Digital Commons Network^™

Selected Projects In Scenic Design And Theatre Technologies, Daniel T. Simons

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This Plan B Report documents the development, execution, and evolution of my scenic design practice during my MFA at Utah State University, using four major productions—You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Xanadu, Annie, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—as case studies in innovation, sustainability, and ethical design. Beginning with Charlie Brown, the report examines how a concept-driven approach rooted in research, simplicity, and technological integration established a foundation for sustainable scenic practices. Through detailed analysis of venue constraints, projection mapping, modular construction, and collaborative workflows, the project demonstrates how visual storytelling can emerge from …

From The Hopf Fibration To Instantons: Geometry In Gauge Theory, Emily D. Wessman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper explores the relationship between topology, differential geometry, and gauge theory through the study of Yang-Mills theory and its solutions, known as instantons. Beginning with the Hopf fibration, we show how principal fiber bundles encode topological information and appear in physical contexts such as electromagnetism. In particular, we consider how the fibration of S³ over CP¹ ≅ S² represents the Dirac magnetic monopole, and how the Chern number associated with the bundle is exactly the winding number for the monopole.

We then develop the framework of gauge theory, focusing on connections on principal SU(2) bundles …

Cleared For Takeoff, Sydney Steed

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Cleared for Takeoff is a podcast I created aimed at helping aviation students navigate the challenges of flight training and the aviation industry as a whole. Aviation is a unique field filled with new terminology, rigorous testing, as well as demanding training. This can often feel overwhelming to those just starting out. The goal of this podcast is to bring students together, give insight into different training paths, and share real stories from those who have experienced both success and setbacks. Throughout the podcast, I explore what separates students who excel from those who struggle, discuss the pros and cons …

Utilizing Pine Needles To Compare Spatial Profiles Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) In Two Urban Areas, Autumn Jensen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are an important class of semivolatile air pollutants known for their adverse health impacts. This research used conifer needles as passive air samplers to create spatial maps of two Utah cities (Rose Park and Spanish Fork) to compare overall PAH exposure and identify any differences in their congener profiles or PAH “fingerprints”. Conifer needles were chosen due to their prevalence as a passive air sampler in previous research and their ubiquity in urban and suburban environments. Second year needles were collected and the concentrations are considered to be an annually averaged view of the PAH concentrations …

Change In Public Perception Of Nuclear Energy Between 1950 And 2025, Kelly Plewe

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes how public opinion toward nuclear energy in the United States has shifted from the early postwar period through 2025, using a mixed-methods design that combines longitudinal survey data with historical and policy scholarship. Drawing on more than seventy years of national polling from NORC, the Roper Center, Gallup, Pew Research Center, Bisconti Research, ecoAmerica, and academic surveys, the author traces changes in support, opposition, and perceived risk across key political eras.¹ The study asks three main questions: (1) What social, political, and technological factors have driven major shifts in attitudes toward nuclear power since the 1950s? …

Community Justice Advocates: Increasing Access To Legal Resources In Utah, Natalie Maria Rust

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

A large access to justice gap exists among defendants in debt collection cases. The gap arises from steep legal fees, a lack of accessible resources, and the complexity of the legal system. The Community Justice Advocates of Utah was founded in 2024 through the Utah Regulatory Sandbox and authorized under the Supreme Court of Utah to bridge this gap. Community Justice Advocates (CJA) are trained human service professionals authorized to provide limited-scope legal advice in various areas. The Transforming Communities Institute (TCI) at Utah State University joined this network in 2025, launching a pilot program training human service professionals in …

How Community Garden Participation Shapes Food Security: Participant Perspectives, Kai Li Tullis

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study aims to answer two research questions: How do participants of the Flores Family Community Garden perceive their food security needs? And are there differences between participants' individually owned gardens and previous small-scale agricultural experiences and the Flores Family Community Garden? 

This study used a semi-structured interview format to collect qualitative data on the experience of 8 participants of the Flores Family Community Garden regarding their perceived food security status. The results of this study found that the top 7 reasons that individuals used the Flores Family Community Garden include Fresh Produce Access, Access to Community, Exercise, Learning Opportunities, …

Ihelp Foundation 2025 Uganda Medical Mission, Kade Spencer Robison

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Uganda faces significant barriers to health care access, particularly in rural communities, due to physician shortages and limited resources. As a result, care is concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural populations disproportionately affected by both communicable and noncommunicable diseases.

This Honors Capstone project focused on preparing for and supporting the iHelp Foundation’s 2025 Uganda Medical Mission. The iHelp Foundation works to reduce barriers to care in Uganda by partnering with local hospitals to provide short-term rural clinics and specialized surgical care for advanced otolaryngological conditions.

