Digital Commons Network^™

An Integrated Approach To Waste Management And Development Of Data Driven Decision Support Tools, Mert Gokgoz

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Municipal solid waste management requires balancing environmental performance, operational efficiency, and community participation. Proper recycling contamination in single-family units is a persistent barrier to material recovery, reducing the effectiveness of local programs by increasing recycling contamination. This dissertation develops an integrated, data-driven framework that combines behavioral modeling of communities via statistical analysis and machine learning (ML), and life cycle assessment (LCA) to support decision-making in residential waste management. The first component examines household recycling behavior using data from Orange County, Florida’s Recycling Quality Improvement Program (RQIP). Cart-tagging results were integrated with socio-demographic data from the U.S. Census to predict contamination …

Paleoethnobotany And Starch Grain Residue Analysis Collected From Ceramics At The White Marl Site, Jamaica, Lydia E. Kiernicki

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The White Marl site represents the largest known Taíno settlement and archaeological site in Jamaica. Road construction in the eighteenth century first disturbed the site, followed by further damage during Mandela Highway construction in the 1940s. The site now faces renewed threats from a proposed highway expansion that has divided it into two zones. In response, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust began archaeological investigations in 2016 to assess and document the land before development and preserve any recoverable material remains and cultural heritage. Field seasons from 2016 to 2019 recovered of several ceramic burial vessels from inhumation contexts, providing valuable …

Addressing Vulnerabilities And Defesne Mechanisms In Transformer-Based Language Models, Mansour Al Ghanim

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success across Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks, yet their increasing adoption has exposed critical vulnerabilities across input, model, and output layers. This dissertation systematically investigates these vulnerabilities and develops corresponding defenses, offering an end-to-end view of LLM security. First, we study model-level vulnerabilities through backdoor injection attacks that implant hidden malicious behaviors via hardware perturbations. We propose TrojBits, a hardware-aware attack that uses minimal bit-flips to insert trojans into models. Its three-stage design—Vulnerable Parameter Ranking, Hardware-Aware Attack Optimization, and Vulnerable Bit Pruning—success- fully compromises BERT and XLNet using only 64 parameters and …

Modeling A Moving Manipulator Platform In Ros 2 For Space Robotics, Bastian S. Weiss

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The control of mobile manipulators presents a unique challenge as the complexity of motion increases. ROS 2 provides the ability to create a digital twin of a physical system and control both simultaneously. This can be applied to mobile manipulators, allowing us to plan out complex movements and then simulate them virtually or physically. The Space ROS software is adapted for our Rapid Orbital Motion Emulator which is a 6 Degree of Freedom manipulator on top of a holonomic mobile base platform. Our custom Omni wheel controller running within the ROS 2 control package handles the kinematics for the base, …

Towards Left-Shifting Optimizations In The Hardware Design Methodology, Sanjay Gandham

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The exponential growth in computational demands has outpaced traditional Moore's Law scaling, necessitating innovations in hardware design methodologies. Traditional hardware design flows defer critical power, performance, and area (PPA) optimizations to late stages such as Logic Synthesis and Physical Design, creating prolonged feedback cycles that limit performance scaling. As designs grow in complexity, these late-stage optimization bottlenecks worsen, making it increasingly difficult to meet the desired PPA constraints for modern SoC designs with billions of transistors.

To address this limitation, this dissertation introduces the concept of left-shifting the hardware design process by enabling PPA optimizations at the earlier RTL stage. …

Exploring The Security Landscape Of Ar/Vr Applications: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective, Abdulaziz Alghamdi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The rapid evolution of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies on mobile platforms has significantly impacted the digital landscape, raising concerns about security and privacy. As these technologies integrate into everyday life, understanding their security infrastructure and privacy policies is crucial to protect user data.

