Today, the United States consumer vehicle market consists of about 276 million legally registered units, a prime candidate for service skulduggery (BTS, 2019). It raised some concerns when research conducted by the author revealed that about half of United States survey participants state they feel uneasy about approaching either a mechanic they know or one that was new to them. Additionally, when only 10% of participants from the same survey fully trust mechanics, this raises the question, why are so many drivers of consumer vehicles wary about bringing their cars in for service or repair? Furthermore, the author determined that trust within the automotive repair industry is a worldwide issue, and countries with scarce resources have additional struggles of their own. The success of repair centers in countries closer to the equator weighs heavily on the mechanic's knowledge and access to repair resources. The author found that this is partially due to the rapid acceleration of the car market without a proper backbone to the automotive repair industry. Ultimately, this resulted in repair shops with untrained mechanics who perform poor quality labor for an inflated rate (Izogo, 2015). The author focuses on this global industry through the example of the Maasai Automotive Education Center (MAEC), a proposed facility and school located in Talek, Kenya. MAEC is designed to bring automotive customer and repair resources to a rural community that needs it the most to save their land, culture, and people. The author uses various recently conducted global studies, news articles and videos, and personal research to determine the crucial steps and considerations the MAEC development team needs to ensure project sustainability and success. This study's conclusion lists 11 essential attributes recommended for the MAEC repair facility for ethical and high-quality operation.

Sport Utility Vehicles have grown to be one of the most popular vehicle choices in the automotive industry. This thesis explores the history of SUVs with their roots starting in the 1930s up until 2020 in order to understand the essence of what an SUV is. The definition applied to the SUV for this thesis is as follows: a vehicle that is larger and more capable than the average sedan by offering more interior space, cargo area, and possibly off-road capability. This definition must be sufficiently broad to encompass the diverse market that manufactures are calling SUVs. Then the trends of what current (2020) SUVs are experiencing are analyzed from three major aspects: sociology, economics, and technology. Sociology focuses on the roles an SUV fulfills and the type of people who own SUVs. The economics section reviews the profitability of SUVs and their dependence on a nation’s economic strength. Technology pertains to the trends in safety features and other advances such as autonomous or electric vehicles. From these current and past trends, predictions could be made on future SUVs. In regards to sociology, trends indicate that SUVs will be more comfortable as newly entering luxury brands will be able to innovate aspects of comfort. In addition, SUVs will offer more performance models so manufacturers can reach a wider variety of demographics. Economic trends revealed that SUVs are at risk of losing popularity as the economy enters a hard time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological trends revealed that hybrids and electric vehicles will now move into the SUV market starting with the more compact sizes to help improve manufacturer’s fleet fuel efficiency.

This document reviews social and legal issues with Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URMs) as they interact with different government agencies and non-profit organizations. It also explores ideas that have been proposed to improve policies regarding URM placement and government agency reporting processes. The service quality of Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) programs should be recorded to study the return on investment for URMs and the outcome of their long-term social development. Tracking the development of these youths would help with analyzing the effectiveness of state, federal and nonprofit programs in facilitating URM assimilation in the United States. This document demonstrates different ways to improve governmental and nonprofit policies to better serve the welfare of URMs.

Honors colleges have offered an academically rigorous option for growing numbers of diverse students. This study took place at a large, public university that required undergraduate students to complete a thesis to graduate from the honors college. In 2017, 97% of students who began the honors thesis prior to senior year completed it. Thus, the aim of this study was to help more students begin the honors thesis process early.

Thesis Launch was a six-week intervention that was designed to provide support for students in the critical early steps of thesis work such as brainstorming topics, examining professors’ research interests, reaching out to professors, preparing for meetings with potential thesis committee members, and writing a thesis prospectus. Thesis Launch offered web-based resources, weekly emails and text message reminders, and was supplemented by in-person advising options.

A mixed methods action research study was conducted to examine: (a) students’ perceptions of barriers that prevented beginning thesis work; (b) self-efficacy towards thesis work; (c) how to scale the intervention using technology; and (d) whether participants began the thesis early. Quantitative data was collected via pre- and post-intervention surveys, journals, and prospectus submissions. Qualitative data came from student interviews, journals, and open-ended questions on the surveys.

Quantitative data showed that after students participated in Thesis Launch, they had higher self-efficacy to work with professors, perceived fewer barriers to thesis work, and greater proportions of students began thesis work early. The qualitative data were complementary and showed that participants overcame barriers to thesis initiation, built self-efficacy, preferred an online intervention, and began thesis work early. Findings also showed that a primarily technology-based intervention was preferred by students and showed promise for scaling to a larger audience.

