing applications, such as the localized surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles. Therefore, control over their assembly facilitates control over these properties. For this purpose, nanostructured insulated electrodes were developed and characterized for directed assembly of nanoparticle clusters. Electrode characterization required a new method for relative electric field quantification from electric force microscopy (EFM) measurements, implemented via an extended Hudlet model to estimate the field between the sample and the EFM probe apex. Restricting analysis to the apex – sample interaction improves spatial resolution and …

Structure And Dynamics Of Associative Polymers Under Quiescent State And Flow, Rosita Sivaraj

All Dissertations

Associative polymers, including ionizable polymers, are widely used in membranes, coatings, fuel cells, energy storage, and other advanced soft materials. Their properties are governed by ionic aggregation and associative interactions, which influence chain mobility, phase behavior, self-assembly, interdiffusion, and flow response. This dissertation employs large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structure, dynamics, phase behavior, interdiffusion, and extensional flow response of ion-containing and associative polymer systems under quiescent and nonequilibrium conditions.

The influence of molecular architecture is first examined by comparing ring and linear associative polymers using the Kremer–Grest bead-spring model. In linear chains, their closed-loop architecture reduces interchain …

The Exploration Of One-Dimensional And Two-Dimensional Frustrated Magnetic Transition Metal Phosphates And Arsenates Via Hydrothermal Synthesis, Emily D. Williams

All Dissertations

Geometric magnetic frustration is a term that refers to magnetic spins that are “confused” or frustrated due to geometric arrangements of magnetic ions that prohibit the spins from magnetically ordering. This phenomenon has been subject to much research due to the ability to study exotic magnetic states and expand upon knowledge that would allow for materials to be implemented into quantum computing, memory storage and advanced sensor processing. One of the most exotic magnetic states, quantum spin liquids (QSL), has never been achieved but shows much promise. In the QSL state, magnetic spins do not order down to 0 K …

From Gatekeeping To Opportunity: Authentic Assessment In Natural Resources Education, Aradaryn Marsh

All Dissertations

Assessment practices play a central role in shaping how students engage with learning, demonstrate understanding, and participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Despite increasing calls for more inclusive and professionally relevant educational practices, undergraduate STEM assessment remains heavily dominated by traditional examinations emphasizing memorization, speed, and standardized performance. These concerns may be particularly important within Natural Resources (NR) education, a field that requires students to integrate scientific knowledge with communication, collaboration, and applied problem-solving. This dissertation explores authentic assessment within undergraduate NR education through a multi-phase investigation examining assessment prevalence, student experiences, racially marginalized (RM) student perspectives, …

Can Kinematics Specify Tool Use Affordances?, Tyler Duffrin

All Dissertations

Object properties such as length, shape, and heaviness, as well as affordance-based properties such as strike-with-ability and poke-with-ability, can be perceived via dynamic touch as functions of inertia tensor invariants. The primary question addressed here was whether people can perceive these same power and precision properties for purely virtual objects, which lack dynamic physical forces. The Kinematic Specification of Dynamics (KSD) principle asserts that missing dynamics are lawfully specified by kinematic (visual) motion patterns, such that kinematic information alone may support successful interactions with virtual objects. In three experiments, we investigated (1) whether virtual reality (VR) users could calibrate to …

Efficient And Scalable Visual Computing For Nanoscale Imaging, Hao Wang

All Dissertations

Nanoscale analysis often relies on instrument-mediated scientific imaging methods to capture visual signals that are difficult to observe, interpret, or quantify through ordinary perception alone. These domains are often characterized by low signal quality, limited annotations, complex morphology, non-natural visual statistics, and strong dependence on physical acquisition processes. This dissertation focuses on efficient visual computing for nanoscale imaging, with an emphasis on the representation, reconstruction, and analysis of high-resolution scientific visual data. In our early work, we relied on rule-based algorithms and conventional machine learning methods for feature extraction. However, these approaches struggle to scale with the increasing complexity and …

Use Of Active Learning In The Teaching Of The Veterinary Science Course, Cary Rita

