Digital Commons Network^™

Rainbow Dominating Sets Of Graphs, Samuel L. Powell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The content of this thesis may be compared to a stack of plates with a common design that are broken, one at a time. If the plates are broken into large enough pieces you would be able to choose one fragment from each broken plate to discover the entire design that the plates share. For example, if you were still missing the center of the design after taking a piece from some plates, you could look for the piece of the next broken plate with the region in question.

We study the question of how many broken plates might guarantee …

How Novices Write Code: Discovering Best Practices, Matt Rau

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Learning to program is a difficult endeavor, leading to chronically high failure rates in introductory programming courses. One thing that makes teaching programming difficult is that we don’t fully understand what problem solving habits and writing strategies separate successful programmers from struggling ones. Knowing how to teach these habits to a new programmer is an equally difficult challenge,

Studying the way people write code has proved difficult. Until recently, there was very little relevant publicly available data, and no good ways to analyze student programming behavior at a large scale. In this thesis, I address both issues. I publish a …

Numerical Investigation On Lightning Survivability And Residual Strength Of Scarf-Patched And Z-Pinned Cfrp Composites, Logan Hales

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are critical in aerospace applications yet remain vulnerable to lightning strikes due to orthotropic electrical conductivity and poor thermal resistance. Over the past decades, lightning-strike damage in pristine CFRP has been extensively investigated. However, the response of damaged and subsequently repaired laminates remains poorly understood, raising concerns about the structural integrity of repaired aircraft. This study aims to develop a sequentially coupled thermo-structural modeling framework to quantify how two common composite repair strategies (scarf patching and z-pinning), along with patch size, pin material, and configuration, influence lightning-induced damage and the residual flexural strength of …

St-Fmformer: An Autoregressive Generation Framework For Scientific Ensemble Data Predictions, Md Robiul Islam

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Understanding how physical systems change over time is important in areas such as weather prediction, fluid dynamics, and environmental science. However, accurately predicting future behavior is difficult because these systems are complex and constantly evolving. 

This research develops a deep learning approach to predict how such systems evolve over time. The model learns patterns from past observations and uses them to generate future states step by step. This provides a faster alternative to traditional simulation methods while maintaining strong predictive performance. 

The proposed method focuses on improving the consistency of predictions over time and is designed to work across different …

The Practice Of Inclusion: Indigenous Knowledge And Ethical Design, Kate E. Van Der Zalm

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Indigenous Knowledge is a cumulative body of practices and beliefs developed by Indigenous communities through generations of interaction with the natural environment. This knowledge offers valuable insights for caring for the land in sustainable and respectful ways but is not fully considered in modern planning and design practices. This research examines how Indigenous Knowledge is currently understood and used within landscape planning and design firms in British Columbia, Canada. Using a combination of existing research and interviews with design professionals and Indigenous participants, the study explores where Indigenous Knowledge is being applied, where challenges exist, and what opportunities remain for …

Projected Land-Use Change In Northern Utah: Its Implication On Above- And Below-Ground Biomass Carbon, Md Khan Shajidul Kabir

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Land can broadly be classified based on human use and natural characteristics into categories such as cropland, pastureland, urban areas, forests, shrubland, and wetlands. Each type of land has a different capacity to store carbon, and forests play a dominant role. In Utah, economic incentives, urban growth, and population increase are driving shifts in these land-use categories. Using data on agricultural revenue, land values, environmental characteristics, and satellite-based carbon information from the past decade, this study examines how land use may change over the next two decades. The findings suggest a substantial expansion of urban areas, accompanied by declines in …

Large Language Models For Introductory Computer Science Education: Content Generation, Intelligent Tutoring, And Learner Modeling, Muhammad Fawad Akbar Khan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This dissertation studies how artificial intelligence, especially large language models such as GPT, can help students learn introductory computer programming when the models are used inside a carefully designed learning system. Instead of focusing on AI as a standalone tool, the dissertation follows a connected story: generating learning resources, building a tutoring platform, running a user study, and then analyzing how students behave while they program.