To address this, our first study analyzes AR/VR applications from a security and performance perspective. Recognizing the lack of benchmark datasets for security research, we compiled a dataset of 408 AR/VR applications from the Google Play Store. The dataset includes control flow graphs, strings, functions, permissions, API calls, hexdump, and metadata, providing a …

Towards An Intelligent Speculative Software-Defined Networking, Ahmad Hariri

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) separates the control and data planes, enabling better programmability of the control plane to predict, route, and schedule traffic at the data plane. Reactive SDN dynamically installs flow rules when a new flow arrives, making it adaptable to application dynamics. This design is well-suited for emerging low-latency applications like online gaming and AR/VR, which require millisecond-level response times for an acceptable quality of experience. However, Reactive SDN faces limitations, as each new flow triggers a miss, sending a Packet-in message from the switch to the SDN controller, increasing latency. To reduce delay, it's crucial to predict flow …

Investigating The Efficacy Of A Novel Law Enforcement Use Of Force Training Simulation, Justin D. Lane

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Realistic scenario based training (SBT) is an effective method used to prepare police officers for real world use of force incidents. Many law enforcement agencies are unable to host regular SBT due to time, cost, and facility constraints. A novel simulation training approach was investigated to determine if it may be a suitable alternative or supplement to traditional SBT at reduced cost, time, and increased frequency. This novel scenario based simulation training (SBST) environment combined physical and virtual elements into a single training scenario. A physical space, designed to depict the scene of a critical incident, was equipped with immersive …

Increasing Bystander And Environmental Awareness Through Haptic Feedback, Jose-Valentin T. Sera-Josef

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The Chariot System is a bystander and environmental awareness system that uses vibrotactile haptic feedback delivered via a wearable. It was designed with the goal of using a subject's haptic channel to keep them aware of their surroundings thus freeing their visual channel to focus on and enjoy a virtual reality (VR) experience. This work contributes to the space of VR research that aims to keep users aware of the outside world while in VR, an area that typically focuses on using visual notifications but rarely applies haptics. A user study involving 24 participants was conducted comparing the Chariot System …

Haptics Based Grasping Of Novel Objects Using Robotic Manipulator, Nicolas C. Leocadio

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This work is focused on extending and demonstrating the generalizability of previous interactive perception-based work done on a model-free, non-neural algorithm for robotic gripper envelopment of objects using haptic feedback. Using a 6-axis force and torque sensor placed behind the wrist of a robotic arm's manipulator, appropriate motions are generated in order to achieve contact with, align the manipulator with, and place the manipulator around some desired object in a position where grasp is possible by simply closing the manipulator. The algorithm relies on generating restoring (reactive) and frictional forces by rapid multidirectional oscillation of gripper fingers about an initial …

Bridging The Digital Divide In Biomedical Healthcare: Policy Solutions For Equity In Access, Literacy, And Infrastructure, Brooke E. Turner, Emmy L. Colon Alamo

Undergraduate Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper explores the intersection of digital inequity and biomedical healthcare access in the United States, positioning the digital divide as a structural determinant of health. As telehealth and digital platforms become central to care delivery, communities lacking broadband infrastructure, digital literacy, and affordable internet access face compounded barriers to equitable healthcare. The study introduces five critical dimensions—access, availability, adequacy, acceptability, and affordability—as a framework for addressing these disparities. It proposes the Rhizomatic Digital Ecosystem Framework to guide national and local interventions, emphasizing the need for public investment in broadband expansion, digital education, and affordability programs. By treating digital access …

A New Dawn Of Joy: How Joy Is Cultivated Among Black Transgender And Nonbinary Young Adults In Florida, Courtney Marciá Gardner

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The state of Florida had a record-breaking number of implemented and proposed policies between 2023-2024 that impacted transgender and nonbinary individuals. Black transgender and nonbinary people are particularly impacted by these policies due to the compounded effects of their race and gender identity. Nonetheless, despite the growing literature on Black transgender and nonbinary individuals, a lack of research exists examining positive aspects of intersectional experiences among Black transgender and nonbinary individuals. This qualitative study shifts away from deficit centered frameworks by investigating how Black transgender and nonbinary young adults in Florida cultivate joy in their lives. This study uses a …

The Sociological Engagement In John Coltrane's A Love Supreme: Examining The Impacts Of Race, Music, And Culture In Video-Based Learning Amongst College Students, Kinyel K. Ragland Sr.