All Dissertations

Agricultural education is rooted in active learning, where students develop skills and learning opportunities through hands-on experiences on classroom farms, greenhouses, and even school-based grooming salons. Recent policy and funding revisions have shifted the measures of success in agricultural education programs towards the number of students earning industry-based certifications. This shift has led to the adoption of a test-focused curriculum, often provided by the company offering the certification exam. While the certification-aligned curriculum provides strong content for veterinary knowledge, the problem is that it is often at the expense of hands-on learning. Balancing active learning while also preparing the students …

Unlocking The Behavior Code: How Function-Based Behavior Skills Coaching Empowers Teachers And Reduces Tier Iii Referrals In Mtss, Erin C. Smith-Harrah

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of behavior skills coaching on the percentage of students receiving Tier 3 intervention at an elementary school in South Carolina using a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework. The research site for this study has experienced a significant increase in students referred for and receiving Tier 3 instruction. Whereas Tier 3 instruction typically accounts for 5% of a student population, data indicate that the percentage of students who received Tier 3 instruction at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year at this campus was 39%, with 14% identified as students …

Increasing General Education Teacher Effectiveness When Working With Students Receiving Special Education Services, Taylor Watson

All Dissertations

Although the number of students identified as having disabilities (SWD) continues to increase, general education teachers continue to demonstrate difficulty adequately supporting these students. At one South Carolina school in particular, SWD demonstrate decreased academic achievement and increased rate of discipline referrals when compared to non-SWD. This study utilized an improvement science approach in order to implement targeted instruction on high-leverage practices (HLPs) and its impact on general education teacher effectiveness.

Preliminary findings of the intervention trended positive. Teacher participants demonstrated increased understanding of HLPs following intervention, although this increased knowledge did not necessarily correlate with increased application. Students whose …

Counting The Days: The Impact Of Career And Advanced Coursework On Academic And Perceptual Outcomes For Eighth Grade Students Who Are At Risk Of Experiencing Adverse Educational Outcomes, Jamie Megna

All Dissertations

This study addressed limited academic achievement and limited access to meaningful learning opportunities among eighth grade students who are at risk of adverse educational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine how implementing career-based and advanced coursework opportunities for eighth grade students who are at risk improves student engagement with relevant and meaningful learning while supporting progress in academic achievement. The study achieved this by reducing barriers to career-based and advanced coursework to expand access to these learning environments for students who are at risk.

Using a mixed-methods design, the team collected and analyzed data to monitor the …

Growing Our Own Garden: The Implementation Of Cross Curricular And Cross Grade Level Teacher Rounds To Increase Professional Learning Individualization And Feedback, Logan Greene

All Dissertations

Educators are constantly faced with balancing the demands of teaching and professional learning expectations from their districts. Concurrently, administrators are routinely prevented from providing adequate feedback for classroom instructional practices with observations instead focused upon generic and formulaic checks for classroom activities. This results in a gap of intentional professional learning and growth for educators.

The idea of instructional rounds sought to provide teacher-to-teacher feedback for educators to grow their practice together. The original theory focused on groups of teachers operating under a school or district goal of improvement. Instructional rounds have shown positive effects for teacher happiness and student …

Teacher Self-Efficacy And Student Engagement In Rural Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics Magnet Schools: A Correlational Study Within An Improvement Science Context, Deirdre L. Appleby

All Dissertations

Teacher self-efficacy in magnet-themed integration represents a critical, district-influenceable condition shaping instructional experiences in rural Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) magnet programs. Persistent under-enrollment of Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged students in these settings highlights ongoing inequities in access and participation that may be influenced by upstream instructional conditions. Grounded in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and situated within an improvement science framework, this study examines teacher self-efficacy as a key system-level factor associated with student engagement.

This study employs a correlational research design within an improvement science context to examine the relationship between changes in teacher self-efficacy and changes …

Technology Enhanced Math Instruction And Student Achievement, Barbara Warren

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study examines how one teacher in a large rural high school in South Carolina integrates an AI technological intervention as a supplemental tool, specifically as part of blended learning, to help increase math achievement for students in Geometry with Statistics.  Evidence-based interventions, such as technology enhanced math instruction, encompass a diverse range of tools used by teachers, including an AI-driven high-dose tutorial which is a tool that educators use to diagnose, teach, and assess targeted skills.  The key to the success of the AI tutorial is that it is programmed to use evidence-based practices (Fesler et al., 2026) …