The work first uses prompt engineering to create a large collection of 11,700 Python exercises aligned with introductory computer science topics. Students and instructors then evaluate these exercises to check whether they are clear, …

Faith And Doubt: Exploring How We Interpret The World, Amber Mccuen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This collection of four fictional short stories explores questions of belief—and practice of belief—in four separate contexts. The first story, “Little Marie,” follows a young girl who’s made her own system of belief created by correlation. The second story, “Last Days,” sees a woman return to her childhood home which has been overcome by the hoarding habits of her paranoid, fundamentalist Christian mother. The third story, “Graduation,” takes place at a divinity school graduation and explores the strength of both social influence and unspoken rules within closed groups. The final story, “Away From the Ninety and Nine,” follows a cult …

A Survey On Digital Reading Materials And Personal Study Of Christian Religious Texts, Teancum Price

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Religion, including reading from religious texts such as scriptures, are a part of the daily lives of many people. Modern technology has influenced the way that this religious reading takes place, but its effects have not yet been studied. Existing research of the effects of technology on reading focus on topics such as reading comprehension, but the study of religious texts is often focused on achieving a religious experience, so the existing research does not capture the whole scope of these changes. In our study, we surveyed two universities (Utah State University and Abilene Christian University) to ask individuals how …

Scalable Roof Polygon Extraction And Geometric Characterization From Remotely-Sensed Data For Snow Load Assessment, Jashon Newlun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Heavy snow accumulation on rooftops is a serious structural risk in cold climates, and understanding how much snow builds up on different types of roofs is essential for safe building design. Currently, most data on roof snow loads comes from small, labor-intensive field surveys that cover only a handful of buildings at a time. This results in far too few measurements of buildings to draw confident conclusions about how snow behaves across communities. This thesis develops and demonstrates a new automated approach for measuring roof snow accumulation and extracting key building characteristics across thousands of buildings at once using airborne …

Cannabis: A Model Plant To Study Light-Mediated Reproductive Development, Madigan J.H. Eckels

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) is a plant of increasing importance for research, medical, recreational, industrial, and agricultural purposes, but a strict legal landscape means that it was chronically understudied. Now that research institutions can utilize this plant for study, we require updated terminology to describe various cannabis flowering types that occur under ideal and non-ideal growing conditions. We introduce new flowering terminology and describe them in text and with photographs.

Plants use light as a resource to power photosynthesis, and a greater total sum of photons generally increases yield. In controlled environment agriculture where growers utilize light fixtures instead …

Developing Fragility Curves For Steel Special Moment-Resisting Frames In Utah, Olivia P. Murphy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Major seismic events along the Wasatch Fault represent a serious threat to Utah's residents and built environment. Engineers currently rely on a statistical approach that calculates earthquake ground shaking based on probabilities of various events occurring over extended time periods. This method informs how strong new buildings must be constructed. However, many structural engineering professionals in Utah worry that this probability-based approach may significantly underestimate the actual ground shaking compared to an alternative method that examines the largest possible earthquake a fault can generate. The substantial differences between the two analytical approaches raise fundamental concerns about whether existing construction standards …

Designing A Uae-Centric Integrated Mobility System: Linking Transport,Traffic, And Urban Data For Smarter Travel, Alreem Jabir Alshamsi

Theses

Urban mobility systems are central to smart city performance; however, in many rapidly developing cities, mobility services remain fragmented across agencies, platforms, and datasets. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi have made significant investments in digital infrastructure and intelligent transport solutions. Despite this progress, existing mobility applications continue to operate in functional silos, limiting real-time adaptability and cross-domain integration. Current platforms primarily focus on transport coordination and congestion avoidance, with limited integration of broader urban datasets such as building access schedules, environmental conditions, and localized service availability. This research addresses the absence of …

Mathamr+: A Unified Graph Neural Network Framework For Multimodal Mathematical Information Retrieval, Jacob Yoon