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This project consists primarily of the interest in Video Based Learning (VBL) and understanding the impacts of a video based on the connections between John Coltrane’s song Acknowledgement on the Jazz suite A Love Supreme to the Civil Rights movement and systemic racism. Research confirms that VBL has an impact on student learning, yet this project finds that because of the content of the video, it fits into scholarship where there are gaps. The methodological approach, which was qualitative, found that students were overall enlightened, entertained, and were interested in learning more. Other findings include suggestions and recommendations for future …

Queer And Thriving: Community As Resilience In An Anti-Lgbtq State, Lauren Aitken

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people are subject to unique, chronic, and socially based stressors known as minority stressors. Community can be an important resource for LGBTQ people which can help mitigate the harmful effects of minority stressors. This study sought to understand how minority stressors, such as institutionalized forms of prejudice, discrimination, and violence, affect LGBTQ people in Central Florida and how community connectedness can be used as a resource to mitigate those effects. This study used Central Florida as a research site because of its large LGBTQ population within a state where anti-LGBTQ laws are consistently …

A Mathematical Modeling Approach To Investigate The Impacts Of Post-Infection Mortality And Partial Immunity On Disease Endemicity, Brendan M. Shrader

Honors Undergraduate Theses

A number of infectious diseases cause post-infection conditions or complications, such as COVID- 19, Q fever, and Polio. These conditions result in recovered individuals having a higher mortality rate than susceptibles, and this can impact disease dynamics. An existing mass-action model in the literature that incorporated post-infection mortality was shown to have limit cycles, or persistent oscillations, in the infected population. To better understand what causes these limit cycles, we develop and analyze a new epidemiological model with standard incidence. We show standard results, including the existence, uniqueness, and stability of the disease-free and endemic equilibria, and we rule out …

Factors Involved On The Attribution Of Consciousness To Generative Artificial Intelligence And Its Impact On Trust, Sophia Fernanda Sakakibara Olgini Capello

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study investigates the cognitive factors influencing the perception of mind in generative artificial intelligence systems, focusing on the role of prior experiences with them, theory of mind (ToM), and the tendency to anthropomorphize. The research examined how these factors predict perceived consciousness in ChatGPT and impact users' trust in this system, specifically exploring: (1) how ToM and anthropomorphism contribute to AI consciousness perception, (2) how prior AI experiences influence consciousness attribution, (3) the relationship between consciousness attribution and trust in AI, and (4) how perceptions of AI consciousness relate to mind perception in other entities. Undergraduates (N= 220) completed …

The Evolution Of Surveillance And The Decline Of Privacy, Alan J. Geyer

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study directly examines how surveillance law and technology have evolved in the United States and how privacy rights have declined correspondingly. The study specifically focuses on how advancements in surveillance technology have overstepped the boundaries of Fourth Amendment protections and analyzes whether these provisions are adequate for protecting citizens in the modern technological era. The study explores newly employed methods of technological surveillance, such as facial recognition, data collection, and automated license plate readers. It focuses on how government surveillance programs have reshaped legal and ethical understandings of privacy. The changes in surveillance and technology have been analyzed by …

Unlocking Human-Robot Dynamics In Restaurants: Exploring The Mechanisms Underlying The Impacts Of Service Robots’ Social Cues On Restaurant Customer Behaviors, Yusi Cheng