Thesis Launch provided a framework for students to begin work on the honors thesis and have mastery experiences to build self-efficacy. Strategies that fostered “small wins” and reflective efforts also assisted in this aim. Participants accomplished tasks tied to thesis work and customized their personal thesis timelines based on work begun during Thesis Launch. Finally, a discussion of limitations, implications for practice and research, and personal reflection was included.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that water related diseases cause more than 3.4 million deaths every year across the globe (Berman 2009). Children are the most susceptible to becoming ill over contaminated water. Cases of childhood diarrheal disease, a common result of consuming contaminated water, are estimated at 1.7 billion every year, killing over 500,000 children under the age of five (WHO: Diarrhoeal Disease, 2017). Preventing consumption of contaminated drinking water is a complex issue. The process of identifying and purifying contaminants from water sources is an in-depth and costly endeavor. Often, communities do not receive ample support from municipal entities and are left to deal with the issue independently. This causes a lack of adequate resources and training for communities around the world dealing with contaminated water supplies. The ultimate result is the consumption of contaminated drinking water that creates foundational barriers to growth in areas like education, health, and overall quality of life. The primary purpose of this thesis report is to outline the proposed approach and technological elements for improving the usability and effectiveness of community-wide chlorination systems to remove bacterial pathogens to prevent consumption of contaminated drinking water.
While it may be complex, the prevention and treatment of contaminated water is possible. Founded in 2010, 33 Buckets is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based out of Tempe, Arizona who partners with vulnerable communities and local partners to provide sustainable access to clean drinking water and WASH (Water and Sanitation for Health) training. Prior to 2018, 33 Buckets had completed drinking water projects in Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, and Peru. In the summer of 2018, the 33 Buckets team returned to the Cusco region of Peru in an effort to assess more communities in need of clean drinking water infrastructure. In Cusco, 33 Buckets works closely with the Peruvian university, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL). The primary purpose of this partnership is to identify communities in the Cusco region with contaminated water sources and a strong interest in improvement of current systems. Throughout this assessment trip, two communities were initially identified as potential partners, Occopata and Mayrasco. The results of bacteria tests showed a presence of Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli. When consumed, especially repeatedly, select strains of E. coli will cause severe diarrheal illness. Interviews with community members confirmed that common symptoms of water related disease are prevalent, especially in children. In Occopata and Mayrasco, there is an absence of support for water services from the municipality. Consequently, there is a volunteer-based water advisory board known as Junto Administración de Agua Sanitemeniento (JAAS). JAAS, in most nearby communities, currently utilizes a drip chlorination system in an attempt to disinfect bacterial pathogens from their water source. However, chlorine disinfection requires a precise dosing in order to be effective. In excessive amounts, chlorine will taste and smell of chemicals, likely producing negative feedback from community members. As a result, chlorine levels often are below the necessary level for disinfection. Chlorine tests performed by the 33 Buckets team confirmed that chlorine levels were insufficient to disinfect E. coli.
During the assessment trip, the 33 Buckets team provided a temporary solution to make chlorine disinfection more effective. Following the 2018 assessment trip, 33 Buckets formed a team of student engineers with the primary goal of furthering the technological development of a chlorine disinfection system to be implemented in communities with bacterial infected water sources. This student team was formed through the EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) program at Arizona State University. The purpose of the program is providing a platform for undergraduate engineers to design solutions that create positive impact the greater community. From August of 2018 through April of 2019, the team developed the design for a continuous chlorine disinfection system that automatically tests for residual chlorine levels at multiple points throughout a community. The system is powered entirely from a low-cost solar panel, requiring a minimal amount of sunlight for full functionality. Moving forward, the goal of project development is to create an autonomous feedback loop that will adjust the amount of chlorine exposure to incoming water flows based on the results of the automatic residual chlorine test. The team also hopes to implement automatic data collection for remote monitoring of water quality in addition to onsite test results. The vision of the proposed solution is a network of chlorine disinfection systems around the Cusco region that ultimately will provide access to clean drinking water, indefinitely. This model of user-friendly purification, automatic testing, and data collection can be adjusted and applied to any region around the world experiencing health issues from consumption of contaminated water. A low-cost, scalable, and reliable water disinfection system has the potential to make significant increases in the quality of life for millions of people.

In Nepal, a viable solution for environmental management, food and water security is the production of biochar, a carbon material made of plants burned in low oxygen conditions. Currently, the biochar is manufactured into charcoal briquettes and sold on the market for energy usage, however this may not provide the best value for community members who make less than a dollar a day and sell the biochar for as little as 16 cents per kilogram. This thesis seeks to improve the price of biochar and help their livelihoods as well as explore innovative solutions. One way to improve biochar while addressing water security problems is to create activated carbon, which uses its heightened porosity to adsorb contaminants from water or air. Activated carbon is also worth 100x the price of biochar. This thesis evaluates the mass content of biochar produced in Nepal, comparing it to literature values, and performed gravimetric and thermogravimetric analysis, comparing it to Activated Charcoal. Analysis of the biochar system used in Nepal reveals that the byproduct of biochar, biofuels, is highly underutilized. The higher heating value of biochar is 17.95 MJ/kg, which is much lower than other charcoals which burn around 30 MJ/kg. Low volatile content, less than 5% in biochar, provides a smokeless briquette, which is favorable on the market, however low heating value and misutilizations of biofuels in the solution indicate that creating a briquette is not the best use for biochar. Ash content is really high in this biochar, averaging around 12% and it may be due to the feedstock, a composite between Mikania and Lantana, which have 5.23% and 10.77% ash content respectively. This does not necessarily indicate a poor quality biochar, since ash values can vary widely between charcoals. Producing activated charcoal from this biochar is a favored solution; it will increase the price of the biochar, provide water security solutions, and be an appropriate process for this biochar, where heating value and underutilization of biofuel byproducts pose a problem.