In this project, I contributed to mission preparation by training volunteers and coordinating physician licensing. …

Automating Building Feature Recognition In Digital Twin Models Using Computer Vision, Jaron Harbison

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Standard 3D scans treat all surfaces as generic geometry, but Wi-Fi signals don't. A signal drops by a different magnitude through a wooden door than a concrete wall. Without labeling these materials, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot accurately predict "dead zones". This project addresses that gap by creating a machine learning model that identifies structural and architectural features. This includes features such as walls, doors, windows, and columns directly from RGB-D (Red, Green, Blue, Depth) point cloud data. 

I constructed the model on a custom U-Net architecture featuring a symmetric encoder-decoder structure with skip connections, trained on the StructScan3D dataset …

Identifying And Addressing Burnout Among Nurses In Cache Valley And The Surrounding Salt Lake Metropolitan Area, Teegan Alma Martinez

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Background: Nursing burnout has emerged as a critical issue within modern healthcare systems, with widespread implications for nurse well-being, patient safety, and organizational performance. Characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, burnout affects an estimated 30% to 60% of nurses, particularly in high-acuity settings. The persistence of burnout highlights the need to better understand its contributing factors, consequences, and effective strategies for mitigation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and contributing factors of nursing burnout, evaluate its impact on nurses and patient care, and identify effective interventions. Additionally, this study aimed …

Designing The Future: A Vr Campus Environment, Jasmine Talitha Banman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This capstone project details the development of the "USU Virtual Campus," a high-fidelity 3D replica of the Utah State University College of Engineering building. Grounded in constructionist learning, I designed a unique architectural model in the USU virtual campus and gained practical experience using a 3D modeling platform. The project documents a transition from 2D UX/UI theory to 3D environmental design, highlighting technical challenges. Moving from greyboxing to high-fidelity detailing-the project establishes a future-proof framework for building a digital replica. Ultimately, this virtual environment promotes accessibility by allowing students to engage with the USU community regardless of geographic or physical …

Diversity In Childrens Literature, Tess Rasmussen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project examined the diversity of classroom libraries and explored how to improve representation through data collection and community involvement. The question guiding this research was, how does increasing diversity in the classroom library influence elementary students' engagements with reading and their sense of belonging. This question was rooted in the teaching philosophy of each child being seen on the walls and in the stories told in their classroom. This question leads to the understanding that inclusive literature supports students' increasing empathy, and an awareness of cultures and perspectives different than their own. An inventory of multiple classroom libraries was …

Restorative Justice In Cache Valley: Building Community Resilience Through Restorative Practices, Rivkah Haubner

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Restorative justice as a field of study is primarily applied to criminal justice proceedings or similar topics. As such, its use as a tool in political organizing is an underdeveloped field. Due to its Indigenous history, restorative justice has intrinsically ant-colonial, anti-imperial, and anti-racist roots and is therefore already situated within the ethos of many progressive movements. Historically, radical movements within the United States and across the world experienced both internal and external pressures that undermined their goals. Restorative justice offers a framework through which to understand political action as a whole and specific tools to address internal conflict within …

Exploring The Role Of Online Spaces In Understanding Young Adult Mental Health Attitudes: Internalizes Stigma, Help Seeking Behaviors, And Mental Health Centered Content, Harley Thomas

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Mental Health is an ever-rising concern in the United States, with many people experiencing some form of mental health concerns. One new tool used to fight the mental health crisis has been online content on social media sites. Few studies have been done to see the actual effect of the rise of mental health content and terminology used online, especially through the lens of those who have lived experience. We conducted an online survey via Prolific to gather quantitative and qualitative data from 287 young adults in the United States, ages 18-25, to examine their exposure to mental health content, …

Challenging Myths In Speech-Language Pathology: A Scientific Review Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication (Aac) Use, Bilingualism, And Late Talking, Mariah Morris

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Persistent myths within the field of speech-language pathology continue to influence clinical decision-making and contribute to biases experienced by both providers and clients. This scientific review examines common misconceptions surrounding late talking, bilingualism, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) by evaluating current evidence-based research. Specifically, this review addresses three central questions: Do children outgrow late talking? Does bilingualism cause language delay in children? Does AAC hinder speech development? 