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The rise of service robots (SRs) is reshaping service delivery, particularly in the dining sector where guiding and delivering robots are increasingly prevalent. However, understanding how customers interact with SRs and respond to their social cues in the dining environment remains unclear and fragmented. This dissertation aims to bridge this gap by comprehensively understanding the social cues of SRs and their influences on customer behaviors. Specifically, the objectives are to (1) understand prominent social cues and customer responses; (2) identify key SR-related social cues; (3) explore customer-SR interaction outcomes; (4) explain why certain social cues elicit particular customer responses; (5) …

Towards Supporting Undergraduate Students To Become Lifelong Learners: A Multimethod, Multimodal, And Multigranular Analysis Of Motivation And Self-Regulated Learning In Context, Sierra Outerbridge

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This publication-based dissertation includes three manuscripts with distinct statistical methods to investigate self-reported motivation, self-reported self-regulated learning (SRL), and enacted SRL processes in undergraduate student contexts towards understanding how students learn how they learn.

The first manuscript focused on 1248 undergraduate statistics students, utilized self-reported motivation, and interpreted logfile data of time spent within an online textbook through the lens of SRL using hierarchical cluster analysis followed by k-means cluster analysis to identify four distinct motivation clusters. Results from a repeated measures ANOVA suggest that students did not spend time differently within the textbook, whereas there were differences between motivation …

Themed Experience & Attractions Academic Symposium 2025 Proceedings, Themed Experience & Attractions Academic Society

Proceedings of the Annual Themed Experience & Attractions Academic Symposium

No abstract provided.

Sports And Rhetorical Marginalization: A Case Study Of Angel Reese & Caitlin Clark, Diamond R. Williams

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the manifestation of racism, sexism, and capitalism in the language and rhetoric of sports media through a case study of WNBA players Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. This study theorizes that sports media has referred to Reese and Clark with damaging language tied to the intersections of their respective identities. This thesis also identifies and analyzes the presence of repeated themes throughout select sports media that mirror relevant theories surrounding stereotypes, biases, and marginalization in sports. Examining and analyzing the subtle nuances at play allows one to understand how language implicitly reinforces harmful narratives and, thus, how …

A Kinder Panopticon? Examining Effects Of Fairness And Justice On Performance Outcomes Under Advanced Electronic Monitoring Systems, William F. Tang

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The adoption of Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) systems has increased with the prevalence of remote workers post-COVID. Research indicates EPM yields conflicting performance and behavioral outcomes. EPM-related behavior can be predicted by organizational justice (the extent to which workplaces are perceived as fair in nature); environments with higher justice ratings are less likely to induce issues like stress and distrust. However, advanced EPM like electroencephalograms (EEG) may modulate the relationships between perceived fairness, stress, and work performance. This study assigned 42 participants to a modified vigilance test (based on Temple, et al., 2001), which participants took under 3 placebo monitoring …

Post-Incident Debriefings For Pediatric Intensive Care Nurse Burnout A Scoping Review, Sulah Emilie Monize

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Burnout is prevalent among pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurses, impacting between 42-77% of them. High emotional burden, physical demand, and cognitive overload contribute to significant PICU nurse burnout prevalence. Burnout is linked to increased job turnover, compromised patient care, and decreased staff mental well-being. Addressing burnout is crucial to ensure patient safety and maintain care quality. Burnout in adult ICU nurses is well documented but less so with PICU nurses, and they face stressors unique to their setting, such as a vulnerable patient population and unique dynamics with families and providers. This scoping review includes 9 articles examining the …

Creating A Criteria Set To Evaluate The Use Of Cai Resources In K-6 Language Arts Education, Matthew T. Bates

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this creative project was to research adequate educational practices regarding implementing technology and specifically CAI (Computer-Assisted Instruction) technology in the context of elementary education. This information was compiled into distinct categories based on research articles and policy statements. Then, the implications of each category were explored within the classroom. From this review of research, I created a criteria set for elementary educators to follow to evaluate CAI in the framework of their own educational methods and classroom. This thesis presents an address on the issue of student engagement in elementary literacy classrooms by assisting students in actively …