Theses

Mathematical Information Retrieval (MIR) focuses on developing systems that enable users to search for and retrieve documents containing mathematical content. A key challenge in building effective math-aware retrieval systems lies in jointly modeling the symbolic and operational structure of mathematical expressions together with their surrounding linguistic context. Existing approaches often use linear token sequences, losing structural information, or rely on separate models for text and math, limiting their ability to capture cross-modal patterns and learn contextualized representations. This thesis proposes MathAMR+, a graph neural network-based retrieval framework that jointly models Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) graphs, Operator Trees (OPTs), and Symbol …

Subject. Object. Thing., Cristin Hand

Theses

Subject. Object. Thing. is part of an accumulating record of self-construction and self-reflection. The work considers the complications of visibility through self-portraiture, how the desire to be seen exists alongside the impulse to withhold, obscure, and substitute. Working across photography, performance, collage, and sculptural constructions made for the camera, I fragment, disassemble, and reconfigure my body as photographic subject and material. This exploration is structured around a series of oppositions; concealment/exposure, anonymity/specificity, subject/object, naked/nude, and destruction/reconstruction. I do not attempt to resolve these oppositions. Instead, I consider where these categories blur, contradict themselves, and become unstable. Central to this inquiry …

Tom: Toward A Design Language For Object Personality, Mike Minerva

Theses

Design has been chasing seamless efficiency for decades, creating smoother interactions, more compliant objects, and experiences that disappear entirely. When an object is frictionless, it does not lack personality. It has a personality. One that is obedient, meaningless, and remarkably boring. An object that pushes back has boundaries, and that resistance comes from a position of caring. Objects have always been able to refuse. What is new is that the refusal can now come from inside the object, from memory, adaptive thinking and a disposition toward the person using it. Expressed consistently over time, that agency is perceived as personality. …

Atmospheric Noise Analysis In Observations From The Tomographic Ionized-Carbon Mapping Experiment, Audrey Dunn

Theses

The Tomographic Ionized-carbon Mapping Experiment (TIME) instrument is a ground-based millimeter-wavelength grating spectrometer that illuminates a cryogenically cooled array of 1920 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. The goal of TIME is to generate line intensity maps of singly ionized carbon ([CII]) during the Epoch of Reionization, when hydrogen became reionized by stellar radiation and the first galaxies were forming. This measurement requires a detailed understanding of the noise, most notably the 1/f noise from the time-varying atmosphere. In my thesis work, I performed an analysis of the power spectral density (PSD) and a traditional principal component analysis (PCA) on TIME data …

Perceptual Evaluation Of Deep Learning Models For Hdr Reconstruction Under Severe Overexposure, Alireza Rabbanifar

Theses

Overexposure in imaging systems leads to irreversible loss of scene information due to sensor saturation, resulting in degraded perceptual quality and limited dynamic range. While recent deep learning approaches have shown promising results in correcting mild to moderate overexposure, their performance under severe overexposure and their perceptual quality in HDR image generation remain less understood. In this work, a comparative evaluation of four representative models—Multi-Scale Exposure Correction (MSEC), Illumination-Adaptive Transformer (IAT), LEDiff, and X2HDR—is conducted across multiple scenes and levels of overexposure, with particular emphasis on severe overexposure conditions. The evaluation focuses on the perceptual quality of the reconstructed HDR …

Like A Rolling Lychee, George Meng

Theses

I grew up in Shanghai, China—a megacity with over 25 million people. I was privileged enough to avoid the grueling fate of taking the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao). At 16, I moved to Sewanee, a small college town in rural Appalachia with a population of only 3,000. Overshadowed by that curiosity was the collision of two worlds and my sense of belonging and identity. I wasn’t fully aware of how I watched and copied others’ behaviors and mannerisms to blend in as an adolescent. Being a minority in the middle of nowhere Tennessee meant I was conditioned into fitting …