An analysis of multiple peer-reviewed studies revealed little statistical support for the belief that bilingualism or AAC use causes language delays. Instead, research indicates that factors such as limited access to language-rich …

Exploring The Experiences Of Adult Children Of Parents With Addiction: A Qualitative Support Group Approach, Brooke Stanton

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Adult children of parents with addiction often grow up having to navigate emotional instability, inconsistent caregiving, and long-term relational impacts that continue into adulthood. Many individuals report limited access to supportive care and spaces where they can share their stories. This capstone project addresses the gap by designing and facilitating a support group specifically for adult children of parents to build connection and healing. Through this qualitative study, participant feedback, and analysis, this project examines how structured peer support can create meaningful change for this population. The following paper outlines the development of the group, the theoretical foundations that guided …

Learning From 2002: County-Level Economic Analysis Of The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics And Implications For Utah 2034, Ronan Spencer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper examines economic and distributional impacts and the existing literature on the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics to inform policy recommendations for the upcoming 2034 Utah Olympic Games. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework on county-level data from 1995 to 2006, we compare Utah host counties to Colorado counties. Results indicate that the Games generated an average of 1,084 Leisure and Hospitality jobs per host county, suggesting approximately 5,420 total jobs across all five host counties. We saw a positive but marginally significant increase in tourism and hospitality GDP of $37.2 million relative to Colorado controls (p=0.078). We also …

Behind The Smile: A Qualitative Study On Dentist Burnout And Workplace Satisfaction In Cache Valley, Luke Thomas Hatch

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This qualitative research study examined satisfaction, stressors, and burnout among dental professionals in Cache Valley, Utah. Eight practitioners at various points in their careers were interviewed with a range of specialties including general dentistry (n = 3), pedodontics (n = 3), oral and facial surgery (n = 1), and orthodontics (n = 1). Analysis of the interviews showed that level of clinical autonomy was a primary factor influencing burnout levels. Stress levels in more experienced practitioners and owners tended to be lower than those who worked in multiple practices (multi-doctor) or with corporations. Individuals in these environments reported higher levels …

Discovering Strategic Behaviors In The Floor Using Reinforcement Learning, Kevin Parks

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This project investigates how a reinforcement learning (RL) agent can develop territorial strategies in a highly stochastic, grid-based approximation of the television game show The Floor. I design a custom Gymnasium-compatible environment that models the show’s core mechanics on a 10×10 board, including probabilistic duels governed by player skill, adjacency-constrained attacks, chain-attack rules, and a Randomizer mechanism for selecting new initiating players. A Maskable Proximal Policy Optimization (Maskable PPO) agent is trained under several reward configurations and evaluated against stochastic non learning opponents as well as random and “always pass” baselines.

Across experiments, the best-performing configuration achieves a win …

Vernacular Religiosity: Liminality, Mentorship, And Communal Reciprocity In Women's Religious Communities, Megan J. Miller

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis is a study on women’s religious communities, and the vernacularized traditions practiced by the women themselves from a folkloric perspective. Examining the creative and meaningful ways women find to interact with their faith on a daily basis, this thesis proposes a natural cycle of religious participation which allows the women to move between active and passive participation roles within their religious communities, and creates equitable spaces for women by relying on the communal reciprocity of the group.

By focusing on individual women and their experiences and belief practices as part of a larger community of religious practice, this …

Beyond Morphology: Testing Molecular Assessment Of Macroinvertebrate Communities In Alpine Streams Of The Teton Range, Usa, Joshua Vollmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Alpine streams and the macroinvertebrate communities that reside within them are threatened by the rapidly changing climate. Long-term monitoring of these communities is required to understand how they are changing and to predict their future trajectories. Historically, stream monitoring and assessment has been performed by collecting and identifying individuals using their morphological traits. However, in alpine aquatic ecosystems, distinct macroinvertebrate species often lack the morphological differences that allow them to be distinguished. DNA metabarcoding, an alternative method for identification which uses genetics instead of morphological differences, is not impacted by this issue, and therefore, may be better suited for alpine …

Extracting Wildfire Influence From Natural Streamflow Variability To Inform Post-Fire Peak Flow Predictions, Haley Anne Canham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wildfire is a natural process, however, wildfire occurrence, severity, and size is increasing globally along with large storms. Despite the expectation that floods will be larger after wildfire, a large range in post-fire flood size has been observed. This creates challenges for emergency managers to prepare for flooding in areas where wildfire might occur. Aside from wildfire, many other factors influence the size of floods, making it difficult to isolate the influence of wildfire. This work finds that factors including wetter versus drier years and seasons can alter the size of a flood, effectively hiding the influence of wildfire. Additionally, …

Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards A Composition Pedagogy Of Place, Dax Gove