Beyond The Bench: Historical Injustices And Future Pathways For Florida’S Family Court, David J. Blum

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines systemic inequities in Florida’s family law system, focusing on how legal doctrines, discretionary practices, and enforcement patterns disadvantage unwed and noncustodial fathers. Drawing on statutory analysis, case law, empirical studies, and psychological research, it evaluates several reforms designed to promote fairness while protecting child welfare. These include mandatory paternity testing at birth, a rebuttable presumption of equal custody, stronger enforcement of visitation orders, equitable tax restructuring, and improved training for legal professionals. Current Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) procedures often create binding obligations without confirming biological parentage, resulting in long-term emotional, legal, and financial consequences. Research shows …

Ad Astra Per Aspera: Legal Revision Of Space Laws And Intellectual Property To Cultivate Global Alliance And Innovation, Jaiden E. Haggiag

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the inadequate nature of the current legal space regime and points out the gaps in outer space laws, including the following: Jurisdictional Challenges, Frameworks of Liability, and IP (Intellectual Property) Enforcement, utilizing laws such as the Outer Space Treaty (OST), the Liability Convention, the Registration Convention, the Moon Agreement, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and TRIPS, along with national laws like the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and The Inventions in Outer Space Act (35 U.S.C. § 105.). Through analysis of current scholarly proposals and treaty evolution and synthesize to provide policy options, the goal of …

An Analysis Of The Constitutionality Of Florida's 2024 Hb 3: “Online Protections For Minors,” Comparative To Other State Regulations Of The Internet, Evan J. Siegel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines the constitutionality of the Florida House of Representatives’ 2024 priority bill, HB 3: “Online Protections for Minors,” through its ongoing litigation in North Florida. The broad nature of the bill, which is now Florida law, and its burden on accessing constitutionality protected speech and/or expression may not be consistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. How the law defines and shapes what material may be accessible to people on the Internet, or the means they would need to use to create a social media account, are questions many other courts have begun …

Parents’ Perspectives On Emotional Regulation In Their Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Diana Stewart

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The current study’s main research question was whether emotional dysregulation of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects parental stress levels. This project examined various negative emotional reactions, such as anger, sadness, worry, anxiety, and tantrums that were present in children with an ASD diagnosis, ages 4 to 13. The research consisted of five psychological assessments with strong psychometric properties. The whole survey was supposed to be filled out by a parent or a caregiver of a child, since children are considered a vulnerable population when it comes to research. The first assessment was the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST) …

0th Order Solutions Of The Wavefunctions For The Quantum Elliptical Box And Microstrip Antenna, Nishtha Tikalal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

For a quantum particle confined to a two-dimensional elliptical box or electromagnetic wave in a microstrip antenna, geometrical and boundary condition interplay result in a spectrum of spatial patterns. Due to the asymmetrical nature of the ellipse, we are faced with continuous symmetry reductions, leaving both degenerate and nondegenerate solutions. Here, we present a complete derivation of an analytical solution and visualizations of the fundamental wavefunctions for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions respectively corresponding to the quantum elliptical box and the elliptical microstrip antenna.

We demonstrate that the eigenmodes, governed by eccentricity, directly correspond to the modal field distributions …

Urban Isolation In The Digital Age- Examining The Sociological Impact Of The Digital Divide On Civic Life In U.S. Cities, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

The digital divide remains a persistent barrier to civic participation and social inclusion in urban America, particularly in historically underserved communities. This mixed-methods study investigates how digital lack of access affects civic engagement, social capital, and community cohesion in U.S. cities, with a focus on Chicago’s South Side, Harlem New York, St. Louis, and Orlando. Drawing on quantitative data from recent surveys and qualitative insights from peer-reviewed literature, the research applies four sociological frameworks, Urban Sociology, Social Capital Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism. These were used to examine the structural and interpretive aspects of digital isolation. Findings reveal …