Validity Of The Schrage Equation In Prediction Of Evaporation Rate Of Liquid N-Dodecane In High-Pressure Nitrogen Gas: A Molecular Dynamics Study, Wazih Tausif, Jordan Hartfield, Md Amin Haque, Zhi Liang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Evaporation of liquid fuel in a high-pressure air is a process that critically influences fuel–air mixing in advanced propulsion systems. In this work, we use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the validity and accuracy of the Schrage equation in quantifying the evaporation and condensation rates of n-dodecane (a diesel surrogate) in air (approximated as N2 gas) with gas pressure varying from 0 atm to above the critical pressure of n-dodecane. The MD simulation results show that the evaporation coefficient (αe) is higher than the condensation coefficient (αc) at the evaporating n-dodecane surface and is lower than αc at the …

Mechanisms Of Synergy Between Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (Nspef) And Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Discharge (Cap) In Pancreatic Cancer: The Role Of Ros-Mediated Oxidative Stress And Apoptosis, Zobia Minhas

Biomedical Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a highly lethal malignancy characterized by poor prognosis and resistance to conventional therapies. Novel treatment strategies are needed to overcome this resistance. Non-thermal physical modalities, including nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) and cold atmospheric pressure plasma discharge (CAP), have emerged as potential anticancer approaches; however, the mechanisms underlying their combined effects remain unclear.

This study evaluated whether nsPEF enhances CAP-induced cytotoxicity and investigated the associated molecular mechanisms using the murine Pan02 pancreatic cancer cell line. Cell viability was assessed by WST-1 metabolic activity assays and electric cell–substrate impedance sensing (ECIS). Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were …

Climate-Adaptive Urban Arboretum: Designing Tree Diversity And Landscape Resilience Against Climate-Related Tree Diseases In Fargo, North Dakota, Rojin Ghafori Dehgolan

Landscape Architecture Theses

This thesis explores how climate change may influence the severity of Oak Wilt Disease and Dutch Elm Disease in Fargo, North Dakota, and how landscape design can respond to future urban forest health challenges. Urban trees are essential components of green landscapes because they provide shade, aesthetic value, ecological benefits, and social comfort. However, climate change is altering environmental conditions such as temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, humidity, drought, and flooding, all of which can influence plant disease development. This research focuses on two major tree diseases: Oak Wilt Disease, caused by Bretziella fagacearum, and Dutch Elm Disease, caused by …

Prairie Haven: Combating Urban Sprawl With Ecological Landscape Assemblage In Forest Lake, Minnesota, Ryan Anthony Calhoun

Landscape Architecture Theses

Contemporary residential developments frequently default to sprawl, creating fragmented environments that lack both environmental resilience and authentic human interconnection. This thesis explores how landscape architects can utilize Assemblage Theory to design residential developments where sustainable materials, ecological systems, and social elements dynamically assemble to create a meaningful, human-scaled sense-of-place. By synthesizing the structural planning efficiency of New Urbanism, the ecological imperatives of Landscape Urbanism, and the metrics-driven performance of Ecological Urbanism, this research develops a hybridized operational approach to residential development. Applied to a master plan in Forest Lake, Minnesota, the design for “Prairie Haven” demonstrates how treating a neighborhood …

Living Shorelines: A Regenerative Landscape Approach To Coastal Protection And Community Resilience In Bhasan Char, Bangladesh, Anamul Hoque Mojumder

Landscape Architecture Theses

Bhasan Char is a newly formed, unstable silt island in Bangladesh which is home for more than one million Rohingya refugees—an ethnic Muslim minority from Myanmar who have fled decades of systematic persecution and violence—suffering from an ecological and humanitarian crisis. This community faces extreme vulnerability from cyclones and sea-level rise on a landscape of profound precarity.

Traditional hard-engineered defenses are costly, ecologically damaging, and ineffective against the island’s dynamic geomorphology. This research proposes a regenerative "Living Shorelines" model, intersecting coastal resilience with refugee empowerment through Blue-Green Infrastructure. Drawing on successful global precedents in Vietnam and the USA, the study …

Border Patches: Reconnecting Ecology And Human Experiences At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Shima Goodarzi

Landscape Architecture Theses

International borders are among the most engineered and ecologically fragmented landscapes in the world. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, infrastructure systems such as walls, patrol roads, and cleared enforcement zones have disrupted wildlife movement, fragmented habitats, altered hydrological systems, and limited social interaction between neighboring communities.