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

“Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards a Composition Pedagogy of Place” proposes that place—one’s immediate locale—is an essential element of ecocritical writing pedagogy. There are constant interacting rhetorical constructions of meaning within any given place across texts from the different groups who have lived there. In these local texts, the evidence of a rhetorically mediated reality is evident in the stark differences between natures and cultures—meaning is rhetorically constructed, down to the meaning of place and people. This project reads texts local to the author’s immediate locale, Cache Valley, Utah, from white LDS settler and Indigenous Shoshone rhetors in order to …

Teaching In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Lived Experiences, Nicholas Ricks Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing education, creating new opportunities for teaching and learning while also raising challenges for teachers. Although schools are encouraging the use of AI, little is known about how teachers experience this transition or how it affects their professional roles. This study explored teachers’ lived experiences as they begin working with AI, using a phenomenological research approach to understand both what they encounter and how they make sense of those experiences. Through interviews with teachers who have recently engaged with AI in their practice, the research identifies themes that reveal opportunities, challenges, and shifts in professional …

Examining Middle School Girls' Self-Efficacy Changes During A Design-Based Engineering Unit, Emily Lehnardt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Drawing on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, this exploratory multi-case study examines how engagement in an engineering designed-based unit, specifically through an intervention focused on iterative improvements, influences middle school girls’ self-efficacy. This study was conducted in a suburban public middle school. It involved five female participants enrolled in a seventh-grade science classroom. Qualitative data were collected from pre- and post-interviews, self-reflection journals, observations and student artifacts. Multiple data sources were triangulated to ensure the credibility and depth of the findings. Qualitative data were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding to produce open codes, axial categories driven by Bandura’s four sources of …

A Mixed Methods Analysis On The Effect Of Active Learning On Extraneous Cognitive Load Within Undergraduate Statistics Courses, Michelle Brady Rich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Students enrolled in college-level statistics courses often lack the foundational skills of statistical concepts which can potentially lead to increased mental load. Additionally, the curricula within undergraduate classes often focus on traditional theory with little student exploration or participation. This combination of increased mental load and passive lectures can be explored through the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). CLT examines how new information enters the limited capacity of an individual’s working memory and how exceeding this capacity affects the ability to transfer the information to long-term memory. This research focused on the extraneous cognitive load, or the load imposed by the …

Design And Verification Of The Multi-Slit Solar Explorer Camera Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Jordan M. Johnson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Multi-Slit Solar Explorer, or MUSE, is a NASA mission that will take images of the Sun to study solar flares and the solar corona. The mission will provide insight into the mechanisms behind space weather. The mission consists of two cameras: the Spectrograph (SG), and the Context Imager (CI). The Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory is providing both cameras for the mission.

This report describes a part of the design and verification process for a central component on these cameras known as the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). These FPGAs are programmed to acquire, handle, and send images …

A Look Through The Bluest Eye: Intersectionality, Identity & The Role Of Fiction, Sydney Foster

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Since its coinage in 1989, the idea of intersectionality has persisted academic research in understanding how a person is treated and what experiences they are subjected to, specifically those belonging to marginalized groups. My theory is that a person’s intersectionality is the vehicle which leads to their experiences, which when totaled, comprise a person’s identity. This project focuses specifically on the treatment of Black women and girls, the academic research and first-hand accounts that support the existence of the perpetual adultification, dehumanization, and sexualization of these individuals, and how these phenomena increase Black women and girls’ risk for maltreatment, specifically …

Desert Deep: The Great Salt Lake's Evanesce And The Gravity Of Recovery, Avery Truman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Great Salt Lake has been shrinking since the mid-19th century for several reasons, primarily due to a higher evaporation rate caused by climate change and water diversion from the Bear, Weber, and Jordan rivers. This problem will cause mass ecosystem destruction, release toxic chemicals into the air, and strand migrating birds. As an environmental studies and geography major, I’ve spent a lot of time learning about the Great Salt Lake in my courses. I decided to write Desert Deep, a series of essays, after I took my first creative nonfiction writing class. The goal was to tell the …

Paucilactobacillus Wasatchensis Gas Production In Cheddar Cheese Through Symbiotic Amino Acid Metabolism With Lactococcus Lactis Starter Cultures, Niharika Mishra

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Cheese is popular for its rich sensory notes and desirable physical attributes; however, the late blowing gas defect in cheddar cheese disrupts its appearance and can undermine its commercial value, for example if the late gas defect is severe, the block can crumble upon cutting, increasing cutting losses from 10% (non-defective) up to 50% (Donnely et al., 2014).

Paucilactobacillus wasatchensis cannot survive pasteurization (McMahon, D. J., et al., 2020); therefore, it enters the cheese as a contaminant during the cheesemaking process. Cheesemaking occurs in three stages: (1) curdling of milk by acidification through starter cultures, (2) separation of curd from …