This thesis develops a digital environmental twin framework to evaluate ecological and social connectivity within the San Diego-Tijuana border region. Using ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Urban, spatial datasets including land cover, habitat suitability, hydrology, circulation networks, and urban density were analyzed to identify areas with high ecological potential and opportunities for intervention.

The research informed …

Beyond The River's Edge: Reimagining Riverfront Parks And Landscapes For Stormwater, Flood Resilience, And Public Spaces In Fargo, Nd, Moumita Roy

Landscape Architecture Theses

Riverfront parks play an important role in managing stormwater, reducing flood risks, and improving ecological resilience in flood-prone cities. In Fargo, North Dakota, the Red River corridor functions as both a recreational landscape and a critical floodplain system, yet the stormwater and flood performance of these parks has not been systematically evaluated. This study developed a GIS- and hydrologic modeling–based framework to assess the landscape performance of Fargo’s riverfront parks and explore design strategies for more resilient public spaces. Using ArcGIS Pro, remote sensing, DEM analysis, field observations, and InfoWorks ICM simulations, the research identified runoff accumulation zones, flood-prone areas, …

At The Crossroads: Designing For Livability And Community Identity In An Era Of Rapid Suburban Growth In Rogers, Minnesota, Reagan Johnson

Landscape Architecture Theses

At the Crossroads explores how landscape architecture can guide suburban growth while strengthening livability, connectivity, and community identity in Rogers, Minnesota. As Rogers continues to expand within the Twin Cities metropolitan region, the city faces challenges associated with suburban sprawl such as limited pedestrian connectivity and the potential loss of local identity. This thesis focuses on a 128.4-acre site near the historic Fletcher crossroads and proposes a landscape-driven design approach organized around historic preservation, walkable public spaces, a parks and open space network, and mixed residential development. Inspired by Garrett Eckbo’s belief that community form results from community design, the …

Link To Home + Back: A Transit-Oriented Mixed-Use Bridge Between Neighborhood, Nature + The City Of Lynnwood, Wa, Rushell Paola Martinez Reyes

Landscape Architecture Theses

Link to Home + Back: A Transit-Oriented Bridge Between Neighborhood, Nature + The City of Lynnwood, WA. Is a project that seeks to help achieve a better connectivity in an area close to the City Center Station that is currently lacking connectivity in all aspects but, vehicular traffic. This is an important issue to resolve, since with a better connectivity and pedestrian and cyclist circulation the chances of people walking to and from the transit station to make use of it increase dramatically, which eventually helps reduce the pollution produced by vehicles. This research aims to study if transit-oriented development …

Green Space Behind Bars: Designing For Resident Wellbeing At The Heart River Correctional Center Near Mandan, Nd, Kaja Holtz

Landscape Architecture Theses

This design thesis reimagines the environment of the Heart River Correctional Center by transforming the outdoor space into a therapeutic space for resident wellbeing. The current environments of minimum security correctional centers in the United States, focuses heavily on security and control without the emphasis on rehabilitation and reentry. In response, the design introduces organic pathways for framed views and meandering, social areas to promote joyfulness and meditative spaces for reflection and healing. Along with other programs and integrating these specific therapeutic spaces, this project aims to shed light on an overlooked environment and design for wellbeing.

Resilient Placemaking: Enhancing Community Identity, Streetscapes, And Public Spaces In Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Ellen R. Nampel

Landscape Architecture Theses

This thesis provides a plan to revitalize downtown Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, by improving its public spaces. While the downtown is currently stable, this research proactively addresses future risks like economic decline and the loss of local identity. By combining placemaking with urban resilience strategies, the study shows how better street designs can bring people together and support local businesses. The proposed design focuses on three goals: turning empty lots into flexible event spaces for community gatherings, making streets safer and easier to walk by reducing car dominance, and using local branding to celebrate the city’s history. These changes aim to …